After co-founding
Intela in Boulder in 2006 and growing the company to about 100 employees, Ryan Wilson left last August, relocating to Denver and founding
FiveFifty in one fell swoop.
While Intela worked with large banks and telecom companies like HSBC and T-Mobile, FiveFifty is looking at a much different market: small businesses in Denver. "I wanted to do something local," says Wilson, FiveFifty's CEO.
Based at
TAXI in RiNo, FiveFifty is taking on consulting projects and buying digital media for clients. He helped
Colorado School Grades, a local nonprofit, generate nearly the same amount of traffic after an 80 budget cut last year and increased Boulder shipping-tech company
ShipCompliant increase their monthly leads by 1,000 percent.
On the media-buying side, clients include big national brands like Home Depot and Levi's. "It's cutting-edge stuff," says Wilson. "It's buying display ads in games and apps." He says he was personally making $1 million in ad buys a month at Intela.
He says every business should be "retargeting" online ads. "It's when you see a pair of shoes at Zappos and it follows you around the Internet," explains Wilson. "Every business should be retargeting because you're already paying for everything else."
Currently contracting with four people, Wilson says he will look to make several hires in 2013. He moved to Denver to save his wife, a physician, the commute from Boulder last fall.
He says he plans on bootstrapping FiveFifty for the near term, after closing two rounds of venture capital at Intela. "It changes the environment," he says.
Contact Confluence Denver Innovation & Jobs News Editor Eric Peterson with tips and leads for future stories at eric@confluence-denver.com.
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