Stoke: Building A Marketing Analytics Company In Silicon Slopes
When a fire gutted Los Hermanos (a popular Provo restaurant) several months ago, it also impacted the surrounding businesses - including marketing analytics startup Stoke. However, founder and CEO Sam Fonoimoana would not be deterred. Stoke had gained recognition from well-known brands such as Adobe, Pluralsight, and Purple. Working tirelessly to engineer a new, homegrown tech solution, the Stoke team knew they had to bounce back. And that they did.
Sam started his own analytics company in Hawaii a few years ago after he left Domo. Business was good in Hawaii - with support from local companies such as the Polynesian Cultural Center - but most of his clients were back on the mainland. So Sam moved back and formed a team that eventually helped created Stoke - a marketing analytics firm that offers data integrations, analytics strategy, reporting, and predictive modeling.
Stoke gathers and interprets data that helps drive more strategic marketing and sales decisions while providing a more relevant customer experience. However, Sam argues Stoke's consulting arm is their secret weapon. "There's a lot of different products out there and they are good at doing one thing. But with marketing analytics you need to know how everything is matched with each other. That's why our consulting arm is so valuable - products can only do one thing so well but a consulting team who knows what they are doing can come in and put the pieces together and do even more than that. We become valued partners and give recommendations to our clients."
Companies are beginning to recognize Stoke's value. Last month, Stoke took second place at the Adobe's Summit Launch Extension Idol competition. Jeff Chasin, principal product manager for Adobe Experience Platform, commented on Stoke's AA+SFDC Integration, saying the extension "is a game changer for Adobe Analytics users because it makes integrating important full-funnel data directly into Analysis Workspace so easy." The result of this product is more complete analytics across the customer journey, more strategic marketing and sales decisions, and therefore a more relevant customer experience.
Stoke has the expertise - and they're local. Sam expressed Stoke's future goals: "We helped several companies - Pluralsight, Workfront, InMoment, Purple Mattress - and we want to be the go-to company when it comes to marketing analytics in Utah. We don't see anyone else like us. We want to establish ourselves as the leaders."