CEO David Ormesher on keeping his business a startup and knowing when to pivot

It’s not easy to keep up startup momentum. It’s even harder to stop what you’re doing and analyze if anything is even working. It’s probably the hardest to claim you’re still a startup when your company is almost 20 years old, but CEO David Ormesher is doing all of the above.

 

Ormesher grew up exploring the world. As the son of a United Airlines pilot, the budding entrepreneur got to experience new places and cultures at a very young age. 

 

“I did a lot of travel with [my parents] and then I did a lot of solo travel,” Ormesher said. “I got very comfortable seeing the world as a village. There are lots of opportunities to have an impact on the world. There’s a natural progression once you start living beyond your world.”

 

He’s bringing those principles to the pharma-focused digital marketing agency he founded in 1987, where he emphasizes philanthropy and culture. And closerlook’s clients have noticed. 

 

“You have to touch the heart to move the mind. Many of our clients are just as interested in what we’re doing as a company philanthropically as what we’re doing on the business side,” Ormesher said. “Business is more than the technology we’re building.”

 

In 2007 Ormesher co-founded the Global Relief and Development Partners to help entrepreneurs in Rwanda improve social and financial security in their country by developing the skills to run successful businesses. Ormesher travels to Rwanda four times a year to personally coach 50 entrepreneurs committed to growth and leadership.  

 

At home in Chicago, he is on the board of directors of i.c. stars, a Chicago nonprofit that provides business, leadership and technology training for urban adults. He is also on the board of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Lurie Children’s Hospital. 

 

“I'm trying to take the lessons that I’ve learned through business and apply it to these nonprofit organizations and vice versa.”

 

With a philanthropic leader at the helm, closerlook employees know it’s more than just a job. There’s never a shortage of fun activities happening at the office (think mustache Mondays, chili cookoffs, running clubs and more) and with such a close-knit team, employees have even taken trips together. This year a group is headed to Napa Valley, California to run a half marathon as a team. 

 

Now at 125 employees, it would be easy to assume contact with the CEO is limited. But this is just one more way Ormesher treats his business like a startup. At least twice a month, he takes new hires and employees celebrating a work anniversary to lunch, where they talk about closerlook’s vision and just generally get to know one another better. 

Ormesher also values transparency, just like any good startup, hosting what they call “love fests” twice a year. He shares company financials and other pertinent information employees may want to know. 

 

“Pharma, like so many others, is faced with doing more with less, especially in marketing,” Ormesher said. "We’ve developed a tech platform that is highly disruptive to marketing, bringing a level of transparency and a whole different approach. We’re changing the way brands understand their customers and how brands reach them.”

 

In 2012, closerlook joined more than 20 other digital companies in a commitment to create more than 2,000 jobs by 2015. Spearheaded by Mayor Rahm Emanuel (a commitment he continues today), the company completed their commitment ahead of schedule. 

 

And closerlook is still hiring. Ormesher said they’re looking for driven, passionate people that are excited to work collaboratively and who take their work seriously, but not themselves. “It’s very low drama," he said. “We work hard and play hard.”