PR Measurement Company KDPaine & Partners Celebrates Fifth Birthday

The Paine
of Measurement

 

A Large Measure of Success:
KDPaine & Partners Is Five Years Old

KDPaine & Partners will be celebrating our fifth anniversary this Friday at our new corporate headquarters in Berlin, NH. This success could not have happened without the many employees and clients who made it possible. Thank you all very much.

And it's quite a milestone for me personally, someone who thought they'd be retired by now. Eight years ago, when I sold my first company, The Delahaye Group, to Medialink, I thought I was ready to embark on a new career -- politics perhaps, or teaching.

As it happened, the dotcom bubble burst, the stock I'd received for my company plummeted from $20 to $2, and I was left with significantly fewer choices than I expected to have at the age of 50.

(Editor's note: Although Ms. Paine did not mention it herself when writing this article, since the sale of The Delahaye Group she actually did enter politics and successfully ran for Durham, NH town council. She also began teaching, and still teaches a course at the University of New Hampshire's Wittemore School each semester. And by the way, during the same time period her home burnt to the ground, she won a difficult battle with cancer, and just this year she was voted Woman Business Owner of the Year by the U.S. SBA New Hampshire office.)

So what does a serial entrepreneur with a passion for measurement do? I started KDPaine & Partners, fully expecting that The Measurement Standard newsletter plus some consulting would provide enough revenue to keep me happy. It didn't.

I quickly realized how much I missed making a difference, and it's much harder to make a difference with a company of one than it is with a company of twenty. There's something about being "an employer" instead of being just "self-employed" that brings with it a level of clout and influence that you just don't have when you're on your own.

The other reason I just couldn't stay small is that I'd like to think that I run a values-based business, one that reflects a commitment to social responsibility, environmental consciousness and a commitment to civic engagement. The problem is that if you're a company of just one or two, so what? No one really cares what you do. But if you have a company that is doubling in size every year or so you can make some noise about it, and people realize that maybe all this CSR stuff you keep babbling on about really does work.

Finally, as with any research business, you need to stay on top of technology and trends. You need clients to provide you with great case studies. The bottom line was, I needed stories to tell, and there were lots more measurement stories out there.

So here we are, hiring our 15th and 16th employees this week, growing at 50% a year and closing in on becoming a $1.5 million business by the end 2007. So much for keeping it simple….

The reality is, humans are social creatures, and it's more fun when you work with lots of interesting, dedicated, hard-working people. So here's congratulations to us, and another big Thank You! to all the employees and clients that got us here.

A few milestones along the way:

2002 – The Measurement Standard web newsletter and the One Minute Benchmarking Bulletin email newsletter debut

2003 – Doug Hattaway and the Chellie Pingree for Congress Campaign becomes KD Paine & Partners' first official media analysis client

2004 – DIY Dashboard 1.0 is launched at PRSA

2005 – Synnovate becomes first licensee of DIY Dashboard application

2006 – DIY Dashboard 2.0 is released, followed by FYI Dashboard and CGM Dashboard

2006 – First consumer generated media analysis project is completed

2007 – KD Paine & Partners exceeds $1 million in annual revenue

2007 – Survey research practice expands

2007 – Social media consulting practice True North Conversations is launched

2008 – More great things lie ahead

Wishing you large measures of success,

Comments

[Steven Maimes]

Congratulations Katie & staff ~ It is always a pleasure to learn more from you in this great measurement field...

[German Caicedo Prado]

Katie: is a good news for us. When yor were in Colombia the last year, we learned more about you of measurement. We hope that you can be soon in Colombia again.

[Sally]

Where the party took place?
http://www.alierra.com/partners/index.html