Our Story
"Who are these guys? Why are they doing this?"
Bobby Johnson
Proven Sales Executive turned passionate Entrepreneur.
Dave Loveland
Small Business Owner and 3x Startup Co-founder
Dave Loveland is a serial tech entrepreneur turned passionate marketing guru for small, local businesses. His own entrepreneurial path started at age 21 with a custom countertop shop, then later a web design company, and eventually, he went on to help launch 3 venture-funded technology companies.
"Hey Bobby, let's launch our own business!"...
COVID Killed Our Plans
Like so many people others who've been affected personally and professionally, COVID destroyed our business before we really started it.
In fact, we launched our Marketing Service Platform on March 1st, 2020. Yes, that's right, March 1st.
See, we worked together previously for a couple of years at an Austin-based startup helping local retailers & restaurants on main streets across the country.
We became not only great friends doing that together but also intimately familiar with the challenges small businesses face, and we made real, lasting relationships with many business owners that caused us to really empathize with their fight starting in March.Believe it or not, on March 1st of 2020, two weeks before COVID shut down all of our potential clients, we took a giant leap of faith to launch our own business! We even made a press release 🤦♂️
We launched a service platform for small business owners & solopreneurs, but it only took about two weeks to realize it was the worst timing in the world to try to market/sell any solution to business owners. They were just trying to survive.
A Social Movement Rather than a Business
COVID Killed Our Plans
So, rather than have our startup be another victim of Covid, we put that business and our revenue potential on hold, and we shifted our ambitions to simply doing good and launching a cause we both cared deeply about the Keep Local Alive movement.
We reached into our own pockets to fund a movement because we believe that by having a real impact and doing tangible good for them, we could build lasting relationships and an audience that might be receptive down the road when we decide the timing is better for us to launch our own business.
It hasn't been easy to put all our energy, time, and money into something with no direct return on investment (just ask our wives!).
But, seeing the very real results of our efforts, we are compelled to keep going, and more optimistic than ever that post-COVID, we can figure out a product to launch that people will really care about.
