The first couple years at Conversion Monster were a stressful time for co-founders Ro Malik and David Carr, as they tried to marry the company’s performance with its promise.
Now things are clicking.
Conversion Monster has grown from about 30 employees in late 2019 to about 110 now, the majority of them at its new 8,500-square-foot headquarters at the Savarino Cos.' 500 Seneca building.
The company uses software to manage internet-based real estate leads on behalf of agents, and is building a suite of new products that will surround its core business with growth opportunities.
As business migrated to the internet, real estate teams across the country adopted Conversion Monster to manage digital marketing and lead generation.
“Real estate agents today have to manage a massive amount of digital or internet leads,” he said. “If you aren’t prepared to do that you are getting marginalized and we are a perfect fit for that.”
The company tripled its revenue numbers last year and expects to do that again this year. Those percentage increases could be much higher if it the new product lines are a hit and several major partnerships come to fruition.
“We are growing considerably and quickly adding people to our team because we haven’t even scratched the surface of our opportunity,” Carr said.
The company is headquartered in Buffalo and hires here when it can, but it has been a struggle to find qualified business and sales talent here, Carr said.
Conversion Monster opened an office in Texas last year and plans to open another one in Florida – the combination of available talent and no state income tax give those locations an advantage over growth in Buffalo.
“Buffalo is our home, it’s where our executive staff and management team is, and it’s always going to be our headquarters,” Carr said. “But hiring here has been very challenging and we have to cast a wider net.”
Conversion Monster even offers a program for young professionals looking to enter real estate. They join the company and learn the ropes, then they’re placed on a Keller Williams team with all the infrastructure in place, from listings to qualified leads. They just have to go out and show houses.
Despite being one of the fastest-growing tech firms in the city, the Conversion Monster story has flown largely under the radar here, partly because it never raised outside capital and partly because it hasn’t affiliated itself with prominent groups that support startups in Buffalo.
But according to Carr, the company’s rise is nothing compared to the national platter of opportunities in front of it.
“Ro and I like to joke that this is an overnight success story that took five years – nothing has been fast about it – but now we’re taking off,” he said. “We are in the early stages of hyper-growth.”
