Before raising their first round of funding, the Centerfield founding team bootstrapped the business for five years, and it has paid off. Centerfield is now a 1,000-person full-service performance marketing company that automates end-to-end customer acquisition for millions of online shopping experiences through its signature platform Dugout. Brands can measure KPI’s such as online interaction, customer emotion, and sentiment through voice analysis. Centerfield’s technology has helped close 2M sales per year for some of the largest brands that include Spectrum, Viasat, and AT&T. This is all done through a network of consumer websites either built or bought by Centerfield layered with the optimization tools that the Dugout platform provides.
LA TechWatch caught up with Co-CEO and Cofounder Jason Cohen to learn more about the genesis of Centerfield, the state of performance-based marketing, and the company’s impressive growth.
Tell us about the product or service Centerfield offers.
Centerfield’s portfolio of consumer websites helps millions of in-market shoppers choose the right product and service in categories such as home internet, digital security, and retail. Our clients, which include many of the biggest brands in the US, rely on us to exceed their customer acquisition goals.
Tell us a little about your background and what inspired the business?
I’m originally from New York, had sold my previous performance advertising agency, and was considering my next venture. Brett Cravatt, my cofounder at Centerfield, was in a similar boat having recently sold his company. Brett and I decided to form Centerfield to be a technology-powered performance marketing company. Brett also convinced me to move out to Los Angeles, and the rest is history!
How is Centerfield different?
Behind the scenes is our technology platform, Dugout. Dugout automates end-to-end customer acquisition for millions of shopping experiences each year. “End-to-end” covers the entire customer journey from initial “click” or “view” all the way through to an online sale, phone call, SMS, chat, or e-mail.
What market are you attacking and how big is it?
At this point, we’re already in some very big markets such as home internet, e-commerce, senior care, and security, and mostly focused in the United States. We reach tens of millions of shoppers each year. As far as looking ahead, we believe our consumer websites can be a part of any product or service decision a consumer is making.
What is the business model?
Centerfield started as a digital marketing company that sold prospects, or leads, via paid media. We believe a technology-first approach provides the most value to brands and invested in building a proprietary measurement and optimization platform called Dugout to run all of our marketing. We also invest in building or acquiring consumer websites to engage with in-market consumers and help them purchase the right product or service, including internet connections, TV plans, phone, and security, for their home and business.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
Although our offices have been closed since March and will remain so through the end of 2020, I’m very proud of our company and my co-workers. Productivity has been great, and our business has been doing well also since many of the markets we’re in, like home internet, are seeing strong interest from consumers. Connecting in-person at our offices is an important part of our culture, and we’ve had to quickly adapt and find unique ways to share, connect, and keep people engaged.
We started a daily series, Wireless But Wired In, where we send out useful health and wellness tips, fun activities to do with your kids at home, and engaging individual and team-based challenges. Our bi-weekly challenges, such as a creative cooking video contest and team charity mile runs, help us bond and create fun experiences with our coworkers. Team managers hold daily video check-ins and scheduled happy hours. At the end of the day, we want everyone to know that we are here for support and that we are all in this together.
Tell us what building your company in LA has been like?
LA has a strong creative and technology mindset and talent pool, which suits the kind of digital media company Brett and I wanted to build. We operated as a bootstrapped company out of El Segundo until 2015, when we received our first round of funding. In early 2017, we raised an additional $156M, which gave us the ability to acquire Qology Direct, a telesales company based in Florida. We transformed from a 100-person ad-tech business to a 1,000-person full-service marketing company overnight. The next year, we made the strategic decision to expand our office space in Playa Vista, and in doing so almost doubled the size of our LA HQ.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
I believe we’ll exit the year with our strongest and biggest year ever.
If you could be put in touch with one person in the LA Tech tech community who would it be and why?
I’d love to be connected to Elon Musk, we believe we can help him close the digital divide as his company SpaceX prepares to launch Starlink.
What does being “Made in LA” mean to you and your company?
Founded on Silicon Beach in 2011, Centerfield’s vibrant culture has been recognized as a Best Place to Work by BuiltinLA. Centerfield is also on Inc. 5000’s list of fastest-growing private companies in California, and we couldn’t be prouder.
What else can be done to promote early-stage entrepreneurship in Los Angeles?
Colleges and high schools with graduating seniors should be forming alliances with tech companies.
Colleges and high schools with graduating seniors should be forming alliances with tech companies.
There isn’t a great centralized way to do that that I’m aware of. I learned what to focus on as an entrepreneur during my early work experiences and by being mentored by tech leaders.
What is your favorite restaurant in LA?
There are so many great restaurants here. I like to go to Forma in Santa Monica with my wife. It has amazing Italian food and is a super-easy date night. It also reminds me a little of NYC.
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