Rich Lancaster

Digital marketing consulting. Branding and strategic messaging. Company due diligence. Business planning. M&A advice. Start ups, fundraising. Charity event planning.

United Creations needed some temporary senior management support through a transitional period in the company's long and highly productive history. My primary role was to work on operational management, help right-size the company, improve efficiency, grow major opportunities and negotiate key contracts.

Upmod was a social sharing marketplace for buyers and sellers of environmentally-conscious products made from used raw materials, known as upcycling. Upcycling is a major societal trend, but is still little understood as an industry, Upmod intended to change that and to consolidate aspects of this emerging space. We grew the marketplace to nearly 400 stores and thousands of members, utilizing content management and social media marketing strategies and tools. We blazed a trail in a socially conscious, emerging industry that promotes sustainable consumption. At the end of the day there was too little revenue from the traffic we generated - people just weren't prepared to purchase frequently enough, and the amount of funding required to get Upmod to profitability was prohibitive. So the company was wound up. This was an exciting experiment in an emerging, socially-conscious environment that unfortunately didn't get across the chasm! Perhaps we were 5 years too early?

AccuData is the undisputed leader in the marketing data reseller industry, as well as a leading provider of big data integrated marketing technologies and solutions. Moved from parent company, Compact, to take direct control of the newly acquired company. AccuData was a failed consolidation by 2 separate private equity firms, & had been managed by the banks workout consultants for 2 years. The goal was to return the company to healthy margins & redirect the 3 diverse business units towards a sustainable future. Improved EBITDA performance 150%+ over the 2012 calendar year. In addition, in March 2012 completed the acquisition of DaVinci Marketing Technologies in Atlanta, GA, in order to create a social media and direct marketing campaign management portal.

Served as COO then CEO of CIS, a national data compiler of consumer marketing data, with high EBITDA margins that had reached its full potential with its existing direction & needed reinventing. Used the high degree of profitability to engineer R&D for new product development, as well as raise $30MM+ for an acquisition strategy designed for rapid growth. Acquired Data Solutions of America to become a national provider of automotive data, then acquired AccuData Integrated Marketing. Relocated to Florida to take direct control of AccuData in order to effect a turnaround.

President of Printing Control, a CGX (RR Donnelly) business unit reporting to the CEO. This old established commercial printer was in trouble with a large annual loss & dropping revenues. Operational excellence was needed in order to turn it around quickly. Right sized staff over 12 months, whilst increasing revenues. Turned net income of -10% in to +12.5% in 3 years. Implemented digital press, fulfillment, online solutions & letter shop technology to drive new revenues & engender customer loyalty.

Founded CobWeb in 1994 with the explicit goal of “helping customers transact profitably on the Internet.” Created a profitable e-commerce web development firm & ISP business that evolved in to a SAAS platform play that was funded by Investment Bank, Lazard, as a roll-up of 7 web technology firms spread across the US. Raised $17MM through a combination of CobWeb direct investment & bank financing of the roll-up. All definitive merger agreements were complete when the private equity window closed, and the Dot Bomb implosion occurred - leading, ultimately, to the closure of CobWeb in May 2002. Sold the CobWeb ISP business to Verio in 1999.

Joined the company (then called OneComm) at start up. Launched the first Text Messaging Platform on the Pacific Northwest Network in 1995. I acquired software that enabled the Motorola iDen network to accept 144 character text messages between handsets on the network, this was branded iPage and became the first ever text messaging application to run on a major US wireless network.I also implemented sales force automation across OneComm/Nextel that was adopted by 400 sales reps nationally. I left the company to grow my own company.