Says Anne: So Long and Thanks for the Case Studies

by Joanna Pineda Posted on November 16, 2008

Earlier this week, Anne Holland, founder of MarketingSherpa.com posted her last blog entry on the Sherpablog.  November 10 was her last day as a formal company employee and she used the occasion to recount how MarketingSherpa began.

If you don’t know MarketingSherpa, you should.  MarketingSherpa is my favorite source for news, information, case studies, how-to guides — everything about online marketing.  MarketingSherpa e-mails are the few e-newsletters that I read in their entirety.  I pass the articles along to my staff and clients.  The knowledge in MarketingSherpa case studies is amazing, the writing is terrific, and the know-how is real.

I remember meeting Anne at an iBreakfast, a pitchfest hosted by Alan Brody back in 1999.  Anne had an idea to pitch, a marketing plan, no money, but a lot of passion and knowledge about online marketing and research.  MarketingSherpa became one of Matrix Group’s first dot com clients.  At first, we helped her develop her technical platform and prototypes so that she could show investors more than a business plan.

After Anne cashed in her 401(k), quit her day job and went full-time with MarketingSherpa, we developed her site for her.  We gave her a CMS, e-mail subscribe forms, e-mail boxes, and e-mail lists.  Her site was the biggest in our network and we learned a lot about how to manage and host mission-critical sites.

We lost MarketingSherpa as a client when Anne sold the company.  And now, Anne has stepped down from the company.  It feels like the end of an era.

Anne graciously thanked Matrix Group in her last blog post and I’m proud that we had a small part in helping her realize her dream and building the powerhouse research firm that MarketingSherpa is today.

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