Pear Analytics Helps Small Businesses Unravel the Mysteries of SEO
28th January 2011 · 0 Comments
Under the guidance of founder/CEO Ryan Kelly, Pear Analytics seeks to educate and assist businesses in effective SEO strategies at an affordable price.Kelly formed the company in 2008. “We started by doing a lot of consulting, and we found that we always performed the same analysis and recommended the same prescription to solve problems, and so we thought we could automate a lot of the process,” he explains.
Kelly soon found that the ideal solution was neither pure consulting nor pure software, but a combination of the two. The final product has the advantage of being scalable and repeatable while offering clients the “high-touch service” they prefer.
He initially intended to bootstrap the ultimate SEO tool for businesses, promoting it as a lead generation mechanism, but early versions of the software proved too difficult to use accurately for the target market. A top-to-bottom revision changed all that, and customer interest boomed.
Along the way, the company attracted investors’ interest as well.
As a top-10 finalist in Austin’s Capital Factory program, Pear Analytics caught the eye of that organization, but ultimately Kelly agreed to an investment deal with Pat Condon and Morris Miller. The entrepreneur is now setting the processes in place to accommodate up to 700 paying customers in 2011.
Kelly sees more resources for startups in Austin than in San Antonio, often making the run up I-35 to participate in developer or startup groups. He advises his fellow entrepreneurs to do their homework before rushing to launch, recommending the writings of Eric Rise, Steven Blank and Hiten Shah.
He also advises that they avoid “drinking the Kool-Aid” of the fast-launch, fast-flip mentality prevalent in the software industry. “There’s nothing wrong with growing a real business. It’s what keeps our economy growing.”
