Jeff Epstein likes to call 2015 the "Year of Scale" when he's talking about the growth of his startup, Ambassador.
The tech entrepreneur can make a good argument for it. Ambassador landed a $2.35-million seed capital round last spring, moved to a bigger office in downtown Royal Oak, and has tripled its staff in less than a year.
"We had four people in the office interviewing today," says Epstein, founder & CEO of
Ambassador.
Ambassador builds custom online referral campaigns that offer rewards to users who spread good word of mouth about companies. Ambassador’s software as a service platform automates enrolling, tracking, managing, and rewarding referrals. Some of its brands include PayPal, Spotify and T-Mobile.
The 5-year-old company was part of the
Techstars New York accelerator program in 2011, raising a large convertible note from investors like
Ludlow Ventures. Ambassador closed on a $2.35-million Series A in March. The round was led by Arthur Ventures with other early investors like Ludlow Ventures participating.
That money went toward expanding Ambassador’s operations. It moved to a larger, 11,000-square-foot office in downtown Royal Oak and grew from 13 employees at the end of last year to 37 today and climbing. Epstein expects this major investment will allow the company to continue to be cash-flow positive while expanding its revenue.
"We're going to more than triple this year," Epstein says. "We will at least double next year."
Source: Jeff Epstein, founder & CEO of Ambassador
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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