Innovation Award Winners: Where Are They Now?

Editor’s Note:  Nominations for the 2011 TechColumbus Innovation Awards are currently being accepted.  It takes less than a minute to fill out the online nomination form and help recognize the people, companies, teams, researchers and entrepreneurs that are creating Central Ohio’s future.  The Innovation Awards are not just for “techies.”  The awards celebrate new ideas, new inventions, new processes and new “takes” on old paradigms.  To demonstrate such innovation, this week we’re taking a look at Manta, which in 2006 and 2007, received TopCAT awards (the previous name of the Innovation Awards) for its novel approach to business data collection and information sharing.

When asked about the innovative value of Manta, an expansive Web. 2.0 database that features the profiles of more than 64 million small businesses, CEO Pamela Springer can provide quite a list.

The site is a pioneer in hosting user-generated content, providing one of the most robust online communities for small businesses, and is also a finely honed networking tool.   To top it off, the service is free.  That was the first key differentiator for the company and it provides a classic example of disruptive innovation.

Manta provides an extensive database of private business information that would normally require steep subscription fees to access. Manta’s ability to offer progressive features, including allowing business owners to promote themselves and connect with others, with a subversive pricing model helped the company win TopCAT awards  for Outstanding Product (less than 50 employees) in 2007 and Outstanding Technology Team (less than 50 employees) in 2006.

In 2005, Manta first began as a product of the company, ECNext. As Manta became more of a priority for the company, ECNext changed its name to that of its product in 2009. Since its inception, Manta has grown to better serve the small businesses it represents.

First, the site began by providing information on small to midsize businesses, but soon found that updating a database prone to frequent change was an endless task.

“As we watched how people consumed our information, engaged and asked questions, we soon saw that a lot of our users were small business owners wanting to see Manta update the data we had on their company. We eventually refined the value proposition to the core audience of these small business owners,” Springer said.

This process led to the site allowing these small business owners to directly control their own profiles by 2009, creating a giant B2B network for firms to contract, vend and publicize themselves. Other features permit users to search for new businesses, find jobs, rank their firm and learn about starting a new business through an instructional video archive with thousands of entries. A premium service was introduced in 2010 that allows companies to advertise their services and products.

Supporting  two million registered profiles, Manta has evolved into one of the most visited Web sites in any arena. The portal attracts approximately 34 million monthly visitors, consistently placing the site in the top 40 U.S. Site Rankings of Quantcast, a company that measures Web traffic.  In addition, comScore, the renowned marketing research company that tracks all online activity for analysis, ranked Manta.com fourth in its Business News/Research category. Citing its 184 percent visitor growth over one year, comScore also described Manta.com as a formidable driver of Web growth in its State of the Internet in the U.S. in 2010 Webinar.

For the last two years, The Business Insider included Manta in its Silicon Valley Insider Digital 100 of The World’s Most Valuable Startups.

Having now gained recognition on a national level, Springer still cites the impact that winning the TopCAT awards had on helping grow both the Manta service and brand.

“The validation is huge, especially early-on. Your project is selected by a group of companies that you're being compared to, all emerging, running fast and hard, so it’s significant to be selected from a recognition perspective, then afterwards from an employee perspective. From recruiting, morale and initial brand building, this was something that we touted often as we described Manta.”

Manta is embracing the future by both expanding its content and the platforms on which it runs.  Recently launched, Manta Connect is an inclusive forum for business owners to query, answer and discuss a host of issues strictly among colleagues and peers. The service has already grown to more than 26,000 participants chatting over issues ranging from public relations to experiences using Groupon.

September also saw the release of Manta for Android smart phones, which followed on the heels of the iPhone Manta Business Search, which is currently the 12th most downloaded free business application on iTunes.  Manta is also preparing to release an API for third party developers in Q1 2012.

These ambitious projects are laying ground for new hires in a host of areas for the company.

“We'll hire 100 people before the end of next year,” Springer explains. “They're going to be in development, IT, engineering, marketing, web analytics, operations, advertising, media sales, product management, human resources and administration. We basically need more of everybody.”

Nominations for the 2011 TechColumbus Innovation Awards are currently being accepted through October 11.  More details and the nomination forms are available at: www.techcolumbusinnovationawards.org