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For many businesses, one of today’s preeminent challenges is not only creating the best content, but also disseminating it. Manual tools such as flash drives and cloud based storage boxes vary in reliability, and also lack the security necessary for housing and accessing sensitive files. Another obstacle is that the B2B community expects presentations and content that are as slick and polished as what the customer sees. For everyone from salespeople to moviemakers, it is becoming more and more important to have access to the best content at all times. But how?
According to Mediafly, a Chicago-based software company that specializes in shipping enterprise content across devices, the key is taking a mobile-first approach. Packaged as a Mobile Applications as a Service (MAaaS), Mediafly ties into a company’s backend, giving employees around the world a secure portal through which to access their existing content through the cloud. This can be done by connecting to Mediafly’s proprietary CMS, Airship, or simply through the company’s existing systems. Due to the strength of its products — ProReview, which serves the TV and movie industry, and SalesKit, which is used by sales and marketing teams — Mediafly quietly locked in $1.3 million in closed financing from eight Angel investors, including two priors, in early October. CEO Carson Conant says two existing investors are expected to add $470,000 by the end of December as well.
“By raising this money we can continue to grow Mediafly at an impressive pace and service very high-profile global companies,” Conant says. A big part of that will be building up Mediafly’s marketing, which started with hiring its first marketing executive six months ago. Conant says adding bulk to that department will continue accelerating sales. “We can invest in our people, in our technology.”
For Mediafly, recognition from the Chicago community took time. The company was founded in early 2006 and got its first outside investment from a San Francisco firm. More recently, though, Conant moved Mediafly’s headquarters to the Mag Mile, and found deeper connections to the local investing community. “I have to say that earning the attention from people who have run enormously successful national and global businesses based in Chicago is inspiring, as this is what we are doing,” Conant says.
The list of Mediafly’s investors is certainly notable, with a number of them calling the Third Coast home. It includes entrepreneur Jim Holtzman, Arrington Travel Center founder Mike Arrington, former Newell-Rubbermaid President and COO Tom Ferguson, Mediafly Board member Jim Steinback and others. According to these individuals, Mediafly is a company worth backing for its strong team and outstanding product. “[Mediafly is a company that has a product that makes customers say ‘Wow’,” Steinback, the company’s largest outside investor, says. “That is not the only key for success, but it sure helps.”
Conant says his investors are like family, that he meets, dines or connects with one of them weekly. “Doing this I am able to constantly be challenged to think differently and learn to see around corners that we have not yet reached,” he says.
Speaking of things to come, Conant has his sights set on building the next generation of core technologies. Inspired by the likes of Salesforce, Workday and SuccessFactors, he wants new products such as Mediafly’s web viewer, which will change the way clients securely share and view content, to further stimulate his business. Mediafly is also working with outside partners to build on its platform, the first of whom “are already building new and innovative things on Mediafly in ways that we would not have thought of.” And if that weren’t enough, Conant says Mediafly’s sales efforts now extend to Europe as well.
With over $3 million in funding over the past two years, it’s safe to say that Mediafly is on its way to great heights.
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