While working as a billboard salesman in the mid-2000’s, Conor McCluskey found himself in a predicament.
He found success, building up a nationwide client base of about 150, but felt he was losing the personal touch that granted him that success.
So, he sought out a way to stay connected with his clients, despite the miles between them.
“I was like, ‘how do I stay face to face with my clients every month, because I don’t have enough time to get to everybody. What if I could send a video through an email?’” he said in an interview with Colorado Inno.
So, he began searching for a way to do just that.
After a cursory look, he realized there weren’t any companies offering a video email service. This was pre-iPhone, just before YouTube launched and videos were often done by recording crews.
So, McCluskey cobbled together some HTML and sent a video message to his clients. The response was overwhelming, and before long he realized he had a business.
In 2006, he co-founded BombBomb with Darin Dawson and began offering video email services to a wide variety of clients.
With the rise of the iPhone and increased simplicity of recording video, BombBomb has taken off. The company now employs about 130 people in its Colorado Springs office space.
BombBomb allows users to send video using whatever email, messaging or social media platform they prefer. The software generates animated previews, allows for screen recording and alerts you when people open and watch your video.
To date, McCluskey said real estate brokers and agents are the company’s primary users, followed by insurance agents, automotive salesmen and a host of other industries.
“Anybody where a relationship matters in the sales process," McCluskey said. “Some people even use it to send out their wedding videos.”
Subscriptions start at $468 per year for BombBomb’s service, with a real estate focused marketing system coming in at $1,499 per year.
The company currently has about 38,000 customers in more than 40 countries, with nearly 4 million videos recorded.
BombBomb started in Colorado Springs more than a decade ago, and McCluskey reflected on the business renaissance the city has recently undergone.
“When we started in 2006 and 2007, there literally was nobody here,” he said with a laugh. “It’s actually becoming a vibrant community now. There’s a lot more people doing things and raising money.”
As the company continues to expand and hire, McCluskey said attracting talent to Colorado Springs is a great deal easier than when the company launched.
“We have a lot of young people coming here because it’s a lot more affordable than Denver,” he said.
BombBomb has been primarily bootstrapped since they launched and plan to stay that way for the near future, McCluskey said.
The company is exploring other markets where the service could be of use and McCluskey is excited to see where BombBomb can go.
“We’ve been building on the momentum we’ve gotten, we think of this as a long-term generational business that we can build,” he said.
