More often than not, a short, assertive bark from his dog, Telemundo, signals that BounceX CEO and Founder, Ryan Urban, has arrived at the office. With a back-straight gait reserved for native New Yorkers, he bursts onto the floor carrying a tray full of La Colombe Black and Tans for the office, donning his louder-than-thou Buscemi streetwear. He does full rounds to say hi to each employee, even when it makes him late to his first meeting.
Visitors to BounceX’s temporary office in NoMad will almost always find Urban in the office. Whether meeting with individual employees, talking big-picture company maneuvers or mixing a cocktail for teammates, he knows that being the CEO of an incredibly fast-growing team means being on the ground.
But BounceX wasn’t Urban’s first business by a long shot.
With a finger always on the pulse of up-and-coming trends, Urban built a Beanie Baby empire in New Jersey in his youth, right at the height of their popularity. By age 17, he was the largest secondary seller of the collectible toys in the entire country and had seven full-time employees.
Twenty years later, BounceX is Urban’s brainchild, nurtured from a fledgling idea into a well-known name in the MarTech world, and he never strays too far from it. Founded in 2012, BounceX skyrocketed over the past two years, expanding from a sub-150-person startup to a seasoned 300+ person company.
Urban asserts that the core of BounceX's growth is strong hiring choices and career-pathing decisions.
“With a young company, it can be harder to get the best talent from the outside because you seem risky, so you have to develop people. Hire the people that can be the next leaders, the ones that come in ready to step up, and move them up early,” Urban said. “Some of it is just making sure that you bring on people that have some personality, and let them let it fly. The more authentic people are, the more fun and collaborative the work environment is.”
A leader in device identity resolution, BounceX enables real-time multichannel marketing intended for the individual consumer behind each device. With customers like Forever21, JetBlue, Samsonite, Clarks and Hugo Boss, they've found themselves bursting onto the scene after a careful and calculated build, avoiding the louder, funding-stuffed style of other flash-in-the-pan MarTech providers.
“Everything we do is in service of our clients. And we’re succeeding because we created the best products--the ones that drive growth and that drive revenue,” Urban said. “It’s why our customers choose us, and it’s why they bring us with them to their next job.”
Urban doesn’t see an end to BounceX’s expansion anytime soon. In fact, the company recently announced a major move into two floors of One World Trade Center and will be releasing a number of industry-defining new products over the next few months.
“You need to have everyone thinking long-term. Everyone should know that we’re going to be doing this a long time. But we never get complacent. We’re always just getting started,” Urban said. “Once you think you’ve made it or you’re doing great, that’s it. You don’t stay hungry; you’ve got to get hungrier. You’ve got to keep moving the goal post.”
