不安分的Wildfire创始人

    几年后，兰瑟姆和查得上了MBA，查得在斯坦福大学（Stanford），她在哈佛大学（Harvard），在那里他们开始尝试着在网上推广Access Trips。他们决定在Facebook上提供一次免费旅行，但找不到什么软件能实现这一点。因此，他们勾勒出了所需的软件功能——不仅可用于Access Trips，也能用于其他品牌——并在爱沙尼亚雇佣了开发人员制作软件。2008年，他们建立了另一家公司Wildfire，提供一款可下载的应用软件，允许用户设计抽奖、竞赛和其他促销方式，并在Facebook上运行，无需再雇佣编程员。客户很快就从夫妻店发展到了索尼(Sony)和联合利华(Unilever)这样的跨国大公司。客户支付的费用低到5美元/次、0.99美元/天，高到1.5万美元由Wildfire设计和执行的整套推广活动不等。

    2008年秋季时社交媒体还在增长，但华尔街危机重重，投资者不愿进行交易。兰瑟姆和查得竭力维持Wildfire的运转，一直在自家的客厅里工作，直到能搬进一家墨西哥熟食店楼上的办公室。他们以低成本方式组建了一支销售团队，雇佣应届毕业生寻找和提供销售机会，给资深销售人员支付最低基本工资加丰厚的佣金。一年内Wildfire就实现了盈利，没有对外筹一分钱。(2010年7月，兰瑟姆和查得卖掉了Access Trips。)

    兰瑟姆和查得还努力与Facebook建立关系。首先，他们通过在Facebook工作的商学院朋友，阐明Wildfire能让Facebook成为更有效的营销工具。然后，为Facebook的法律和国际增长业务进行了营销推广。他们用4个月时间争取并得到了Facebook内部创业孵化器fbFund 25万美元的拨款。(甚至连他们的员工也与Facebook有关联:他们甚至雇佣了马克•扎克伯格的妹妹和妹夫。)

    Summit Partners、500 Startups等投资者很快跟进，向Wildfire注入了1400万美元。随着拥有更多资金，Wildfire进一步扩展了软件功能。如今，企业能追踪粉丝和关注者动态，监测顾客在Facebook和Twitter上是怎么说的，并进行其他社交媒体分析。

    Wildfire与Facebook的良好关系对于谷歌具有巨大的吸引力，谷歌曾经试图通过Google Buzz、Google Wave和Google Plus等产品，打造自己的社交平台，但成效有限。“谷歌感兴趣的是看看Facebook拥有什么样的数据，这项技术如何运行，了解Facebook如何与第三方共享社交用户信息，”弗雷斯特研究公司（Forrester Research）副总裁兼首席分析师奈特•艾略特表示。兰瑟姆和查得将继续在谷歌领导 Wildfire，向主管AdWords和谷歌其他广告产品的苏珊•沃西基汇报。兰瑟姆表示，几年后他们可能会再建一家公司或专注于慈善事业。

    随着Facebook和Twitter增长，对社交营销公司的需求也在增长，新一轮的初创企业收购方兴未艾。兰瑟姆从没想到过自己也会成为其中的一份子。“就拿谷歌来说，我们从未预料到会被收购，”她说。“我们一直想的都是打造一家伟大的公司，看看到底会怎样。”

    译者：早稻米

    After a few years, Ransom and Chuard entered MBA programs, he at Stanford and she at Harvard, where they experimented with new ways to promote Access Trips online. They decided to give away a free trip on Facebook, but couldn't find software to do so. So they sketched out how the software would work— both for Access Trips, and other brands— and hired developers in Estonia to build it. In 2008 they launched Wildfire as a separate business: a downloadable app that would allow users to design sweepstakes, contests and other promotions that could run on Facebook, without having to hire a programmer. Clients soon ranged from two-person catering shops to Sony and Unilever. They paid as little as $5 a promotion for $.99 a day, up to $15,000 for a campaign that Wildfire would design and execute.

    Although social media was growing in the fall of 2008, Wall Street was in turmoil and investors were reluctant to do deals. So Ransom and Chuard bootstrapped Wildfire, working out of their living room for as long as they could before moving to an office above a Mexican deli. They built a sales force on the cheap, hiring a mix of recent college graduates to prospect and pass along leads, and more senior salespeople, whom they paid minimal base salaries and a generous commission. Within a year Wildfire was profitable, without having raised a dollar in outside funding. (In July 2010 Ransom and Chuard sold Access Trips.)

    Ransom and Chuard worked hard to develop a relationship with Facebook (FB). First they tapped business school friends who worked there, and made the case that Wildfire could make Facebook a more effective marketing tool. Then they did marketing campaigns for Facebook's legal and international growth groups. They spent four months competing for— and winning— a $250,000 grant from fbFund, the company's in-house business incubator. (Even their staff has ties to Facebook: They eventually hired Mark Zuckerberg's brother-in-law and younger sister.)

    Investors like Summit Partners and 500 Startups soon followed, injecting $14 million into Wildfire. With the additional funding, Wildfire built out its software; companies can now track their fans and followers, monitor what customers are saying about them on Facebook and Twitter, and do other social media analysis.

    Wildfire's connection to Facebook is a huge draw for Google, which has tried with limited success to build its own social platform with products like Google Buzz, Google Wave and Google Plus. "What would be interesting to Google is seeing what kind of data Facebook has access to, having a peek at how the technology works, and understanding how Facebook is communicating information about social users to third parties," says Nate Elliott, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. At Google, Ransom and Chuard will continue to lead Wildfire, reporting to Susan Wojcicki, who runs AdWords and the rest of Google's advertising products. After a few years, Ransom says, they might start another company, or focus on philanthropy.

    As Facebook and Twitter grow, so has the demand for social marketing companies, hence the recent round of high-profile startup acquisitions. Ransom never expected be a part of that club. "In the case of Google, we were not looking to get acquired," she says. "It's always been, 'Let's just build a great business, and then let's see.'"