A college-student-led social media marketing firm that specializes in TikTok campaigns has landed a pre-seed investment from a Cincinnati CEO as it gears up to significantly grow its business in 2022.
Step Up Social, founded by Miami sophomore and Cincinnati native Emil Barr, secured an angel investment from Tim Warren, CEO of Helium SEO, an internet marketing agency and one of the region's fastest-growing companies.
The investment, which was not disclosed, will help Step Up Social scale its services to new audiences, Barr said. The goal is to grow Step Up Social into a million-dollar agency by the end of 2022.
“It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come since being started in a dorm room last year, and this investment reflects the faith that Tim Warren, our clients and the Greater Cincinnati community has in the future of our business,” Barr said in a release.
Step Up Social specializes in TikTok campaigns and startup marketing. It uses college student “creators” to generate content at scale. Barr said this type of content is especially effective in converting younger audiences and is cheaper than traditional agency work.
The company’s clients include manufacturer KAO, fintech startup Pay Theory and Upshift, an on-demand staffing platform and Brandery accelerator graduate. The startup has grown to more than $240,000 in ARR, or annual recurring revenue, and seven employees in less than a year.
Barr, a business economics and international studies major, wants to grow both counts. Step Up Social was recently featured on Amazon Prime TV’s “The College Tour” and was selected as a winner of Main Street Venture’s Launch It: Cincy Pitch Competition. The competition’s prize package supports winning teams to stay in Cincinnati over the summer, build relationships within the startup ecosystem and focus on building their business.
“We’ve seen a huge demand for effective TikTok marketing — and now we have the funding to fill this need,” Barr said.
Warren launched Blue Ash-based Helium SEO in 2017, and the company has seen explosive growth. Revenues topped $4.2 million in 2020, a 433% increase since 2018, making it the fifth fastest-growing company in the region during that span.
Step Up Social is not his first angel investment — Warren told me he's also funded companies like Cincinnati data startup Spatial.ai and RVnGO, based in Arizona.
He said he truly believes the Step Up team could build a $1 million agency while still in college, a feat he called a potential huge accomplishment.
“They have a really young and dedicated team that could truly help businesses with emerging social media channels like TikTok — and most businesses need a younger team experienced in the channel,” Warren said.
