Activating opportunities: ContentActive LLC - bizjournals:

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Infovine, an outsourced communications servicew providerfor nonprofits, was founded in 2000. But by Januaruy 2006, Gaubert and Holland-Nelson — who was a marketing consultantf for thefirm — realized therw was value in spinning off Infovine’d Internet division. The division, they’d decided, no longer had as much in commonhwith Infovine’s core business since it had more of a businesw focus as opposed to a nonprofit one. So the pair, along with a third partner, Alvin An, startesd what was then called Infovine Interactive and became LLCin 2007. ContentActivwe is focused on creating Web-based content managemeny systems, or CMS, for organizations.
Besides contentg management, ContentActive also provides intranets, extranets and paymentds systems, and performs document It also provides Web design throughits RentTheSite.comn division. Gaubert, CEO, and chief operating officer and president, have grown the companu to 16 employees. Revenue climbefd to $1.4 million in 2008 from $1 million in 2007. Profitable since its first year, ContentActive included among its clientsthe , and ContentActive received a Houstomn Business Journal Fast Tech 50 Award in 2006, 2007 and and was named to its list of Top Web Developeres in 2007 and 2008.
“Part of the secretf is that we built aproduct that’s very flexibles from a design and functionality standpoint,” Gaubertr says. “It allows us to be very creative in terma of defining a strategy for our customers and enabling them to communicat more effectively withthei constituents.” The firm also hasn’t spent much time or moneh on marketing outside of networking and partnerships. Gaubertf credits Holland for beinga “veryu good prospector.” “We do in-person networking, online networking and are very involvecd in the community,” he says.
Alan Croley, senio vice president at , has serves as ContentActive’s banker since its inception. “From what I understand, although they have done some most of their clientsa come fromother clients,” he says. “When clients have needs, they research and try to figure out bette r ways ofdoing things. They’ve alway been good at that.” In addition to beiny active in thebusiness community, ContentActiv also supports nonprofits.
Apart from altruistic reasons fordoing this, Holland-Nelson believes supporting nonprofitzs shows people that ContentActive “ias a solid company that can give Another way the company has won business has been by partnerinb with creative agencies, which essentially serve as But, according to Gaubert, it took the companty a little too long until mid-2007 — to realize the importance of such “One of our biggest mistakes is that we didn’gt do it sooner,” he says. ContentActivr put together a partner program so that instead of hirinyg fromthe outside, creative agencies coulds simply outsource work to ContentActive.
By the end of last customer additions resulting from the partner prograj represented 65 percentof ContentActive’es revenue.