From Idea to 160K Users: Our Story

The first do-it-yourself platform that makes it easy for anyone to take control of their own Google results.

To start, you should probably know a little bit about the company…

I’m Patrick, CEO and Cofounder

BrandYourself started as a problem, that turned into an idea, that turned into a mission.

The Problem: Pete Kistler, my co-founder, was a model student, but couldn‘t get an internship

3.9 GPA

Successful entrepreneur

Leader on campus

Founder of multiple clubs

Several relevant internships

He was being mistaken by employers online for an ex-con with the same name

This Guy This Guy

or

He couldn’t change it, because he wasn’t:

A tech genius who could do it himself

A high net worth individual who could pay thousands

for a reputation firm to do it

We realized this was a big problem (for a lot of people)

1 Billion

75%names are Googled every day

of HR departments are requiredto research candidates online

But most people are not well represented…

People either fall into the negative category

Even if you’re not this guy, in today’s world, bad results can happen to good people, and just one poorly judged photo or blog post can damage your entire reputation

The irrelevant category

Instead of finding your latest accomplishments and recommendations, they find out you ran a 5k three years ago. That’s a missed opportunity

Or the “hey that’s not me” category

Being mistaken for someone else can be just as bad as being caught drunk in a bath tube (just ask Pete)

And none of them can pay a “reputation expert” thousands of dollars to improve their results for

them

We wanted to create a free product that makes the process dead simple

for anybody to do themselves.

(fight the power)

But we were college kids from upstate NY. We didn’t have a clue how raise

money or build a business

So we just started building…

and building…

and rebuilding...

Until finally…

…we had something awesome to launch!

Ok…But how does it work?

Good question.

Users simply submit the links they want showing up at the top of Google for their name…

Our software immediately analyzes that link and tells you everything you can do to make it show up higher

For example, here are all the steps to make this Linkedin profile show up higher

Once you submit links, you can track them as they improve

And get alerts when things change on your first page

Users can also build a profile that’s automatically optimized to show up on the first page of Google

Once you have a profile, we can tell you who is Googling you

Sounds great…but how do you make money?

Glad you asked : )

A simple freemium business model where some users pay for premium features

Free users can submit up to three links, but you need to upgrade if you want to submit unlimited links

Our Model:

1. We attract traffic to the site

2. A certain percentage sign up for the free product (8% is considered good)

3. A certain percentage of users upgrade to premium (2% is considered good)

4. World domination?

That makes sense! How is it going so far?

Thanks for asking!

Over 10,000,000 pageviews

Over 160,000 total users (25% of our traffic signs up, triple projections)

Over 2,000 paid users (up to 5% will pay in first 8 weeks—double projections)

We’re exceeding our projections

…and growing faster than we expected : )

We’re building an amazing team

We’ve hired the best people in the industry (our engineering team’s last startup was acquired by Match.com) and continuing to hire. I’d also like to think we’re the most

fun, talented, and possibly best looking team in the world. (read more about our team here).

And well-funded by top investors

Including angels like the former Head Search Strategist at Microsoft and firms like Zelkova VC (learn more).

But more important than anything else…

We’re making a real difference for our customers

(We get several of these a week)

Like Andrew

An Ivy League Professor falsely accused of shop lifting who used BrandYourself to push more relevant info above all the irrelevant things that were overshadowing his work and research

And TJ

Who knew employers would be Googling him after a lay off. He used BrandYourself to push an Olympic swimmer out of his results so employers could actually find his great work!

Oh and what about our friend Pete (the guy who was being mistaken for a drug dealer)?

He now owns his first 65 results.

And no longer spends his day denying being a drug dealer. Seriously, go ahead and Google him! bit.ly/Spw4YN

Thanks and feel free to reach out!

Email: pambron@brandyourself.comPhone: 845-625-8737Twitter: @patrickambron

Site: Brandyourself.com