GroSocial

GroSocial was a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that provided a social media marketing platform tailored for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The company was founded in Orem, Utah, in 2009 by Zachary Mangum, Kevin Kirkland, and later joined by Chris Wright. Zach Mangum, who served as CEO, had a background in finance and experience managing the due diligence process for startups seeking capital at FundingUniverse.com. This experience provided a solid foundation for navigating the startup ecosystem and securing funding for his own venture.

The business offered a web-based suite of tools that enabled SMBs to build, manage, and track social media marketing campaigns across networks like Facebook and Twitter. Its primary function was to help businesses generate and capture leads through social channels. The platform allowed users to create a professional social media presence, schedule posts and updates, and run engagement activities such as contests and promotions. The business model was subscription-based, providing affordable tools for companies that lacked the resources for dedicated social media teams.

GroSocial's key value proposition was its ability to help small businesses achieve a big-business presence on social media and convert their marketing efforts into sales. The platform was designed for ease of use, allowing clients to create customized promotional tabs and distribute coupons or videos. By the time of its acquisition, GroSocial had amassed over 30,000 users and was generating nearly one million marketing leads per year for its clients, which included notable names like SurveyMonkey and LegalZoom.

The company's growth was supported by seed funding, raising a total of $1.45 million over two rounds, with investors including Kickstart Seed Fund, Monarch Ventures, and Rock & Hammer Ventures. In January 2013, GroSocial was acquired by Infusionsoft (now Keap), a larger company specializing in sales and marketing automation software for small businesses. The acquisition was a strategic move for Infusionsoft to integrate social media lead generation into its comprehensive customer lifecycle management platform, which included CRM, marketing automation, and e-commerce tools. Following the acquisition, the 19-person GroSocial team joined Infusionsoft, with Zach Mangum continuing to lead the social product strategy.

Keywords: social media marketing, SMB lead generation, SaaS, marketing automation, Facebook campaigns, Twitter marketing, customer engagement tools, social media contests, social promotions, lead capture, digital marketing platform, Zach Mangum, Kevin Kirkland, Infusionsoft acquisition, Keap, social CRM, online branding, small business tools, marketing campaign management, lead conversion