Today we’d like to introduce you to Jimmy Kim.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jimmy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
At the age of 16, I started off by washing cars at a local dealership and with hard work and drive, I became one of the youngest General Managers in the country by the age of 25. In 2008, when General Motors declared Bankruptcy, I decided that was my sign to start a new career path.
Being tired of working 80+ hours for someone else, I eventually turned to the internet, where I started my journey as a digital marketer. As a digital marketer, I found passion in email marketing and automation, which led me to co-found Sendlane. The initial creation of the platform was simply for our own use as digital marketers in our business. We wanted to create an email marketing platform that would be simple enough for anyone to use, but designed for digital marketers who actually eat, breathe and live email marketing.
After heavy demand, we decided to open the platform to the public and on Jan 1st, 2015, we opened the doors to the public, as a side project/business. Over the next few years, we leveraged our influence and knowledge to create features that we wanted or needed for our own businesses and found a direct necessity to our users.
In August of 2017, I decided our “side business” had become more than just a side business and I dissolved and/or sold my other businesses and jumped feet first into Sendlane. As of December, 2017, we’ve acquired over 40,000+ users, and we have big goals in 2018 to grow Sendlane into a household name for digital marketers.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Business is never easy. From legal issues to growth, it’s been quite a journey and a learning experiencing. As a first time CEO, each and every day brings in new challenges. Uncertainty is always in the back of your head as an entrepreneur and your goal is to always find the solution, instead of focusing on the problem.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Sendlane – what should we know?
We’re an email automation company that’s designed for small businesses focused on digital marketers. From education companies to eCommerce stores, we’re helping our users automate and focus on growing their business. Our #1 goal since the day we opened our doors has been customer service, to help set us apart from the typical digital company.
Our entire team is San Diego based, even our support, to provide an excellent level of support, where we solve the issue on the first contact. We are fully in house with 21 employees, all San Diego based (especially our support team who provide an excellent level of support to our customers – average 3 minute response time!).
I feel that it’s important to provide an environment where each and every member of our team can really grow and thrive in their position. From unlimited snacks, to a ping pong table, to spinny chairs, we’ve really made every effort to make the workplace a place our team wants to be. And just as it’s important to grow as a team inside the office, we make every effort to get out of the office and have some fun together! Laser tag, bowling, Dave & Busters, Escape Rooms, pool parties and even an annual team vacation to Cabo are just a few of the fun activities we’ve enjoyed together over the past couple years.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
The cliché response would be to thank those who’ve helped us, but this one is different for us.
Between the experience of myself, Zak (Sendlane CTO) and Anik (Sendlane CMO) – we’ve been our own cheerleaders and mentors. Our success has been purely from bouncing ideas off of each other, while keeping a unified front in decision making.
Pricing:
- Free 14 Day Trial
- Monthly Subscription Starting at $25/Month
Contact Info:
- Address: 10620 Treena Street Suite 160
San Diego, CA 92131 - Website: www.Sendlane.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sendlane/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sendlane/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sendlane
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