Ashley Futak

Extole, Inc. operates as a referral marketing company. It provides SocialBuilder platform that enables users to connect with customers and their friends to other social media sites. The company was founded by Robert Nolte, Blake Hayward, Brad Klaus, Andrew Beranbom, Paul M. Butler, Shane Holland, and Faisal Qureshi in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Founded in 2005, Brickfish is based on the idea that online social interactions between people are the most valuable commodity in the information age. These interactions are the source of unprecedented challenges and opportunities for traditional advertisers. Audiences are more fragmented, they have more complex choices about media consumption, and there's a whole new level of peer-to-peer connectivity. In the old world, marquee brands were able to rely on big budgets and large media spends to dominate consumer mindshare. In the newly leveled communications landscape, they began to see 'up and coming' brands with an understanding of the power of peer-to-peer interaction gaining name recognition and brand loyalty through online word of mouth. They found users sharing content and opinions about these new brands through online social media email, IM, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.- creating viral traction that resulted in mass media exposure without the traditional broadcast approach. The only element missing was the ability to measure ROI.