| Website | merchantcircle.com |
| Blog | merchantcircle.co... |
| Category | Network/Hosting |
| Employees | 17 |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Description | business social network |
| Total | $14.3M |
| Series A, 6/06 Rustic Canyon Partners Scale Venture Partners Steamboat Ventures | $4.3M |
| Series B, 9/07 IAC Rustic Canyon Partners Scale Venture Partners Square 1 Bank Steamboat Ventures | $10M |
MerchantCircle is an online business directory and social network connecting businesses and consumers. The service provides small businesses with a web page listing, blogging and email newsletter application, and coupon building tools, which can be emailed to customers. Consumers can create profiles to clip and keep track of coupons in real time, and post business-specific questions to the network of business owners. “Circle” in the company’s name comes from a viral marketing strategy that encourages members to sign new members in their community. The service’s basic account is free, but they also offer premium accounts starting at $30/month, as well as business verification services, search engine marketing, and website creation.
As of 09/00 the site has more than $14 million in series B funding. Starting with 14+ million database listings in 2005, they now have over 910,000 CLAIMED business listings across the country, seeing as many as 1000+ new claimed listings per day, which the company says are all easily accessed on major search engines.
MerchantCircle’s CEO, Ben Smith, previously was Co-Founder and CEO of Spoke Software. He also once served as a White House Senior Advisor for strategy and planning to the Secretary of Transportation
Hyve Up interview with Ben T. Smith and Kevin Leu
Added: 2/26/08
