Let's Be Real

In the Digital Media world, there is often so much fake noise and hype around the latest start-up, the coolest new app and “new media” darlings. The real story is that most of these companies fail after the hype fades. They raise money, sometimes ridiculous amounts, but never build a sustainable business model that can turn a profit.

In some cases, investors love these models, see Uber and SnapChat to name a couple. They can literally raise billions of dollars, yet lose billions every year.

More and more often now, smaller companies raise $5 million, $10 million, $50 million or more and then talk about how great their audience or user growth is going, yet suddenly 1-2 years later announce they are laying off half or all of their employees for some made up excuse of change on Facebook or Google algo penalties or lack of brand support. They need to be real.  

The real answer in these cases is that these founders and management teams didn’t focus on what is key to almost all businesses; revenue and profit.  For some reason, digital media companies keep forgetting about those basic concepts. They are too busy building or focused on their own user experience or some fluff.

You know who makes incredible profit? Google and Facebook. Guess what, they also focus on growing audience, building culture, building new products and expanding users.

For companies like ConsumerTrack, we have to focus on revenue growth and profitability. We would not have grown for the past 15 years without those primary goals in mind.

Do we think about growing our audience? Yes – daily.

Do we think about how to improve our culture and sense of community? Yes – everyday.

Do we think about improving our products? Yes again, non-stop.

Do we think about “big data”, “machine learning” and AI?  Yes – 24/7.

Because ConsumerTrack has been around since 2004 (and profitable since year 1), we have had a front row seat watching hundreds, of companies launch, rise and then fail. We have seen thousands of rounds of lay-offs from big media and publishers.

We have also seen the best and brightest people launch and grow amazing businesses like Zillow, MediaAlpha, HealthCare.com, LowerMyBills, SlickDeals and QuoteWizard to name a few.

In the companies that have not made it, we have seen them put a very low priority on revenue growth, profitability and new partnerships. We can’t figure out if it is because of laziness, lack of vision, short-sightedness or a just a lack of understanding basic business. It could possibly be that these leaders are hypnotized by the outlier stories of companies going public or selling for billions of dollars with minimal revenue and no profit (Instagram, WhatsApp, Tumblr).

Let’s be real – this is not going to occur 99.9% of the time. It takes a ton of effort, work and luck to win in any industry, especially digital media with the dominance of Google, Facebook and Amazon

ConsumerTrack focuses on success. This success can be revenue growth, profit expansion, building a world class team, building incredible products and creating an amazing culture. Our goal is to get better every day. This is not an easy task. It takes commitment, passion and relentlessness. It doesn’t mean work 100 hour work weeks, it doesn’t mean win at any cost – it means, be real about trying your best to improve; Be better at the end of the day as compared to the start of the day, every day. Respect what you do and the people around you. Win for you and win for your team.

As ConsumerTrack grows, we put in endless effort to keep this mission pulsing through our company’s veins. Let’s be real, there will always be individuals who don’t understand what it takes, or don’t want to put in the effort required, but that is natural. The rest of us will continue to focus and improve and win. We make as many mistakes as anyone else, but we are real about it, we learn from it, and we improve. 

Be real about what you do – do you love it? Do you believe in your team? Do you do your best to make an impact? If you answer yes to all those questions, you are probably a very successful and passionate winner. If you answer no to any of them, ask yourself why – and then do something about it.

Keep an eye out for us over the next 15 years, we have even bigger plans than we did in our first 15. Will your company still be here then? If you don’t think they will, come join our team – we need as many talented, experienced and passionate people that we can find in Los Angeles, New York City, Bethlehem, PA, Charlotte, NC and in 2019, Denver, Colorado.