Helping companies with marketing campaigns

What: Seattle-based Marketfish

Who: David Scott, 41, founder and CEO

Mission: Help Fortune 500 companies and their marketing agencies create and build lead generation campaigns using third-party marketing lists.

Employees: 12

Financials: The privately held company, founded in 2008, does not discuss its financials.

Generating leads: In Scott's view, lead generation is "the No. 1 issue facing most Fortune 500 companies."

A new twist: In the old days, companies would buy mailing lists of unproven accuracy. Scott had the idea of providing a Web-based platform to put businesses in touch directly with marketing-list providers and to provide real-time reporting tools. That helps track the effectiveness of a campaign.

Playing out: A client selling tennis equipment, for example, might want to rent Tennis Magazine's list. "We give you all the data to make a really good decision up front, including historical data about how good the list is," said Scott. And, with the reporting tools, "you can actually see how a campaign is doing minute by minute."

Early hurdles: Scott begin attracting investors the same time the economy collapsed in 2008: "It caused us to be a little smarter. I sold my car and liquidated my 401(k) ."

Early success: "About a year ago we finally got the first initial investment and we were able to release the beta product," said Scott. "That was really exciting because we had real customers coming to us. The first month we had more customers than the platform could handle. That's a good problem to have."

Measuring progress: He said Marketfish has supported over 750 marketing campaigns over the past year. "Now it's just a matter of keeping our clients happy."

— Patrick Marshall