Every fast-growing company starts as a small business. And digital media platform Choozle is no exception.

They’ve grown from a small startup to over 80 employees in just eight years. But how exactly did Choozle skyrocket in size?

Recently, Trainual CEO Chris Ronzio invited Choozle CEO and co-founder Andrew Fischer on the Fastest Growing Companies podcast to find out.

The duo talked about the evolution of Choozle and the cyclical nature of growth. Plus, they discussed what critical decisions Andrew and his co-founder, Jeffrey Finch, made to scale their business strategically.

Here’s what Andrew had to say about their wildly successful company:

Choozle came after years of work experience

Choozle is a self-service digital advertising platform for medium-sized agencies and brands. Its platform helps clients bring together all their digital advertising needs, from planning and executing to optimizing. That way, Choozle’s customers can run digital advertising at scale.

According to Andrew, they mainly deal with the display aspects of advertising. “Think online banners, video advertisements, and [TV streaming ads],” he explained. “Basically, any sort of digital advertising that can be automated will run through our platform.”

During the interview, Andrew pointed out that he didn’t just wake up one day and start Choozle. Instead, it was an idea that evolved from a long career in digital advertising. And he owes part of Choozle’s success to the experience he gained along the way.

“I always aspired to run my own company thanks to the great mentors in my life,” Andrew said. “But I was never the kind of the person that said I’m going to build rockets, software, or something specific.”

After graduating from college, Andrew tried out the financial industry in San Francisco. But after two weeks, he knew it wasn’t the right market for him. So, he jumped into the digital advertising world instead. He worked for an early pioneer in the industry and loved the work immediately.

Andrew then went on to have a long and fruitful career in digital advertising. He worked for both established companies and startups. Eventually, he gained the confidence to scale and sell his own digital advertising model with a few partners.

Once Andrew made a successful exit from the digital ad model, he felt ready to start something of his own. And in 2012, he and Jeffrey co-founded Choozle in Denver, Colorado.

Andrew says his years of work experience is part of the reason Choozle is so successful. He was absolutely sure that he loved the digital ad industry, and he spent years watching established companies and startup founders grow their businesses. Plus, he was an expert in the digital advertising field.

“When I talk to younger folks, I explain that some people can start companies right out of high school or college. But there’s probably a lot more entrepreneurs like me who got the business experience before jumping in with both feet.”
<blockquoteauthor>Andrew Fischer, Choozle CEO and co-founder<blockquoteauthor>

Pivoting their product early on

After launching V1 of Choozle’s software, Andrew and his team decided to pivot to a new market: medium-sized companies. They stopped aiming for enterprise-level clients who required high-touch service. Instead, they saw a huge opportunity to serve medium-sized companies.

According to their market research, there was no self-service advertising product available to those companies at the time. And Andrew saw it as an excellent opportunity to reduce business complexity and the costs of providing high-touch service.

As a result, the company ended up defining a new self-service category. And it produced incredible results for the business.

“Once we defined the self-service category for the mid-market, [the company] just kind of took off,” Andrew told us. “Then, we had those crazy growth years between ‘15 and ‘16 where we grew 600%.”

Now, Choozle has evolved into a fully functional self-service digital advertising platform. And they primarily partner with independent advertising agencies and work directly with brands to automate their digital advertising.

As for their operations, Choozle mostly depends on sales and customer support to make it all happen. “We’ve got a team that goes out and sells [the software]. And then we teach, train, and support clients on the platform,” Andrew explained. “So [clients] can easily log in and run digital advertising at scale.”

If Choozle hadn’t made this strategic pivot, they might not have the growing power they have today. But because they found their unique place in the market, Choozle has expanded continuously and consistently over the years.

Focusing on processes that scaled

About two-and-a-half years ago, the leadership team at Choozle decided to stop raising capital. They wanted to focus on streamlining operations and leveraging processes that scaled. So, they temporarily paused hiring.

“[Since making that decision], we more than doubled our revenue but kept headcount about the same,” Andrew shared. And now that Choozle is proven and profitable, they’re solely focused on scale and growth. Or, as Andrew puts it, “ to really stack it.”

According to him, the company is now at a more deliberate stage. They know their business is working and generating revenue, so they’ve lifted the hiring freeze. That way, they can focus on bringing in more clients and hiring the right employees to support them.

“We’re almost playing catch up now to make sure we’ve got the right people to support our growing, profitable, and scaling business,” Andrew said. And, as a result, the company added 20 more positions in the last year.

Because Choozle chose to focus on streamlining processes, they were able to grow their revenue without increasing their head count. And now that the revenue is healthy, Choozle can scale their team to meet the growing client demand.

“We’re at an inflection point now, so we’re starting to build out our C-suite and bring in seasoned folks who have taken companies from our size to 600 employees.”

Developing their employees

When Choozle first started, its org chart was obviously very flat. There were only a handful of employees and there was no need for hierarchy. But once the company hit 20 employees, they began organizing their role structure.

“I don’t like the word hierarchy, but you have to have some levels of structure for scale,” Andrew shared. Because once a business reaches a certain size, not everyone can report to the CEO.

And while the shift can be a big change for startups, knowing everyone’s roles and responsibilities is crucial to scaling your business.

Plus, Andrew says having different levels of management is excellent for employee development. Once you shift some responsibility to your employees, they have a chance to learn and develop their own management skills.

Today, Andrew is proud to say that 75% of his leadership team has been at Choozle for more than six years. And he believes that providing these employees with the chance to grow (instead of just hiring more people) is part of why they stuck around for the long haul.

Investing in culture from the get-go

From the very beginning, Choozle deliberately focused on company culture because they knew it would be the anchor to get them through tough times. Plus, their team saw a strong culture as an employee benefit early on.

“Culture creates this level of stickiness and provides a benefit that’s hard to quantify,” Andrew explained. So, they set out to create a company culture that employees would gravitate toward. And they started by defining their values: attitude, ownership, service, growth, and balance.

“I wanted to create a place where people care about each other and not just the work,” Andrew shared. “Because when they care about each other, they build relationships, and they care about the work as a result.”

In other words, a strong culture ends up benefiting the business, too. Because when everyone is on the same page (and has the same vision), it makes the entire company more competitive in the industry.

Plus, Andrew says that employees struggle with big changes when they don’t have a strong culture. According to him, “culture was a throughline for Choozle when we pivoted very hard.”

And without that culture, Andrew thinks employees might have questioned whether to keep working for the company.

Challenge is not exempt from success

Above all, Andrew says it’s taken a huge level of optimism to build a fast-growing company. And he says it’s often balanced by some healthy paranoia and outright imposter syndrome.

“You often ask yourself, ‘Why should anyone think I should be able to do this?’ or ‘Are we doing it the right way?’” he told us. But despite the reluctance, Andrew continues to rise above that fear and push through with the risk of being wrong.

It’s important to work past your self doubts if you want to grow a company. Because there'll be many moments while building your business when the right answer is not obvious. And when that happens, you have to be confident and put your best foot forward.

Like any rewarding endeavor, entrepreneurship is a constant battle. But Andrew says it’s worth it when it all comes together.

“Our plane came close to the ground a couple of times,” he shared. “And it’s satisfying when the team pulls together to solve problems that ultimately keep the business afloat.”

Now, Choozle isn’t only afloat — they’re thriving. They launched the newest version of their digital advertising platform in early 2021, and now they’re laser-focused on continuing the trajectory of their massive growth.