September 2005

Photo by Wagner Design, Inc.

Brand Muscle Shows Its Flexibility

Fledgling software firm adds space without experiencing growing pains.

By Heidi Schwartz

During the dot-com 90s, start-up tech companies were very common. A dramatic regrouping over the past 10 years has left behind its share of Googles, eBays, and Yahoos, but the number of new Web driven startups has clearly slowed. Yet, on certain occasions, that same market is willing to support those few organizations able to offer something particularly unusual, yet useful to the Web based world.

Brand Muscle, a software development start-up based in Beachwood, OH, was one of those companies inventive enough to carve a niche where none had previously existed. The company opened its incubator office in Boston, MA in 2000—virtually in conjunction with the demise of the dot-com bubble. (Wikipedia claims, “The dot-com bubble burst, numerically, on March 10, 2000, when the technology heavy NASDAQ Composite index peaked at 5,048, more than double its value just a year before.)

Not In The Cards

The brainchild of its current president and CEO, Philip Alexander, the company helps large businesses plan, customize, and coordinate their advertising over the Internet. But despite the size of its clientele, Brand Muscle started small.

Photo by Wagner Design, Inc.

“We started with five employees our first year,” says Bonnie Skuggen, Brand Muscle’s manager of business services and human resources and key member of the in-house project management team. “We were in the smallest, makeshift warehouse space at the time.”

The outside of the building was beautiful and the inside was open and light, but there wasn’t enough room for growth projections made by the company’s board of directors. “Everyone worked on card tables!” Skuggen exclaims.

The company quickly reached its breaking point in the original Boston space, so Alexander jumped on the opportunity to move everyone to Ohio. When discussing the decision making process, Alexander says he always wanted to make northeast Ohio Brand Muscle’s home. He felt strongly that the costs of labor and infrastructure in the area could support the kind of anticipated growth he and his investors expected.

He says, “We had indicated [to our Boston-based investors] that the management team and a lot of talent resided in northeast Ohio. If we could achieve certain mile markers in the first year, the investors would allow us to [make the move]. We achieved that in the first six months and came back.” [“A Cloudy Business Climate” by Shula Neuman, Making Change, November 11, 2004; online at www.wcpn.org/mc/vault/radio_features/1111business_climate.shtml.]

Big And Funky

While Alexander had no doubts about the company’s growth, Skuggen was more conservative when she was shopping for the company’s new home. First, she came across a small space (described by Skuggen as “this little 2,000 square foot hovel with four offices”) and thought it would be perfect. She recalls, “The board thought this was a big joke. We were told, ‘you’re going to grow exponentially, and you don’t even realize it.’ Then they ordered us to go find something bigger.”

During the evaluation process, Skuggen discovered some leasing setbacks. “We were very cost conscious, since we were a start-up. Meanwhile, nobody would give us a three year lease; they only wanted to consider five year leases. I remember thinking we would never find anything.”

After looking at new buildings, spec models, old facilities, and subleases, Skuggen found the ideal space and recognized its merits immediately. Alexander’s impression was equally positive and forthcoming. “When we walked into the space, Phil said, ‘I can feel it. This is it.’ It was as ephemeral as that. Now when I think back on what we saw and seriously considered, I’m so glad we didn’t end up in that first space!”

With its purple and green interiors, the location had plenty of personality and pizzazz. The original tenants—an advertising firm—had decided against taking occupancy midway through the design and renovation process, so everything had been left in a semi-finished state. Skuggen says, “Even though it wasn’t completely painted or finished, it had the kind of funky feel we wanted. It was neat!”