Business Name:
BeenVerified.com

Website URL:
https://www.beenverified.com/

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeenVerified
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beenverified
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+beenverified/posts
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/beenverified/
Blog: https://www.beenverified.com/blog/

What does your company do?

BeenVerified.com is an online background checking service available online and in app form that helps people discover, understand, and use public data in their everyday lives. BeenVerified allows individuals to find more information about people, phone numbers, email addresses and property records. BeenVerified’s overriding goal is simple: to provide you with access to public info in a way that is easy, affordable, and fast.

Was there a specific turning point when you realized your business was moving to the next level?

Yes! When we did our first TV ad and our servers crashed due to demand for our product.

What processes or procedures have you implemented that have helped you grow your company?

I love anything that makes day–to-day life more convenient. One particular service that has really helped us streamline communication in our office and Grow is Hipchat. It was a game changer, as everyone was using twenty different methods of chat and it really help to consolidate.

What are some of the best marketing strategies that have worked for your business?

To engage our Facebook audience, we make sure to ask questions. This seems obvious but is often overlooked. Many companies simply just blast out their advertisements or talking points to their audiences and this can make the conversation feel very one-way. Asking questions is a good way to engage your audience and also have them engage with one another.

How have you leveraged the internet to grow your business?

We use every possible internet channel to market our Business and reach new prospects including social media, our blog, email newsletters, affiliate marketing, and analytics tools that help us understand our customers.

What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?

Our greatest challenge was pinpointing our market. We knew we would never make money off the job seeker. Instead, we went after the broader consumer market. Other background-checking services like Intelius had done well selling checks online for $50 apiece. We figured that BeenVerified could position itself as a low-cost alternative, charging $8 to $16 a month. We decided to do a commercial to test the Idea. This was only a hunch; as we had done no formal market research to test the idea. There was no telling how people would react to the commercial. Could we really gamble it all on an unproven model when our margin for error was so slim? We spent a day shooting the commercial. Actors played the roles of an online dater, a mother, and a man checking up on his accountant, all explaining why they used BeenVerified. After some initial tests with Google TV’s local ads, we invested about $1,000 in a national spot. At 11:58 a.m. on July 14, 2009, during a showing of When Good Ghouls Go Bad on the Syfy channel, BeenVerified’s national commercial aired for the first time. We were waiting for traffic to arrive. At first, nothing happened, but moments later, traffic on the new website surged. Soon, the site crashed. It showed us how much potential there was. From then on, it was nonstop laser focus on the consumer market, optimizing our television spend, and building out the product 15 hours a day.

If you were starting over today what would you do differently?

It’s hard to say I would do anything differently. That’s not to suggest we didn’t have many setbacks and failures along the way. I would just go back and apply the years of learning and experience that I’ve received building this one.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?

I tend not to use the internet that much when I am off work.

What advice do you have for other business owners?

1. When you start a business, you need to be willing to get your hands dirty. That means picking up the phone and talking to customers, learning to code, or even taking out the trash. As a co-founder of a start-up there, is no single job that is ever above or beneath you. For a long time, my job on a day-to-day basis was really just whatever resources we were lacking on that day. I’ve done everything from designing our website in Photoshop to coding our conversion funnels in html/css. Some days I was the sales force and others I was the customer support team.”

2. Also, being passionate goes without saying, but you have to LOVE what you’re doing. I can’t tell you how many times I woke up in the early days of BeenVerified while we were burning cash and not really getting traction and thought that I was ready to quit. I would get up, look in the mirror and ask myself what I would rather be doing—and the answer was always nothing. Truth is, if you are running a start-up and haven’t had days where you were ready to give up, then you still have a long way to go towards being successful.

3. Balance the desire to do as much as possible, without trying to do too much. This helps you stay focused on growing your business in the most effective way without getting sidetracked with other ideas. It also helps you maintain a healthy balance between your personal life and work life.

4. Make sure to schedule a regular weekly meeting with your entire team. Every Monday morning, our team convenes (either in person or remotely) to set the tone for the week and keep all team members on the same page. If anything isn’t working well, we know Monday is a time we can recalibrate. Our in-house messaging tools like Slack also help with check-ins when something urgent comes up.

5. People want to follow an inspired manager. Great leaders share their exciting vision with the team and are transparent about what it will take to make the vision a reality. They show loyalty to their team and provide a career path for them to follow. As the company expands, the organizational chart will change, but great leaders make sure everyone knows what their role is and how they can grow. 6. Fantastic managers earn respect by being humble. They leave the ‘my way or the highway’ mentality at the door. They also roll up their sleeves and work with the team by brainstorming and sharing ideas to work through complex issues. They foster an atmosphere where it’s not only acceptable, but desirable, for the team to ask a lot of questions. Great leaders are also honest about the fact that they don’t know every answer, and that they’ll know a lot more two years from now than they do today. – Great leaders seek input from more experienced members in their organization. They draw upon their life and career experience and value what those team members bring to the table. They also listen to their advice and adapt ideas to suit their current circumstances. They know that taking a collaborative attitude can create better solutions than trying to solve everything on their own.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

To grow your company, make it easy for your team to test out new ideas and innovate. We show our team members that there are very few obstacles if they want to try out a new idea. Our company is all about testing and optimizing, so if our people feel like it’s too much of a hassle to try a new idea or approach to doing things, then we will all suffer. If a team member has an idea, it’s usually as simple as asking us for a quick thumbs up. In rare cases, it requires us to talk it through.