Benzinga is growing in more than just a few ways these days. The Southfield-based startup is adding more products to diversify its revenue, hiring staff and possibly looking for a new home later this year.
Benzinga, which will turn four years-old in May, got its start providing financial news with a twist, adding ideas that stock market day traders and other investors can use to profit from the day's headlines. It quickly locked down $2 million worth of seed capital from
Lightbank, the venture capital firm founded by Groupon’s co-founders. That enabled Benzinga to grow its staff and services. It’s not just a publication anymore. Think of it more as a technology company.
"We're a very flat organization," says Jason Raznick, CEO of
Benzinga. "I gave a
TEDx speech about a madeup word called Doarchy."
Combine the word "do" and "hierarchy" and you’ll have an idea about what Raznick is talking about. Benzinga empowers its employees to turn their passions into businesses and revenue streams. That means today Benzinga's main three revenue streams come from subscriptions to its news service, licensing the software it creates and
Marketfy, which is a financial education platform.
"What we're really great at is creating something from nothing,"
Raznick says. "Marketfy didn’t exist a year ago. Now it’s generating crazy revenue."
Those sorts of innovations come from
Benzinga’s staff of 27 employees and five interns. It has hired five people in the last year, including a new COO and software developers. There are four openings for software developers, marketing professionals and UIX designers.
Raznick is also looking to bring in more talent with roots in Michigan who are looking to move back to the Great Lakes State. To help accomplish that he is considering moving his company when the lease to its current home is up this summer. He is thinking about downtown Detroit or downtown Ann Arbor to help make it easier to attract young, technology-inclined talent.
"We're not sure what we’re going to do," Raznick says. "We need a cool environment."
Source: Jason Raznick, CEO of Benzinga
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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