Last week, Mixergy's Andrew Warner interviewed me about the founding of SEOmoz and our trajectory to date. It was a very personal interview about the background of the company, but turned out to be a great experience. I've posted it below for those who might want to watch over the weekend and if you prefer, there's also a full text transcript on the Mixergy blog post.
After the interview, I noticed the Mixergy chatroom had dozens of questions I wasn't able to answer and I've been receiving a fair number of emails and tweets about it as well. Thus, I figured it was time to put together a post on SEOmoz's history and offer to formally answer questions in the comments of this post.
SEOmoz's History (1981 - 2010)
1981: Gillian Founds the Company that will Become SEOmoz
When my parents moved from New York to Seattle (so my Dad could work for Boeing), my Mom opened up a small marketing/print design/consulting business. Over the next 20 years, she'd raise three kids (myself, my brother and sister) and maintain the solo operation.
1999: Rand Starts Working with Gillian
At the time, I built mostly static Flash + HTML websites for local small businesses around the Seattle area including small banks, dentists and even a retail clothing store. Knowing nothing of SEO or the power of search engines, most of the pages I build are completely inaccessible to the bots.
2001: Rand Drops out of School
I'd been pursuing a degree at the University of WA, but left two classes shy of graduating to devote 100% of my time to the company, which was struggling to make ends meet thanks to the dot-com bust and the dropoff in demand for website construction. Our company starts going into deep debt, which will continue until late 2005 / early 2006.
2004: SEOmoz is Founded
Although I started trying SEO in 2002, I'm still pretty awful at it. In an attempt to grow my skillset, I participate vigorously on half a dozen SEO forums and eventually build SEOmoz.org as a site to host my thoughts, struggles and discoveries. Google's sandbox, in particular, had been vexing me and I kept hoping to stumble onto the secret of getting a site "released."
Feb. 2005: First SES Conference
Thanks to the generosity of Danny Sullivan, I attend SES New York (and take a ridiculous quantity of notes about every session I attend). I'd later pitch to speak at SES Toronto, scrape together the money to go and, following on that first experience, get invited to attend many other future shows.
Dec. 2005: Newsweek Covers SEOmoz
Newsweek magazine writes an article about "the shadowy world of SEO" using SEOmoz as the "white hat" example. I author the first version of the Beginner's Guide to SEO as a resource for those seeking to learn more (figuring the Newsweek traffic will be curious - instead, it gets Slashdotted, which sends us tens of thousands of curious webmasters and developers).
2006: SEOmoz Turns Around Financially
Although 2005 had been a reasonably good year financially, my personal debt hovered close to $500,000. In 2006, Gillian works with debt collection agencies, banks and creditors to eliminate most of the debt and build repayment plans. By July of 2007, we'll be completely debt free (though even in 2010 my credit history will still prevent me from renting an apartment or leasing a car). We post our financials at the end of the year and for the first time, I have a salary, and don't need my girlfriend (now wife) to pay for everything :-)
Feb. 2007: We Launch PRO Membership
Although consulting has been a growing source of revenue, we decide that it's not as scalable or as far-reaching as a recurring revenue model. PRO membership is launched after 3-4 months of development on tools, resources and guides. The initial price is just $29/month (and we still have a solid handful of folks who are grandfathered in and continue to pay that rate!)
Oh, and I proposed to my girlfriend (and got a yes... after a few instances of "what?!") We married the following year and are still over-the-top stupid for each other.
Nov. 2007: Investment Capital Comes Our Way
Ignition Partners & Curious Office co-invest $1.1 million in SEOmoz to help us scale our software, build our web index and grow the team. Michelle Goldberg from Ignition and Kelly Smith from Curious Office join Gillian and I on the board of directors and things get a bit more serious and focused (in a very good way).
We posted financials for 2007 just after taking the investment.
Oct. 2008: We Launch Linkscape
After 10 intensive months of work, we build a scalable, sizable crawl of the web, conduct processing of metrics and launch our first tool to expose that data - Linkscape. Unfortunately, launch day coincides with the collapse of Bear Stearns and the beginning of a very rough period for the world's economies (and somewhat dampens our press coverage).
Dec. 2008: We Return to Profitability
Despite a tough environment, SEOmoz returns to profitability in December of 2008 and has been profitable again ever since.
June 2009: A Second Attempt at Fundraising Fails
We decided in 2009, after exciting growth in Q1-Q2 to seek a second round of outside funding. But poor timing, unoptimized metrics and a subpar pitch eventually yield no results. Tragically, this costs the team many months of product progress. On the plus side, no dilution of shares.
January 2010: Open Site Explorer Launches
Our most exciting project to date, Open Site Explorer, a product to help SEOs and marketers better see into the web's link graph, launches. We follow up with a new Keyword Difficulty tool, our SEOmoz toolbar (Chrome version is just a few weeks away, BTW) and improvements to the Linkscape index.
August 2010: The Next Big Thing
Since diagramming a new direction/product for SEOmoz in January 2009, we've been working to grow our engineering team, solidify our process and scale our backend to handle something new & exciting. I previously leaked a design mockup at the bottom of this post, but here's another:
_
Today we are:
- 24 people strong
- Growing at a steady pace
- Profitable
- Shaking with anticipation for our upcoming launch (and working furiously to make sure everything goes right)
I can say without hesistation that the most exciting times are definitely ahead of us.
As I noted above, I'm happy to answer any questions I can about SEOmoz's founding, past or growth. Feel free to leave them in the comments below (though I may be a bit slow to respond depending on the timing).
Rand, you are the poster child for why good things in business should happen to good people. By being open and honest, you make people want to do business with you. I use your approach and the SEOMoz model constantly as an example of how "giving away" IP and being genuinely helpful to people breeds more business than you can handle.
While you and I have only spoken a few times before and we never actually became a consulting client, I suspect I am not alone in saying that your approach to business makes me trust you and I would never hesitate to send business your way. That's got to be a good business example for others.
Thanks for all you do and please keep doing it.
Fantastic story Rand, an inspiration.
Here's what I wonder - without trying to be churlish. If you manage to continue to help solve the organic web inbound marketing challenge, will this kill the golden goose?
Will it be a tradgedy of the commons, that the more people that can use it, the less useful it becomes. I can't see it for a long time yet - but is it a conclusion you think about?
All the very best to you and your organisation, I'm very grateful for the assist in my ongoing education... thank you.
Matt
Great point Matt. But even if SEOmoz does perfect their tools to help us target better SERP results, SEO is only a part of what a lot of us practitioners do. There's also Usability, Conversion Optimisation, Analytics, etc. which will always keep us in the grow (vs in the know)
Then add to that Google, et al. and the constant algorithm changes, which will always make them a moving target.
Finally, look at the number of Pro subscribers vs. Blog readers. It's 5500 to 70,000. Which means that even though SEOmoz tools are totally stinkin' awesome!, it's only the minority that are using them to their fullest.
I think people would say the same thing about Google Analytics or about ExactTarget/ConstantContact in the email field. The propogation of great tools has made all of us better at our jobs and created more value for less effort, rather than the other way around. It's my belief (and I think Google's too - which is why Webmaster Tools exists) that the better we all do building great sites that are useful and accessible, the more searchers will be satisfied and the more searching and using of the web we'll all do.
Funny...and maybe it was due to the "I'm at my first conference" bubble...but I remember the launch of Linkscape much more vividly than the crash of Bear Stearns.
Same here - I spent a lot of time at the SEOmoz booth that day. Was my first conference too. And the market crash was pretty far from my mind.
LOL how many t-shirts did you get that day? :)
That was actually my 2nd conference, and I too was more intrigued by Linkscape than by anything else going on the world. I was also sick as a dog, so that could have also been the reason. heh :)
I remember a reporter from the NYTimes was at the event walking around to some of the booths and you could tell he really did not want to be there. I think they ended up writing a brief piece about something someone from Google (that had been said many times before), and didn't even mention the conference. It was definitely a strange time in the business world.
That's really unfortunate :/. People call themselves journalists and just act uncaring, it's not a great example.
I think that's the way most journalists are always acting though...
You know this stuff has been an inspiration to us since even before we got to know you guys properly in 2006 / 2007. I have nothing but respect for what you've achieved (and I'm as excited as anyone about what is to come). Good job - I'm proud to call you a friend and to have played some small part in all of this (and I wish we could've been around to be a support in the harder times). I'm certainly raising a glass to the future. See you there.
Thanks for the history lesson Rand. Being in the SEO industry for a couple years SEOmoz has 'always' been a power house in my eyes. It's always nice to see stories about the struggles in the begining all the way to the top. :)
Im so glad you pushed your boundaries... this was an awesome interview and I think its great info to see how business start and then begin to flourish.
Ive always had an entrepreneur mindset and wanted to start my own business but im 22 and supporting my wife and 3yr old so its not really feasible right now...
Hopefully something cool comes out of SEO Site Tools its so awesome its been so well accepted with over 16k users from 123 countries. Im working on a complete rewrite that will implement historical data so thats going to be so powerful
I wish you the best Carter, as you too are a good example of winning will (from one the 16k user of your tools).
I think that the Chrome Mozbar will push you making it even better.
I use Chrome all the time, I only use Firefox for SEO work... Very excited to use the chromed mozbar, maybe with spinners.
Even having talked to you about the Moz on more than one occasion, I never realized so much of this happened so recently. You and Gillian deserve all the success you've managed to achieve - you've clearly worked hard for it (and still do).
It's great to hear you talking in an interview rather than on Whiteboard Friday. For someone who helps to bring a LOT of money through the company you're really modest and not a dick at all. I know a few people who earn a lot less money and think they're Billy Bollocks and act like complete idiots.
I hope SEOmoz grows and grows, you've created some great tools and I hope they keep coming :-)
you're really modest and not a dick at all
ROTFL! Trax, across the pond, the expression d--k is quite a bit more than pejorative. I suspect it's similar to calling someone a bloody as---le in the UK.
Haha, I could've used a worse phrase but didn't think it was appropriate. Asshole over here in the UK isn't something that's bad at all really, I could call my Nan that and she wouldn't be too offended.
I think that would be a fair comparison. Driven people have more "valuable" things to do with their time then brag and be jerks. They are focused on reaching out to their goals and fulfilling the organizations purpose. I'm hoping I can write a similar post in a few years... minus all the debt ;-) Its go... no great to see a young company finding its stride. Can't wait for the new tools.
Yeah, there's a bit of a fork in the road when people get successful where they either go down the "modesty" route or the "complete bugger" route. I'd say about 60 - 70 percent of the time they take the latter and there are a few like Neil Patel and Rand Fishkin who stand out amongst the other 30 - 40 percent.
@Rand good background but the question is with investment capital was there ever a point that you thought about trying to build the next Twitter or Location analysis tool instead of continuing to focus on SEO?
No. I'm really, really passionate about SEO and, in a broader sense, organic web marketing. I think helping people get their ideas, businesses and sites discovered by others is an amazing opportunity and one that's desperately in need of a solution.
I also think for every Twitter and Facebook, 5000 consumer web startups will fail. Those are some daunting statistics to go up against :-)
So ok looking at the addition of Linkscape historical data, can I assume the progress will be towards a benchmarking platform?
The ability to be able to take a step back in time to see when you start a new project to see where or when things went downhill would be useful.
That could help those in web marketing better discover opportunities and correct mistakes that are reducing their visibility??
"organic web marketing"? Oh, you mean inbound marketing.Â
 Sorry, couldn't resist. :)
Great article. I know the SEOmoz story pretty well (having heard it a few times). Looking forward to future chapters unfolding.
Tune in for the next exciting episode, same moz time, same moz channel!
Dear Damesh,
as a great source you are for all of us start-uppers in our souls (and practical life), I take the occasion to thank you for your activities and mentoring and to ask you to once write a post here too to share with the SEOmoz community about your experience as start up with Hubspot, as I am sure everybodies will appreciate it.
Yes, sorry - I'll use the proper terminology from now on - "inbound marketing" it is :-)
Looking forward to those tools in August! They look amazing.
What did being close to $500,000 in personal dept do to you mentally? How did you keep your focus on the long term with a dept so deep?
Honestly, I just didn't think about it much and used it almost as an excuse to keep doing the business. I figured that either I would have a big break at the company and be able to pay things off or get a regular job and never be able to. It was almost like barring the entrance so there was no way to go back - and oddly, it actually paid off (though it did take much longer than I hoped/expected).
What we all really want to know is: What did you spend that $500K on? How many vintage Transformers does half-a-million bucks buy? ;)
Nah, it wasn't his passion for vintage transformers that cost the money. It was his passion for Sindy Dolls.
You guys are both wrong. In Rand's totally unauthorized biography I'm planning to write, in chapter 8 I invent expound upon his fascination with Beanie Babies.
LMAO that. is. all.
Haha yeah, and he uses his beard as a special hiding pouch for the World's most revered beanie baby.
You know what's weird... In college, I used to arbitrage Pokemon trading cards. We'd buy them in Seattle and put them on eBay or Craigslist or 2-5X the price. Parents in most cities couldn't get to stores that sold them and they hadn't yet made them available online, so it worked for about a year. I was pretty reckless with cash back then, but the large debt came almost all from salaries (even though mine was under $25K a year), office space, contractors and equipment. We were pretty terrible at running a business and 4+ years of expenses w/ virtually no income (plus lots of high interest on the debt + fees for getting behind in payments) adds up very fast.
Understood - I know how fast the money went at my first start-up, and we had the luxury of the owner's dad paying the rent on our office and one of us still having consulting income.
Ditto.
Some people make the mistake of having a baby to save a marriage, but I made the mistake of starting a business (or jumping in to run one) to save mine.Â
There isn't a LOLcat poster poingnant enough to describe just how wrong I was doin' it.
Hey Rand,
I think your willingness to be transparent is remarkable. So many entrepreneurs either don’t make it through the tough times or after making it ignore that part of the story. I have to say I found some of the questions a bit inappropriate; particularly regarding family and his plug for 99Designs.
Rand, thank you for doing this interview and for not balking at the tough questions. I've been a fan of SEOmoz for a long time, and your transparency about the good and the bad is one of the core reasons. Well done, sir.
Such an inspiration. I currently have some problems with my business and today was not an easy day to get through it but at the end of this day I'm really glad I've read this story. I've become so attached to SEOmoz and every once in a while when I need motivation I just come here and read/watch new and old stuff and that keeps me going.Â
Anyway, I really like your story and I'm glad SEOmoz is succesful and growing, if someone deserves it than it's you guys.
I feel the same way about SEOmoz dbomez. It's kinda like my virtual "water cooler". As I don't have a proper office with office mates, it's as close as I can get.
Yup, it's hard working when you don't have enviroment that moves you forward. I work from home as I don't even have a need for an office at the moment and that has some pros but also a lot of cons. However, even though I don't comment much when I read SEOmoz stuff I feel like I'm a part of something greater than just my room :)
Wow. I really love to hear things like this. :) I do have an office to go to every day and I also reach out to the community every day. Ok, ok it's my job, but still it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that people come here to be a part of the moz community. Yay! <3
As said in a tweet to you Rand, I strongly believe that the SEOmoz story is an incentive to resist to any difficulty any small but great to be SEO company (or company generally talking) will always keep in mind.
My question is somehow silly, but I cannot resist to not asking it:
How were you able to mask the noise of the cinema under your tiny office when talking on the phone with your clients?
And what do you say to yourself when remembering those days?
What is the more valuable lesson you have learn as a human being from those early years of SEOmoz?
Ok... and I stop, or this will become another interview :)
Honestly, we didn't have many client calls in the old office, and the theatre was only audible during the really noisy parts (mostly Chewbacca yelling when Episode I came out).
In terms of lessons learned - one off the top of my head is that it made me a more conservative spender. Even today, SEOmoz has no debts and neither I nor my wife are willing to take on debt, either (that includes a car or house, too).
I'm sure there's many, many more - maybe something for a future post :-)
My initial thoughts for the question is similar to The Lost Agency - so I'll add another Q
Will SEOMOZ go into other form of media to help clients advertise?
You can see from some of the tools in www.seomoz.org/labs that we're already diving into the world of social media, that's likely going to continue. We might broaden beyond that in the future, too, but no serious plans today.
Wow Rand. Not only it is awsome to see the full history of a community that you eagerly follow for the past 2 years, This is one of the greatest inspirational stories about how an investment can turn over to being profitable from a huge debt by working with passion.
I believe you guys deserve this success to the last bit! :)
P.S. I'm passionate about the new tool :D
What would you like SEOmoz to look like in five years? How do you plan to stay at the top of a fast-changing industry?
Today, I'd say no one is really at the top of the industry, at least not in our sector of it. Forrester estimates $2.5 billion will be spent on SEO (salaries + consulting + development + software) and only $50 million of that on software/tools. That's one of the most lopsided distributions in the online marketing world (in email marketing or analytics or CRM or CRO, software is a much more substantial percentage).
Hence, my thought isn't about staying on top, but about how to build a market. I don't think SEOs have truly ever had a "standardized" software set (e.g. if I want to make presentations, 99% of the time I use Powerpoint; if I want to build a regular email newsletter there's a dozen software companies I can choose from, all with revenues $50mil+; if I want to run survey data collection via the web, I use SurveyMonkey or one of a few other competitors). Our job at SEOmoz is to build an affordable, useful software platform that is the default standard for everyone in the business.
How we get there is a through a long hard road. We build, release, talk to lots of customers and iterate. We need to be fast with our release cycles (much faster than we have been), high quality with our data (that means growing Linkscape and sources like it - Blogscape for example), responsive to customer needs (without getting lost building features only a few people want), and educating/marketing effectively without sacrificing our company culture.
If that's not hard enough, I think we have maximum 3-4 years before a sizable number of competitors release impressive products of their own - and I don't think we can win unless we dramatically outperform.
Huge congrats on your success, Rand, Gillian, and the rest of the SEOmoz crew.
Wow Rand. That is an unbelievable struggle you and Gillian went through not so very long ago.
Having experienced similar events in the early 90's, I can totally empathize with carrying a huge debt load while going deeper into the red.
I admired you and your company before, but I take my hat off and give you a bow for persevering through some really rough waters.
My question for you is this:
In the darkest of your times, what thing (or things) kept you from emotionally drowning? If this is too personal a question, please ignore it with my apologies.
you have come a long way Rand, I remember your posts on Webmaster forums about SEO back in 2004 when I was a baby in the industry =) Look at where you are now been one of the most respected voice for SEO in the world even down here in Australia you are well known by many in the industry =) Hope to catch up one day.
 are you refering to this link in the video?
https://msnbc.msn.com/id/10415455/site/newsweek/
Hi, Randfish
I'm from China where Baidu.com is dominating the search engine market. I'm working on SEM.
I enjoy reading your posts here, very useful. Thanks a lot!
Your site is the best, you guys did a great job!
Cheers!
New tool looks pretty awesome...stoked for launch :)
I use OSE, and the new KW difficulty tool everyday so I'm excited to see what it can do.
Wanted to checkout that ridiculous quantity of notes for nostalgia, but the links on that page appear to be broken, getting article not found errors.
That is a bummer. I'll see if we have those stored anywhere :(
Loved the interview. This post gives a broader picture of what SEOmoz is about. Thanks for sharing.
Wow. Impressive history. How much did it cost you to put that commercial on TV? Amazing idea.
edit: Nevermind. Saw $3,000 in an article about it. Glad it all worked out!Â
It's awesome to see the story of SEOmoz up to this point. I know I have enjoyed the service, and think it's worth the cost. Congratz to those who were grandfathered in @ 29$/month
@rand I'm getting a weird pick click video playing it started off you then buffered now this weird
Nice to read that growth of seomoz, Rand. You people are no doubt hard working, and this is the result of all those hard work done. My best wishes for more success in the future.
And Rand, forgot to mention. This is the first time I see your marriage pics on Flickr. Really cute ones. You both look awesome. :)
Great post!
Interesting to see the progression. Where do you think SEOmoz would be without the cash injection?
Same direction, just a longer road? or different direction?
Tough to say - but yeah, probably a different direction. I don't think we'd have been able to build Linkscape, nor upgrade the team with some of the remarkable talent we have on board today. Although I sometimes question decisions I've made about the business, we're in a very exciting place, so I'm not sure I'd change many of those big strategic moves (certainly have made tons of tactical errors that I wish I could correct, but I think everyone has those).
Talent is key. No question. It is amazing to me the ability, of those with a knack for this industry, to produce so much value. The hand in hand challenging of pursuing the light at the end of the technology tunnel or getting caught in the rabbit hole, talented people are the difference.
Nice post Rand! Nice to read some history about SEOmoz. Congrats on your progress and lots of success wished for the future!
Fantastic history, you must be very proud of everything that's been happening in SEOmoz. Although I'm new to commenting I've been a reader for a long time.
My question is - were there any opportunities that came by that you declined that later on were very successfull and caused regret?
Thanks
With the glut of tools out there for link building how does your tools fit with the beginning SEO business man in comparison to your competition? And are any designed for the beginner?
Great interview...I love hearing stories about people who risk so much for something they believe in.
This site has been a great source of information, thank you for such a great service!
Jon
Thank you for sharing Rand. Keep up the good work. I would have loved to come for conference but I'll be travelling at that time.
Oh wow, a great inspiration for us. This is something new to me as I never had chance to know SEOmoz history. I have a big respect for you and wish you luck or future endeavors. Though, I know you are actually doing great. :)
Congrats! Go ahead and please continue to help us as much as possible
I was at David Mihm's Local Univ. in Cleveland the other week and we were talking about your "historical" interview. For many of us, a touch of humility and a good dash of transparency on the part of our peers goes a long way to earning respect and understanding. It's powerful.
Now ... those tools.
If you guys can move in on IIS SEO Toolkit (which does not need the IIS server, folks), then I would be very happy. Furthermore if these new tools allow us to get the
...@#$@##$%^#$%^*&$%^%^&^% [*breath*]#$%%$^%$^$&^*&%^%$^%$^... data...
into a report, preferably wilth the ability to format it a bit if necessary; then I will send you a bottle of Champaign. Perhaps I'll toss in that crepes guy you used at the new office opening?
 No joke.Â
Just make the tools work along with an attempt at versatility, and you'll have a subscriber for life.
I think the crawl diagnostics section of the new "PRO" should help fulfill precisely the need you're describing. We'll definitely be looking for lots of feedback and ways to improve post-launch, too, so feedback will be great.
Thanks Mike!
I will definitely be hammering on these tools. I have a cool title but I'm a one man department who could really use a little bit of help on some of this data aggregation work.Â
I have no helper monkeys to whom I can dump all my glorious analysis, insights and thoughts onto. Even tried Raven tools and quite frankly was disappointed. OSE, Labs and IIS SEO toolkit seem to do a good job at pulling the data I need. They all give me the ability to dump and grab and move.
Anyhoo, I'll be there for the 1/2 day training after the August Pro seminars. Will probably be totally wrecked after two days with you guys but I can't wait for day "3".
What would be your advice to someone starting out now, not necessarily with the intention of building another SEOmoz, but who wanted to be ahead of the game over the next 3 - 5 years? How do you see SEO changing over that time?
I'll try to answer the first part (my predictions on the future of SEO are here, although I don't know whether anyone can predict out 5 years - that's a lifetime in search!).
Staying ahed of the game business wise means choosing a good business model - one that scales without large expenses and produces ongoing returns that aren't tied directly to effort (it's hard to make consulting scale this way, though not impossible). It's also critical to have a great product - something that truly benefits your users/buyers. This means offering services that provide high ROI or that effectively speak to a basic business (or if you're going consumer - human) need.
Once you've got those down (no easy task, BTW - we struggled on both for years), you need to execute - in a startup environment that means your life is work; hire slow, fire fast; stay focused on product quality until an early adopting group is obsessed and can't live without it then go market to the same types of people (hopefully there are lots of them).
If you're looking for more good resources on early stage entrepreneurship, Dave McClure was at SEOmoz this week and gave an awesome presentation about exactly this.
Congratulations on the Success and we wish you the best into a long long future....
Rand i always wanted to ask you which in your opinion are the books who helped you the most starting/growing your business and eventually changing your mindset about business because i know that the guy who started making small html/flash websites isn't the guy who is managing a team of 24 people and making $6milions a year.
Good to Great was definitely a big inspiration - you can read our take on it here. I'm having a hard time thinking of others from those early days, but recently, I really enjoyed Tony Hsieh's book - Delivering Happiness and Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational.
Nice story. Is nice to see your dreams to come true. That is a great example that you shouldn't quit from your goals.
I enjoyed reading this. It proves once again that dedication, persistence and hard work are the main ingredients of any success story.
Wishing you guys much continued success!
I think Open Site Explorer is fantastic (and I just have the free version - am trying to make some money to be able to afford the upgrade). It always shows links that Yahoo site explorer doesn't, which is very useful (Yahoo after all is not Google but we are all unhealthily dependent on their tool).
I wish you the best of luck. I do think your future is in providing quality tools that others do not have.
good interview Rand....its nice to see how it all evolved. that interview guy bothered me at times though......
tony ;~)
This was some really inspirational stuff, Rand. Thanks for sharing :)
fascinating Bio..keep up the good work Rand.
Magnifica historia, me gusto mucho. La informacion es muy detallada y profesional.
Gracias.
Rand - this really is an inspirational post for anyone thinking about starting a business, never mind just the search community, so thanks for sharing it with us all.
We're a little behind you on the road but thanks to a lot of hard work we're making huge progress, bringing in more clients and working on bigger, larger and more interesting projects.
I can sit here and comfortably look 6 months ahead knowing that there's more than enough work to be done for the whole team. That's a far cry from October and November 2008, when around 6 months in to the business I was working (and shivering) in a spare room at home that I couldn't afford to heat during the day and the only news I heard was that the world's economic system was teetering on the edge of collapse. Just as I was about to give up, things took a massive turn for the better - it's a cliché but it's true to say that the point you're ready to give in is the same point that you're closest to succeeding.
Here's to the future!
I like SEOMoz because it has my favorite headline
 SeoMoz - We do what works :P
This was the best White Board Friday ever.