As we lead up to tonight’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalists dinner, we look back at the path that led our founder and CEO, Monica C. Smith, to this prestigious honor. Today, Smith is the founder of Marketsmith, Inc. and i.Predictus: two highly successful, industry-acclaimed marketing startups. But her success hasn’t come easy. There was a time when Smith struggled, as so many upstart entrepreneurs do today.
Back in the days before Shutterfly, Smith launched an image publishing startup called Forever Imprints, which created scanned cards out of the images sent in by consumers. When Forever Imprints didn’t produce the results she had hoped, Smith moved on to a new venture, Tactica Now. Geared toward companies that needed to market via DM, Tactica Now guided its clients through each and every step in the marketing process, educating them on best practices through all the various channels. Ultimately, Tactica Now did not produce the desired results in the designated time frame, and Smith launched Kamtech, a software for non-profits that provided modeling and scoring to identify the best prospective donors.
Those businesses ultimately failed due to a lack of infrastructure. However, through each new business venture, Smith maintained her commitment to Marketsmith, Inc. Constantly channeling her strengths into solution-driven businesses, Smith has never been hindered by multiple challenges.
Finding Success
As Marketsmith, Inc’s business grew, Smith began identifying its strong suits and then set forth to develop those services. These services, originally done ad hoc, were developed into real departments within the company – research, analytics, web site development, etc. With this new approach, disruption in the marketplace suddenly became a positive. Economic calamity from the recession took its toll on the large, high-cost solutions, and made overhead costs unattainable for many smaller, cobbled together solutions.
Every time a new whitespace opened in the marketplace, Marketsmith, Inc. took action and capitalized on it. By following that simple strategy, Smith soon found enormous success. Through that success, she was able to launch a second marketing startup, i.Predictus, which is currently entering a $5 million Series A funding round. As the industry’s first demand-side television platform, i.Predictus is now at the forefront of the programmatic TV movement.
Though Smith’s beginnings may have been humble, determination and grit prevailed. She surrounded herself with intelligent people, and worked to bring in business leaders who have since taken a piece of the respective reins to move the companies forward. Smith has defined her vision clearly, put in the sweat equity and brought in the right talent to achieve it. And that has lead her to where she is today, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. We at Marketsmith, Inc. wish her the best of luck at tonight’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards gala, and we extend those same wishes to each and every finalist up for the prestigious award.
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