We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Sutton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?
After forming my own marketing agency in 2013 and becoming a founder and business owner, I recognized a void that not only I felt in my local community but would hear the same sentiments from other founders across the country. Our agency has several client partners in the economic development space and realized that organizations that have a mission to serve founders at the local level are unable to connect with them in a way to create impact at scale. Many founders find it a challenge to navigate their local ecosystem with enough confidence to feel completely engaged because the ecosystem only “serves” a small percentage of founders in niche categories. Plus there are so many organizations that serve the ecosystem, it can be overwhelming to a founder on where to go to for help.
OrangeWIP was founded in 2022 to fill that void in local entrepreneurial ecosystems. OrangeWIP exists to be the connective tissue between the founders and entrepreneurs and the organizations and resources available to them to help them startup, scaleup or prepare for an exit. We believe having a one-stop local content hub designed making it easy for founders to connect, learn, and be inspired to grow, it will advance local economic mobility, inclusivity and growth. Our platform tells unvarnished founder stories and viewpoints, a dynamic roadmap resource directory to make it easier for founders to find the organizations they need based on their journey stage, and a local curated events calendar so founders don’t have to wade through 20-50 organizations emails/invites on things that founders need to put on their calendars – networking events, grant deadlines, and incubator or accelerator application deadlines.
As a startup IP, we designed unique dynamic hyper-local media platforms that can be easily replicable and scalable to launch in multiple cities across the country. We serve three South Carolina cities today with a goal to be in 30 cities in 5 years.
The innovation of the unique media company and publishing product was the most innovative, creative and challenging thing I’ve done in my career.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a 3x founder and 4x mom. I consider myself a serial agency person.
After years of working in the agency world where I helped companies of all sizes and types grow and thrive through effective marketing and advertising campaigns, I jumped into the entrepreneurial fray head-first in 2013, founding integrated marketing firm, BRIGHT Marketing.
BRIGHT works with growth companies that have aggressive goals to scale up. At its core, marketing solves problems for businesses. Low customer engagement? Poor Return on Investment? Struggling with sales? BRIGHT solves the issue.
Every business has a story to tell. Advertising is the means through which that story gets told. Plus, we have developed innovative ad technology that allows us to use sophisticated media prediction data along with machine learning media buying to form media mix modeling plans that generate the exact results clients needs.
Connecting with our clients and truly understanding who they are allows us to craft engaging messages that resonate with their audience. Every step of the ad creation process is special and important to the end result. BRIGHT provides all the marketing support you need under one roof.
BRIGHT is a full-service marketing + advertising agency driven to bring brighter ideas for better ROI. We are a powerhouse of innovation and imagination. With a natural flair for creativity, BRIGHT is driven to bring new ideas to life and inspire others along the way. We see the world as a canvas, constantly seeking ways to express our unique vision. Our brand is infused with originality and authenticity. BRIGHT is the platform for growth companies that want to build and scale their brand. Clients can join our league of extraordinary creators, illuminators, dot-connectors and problem-solvers and unleash the full potential of their brand.
As a direct result of working closely with several business development agencies and business incubators and serving as a coach and mentor for minority-owned and small business groups, I saw a distinct and pervasive need in the market, across all sectors and geographic areas, for a dedicated platform to not only support entrepreneurs and founders but to connect them to the resources they need and to one another. From this idea, OrangeWIP (Work in Progress) was born.
OrangeWIP, is a national media company dedicated exclusively to serving entrepreneurs, innovators and founders in affiliate cities while connecting the shared experiences of founders across the country. Part how-to guide, part storyteller, part therapist, part cheerleader and all raw, real and honest, OrangeWIP features the Hello Chaos podcast and the dynamic hyper-local platforms. Entrepreneurs will experience unvarnished viewpoints of founders and innovators designed to strengthen and nurture the local innovation economy.
With nearly 30 years’ experience in brand management, strategic planning, media and stakeholder communication strategies, digital architecture, and market research and analysis, our teams are uniquely positioned to support growth companies scale their brands. And, just as it was with BRIGHT, our vision for OrangeWIP is to help changemakers work in a more agile and technologically savvy way, ensuring their success by embracing what’s new, what’s next and what’s possible and celebrating the entrepreneurial experience – every move, every triumph, every obstacle.
Everything OrangeWIP does—from how we go to market, to our editorial mission to how we partner with our sponsors—is informed by the mindset of serving a diverse and broad spectrum of entrepreneurs and founders, and through their lens be the driving voice in the community. By creating a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, we can improve people’s businesses, support diversity, economic inclusivity and mobility.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I spent 20 years in corporate board rooms leading some of the biggest brand teams, facilitating leadership and comms meetings. I’d worked with over 2500 media publishers and broadcasters across the globe, served on several boards and was very active in our local and statewide business community.
When I started BRIGHT, I did so knowing that I wanted the company to scale and grow beyond just me. So creating the business infrastructure and operations with building a team and culture from the beginning. And we grew rapidly in the first three years. We grew organically, using the company revenues to reinvest in the business. At the end of our first year, we bought a building with company profits because no bank would consider giving us a loan. Our building was worth more than what we paid, and we were able to take out a business equity loan using the building as our asset to have for cash flow so we could take on larger clients.
It was in year two that we heard from business leaders that I wasn’t taken serious as a business owner until I bought the building — because they had just assumed that I “was just another woman trying to be a stay at home mom and work part-time in marketing”. I experienced the glass ceiling in agency life, but to experience it as an entrepreneur was surprising. Networking with other female founders, this seemed to be a consistent trend.
Prior to launching OrangeWIP, I field several research studies to the two audiences we would serve – testing the product with the founders and testing the idea/concept with the potential sponsors (EDOs etc). That research showed that our product was desired by both audiences and we had pre-sold initial sponsors…but to secure cash from them once we launched failed. And a few organizations within the state ecosystem felt threatened by our company, when we thought our startup would be celebrated.
But we continue to hear from our founder audience that they see the benefit. And the publishing community has encouraged us to continue – that if we build the audience, the advertisers and sponsors will come. So we have to self-invest more than we anticipated and are finding more support outside of our own entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is disappointing, but we must go on.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
After COVID, we had to pivot — people are different post covid, especially in marketing. We changed how we hired, how we onboarded new hires and clients, how our contracts were written, how we sold ourselves, and our operations.
We exited half our staff due to toxic people.
Lots of lessons learned over the last two years.
Contact Info:
- Website: brightcomarketers.com and orangewip.com
- Instagram: @officialorangewip
- Facebook: Brightcomarketers
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferjsutton/
- Twitter: @jjmediamaven
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_BzmxIplbngQnndMlBs1Rw