2020…the year that saw Propel become the fastest growing PR software in the world.
As the year draws to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the key moments. It’s been quite the year for us.
We’ve grown Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by 403% in the last 12 months and have reached 50 customers. The Propel platform is now used by many leading agencies and brands across the globe, including the likes of The Daily Mail, Google, W20, Textron, Markettiers, Antenna and many more.
We are investing in developing the most advanced machine learning capabilities in the industry. We are collaborating with leading universities, think tanks, professors and data experts to develop something truly unique and extraordinary for communications pros.
Forbes named us one of the three leading PR software companies and predicted we will become "King of PR software."
Our rapid growth comes on the heels of several product launches this year, which have significantly advanced the product and positioned Propel as the top innovator in the space, ahead of leading competitors.
We launched our media database – which contains over a million journalists, 50 million influencers and three billion articles – in January, followed by online and broadcast monitoring over the summer. In October, we launched PitchPreferTM, which offers users AI-powered insights on each journalist or influencer’s individual preferences on story topics, pitch timing, style, etc. These products complement Propel’s core PRM product, which includes a CRM for PR, full Gmail and Outlook integrations, Business Outcomes from PR, pitch and relationship tracking, and deep analytics on campaign performance and team productivity.
Our exceptional engineering team led by our CTO David Cohen has executed superbly on new build after new build.
We have become the first PR software to offer a SaaS pricing model that is flexible, transparent, modular and doesn't require fixed long-term contracts.
We appointed PR industry leader Andrew Bloch, who joined our Advisory Board. Andrew is one of the most talented and disruptive thinkers in PR. His super network and reputation has helped Propel to grow and achieve our ambitions.
We hired Dave McGrath as Chief Growth Officer, to oversee global sales. Dave is a sales master who brings over 10 years experience in senior sales leadership roles at various leading PR software companies.
We established the Propel Media Barometer, which is quickly becoming a report of record for the industry on media engagement and comms best practices. As part of this effort, we brought on Chris Parker Ph.D., a published professor of analytics and data expert. Chris has taught at Georgetown University and Penn State University, and is currently the David Kronrad Faculty Fellow at American University.
We hired Julia Francis as Customer Success Manager. Julia's previous role was at PRweek, where she published articles on a variety of topics related to the PR industry.
We also brought on Hard Numbers to handle our SEO/digital and help us with our growth. Under the guidance of Darryl Sparey and his team we have already seen some phenomenal results.
Propel is growing at breakneck speed and we are continuing to scale our team to keep up with the demand. My dream, when I worked in communications and ran my agency, was to make the profession data-driven and full of innovation. We are actualizing that vision even faster than I could have anticipated.
Bring on 2021!
