Idea Grove is a Dallas marketing and PR firm that understands the power of trust-centered marketing because we owe our very existence to it. The agency started in 2005 with a popular blog by founder Scott Baradell, who riffed on his experiences in PR and marketing with vulnerability and self-deprecating humor. This instilled trust in readers, many of whom ultimately became Idea Grove marketing clients. To this day, the agency has earned nearly all its business organically, through PR, referrals, social media and search.
Over the past 18 years, Idea Grove has distinguished itself an agency that understands the breadcrumbs of trust that guide buyers to make high-consideration purchases—from enterprise software to elite MBA programs to smartphones. Idea Grove’s offering has been built from the ground up with the specific challenges of our clients in mind, including grasping complex business models and technologies, maintaining momentum through long sales cycles, and influencing the decision-making of both business and technical buyers.
We are a team of idea-makers, not order-takers. Clients don’t hire us to be an extra pair of hands; they come for big ideas and bold imaginations. We seize opportunities where others see obstacles.
We smile; we’re polite; we say thank you. We show up on time. We listen. Niceties are called that because they make our lives nicer. We embrace their power and importance.
We show passion for the work that drives us. Our team’s energy comes through in our productivity, the quality of our work, and our commitment to excellence. We achieve goals together by doing our best.
We keep our promises. We meet our deadlines. We have our colleagues’ and clients’ backs. We know we can’t be accountable as a team if we aren’t first accountable as individuals.
We are not merely an integrated PR and marketing firm; we are a unified agency. “Integrated” means parts coordinated to form a whole. “Unified" means uniting to speak with a single voice. That’s what we do.
When we practice empathy, Idea Grove is more than a job for our employees and more than a vendor for our clients. We become a family for our team, and a partner for our clients because we care.
Idea Grove has launched products that have become household names. We've helped tiny bootstrapped startups triumph in nine-figure exits. We've worked as valued partners with some of the most well-known and trusted names in technology. But what we're most proud of are the bonds of friendship and mutual respect we've built with our clients and on our team along the way. Our magnum opus is the 15-year assemblage of little things we do to make an impact each day.
2005
Our founder, Scott Baradell, issues a news release (not a press release, duh!) announcing the agency’s launch.
2005
Scott publishes the first blog post on the Idea Grove website, one of more than 2,000 posts that have appeared on the site, ultimately landing the blog a larger audience than PR Week.
2006
We sign our first retainer client, the business process outsourcing (BPO) company BancTec, initiating a six-year relationship. BancTec is now part of Exela Technologies.
2007
We begin an eight-year partnership with HR tech startup RiseSmart. What begins as a product strategy discussion prior to commercial launch ends with a $100 million exit for the founders. We wound up getting RiseSmart coverage everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to ESPN, of all places.
2008
We begin working with ShopSavvy, one of the first Android apps. Launching with a team of two, the startup achieves 40 million app downloads -- and during a seven-year relationship, more than 2,000 press mentions.
2011
We hire our first full-time employee (hi, Stephanie Wick!) and sign our first office lease at 14800 Quorum in Dallas.
2013
We pass more than $1 million in revenues for the first time.
2013
We build one of the most popular thought-leadership sites on DevOps for CA Technologies. We go on to manage all content on the site for the next four years.
2014
After working with Marketo and Pardot and finding them lacking, we decide to take the plunge and become a HubSpot partner. PR agencies with HubSpot chops are rare at the time — HubSpot execs call us a "unicorn."
2014
We pass $2 million in revenues.
2014
We are named top technology PR agency in Texas for the first of six straight years by O’Dwyer’s PR News.
2015
We make the Inc. 5000 for the first time, starting a run of three consecutive years making the list.
2015
We become a HubSpot Gold Partner.
2016
We begin a relationship with Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, helping to dramatically raise the visibility of the institution and increasing admissions by as much as 25 percent in targeted regions.
2016
Austin-based Pivot3 hires us to transition its brand from that of a video surveillance company to a leader in the emerging hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) space. The company subsequently emerges as a market leader.
2018
We become a HubSpot Platinum Partner, building our standing within HubSpot's ecosystem by expanding our capabilities and attracting customer endorsements.
2019
We are named a leader for the Dallas-area HubSpot Users Group.
2019
We are named one of Dallas’ Top 10 PR agencies by the Dallas Business Journal.
2019
We complete our 100th case study for Amazon’s Alexa team, designed to educate and encourage developers to create new skills for the popular virtual assistant. As a result of our agency's work for Alexa, we are asked to create social media content for Amazon AWS.
2019
Our revenues pass $3 million, and we hire our first president and COO to position the agency for future growth. John quickly emerges as an industry thought leader on topics ranging from to operational efficiency to people management.
2020
We are included in O'Dwyer's annual PR firms ranking.
2020
We move out of the building we’d called home for nearly a decade and into Class A office space at Tollway Plaza, 16000 Dallas Parkway.
2020
We are named one of the Top North Texas PR Firms by the Dallas Business Journal, ranking within the top 10 at #8.
2020
We receive the Pegasus Award for Small Agency of the Year from the Public Relations Society of America, Dallas (PRSA).
2021
We are recognized with a spot on Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces for 2021's list.
2021
We climbed two spots to No. 85 in O'Dwyer's annual ranking of independent PR firms.
2021
We are named in the Dallas Business Journal 2021 Best Places to Work.
2022
We are ranked among the highest-scoring businesses on Inc. Magazine’s annual list of Best Workplaces for a second year in a row.