Jonathan Becker, now 31, started his first business at 18. Online advertising agency Thrive Digital is his fourth venture. The one-year-old business has grown to employ five people and boasts clients ranging from Lululemon to the PNE to the Donnelly Group to Sotheby’s.
Becker has focused on building the business organically. New customers have been acquired primarily through referrals. It’s a valuable lesson he learned after one of his earlier businesses, a digital advertising display company, failed spectacularly.
“We wanted to start an advertising network of screens in commercial spaces,” said Becker. “It was much more expensive and much more difficult to start than we expected. But we had an office set up, and we had a little bit of funding, and we wanted to be entrepreneurs and our own bosses.”
While digital screens displaying ads are now a common sight in banks and restaurants, the concept was still new when Becker and his business partner started their company in 2007. The hardware was expensive, and it was difficult to get the idea across to potential customers.
“We started the business too early, we didn’t have the expertise necessary, we didn’t have the funding necessary, and we didn’t know when to quit.”
To make matters worse, they had leased an office and invested in equipment before they had any customers.
Becker eventually left the business after his business partner bought him out, but he ended up losing tens of thousands of dollars.
When he started Thrive, he did things differently. For instance, he didn’t lease an office until he had customers.
Becker said the experience also taught him to avoid getting too hung up on failure.
“I never stopped, and I never gave up,” he said. “I know now that when we do encounter failure, whether it’s small or big, it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean we’re ‘failures.’”
