November 15, 2011
Fulcrum Is The First Project Management Platform To Integrate MarketTools TrueSample
MarketTools TrueSample is Incorporated Directly Into the Fulcrum Project Management Platform, Further Expanding TrueSample’s Presence as the Industry Standard for Data QualitySAN FRANCISCO and NEW ORLEANS – November 15, 2011 – MarketTools, Inc., the leading provider of software and services for market research and enterprise feedback management (EFM), and Federated Sample, a market research technology firm focusing on bringing efficiency and automation to sampling, today announced that Federated Sample has integrated MarketTools® TrueSample™ with its Fulcrum project management platform. TrueSample is the industry’s most widely use data quality solution that provides researchers with the assurance that every respondent is Real, Unique and Engaged™ by removing fake, duplicate and unengaged respondents from research samples, and offers the benefits of TrueSample SurveyScore to give researchers insights into how to make surveys better.
Download the complete press release: PDFNovember 8, 2011
Federated Sample Raises $2.8 Million Series A Round of Financing
New Orleans, November 8, 2011 – Federated Sample, a New Orleans-based market research technology firm with offices in New Orleans, New York, and Los Angeles, announces the closing of a $2.8 million Series A round of financing led by Sopris Capital Associates and included Voodoo Ventures and many original seed investors. Along with the investment, Jon Kaiden of Sopris Capital will officially join the board of directors.
The funds provided by this financing round will be used to accelerate the roll out of next generation features to Federated Sample’s sample management platform, Fulcrum. Talent will be added to the firm across sales, service, and technology groups to add additional horsepower to exceed the robust growth it has generated over the past 18 months.
Federated Sample’s marquis offering Fulcrum provides an enterprise-level sample management platform and white-label routing solution that increases efficiency, reduces costs, and improves the survey taking experience. Over the past year the user adoption of Fulcrum has ballooned in terms of users, surveys managed, completed interviews delivered, and respondents available. The overall adoption of the user base is now approaching 250 delivering nearly 1,000 surveys and providing over 3.5 million respondents available per month resulting in over 200% revenue growth YOY.
According to Jon Kaiden at Sopris Capital, "Federated Sample, through their dramatic expansion and entrepreneurial drive, embodies the essence of what we seek in the companies in which we invest. With game-changing technologies like Fulcrum and its best-in-class leadership team, we know Federated Sample has the right combination of attributes necessary to achieve the lofty goals we have set together."
"Working with Sopris Capital and our other investors will propel us to the next level," said Patrick Comer, CEO and Founder of Federated Sample. "This partnership enhances our ability to innovate and to build on the tremendous momentum we’ve established."
Mr. Comer continues, "We’re glad to see that competitive financial players from sophisticated markets like New York are drawn to the mosaic of innovative, entrepreneurial companies that have established themselves in New Orleans. We are proud to be based here, and we strongly believe our region will continue to attract investors and others seeking breakthrough ideas and technologies."
About Sopris Capital PartnersFounded in 2002, Sopris Capital Associates provides equity capital to young companies looking to accelerate growth. Its mission is to find, fund and work closely with great entrepreneurs, levering the firm’s experience and extensive networks, to build valuable companies together as a team.
About Federated SampleFederated Sample is a market research technology firm based in New Orleans that focuses on bringing efficiency and automation to sampling through the Fulcrum Platform. Fulcrum is the world’s first complete project management suite to give clients the power to seamlessly integrate multiple suppliers, increase productivity and reduce costs. Ranging from vertically integrated research firms to sample suppliers, clients who license Fulcrum enjoy increased efficiency and with minimal technology development costs. This simplified survey management platform boasts white-labeled routing and improved respondent experience all while giving clients exceptional control and sample quality. For more information, visit www.federatedsample.com.
Contact:Jordan Friedman
504/897-0462
jordan@bondpublicrelations.com
Download the press release.
July 14, 2011
Federated Sample Names Michael McCrary President
On July 11, 2011, Federated Sample strengthened its already talented team with the addition of Michael McCrary as President. Michael brings over fifteen years of experience in marketing, advertising, and research and will lead Federated Sample’s sales, supplier relations, and marketing teams.
Michael remarks that he is “passionate about the technology and knows first-hand the positive impact that Federated Sample’s products can and will deliver to the market research industry.”
Download the press release.
March 30, 2011
FED Participates in New Orleans Entrepreneur Week
We are proud that FED is based in New Orleans. Here, we aren’t just starting a new business; we are a part of the re-creation of an entrepreneurial movement in a great American city. We feel that our position in the region really matters, and we take that responsibility seriously.
Thankfully, many others feel the same way and are working hard to develop New Orleans. One of the great initiatives created to support this goal is New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, which celebrated and supported the collaborative network of talent that has enabled the city to become a model for building and sustaining entrepreneurial eco-systems this past week.
For seven days, local and national MBA students, corporate partners and business, academic and policy thought leaders convened in New Orleans for one-on-one consulting with local entrepreneurs, networking, pitch sessions and dialogue as a part of this annual program of The Idea Village.
FED participated in NOEW through The Coulter Challenge IDEApitch, which provided the opportunity for five of Louisiana’s most scalable ventures to present their companies. We had a great time and are looking forward to participating in other such events in the future.
Read more about this great event in The Times-Picayune.
February 25, 2011
Federated Sample Unveils Fulcrum, A Powerful Global Tool for the Market Research Industry
Next-Generation Sampling Technology Redefines Project Management
New Orleans, February 25, 2011 – Federated Sample, an acknowledged leader in market research technology, announces the official launch of its new offering, Fulcrum. A next-generation project management suite, this platform improves delivery, decreases project costs, and creates efficiencies by removing redundant and manual field management processes through a Software as a Service model.
Fulcrum came out of beta in October 2010, and currently has 195 users in 26 countries – an 800% increase in the number of clients served between Federated Sample and their first licensed partner, Cint. The number of unique respondents in Fulcrum continues to rise as well, with 1.4 million unique respondents in January alone.
According to Patrick Comer, CEO of Federated Sample, “The dramatic spike seen in Fulcrum adoption by panel companies and market research firms is a testament to the immediate value realized by users of this exciting new technology.”
“Cint has measurably improved the value to our panel owners and deliverability to our clients by using Fulcrum,” says Michael McCrary, Managing Director of Cint North America, a Fulcrum client. “Both Cint and Federated Sample share common beliefs that transparency, choice, control, and automation are essential in this industry. Fulcrum has proven to be the ideal technology product for Cint.”
Fulcrum offers a project management infrastructure and white-label routing solution that simplifies the use of multiple sources, while providing uniform security and a quality control process. In addition, Fulcrum delivers the reporting control and management tools necessary to provide full transparency while facilitating the successful delivery of sample.
“The embracing of Fulcrum by clients around the world highlights the global need for better project management technology,” said Mr. Comer. “Federated Sample has grown from our original location to meet this demand by opening offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Singapore. We look forward to fueling additional growth by helping our clients successfully overcome their sample challenges.”
November 2010
Federated Sample Continues to Grow
Federated Sample is proud to announce that we now have offices in New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, and Singapore so that we are able to meet the 24/7 needs of our clients.
FED knows that sample never sleeps, and now we can say that we don’t either.
We consistently strive to provide the best service possible to our partners – and will be adding more team members so that we’re able to do so.
Contact us know how we can help you today.
November 2010
Diego Rodriguez Joins FED and Launches Los Angeles Office
Federated Sample is proud to announce the recent hire of Diego Rodriguez. Diego joins FED as our Vice President and will be launching our Los Angeles office.
Diego joins FED from Ipsos-OTX where he was Executive Director of the MediaCT Group and mainly focused on Multinational and Multilingual studies. Diego brings the research point of view to the sample world and will help our clients to obtain the desired results not only based on the right sample mix but by asking the right questions; from the screening criteria to the main questionnaire. Diego will be responsible for business development, account management, and Los Angeles operations. Please welcome Diego at DRodriguez (at) FederatedSample.com.
The Los Angeles office marks the bicoastal coverage and support for our clients. With this new location FED has physical presence in three cities: New Orleans (headquarters), New York and Los Angeles. While FED remains committed to New Orleans and is looking forward to growing in New Orleans, our Los Angeles office will enable us to provide better support for our growing number of partners based in the region.
November 1, 2010
Federated Sample Partners with Imperium to Implement RelevantID®
New Orleans, November 1, 2010 – Federated Sample (FED), a market research technology firm based in New Orleans, LA, is pleased to announce its new partnership with software development company Imperium.
FED will be utilizing Imperium’s RelevantID technology to de-duplicate survey respondents and ensure that no machine can complete a particular research study more than once.
Patrick Comer, CEO of Federated Sample, said: “FED consistently seeks to ensure the quality of our data, and our partnership with Imperium will enable us to continue to do so. We are excited to employ this third party digital fingerprinting tool to continue to provide the highest quality service to our partners.”
About Imperium
Founded in 1990, Imperium is a leading technology development firm. Imperium provides innovative products and services in the areas of market research, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, marketing, advertising, and Web design. Brands include RelevantID® – the leading industry digital fingerprinting technology for certifying data, Verity™ – the data validation service that verifies consumer identity information and RelevantView® – a proprietary, high-powered, server-based tracking technology that captures user’s online experience on Websites and Web applications. Imperium is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. For more information, visit imperium.com.
October 2010
Meredith May Joins FED and Launches New York Office
Federated Sample is proud to announce the recent hire of Meredith May. Meredith joins FED as our Director of Sales and will be launching our New York office.
Meredith joins FED from Vision Critical where she was the Business Development Manager of Media & Entertainment. Prior to her role at Vision Critical, Meredith was the Director of East Coast Sales for RSX at OTX. She will be responsible for business development, account management, and NYC operations. Please welcome Meredith at MMay (at) FederatedSample.com.
The New York office marks the first new office for FED since we opened in New Orleans earlier this year. While FED remains committed to New Orleans and is looking forward to growing in New Orleans, our New York office will enable us to provide better support for our growing number of partners based in the region.
September 2010
Patrick Comer to Speak at TribeCon
TribeCon is a conference packed full of inspiring and educational presentations by world-renowned panelists – all focused around building communities online and igniting them to accomplish amazing things in the real world.
Hosted in New Orleans in conjunction with the Voodoo Music Experience on October 28th and 29th, TribeCon is a terrific meeting of minds as well as a really good time – and this year our CEO, Patrick Comer, will be presenting.
Patrick will be joining a top-notch line up of panelists that include: Ben Huh, the CEO of Pet Holdings, Inc., the parent company of viral photoblogs like I Can Has Cheezburger, Jonathan Hull, the Director of Strategic Relationships at Ning, Thomas Knoll, the Community Architect at Zappos, and Jim Longo, the VP of Client Development and Marketing at Itracks.
Interested? Buy a ticket now to join the TribeCon community and hear what Patrick has to say.
We look forward to seeing you there.
September 2010
Hiring, Training, and Developing a High Performance Team
Our CEO, Patrick Comer, has built many high performance teams in his varied roles as a founder, investor, and executive – and he is always willing to share his strategies for hiring, training, and developing talent.
This past spring he presented “How to Hire, Train, and Develop a High Performance Team” at LaunchFest, a fun conference for serious entrepreneurs here in New Orleans. Since then, we’ve been spending a lot of time discussing and implementing Patrick’s strategies as our company grows.
FED has been growing with new clients and projects and we know we have to develop our human capital at the same pace. We know that developing great people is harder than developing great processes, which is why we spend so much time and energy on our team. We understand that the members of FED are the people who make our company so successful.
Very selectively, we will be using staff additions to increase our skill set. Do you have what it takes?
Are you a highly energized performance-based individual aspiring to learn how to build a growth business from the ground up? Are you dedicated, fun, and willing to commit the blood, sweat, and tears necessary to get the job done? We might be looking for you. Write us an email and introduce yourself.
August 2010
Federated Sample Joins CASRO
We are excited to announce that Federated Sample (FED) has been approved for membership in CASRO, the Council for American Survey Research Organizations. We appreciate this important validation of our company and our systems, and we are looking forward to becoming an active member of the CASRO community.
CASRO requires members to adhere to the CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research, a thorough set of standards, which has long been the benchmark for the industry. FED is a strong advocate of this code – as a company and as individuals, and all members of our team have pledged to follow the CASRO standards.
As a member of CASRO, FED will be contributing to the discussion of best research practices. We will be studying various issues challenging the industry and posting various tweets, blog posts, and white papers about our findings. We will continue to remain at the forefront of our industry and are looking to share our best practices with our friends in the field in an effort to advance the integrity, viability and future prosperity of research.
Please continue to check out our site for updates, and please let us know if you have any questions about FED’s systems and standards.
We’re looking forward to seeing you at a CASRO event soon.
August 16, 2010
Jackson Square Group Unveils Federated Sample
A NEW SUBISIDIARY FOCUSED ON REDEFINING SAMPLING SUCCESS
Launch Introduces New Technologies and Methodologies to a Market that Demands Results
New Orleans, LA, August 16, 2010 – Jackson Square Group (JSG), a market research technology firm based in New Orleans, LA, announces the launch of a new subsidiary, Federated Sample. This development promises to redefine the concept of effective sampling, which has long been the true battleground of consumer data collection.
Using a proprietary suite of data origination and workflow management software, Federated Sample fills a need within the online sample marketplace to connect buyers and sellers in an integrated platform to deliver successful projects
According to JSG founder, Patrick Comer, “The process of data collection is often cumbersome and inefficient. With our technology, Federated Sample automates a process that has been manual — and imperfect at best. With so much attention on the quality of online research, Federated Sample provides a transparent and open platform for operational success.”
Andrew Reid, President of Vision Critical and Federated Sample client, adds “Federated Sample shares our goals of better respondent engagement, improving the research process, & providing innovative technology solutions to solve market research challenges.
About FED
Federated Sample, a subsidiary of Jackson Square Group, focuses on bringing efficiency and automation to online sampling. By using our technology infrastructure, our clients gain global access to respondents while maintaining control and quality.
About Jackson Square Group
Jackson Square Group is a market research technology firm. Based in New Orleans, the firm creates technologies that maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of gathering data and intelligence from consumer markets.
July 16, 2010
Jackson Square Group Announces Its Offical Launch
CEO Chooses To Base Operations in New Orleans, a “New Innovation Hub”
New Orleans, LA, July 16, 2010 - Jackson Square Group (JSG), a provider of technology-based market research services, today announced the completion of its seed financing round led by Voodoo Ventures, LLC. The funding will be used to support JSG’s continued growth to add personnel, efficiently service existing contracts and more aggressively pursue additional projects.
JSG is also pleased to announce the addition of Voodoo Ventures founder and President Chris Schultz to its Board of Directors and the appointment of Paul Stouse, CFO of Capital Investment Management, Inc, as a Board Observer. ”Chris has been a tremendous asset to our company as we transitioned from a development stage business to rapidly growing provider of fulfillment services to our market research partners,” said JSG founder Patrick Comer. ”We look forward to Chris’ continued support and insight as we optimize our technology infrastructure and ramp our volume.”
Chris Schultz says “Voodoo Ventures is pleased to partner with Jackson Square Group. Our mission is to support new technology companies with high-growth potential. And Jackson Square Group is such a company.”
Comer added, “While our team at JSG has accomplished a lot in a relatively short time, we have a long way to go. The entrepreneurial spirit, employment talent and early-stage capital we found in New Orleans has enabled us to get where we are and will be critical to our future success. We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with the city.”
Michael Hecht, CEO of GNO, Inc., the 10-Parish regional economic development cooperative between the public and private sectors, adds, “Jackson Square Group is a perfect example of the type of company we’re working so hard to attract to Greater New Orleans. This region is the go-to place for ambitious entrepreneurs with proven experience and talent. These kinds of people don’t need luck. They need to be around people who understand them, and a business environment in which they can flourish. Greater New Orleans provides both.”
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