Mish Guru

Mish Guru provides a specialized marketing platform focused on ephemeral social media content, primarily for Instagram and Snapchat Stories. The company was founded in 2014 in New Zealand by Thomas George Peter Harding, Jacob Lindsay Alaise Duval Duval, and Ashok Zacharia Fernandez. The founding team participated in the Lightning Lab digital startup accelerator in 2014, where they notably pivoted from an initial, unrelated idea involving 3D-printed horseshoes to focus on the analytics gap they identified in Snapchat for marketers.

The firm's core offering is a software suite that enables brands and marketing agencies to manage and analyze their storytelling efforts on vertical social platforms. Key features include content scheduling, a centralized content library, password management to run campaigns securely, and robust analytics. These analytics provide detailed insights into story performance, such as follower growth, impressions, viewer drop-off points, and engagement metrics like taps and sticker use. A significant component of the platform is its capability to manage user-generated content (UGC), allowing brands to collect, moderate, and repost content from their audience, thereby fostering authenticity. Mish Guru serves a range of clients, from major brands like Coca-Cola and Spotify to universities and sports teams.

The business generates revenue through its software platform and also offers a suite of services including strategy, creative content production, media management, and influencer marketing. In June 2015, the company secured a seed funding round of approximately $440,000, led by Sparkbox Venture Group, to facilitate its expansion into the U.S. market, leading to the establishment of a New York office. This strategic move aimed to be closer to the high concentration of global brands and advertising agencies. In October 2023, Mish Guru was acquired by VMG Digital, an Auckland-based video creative service. This acquisition was a strategic move to combine Mish Guru's social media management expertise with VMG's video content creation capabilities, offering clients a more comprehensive social marketing solution. Following the acquisition, co-founder Tom Harding joined VMG Digital as Director of Product.

Keywords: Snapchat marketing, Instagram Stories, social media analytics, content management platform, ephemeral content, user-generated content, UGC, storytelling, vertical video, social media management, brand engagement, content scheduling, campaign management, social media optimization, marketing technology, SaaS, digital marketing tools, influencer marketing, creative services, social advertising