Decoding the mystery behind a leading start-up’s success: MessageGears

In a space dominated by large software-as-a-service (SaaS) “marketing clouds”, CEO Dan Roy and his dynamic MessageGears team offer something new: aninnovative enterprise email marketing solution that combines the security benefits of on-premises software with the efficiency of cloud delivery. Driven by rising consumer expectations for engaging customer experiences, MessageGears devised a solution that offers the best of both worlds. Their innovative solution eliminates the complex data integration and synchronization processes of traditional SaaS platforms while providing essential tools for marketers to create personalized and relevant messages. The company, which began in 2010 in Atlanta, GA, now sends over a billion messages per month on behalf of global brands such as Expedia, Runkeeper, Music Today, and Sabre Travel Network.

Battling Against All Odds to Emerge Victorious
It is not unusual for enterprise marketers to be initially apprehensive about giving a smaller, lesser-known provider like MessageGears a chance to serve them. These marketers often believe in the power of technology to gain efficiency (the old adage “no body ever gets fired for choosing IBM” applies). However, for those marketers and technology teams who took that risk, MessageGears’ award-winning technology and refreshingly straightforward customer-centric approach have proven to exceed expectations. With the support of clients like Expedia and Runkeeper, and a well-equipped team of experts, the company is poised to grow dramatically in the coming year, expanding its product offering and investing heavily in engineering, customer care, and professional services.

Through various operations across North America, MessageGears has garnered immense experience serving global brands that include customers in the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. The company continues to work towards a completely integrated, enterprise-level, multichannel messaging solution that extends beyond email into areas such as SMS, mobile push, voice messaging, and social media.

CEO Speaks

Q. MessageGears created a strong brand value for itself over the years. How did you manage to achieve this level of success in a relatively short time span?
A. Our solution was built for data-driven enterprise marketers. While extremely popular, traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) email marketing solutions require businesses to copy pieces of their internal data and send it to their provider to be stored, which can create lag and also has a negative impact on data security. At MessageGears, our goal was to eliminate those synchronization and replication processes. In our system, when a campaign is ready to be initiated, it is launched immediately, using the freshest data from our clients’ own internal systems.

Q. Who benefits from your offerings? What makes your creations so unique?
A. We target forward-thinking, data-savvy marketing technologists and offer them tailored solutions. Our solution is particularly attractive for data-centric enterprises in the travel, healthcare, government and financial sectors. With our unique hybrid technology, there is no data replication, meaning that the client’s data is secure and stays where it belongs – behind their internal firewall. Their system of record remains their system of record, but then the heavy-lifting (rendering and delivering the message) is done in the cloud. It is a better way for enterprise organizations to take full advantage of their internal data while still receiving all of the benefits of SaaS solutions. Companies like Expedia are able to tap into customer preferences, flight statuses, hotel inventory, etc. in real-time, creating a wealth of opportunities for their marketing to feel personalized for each and every recipient.

Also, as the bigger players in the enterprise email space have been acquired by larger companies (ExactTarget by Salesforce, Responsys by Oracle, Silverpop by IBM, etc), many customers are feeling left out when it comes to customer service and product innovation. So the fact that our development and services teams are agile enough to respond quickly and efficiently results in tremendous client satisfaction levels, because clients receive the priority level that they deserve in order to be successful.

Q. What are the challenges faced by you and your company?
A. Our list of competitors include some of North America’s biggest companies, such as Salesforce, Oracle, IBM, Adobe, Experian, etc. It can be difficult for enterprise marketers to give a smaller, lesser-known company like MessageGears a chance, even if they believe in the technology. Forward-thinking marketers who know exactly what they want and are willing to give a smaller company a chance find that our solution far exceeds their expectations. We’re willing to put our money where our mouth is by allowing product trials and creative pricing structures.

CEO Spotlight
MessageGears is led by CEO & Co-founder Dan Roy who has an extensive background in email marketing and e-commerce technologies. A visionary technologist with considerable experience collaborating with some of the world’s largest online businesses, Dan understands the importance of data to digital marketers and the challenges they face with existing email marketing solutions.

While at Delta Air Lines, Dan was instrumental in building its award-winning website and e-commerce platform. Dan was then the CTO of Accucast, a pioneer in email marketing which was acquired by PGi. Some of Accucast’s customers included Bank of America, Travelocity, and Walmart.com.

“We target forward-thinking, data-savvy marketing technologists and offer them tailored solutions.”