Text Request, the Chattanooga-based business texting platform start-up, reported last week that it shattered 2020 annual growth estimates by surpassing the $5 million revenue threshold.
According to this news release, the company has enjoyed rapid revenue acceleration over the past few years. Text Request topped the $1 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) mark in 2018 before hitting the $2 million ARR mark at the close of 2019. In June of this year, Text Request eclipsed the $3 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) mark on their way to their recent sales record.
A little more than a year ago, we posted this article on teknovation.biz about the then five-year old company’s trajectory. “I’m excited for our future,” Brian Elrod, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, told us at the time. Part of his optimism came from the numbers he cited – 16 new employees added and $2 million in ARR – that came without any outside investment.
“Earlier this year when the COVID-19 pandemic began wreaking economic havoc, we, just like countless others, were unsure how it would ultimately impact our bottom line,” Elrod noted. “However, we ended up growing far faster than our most optimistic estimates, as businesses that usually are slow to adapt to change began adopting new communication strategies almost overnight.”
Now, he says the company has reached a place that is an aspiration for all start-ups.
“It’s safe to say that 2020 is the year we’ve hit the ‘hockey stick’ growth phase,” Elrod says. “And it’s a testament to how resilient our team is that we’ve been able to accommodate such rapid growth while maintaining our strong customer service culture. At Text Request, we’ve long been committed to doing all the small things right over and over again, and this has been the year that all those little things have turned into big wins — bigger than we expected — across the board.”