VerticalResponse Celebrates Its 10 Years in Business With 100,000 Small Business Customers

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- VerticalResponse, Inc. (http://www.verticalresponse.com), a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online survey and direct mail solutions for small businesses, today announced its 10-year anniversary, with 33 percent customer growth from 2009 to 2010 and over 100,000 customers and 100 employees since the company was founded. This year also marks its 6th straight year of profitability.

"Ten years ago only large companies with big budgets could afford online marketing and social media didn't exist yet, but we saw the potential of email marketing to help small businesses and the importance of enabling them to build strong customer relationships," said Janine Popick, Founder and CEO, VerticalResponse. "Our passion for serving small business and building customer engagement has been the secret to our success, and keeps us motivated and focused every day."

San Francisco-based Splendora, a daily blog and weekly newsletter that surfaces chic, brilliant things before they hit the mainstream, has been a VerticalResponse customer since 2001.

"The Splendora newsletter became our #1 source of revenue only two years after we started using VerticalResponse," said Gina Pell, Founder and CEO, Splendora, a VerticalResponse customer for 10 years. "With VerticalResponse we were able to quickly scale, manage, and market to our email database effortlessly and elegantly."

From 2005 to 2010, VerticalResponse revenue has grown 476 percent. Revenue from partnerships has also increased with key contributors like Intuit, salesforce.com and OpenTable.com.

Industry-acclaimed email marketing

Over the last decade, VerticalResponse has earned numerous industry accolades and awards. Most recently the company has been recognized with these honors:

• CEO Janine Popick awarded 2010 Best Entrepreneur of the Year for the second consecutive year at the 7th Annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business
• Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2010 from the Women's Initiative
• Deloitte's 2010 Technology Fast 500 - Ranked #241 Fastest Growing Company in North America
• San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Business "Ebbies" Award 2010 Winner in the Emerging Growth category
• San Francisco Business Times 2010 list of "Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the Bay Area" - Ranked #44
• Winner of three Web Marketing Association's WebAwards:  Application Service Provider Standard of Excellence, Small Business Standard of Excellence, and Blog Standard of Excellence
• 2010 Inc. 5000 - Ranked #1570 among America's fastest growing companies
• CEO Janine Popick won the U.S. Small Business Administration award for "Small Business Person of the Year" in the 2010 San Francisco Small Business Week awards
• Winner of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "2010 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award"
• 2010 Stevie® Awards For Sales & Customer Service - Finalist in "Best Use of Technology in Customer Service" and "Customer Service Department of the Year"

About VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse, Inc. is a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys and direct mail services empowering small businesses to easily create, manage and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns. VerticalResponse bundles email, online surveys and postcards to offer customers an integrated Web-based direct marketing solution that's intuitive and affordable. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For additional information, please visit www.verticalresponse.com.

SOURCE VerticalResponse, Inc.