South Florida Tech HubSouth Florida Tech Hub

By Nikki Cabus

West Palm Beach-based Digital Resource acquires South Florida territory Fortune Management

Read Time 3 Minutes

Digital Resource announced the acquisition of the South Florida territory of Fortune Management. 

This acquisition positions Digital Resource as a one-stop-shop for dental practices in South Florida seeking both business and marketing support to grow their businesses.

Founded in 2014, Digital Resource is a full-service internet marketing agency headquartered in West Palm Beach, FL. The company’s winning solutions and experience deliver great results for businesses in all verticals across several key areas, including but not limited to search engine optimization, social media marketing and lead generation. Digital Resource has a proven track record in generating online leads and sales, elevating brand market share, and proving return on investment.

Fortune Management has been providing dental coaching services to dentists for over 30 years. Their proprietary approach helps dentists achieve their professional and personal goals by providing guidance in leadership, team building, financial planning, marketing, and more.

In partnership with Brian Houlahan, a Fortune Management Executive Coach from the Connecticut area, Digital Resource will take on the South Florida territory of Fortune Management and provide a holistic approach to dental practice management, combining Fortune’s expertise in dental coaching with Digital Resource’s marketing solutions.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Brian Houlahan and start Fortune Management South Florida to provide comprehensive support to dental practices,” said Shay Berman, President of Digital Resource. “With our expertise in digital marketing and Fortune’s experience in dental coaching, we’re able to provide a complete solution for South Florida dentists looking to grow.”

Digital Resource’s services will enable dental practices to gain a competitive edge in today’s digital landscape. The agency’s services include search engine optimization (SEO), digital advertising, social media marketing, website design and development, internal practice marketing, and more. With this acquisition, dentists will be able to receive customized marketing and coaching solutions that are tailored to their unique needs.

Brian Houlahan says, “It’s no secret that practices need new patients to grow! By partnering with Digital Resource, we are able to help practices with all the fun things that need to happen next – perfecting a new patient experience, implementing systems to retain patients, increasing case acceptance, controlling overhead expenses, establishing a culture of success, and much more.”

One of Digital Resource’s biggest goals this year was to invest deeper into their franchise partnerships. This is one of the main strategic decisions that has helped Digital Resource double in size over the last couple years.

The acquisition of the South Florida territory of Fortune Management marks a significant milestone for Digital Resource and strengthens the agency’s position as a leading marketing provider in the dental space.

 

 

By Nikki Cabus

How culture and strategic decisions helped Digital Resource double in size

Read Time 4 Minutes

Digital Resource is a company where things are done just a little differently.

Being a digital marketing firm, content is certainly king, but for this company culture is the queen. The company was able to double their employee count and during the pandemic and once again be named as one of the country’s fastest growing companies.

Just months post graduation, Shay Berman, Founder & CEO, moved from Michigan to West Palm Beach, Florida. Only 22 years old and working out of his apartment, Shay took the leap and founded Digital Resource in 2014.

The company grew from just 16 employees in 2016 to 130 as they closed out the 2022 year. What you may not realize is that half of those employees began employment within the last 2 years – in the midst of the pandemic. In 2020, DR had 65 employees and has doubled in size since then.

In 2019, Nate Mendenhall, Director of Client Operations, previously described DR as “this big rocket ship. Kinda shaking and getting ready to take off.” He said that in the “next year, we’re going to be going into orbit.” I think he nailed it!

Employee count is one thing, but revenue growth is another. DR has been Inc. 5000 Ranked since 2018. In 2022 they celebrated their 5th ranking in a row! That’s pretty impressive considering the company has only been in business 8 years. Appearing on the Inc. 5000 list for over half of the company’s existence is no small feat.

  • 2022: #3917 (125% 3-Year Growth Rate) 
  • 2021: #1810 
  • 2020: #747 
  • 2019: #334 (1,400% 3-Year Growth Rate) 
  • 2018: #262 (1,855% 3-Year Growth Rate) 

Highly respected companies were honored in their early days by Inc. 5000 such as Zillow, Dell, LinkedIn, Domino’s Pizza, Yelp, and even Microsoft, yet few received the honor five times. Appearing in the Inc. 5000 list five times (even if not consecutively) gives a company bragging rights of ‘Honor Roll’ status and less than 10% of companies obtain that title. You have a better chance of seeing a unicorn. . . or you can just watch the video at the end of the article. 🦄

In 2022, Digital Resource joined the Inc. 5000’s 10% – and did it consecutively to boast!!

Digital Resource was built on search engine optimization, quickly branching into social media marketing, website development, and more before becoming a full-service marketing agency. Over the years, DR has added photography, videography, integrations, lead management, and other services to the lineup.

Additionally, upon acquiring the dental marketing agency Hi5 Practice based in Nashville back in April 2022, DR brought on remote video shoots and internal practice management services.

DR went to full-time in-office to hybrid during the pandemic with a handful of remote team members across Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, and Utah.

The company made some strategic moves that helped them propel their growth over the years, but the biggest decision to date was to prioritize company culture. The work hard – play hard mentality of the team is felt immediately upon engaging with them.

Berman says, “DR continues to invest in our team’s education and happiness. All managers enrolled in Torch leadership training. We continue to provide continuing education opportunities to all team members. And we just revamped our benefits to make the lives of our team members even better!”

Plus, the company has pretty sweet office spaces, cool networking opportunities, team outings, and internal contests such as the “Luck of the Lit” wheel.

From humble beginnings with a home-office setup to soon growing out of their small office in downtown West Palm Beach, Digital Resource now has total of 16,000 sq ft of office space between 3 spaces with 12,000 sf in West Palm Beach, Florida  and a 4,000 sq ft office space in Nashville, Tennessee. 

In October 2022, DR revealed their 2nd floor buildout during a networking event open to the local community. The buildout added 3k sq ft to our physical space, taking us to 12k sq ft total in West Palm Beach offering more desk space, additional conference rooms, games, and a multimedia studio w/ an infinity wall.

Through organic growth and a successful acquisition, the team continues to push forward and excelling beyond a milestone that even Berman didn’t expect to hit so soon. They have opened up Director level roles within the company introducing Director of Operations & Human Resources, Director of Client Operations, and Director of Creative Operations.

In November 2022, DR introduced the new Vice President of Sales, Jeff Gasparoni, who will be developing the Sales Team and expanding the firm’s reach into more verticals. They also named a Head of Partnerships to assist DR with building deeper connections with experts across various industries to further our clients’ growth.

Want to learn more about Digital Resource or the other awards they have? Yes, they have more! Click here.

 

By Nikki Cabus

394 Florida companies make the 2022 Inc. 5000 list; South Florida strong with 171

Read Time 3 Minutes

The popular Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies across the United States is out for 2022 — and the state of Florida is looking pretty strong.

From healthcare to education to marketing and construction, Florida’s top companies represented a multitude of industries. Over a 3-year span from 2018 – 2021, Florida companies had a 239% median growth, $18.8 billion in total revenue, and 36, 540 jobs added.

Two Florida companies made the overall Top 10 List: HighKey at #5 and Homethreads at #8. HighKey is a food & beverage company based in Orlando with 41,585% growth and Homethreads is a retail company based in Boca Raton with 25,851% growth.

This year, Inc. 5000 also listed the Top 10 diverse leaders of 2022 and Florida had two honorable mentions: HighKey once again and Zimba & PLUS ULTRA, a consumer products company based out of Boca Raton. Zimba & PLUS ULTRA was also listed in the Top Women Leaders category.

Through a 3-year period of uncertainty and change, these companies have shown a resiliency and level of innovation like no other. Of the 394 Florida-based companies, 61 were newly founded and an impressive 85 were repeat honorees.

Below are the Top 10 Florida-based companies, South Florida-based companies, and how they compare on a national level.

 

TOP 10 Fastest Growing Companies in FLORIDA:

  • #5 – HighKey (Orlando) – Food & Beverage – 41,585% growth
  • #8 – Homethreads (Boca Raton) – Retail – 25,851% growth
  • #35 – Zimba & PLUS ULTRA (Boca Raton) – Consumer Products – 9,349% growth
  • #47 – The Snow Agency (Miami) – Advertising & Marketing – 6,953% growth
  • #48 – OneRail (Orlando) – Software – 6,879% growth
  • #50 – KITRUM (Clearwater) – IT Services – 6,799% growth
  • #58 – AMA Consulting Group (Winter Park) – Government & Services – 6,218% growth
  • #59 – 365 LOGISTICS (Ft. Lauderdale) – Logistics & Transportation – 6,093% growth
  • #67 – Poseidon Management of Florida Get Staffed Up (Miami) – Human Resources – 5,807% growth
  • #68 – Octillion (Boynton Beach) – Media – 5,793% growth

 

Top 10 Fastest Growing Companies in SOUTH FLORIDA (Miami Metro Region):

  • #8 – Homethreads (Boca Raton) – Retail – 25,851% growth
  • #35 – Zimba & PLUS ULTRA (Boca Raton) – Consumer Products – 9,349% growth
  • #47 – The Snow Agency (Miami) – Advertising & Marketing – 6,953% growth
  • #59 – 365 LOGISTICS (Ft. Lauderdale) – Logistics & Transportation – 6,093% growth
  • #67 – Poseidon Management of Florida Get Staffed Up (Miami) – Human Resources – 5,807% growth
  • #68 – Octillion (Boynton Beach) – Media – 5,793% growth
  • #99 – HCM Unlocked (Boca Raton) – Human Resources – 4,385% growth
  • #100 – Performance Golf (Ft. Lauderdale) – Sports -4,323% growth
  • #122 – Stylecraft (Boca Raton) – Manufacturing – 3,733% growth
  • #139 – Air Pros (Hollywood) – Consumer Services – 3,392% growth

 

Interesting Stats:

  • Of the overall 394 Florida-based companies, almost 45% were from South Florida with 171 represented.
  • Of the Top 10 Florida-based companies, 60% were based in South Florida.
  • Of the Top 10 South Florida based companies, 20% were from Miami-Dade county, 30% from Broward county, and 50% from Palm Beach county.

 

Here’s a shoutout to some of our South Florida Tech Hub members who made the 2022 list:

  • #618 – ShipMonk (Ft. Lauderdale) – Logistics & Transportation – 1,025% growth (5 year repeat)
  • #697 – Sloane Staffing (Palm Beach Gardens) – Business Products & Services – 897% growth
  • #886 – Salesmsg (Delray Beach) – Software – 718% growth
  • #998 – PlanHub (West Palm Beach) – Construction – 654% growth (2 year repeat)
  • #1306 – Social Mobile (Hollywood) – Business Products & Services – 498% growth
  • #1740 – CloudHesive (Ft. Lauderdale) – Business Products & Services – 353% growth (4 year repeat)
  • #2016 – Gravity IT Resources (Ft. Lauderdale) – Human Resources – 299% growth (4 year repeat)
  • #2345 – PeakActivity (Boynton Beach) – Business Products & Services – 250% growth (3 year repeat)
  • #2359 – TechStrong Group (Boca Raton) – Media – 248% growth (3 year repeat)
  • #2990 – Dedicated IT (Lake Park) – IT Services – 181% growth (3 year repeat)
  • #3301 – The SilverLogic (Boca Raton) – Software – 180% growth (3 year repeat)
  • #3917 – Digital Resource (West Palm Beach) – Advertising & Marketing – 125% growth (5 year repeat)
  • #4435 – ModMed (Boca Raton) – IT Services – 100% growth (7 year repeat honoree!!)

 

To learn more about the 2022 Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies, visit https://www.inc.com/inc5000/2022

By Riley Kaminer

Member Spotlight | Digital Resource

Read Time 3 Minutes

Business: Providing companies with custom online marketing strategies for business growth.

Founded: 2014

HQ: Downtown West Palm Beach

Employees: 125

Website: YourDigitalResource.com

 

The digital marketing landscape is the most complicated it has been since the dawn of social media. Facebook’s removal of certain ad targeting options coupled with Apple’s new anti-tracking privacy features have brought uncertainty to the space.

For the last eight years, West Palm Beach-based Digital Resource has been a trusted resource for companies looking to up their marketing game.

While Digital Resource works with businesses of all shapes and sizes across all industries, their typical client is a small to medium-sized business. They specialize in a few industries in particular, including medical services, franchising, and home services. Often, customers come to Digital Resource when they are looking to increase their lead flow and fine-tune how they present themselves online.

Since the pandemic, Digital Resource has been on a supercharged growth trajectory. The company reports that they have been increasing their revenues by $4-5 million each year. They also acquired their first agency, a Nashville-based marketing shop, last month. This growth, combined with an acquisition or two each year over the next few years, puts the company on track to increase their annual revenue from $11 million to $50 million within five years.

“West Palm Beach plays a great role in that growth,” Digital Resource founder and president Shay Berman told South Florida Tech Hub. “It’s a central base to pull talent from north and south.”

“And it’s a growing city,” continued Berman. “We hope to be a part of the positive transition of West Palm from a small to medium city to a large city.”

Berman also expressed excitement about the rise of South Florida’s tech scene. “There’s high quality talent in the area,” he said, noting that technologists from the southern end of the region are increasingly moving to Palm Beach. 

He explained that Digital Resource has benefited from the national and international trend of people wanting to move to our region. “The talent pool is growing on its own by people flowing here to live, and we’ve been able to take advantage of it by being a great option for them as they come into the state.”

When it comes to helping younger companies and startups chart out their most efficient digital marketing strategy, Berman advises that they find the right partner who understands how their business works first and foremost. Then they can try to implement the right marketing pieces. The other way around leads to disaster, he said. 

“The biggest reason why marketing fails is that marketers try to make a specific service or type of marketing fit the business. You have to understand the business, its growth, and how people would engage with it – and market to that.”

Berman underscores that social media is key to digital marketing success. “There are a hundred plus reasons to use social media as a business,” he said. “And you have to first understand why you’re using social media, and connect that to your business’s goals.”

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | Digital Resource & Shay Berman

Read Time 3 Minutes

Business: A full-service digital marketing agency

HQ: West Palm Beach

President: Shay Berman

No. of employees: 55

Website: yourdigitalresource.com

 

When Shay Berman moved his digital marketing agency, Digital Resource, into new offices last year, he wanted room to grow.

The company had been on a growth tear over the past couple of years and had outgrown its 1,500 square foot offices. The trade-up: 9,000 square feet that can accommodate up to 101 employees. Now that the team is back in the office, the much roomier space seems rather prescient with the pandemic still a threat.

Berman believes a creative team like his needs to be together physically to bounce ideas off one another and collaborate. “There is a culture that’s created when we’re physically together that can’t be recreated in a digital environment,” he says. So as soon as they were able to go back to the office, they did, although they moved back into physical offices in four phases.

And when the company – now with about 55 employees — is ready to grow again, there’s room for that too.

 

‘AMAZING PROCESSES’

In the past two years, Berman has been busy putting systems and processes in place to maximize growth and efficiency. He says the company has increased services by about 50% and the team has been growing by about 15 members a year and has become more specialized. “We used to have one person doing multiple things, and now every one of our services has its own dedicated specialists,” Berman says.

Clients represent over 100 different verticals, including fitness, restaurants and bars, medical groups, retail stores and financial companies. Berman is justifiably proud to be a Great Places to Work winner twice, which says a lot about the team and the company culture.

Digital Resource has racked up a number of awards, including its third time in the Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies. Shay was also named to the South Florida Business Journal’s 40 under 40 this year and to the 4 under 40 by the American Marketing Association.

Berman believes a key to Digital Resource’s success is its focus on innovating customer service processes. That included invested in custom reporting software that will report on all aspects of the client’s digital marketing campaign. “It’s 24-7 accessible by the client, It’s manipulatable and maneuverable to where the client can look at all the different metrics they want without support from a team member here.”

The company also systemized how team members communicate with clients, and incentivized account managers for retaining clients. Now, the account managers own the relationships — and the results.

“We have optimized the last two years to have amazing processes,” Berman said, adding that Digital Resource has a two factor layer of communication among team members so “almost nothing falls through the cracks.”

BERMAN’S AMA

Berman also does one on one sessions with everyone in the company every quarter now. “They can ask me anything … and it has also allowed us to continue to innovate for clients with new ideas I never thought of.”

We did our own AMA with Berman:

Areas of growth? Over the next year, Berman wants to steer the company into a lot more automation to help clients. “So instead of just sending them a lead, we help nurture that lead and track the metrics at a level that we don’t really see other marketing companies doing.”

What about hiring? “My philosophy for hiring is hire fast, fire faster. We give a lot of people that opportunity and we expect performance right away. … When I’m in the hiring process, I look at who the person is — are they someone who I see passion in their eyes or are they looking to punch a time clock.”

Secret to culture? “I believe in being fully transparent, where people know the goals and intentions behind everything, not just for themselves or their team but for the entire company, because if you want to get everyone rowing in the same direction, everyone has to know where they’re going …  If you show people your cards and  they are on the same team, they are going to help you get the win.”

By Nikki Cabus

Member Spotlight | Shay Berman, President @ Digital Resource

Read Time 2 Minutes

#Member Spotlights are a weekly series of the Palm Beach Tech Association, featuring accomplished entrepreneurs in the Palm Beaches.

This week we feature Shay Berman, the President at Digital Resource.

Who are your clients?

Our clients are business owners of all sizes who are looking to grow their businesses using the internet as a tool.

Tell us a bit about your company or business

Digital Resource is a customized internet marketing agency delivering internet marketing services to companies of all sizes. Our proposal are based on created business goals and aligning the correct marketing to achieve those goals using the internet. We specialize in SEO, social media, Google/Facebook Ads, Live Chat management, website development and much more! Digital Resource is also the 262nd fastest-growing private company in America of 2018, as ranked by Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 500 listing. Inc. 500 is a special acknowledgement of the top 10% of companies ranked on Inc. 5000, and recognizes Digital Resource’s full-service marketing solutions among a distinguished group of businesses across the nation. This ranking is a testament to our dedicated team of internet marketing specialist and the continued success of the strategic partnerships we aim to establish with current and future clients.

Tell us a little about yourself

Shay Berman is the CEO and founder of Digital Resource, a full-service digital marketing agency located in South Florida. Shay’s clear-cut approach to internet marketing has driven his clients’ businesses to new heights and allowed Digital Resource to land on the Inc 500 list after just four years. Digital Resource provides exceptional service in social media marketing, organic search engine optimization, responsive design, and much more.

You get to have 3 things while stranded on a deserted island, what are they?

Phone, internet, electricity

What’s your favorite local hangout?

Why the Palm Beaches?

It’s paradise, from the beaches, cities and people to the business opportunities there is not much more you can ask for!

What does Community mean to you?

It means having a sense of togetherness where everyone works as one cohesive unit for the greater good.

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | Digital Resource

Read Time 3 Minutes

HQ: West Palm Beach
Business: A digital marketing agency
President: Shay Berman
No. of employees: 27

 

 

Shay Berman hasn’t been sleeping much – by design. He typically rests from 4 to 6:30 a.m. and again from 6 to 8:30 p.m. He read about successful people using this snooze strategy and thought he would give it a try.

And besides, who has time for sleep when you have a fast-growing tech company to run?

Berman is founder and president of Digital Resource, which helps clients with SEO, website design, social media and live chat services. “Everything we do is custom. We don’t do anything cookie cutter,” he said. “We will custom create a strategy that fits our client’s needs.”

Berman graduated from Michigan State in advertising, and while there his professors, who were also Google executives, helped him develop a proprietary link-building system for SEO. Then he founded a landscape construction company and dove into internet marketing to grow his business. He loved the marketing part and learned about management, but “being in the weeds literally myself was not what I wanted to do long term.”

Berman sold that business to a friend and moved to Palm Beach County “paradise” about five years ago. After working briefly for another marketing company, he thought he could do it better. Digital Resource was born on his couch.

Its customers are dentists, ice cream shops, car places, roofers, landscapers, pet stores, you name it. “We have clients that spend $300 a month and others are spending tens of thousands – it really depends on what they are trying to accomplish.”

Many of them come for the SEO services but social media marketing is also a big company focus.

Unfortunately, companies often don’t do that well on their own, Berman said. “They think that they don’t have to be personable through their presence or they think it will be the be-all- end-all to get them success. It has to be worked at and earned and you have to play the long game with it.”

Berman believes 2018 will be the year of video marketing but he also thinks managed live chat is underutilized: “There is no other medium online that allows you to reach out to the potential customer before they reach out to you.”

Today, Digital Resource has 27 employees, tripling in the last year because it strengthened relationships with strategic partners and focused harder on sales and client retention.

“Our goal is to double if not triple again this year,” he said. “We have hundreds of customers in the state of Florida alone. We are keeping our revenues private but I will tell you that we will place on the Inc 500 list of the 500 top companies this year. It’s not official but based on the past year we will qualify this year.”

Company culture is key, he said: “When a business gets to this size, it is the people that drive it. We try to live by our three principles in everything we do: transparency, fun, efficiency. I want my employees to feel like when they wake up in the morning this is where they really want to go.”

The office exudes energy, with writing all over every wall. Said Berman, “We call it organized chaos and it is how I think, too.”

By Nikki Cabus

#MadeInPBC | Shay Berman, President @ Digital Resource

Read Time < 1 Minute

#MadeInPBC Spotlights are a weekly series of the Palm Beach Tech Association, featuring accomplished entrepreneurs in the Palm Beaches.

This week we profile Shay Berman, Founder & President of Digital Resource, a digital marketing company for small and medium businesses.

What is your business?

Digital Resource is a full service South Florida SEO and internet marketing company in Downtown West Palm Beach.

Who are your clients?

Business owners of all sizes throughout the United States.

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

Not being able to stay inside the box.

What’s your favorite part about what you do?

The freedom to take risks and get rewards.

Fun Facts?

I almost restarted my landscape construction company before I decided that internet marketing was my passion.

Why the Palm Beaches?

The warm and sunny environment keeps not only myself but my team working hard and happy.

How has Palm Beach Tech helped you?

We are new members, but already we feel more apart of the thriving digital & tech community here in the Palm Beaches.

West Palm Beach-based Digital Resource acquires South Florida territory Fortune Management
How culture and strategic decisions helped Digital Resource double in size
394 Florida companies make the 2022 Inc. 5000 list; South Florida strong with 171
Member Spotlight | Digital Resource
Member Spotlight | Digital Resource & Shay Berman
Member Spotlight | Shay Berman, President @ Digital Resource
Member Spotlight | Digital Resource
#MadeInPBC | Shay Berman, President @ Digital Resource