Shake-up at Collective Bias as CEO John Andrews Exits

Now that Collective Bias has arrived, its leader has departed.

John Andrews, the co-founder and CEO of the Bentonville-based emerging media company, abruptly resigned June 10.

He announced his departure to the company’s employees during a meeting that day, a Monday.

Collective Bias issued a news release the following day to announce Bentonville-based Nickelodeon executive Bill Sussman as his successor. Sussman’s first official day as the privately held company’s top executive was actually several days earlier, June 3.

“Most of the leadership knew [prior to June 10], but it was really a tough day,” Andrews said. “It was a hard decision. Starting a company is like having a child. You watch it grow and you want it to be successful and be the best it can be. So from that aspect, certainly, it was tough.”

Andrews, 46, said his exit would not lessen his interest in Collective Bias, which focuses on the intersection of mobile/social media and social shopper marketing.

The company uses a proprietary community of bloggers — a group that is rapidly approaching 2,000 individuals, Sussman said — called Social Fabric to connect consumers with the brands and the retailers they use in their daily lives.

The feedback that’s collected drives conversation among consumers on a wide variety of social media platforms.

The global company has satellite offices in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Toronto and London.

“I’m still a big shareholder,” Andrews said. “I will keep being interested and I am excited about where this is going to go on both sides — mine and theirs.”

Both Sussman and Andrews worked for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. several years ago, and have remained friends through the years.

“This is what entrepreneurs do,” Sussman offered as his take on Andrews’ exit. “He had a four-year plan for this company, he saw it through, he did it, now it’s on to the next big thing.”

 

New Curiosities

So what’s next for Andrews? The answer is tied to why he would leave the thriving startup in the first place.

“I really started taking a hard look about a month ago,” Andrews explained. “The last four years have been awesome. We’ve done some really cool things and got Collective Bias past the startup stage.

“But thinking about where my skills and my passion are, and it’s in the formation growth stage. There is a really great team in place to take that company to the next level, but it’s a good time for me to step back and look at some different things.”

Just as social media and social shopper marketing grabbed Andrews’ interest five years ago, he mentioned community-powered applications and wearable technologies as emerging fields that he is now curious about — and moving quickly to get more involved with.

Wearable technologies are clothing and accessories that incorporate computer and advanced electronic technologies. Nike’s FuelBand — worn around the wrist — is an example. Google Glass — which isn’t in the hands of consumers yet — is another.

Gabriel Shaoolian, founder of Blue Mountain Media, wrote in Forbes magazine in May that wearable tech is well on its way to a “pervasive consumer reality,” mentioning examples like purses with smartphone chargers, jackets that automatically cool a person down or warm them up as the weather demands, or smart shirts that monitor a person’s heart rate and vital signs with embedded programming that can make an automatic call for medical help.

Wearable tech, Shaoolian wrote, has made the greatest initial advances thus far in medical, fitness and military implementations.

But, according to research firm IMS, the industry is potentially a $6 billion market by 2016.

“It is a fascinating technology and I wonder how it might apply to different things; there’s something there,” Andrews said. “What I am overwhelmed with is there is a lot of stuff out there, and the key to being successful in the marketplace is really narrowing your focus and having a hyperfocus.”

 

Growing the Company

As for Collective Bias, Sussman, 42, takes over a company that has experienced rapid growth since it was founded in May 2009 by Andrews and Amy Callahan, who is still with the company as chief operating officer.

In its first full year, Collective Bias had revenue that approached $2 million in 2010.

Andrews told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal in December he expected the company to produce revenue between $7 million and $8 million in 2012.

The number settled at just under $10 million, Sussman confirmed, and projections for 2013 put revenue figures between $17 million and $20 million.

Sussman said there is every reason to think the company can post triple-digit growth again for two years after that, which would make Collective Bias a $70 million to $80 million company by the end of 2015.

“You change CEOs for a number of reasons, sometimes when a company is not working,” Sussman said. “That certainly is not the case here. When they brought me in, they said, ‘Bill, we don’t need you to change a thing. We need you to grow the company, but don’t change a thing.’”

The company also gained the eye of Forbes magazine in February when it was ranked No. 100 in the magazine’s annual ranking of America’s Most Promising Companies.

Collective Bias reported 67 employees in April when it announced a $10.5 million Series A investment round.

Updata Partners of Washington, D.C., one of the country’s top technology-focused growth equity firms — with nearly $500 million of capital under management — provided the majority of the money.

The capital is helping Collective Bias scale its efforts to further expand its business model throughout the U.S. and abroad, and is expected to increase its clientele, which already includes major Fortune 100 companies such as Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc., Duane Reade and Disney Co.

Sussman said Collective Bias now has more than 80 employees worldwide, with 61 employees working from its Bentonville headquarters.

Sussman, a New York native, has been in Northwest Arkansas off and on for a decade, although his introduction to the area came in 1997 when he arrived for his first tour of duty.

Most recently, he was vice president of retail development and marketing for Nickelodeon, leading the consumer products business for Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club for the last two years.

He also led the Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club account for Tampa-based digital marketing agency Triad Retail Media from 2007 to 2011. His time there helped pave the way to his current job.

Sussman also led U.S. marketing strategy and international advertising and marketing for Wal-Mart from 2003 to 2005.

During his time at Nickelodeon, Sussman was responsible for launching several new brands with Wal-Mart, driving retail sales over a two-year period.

“Bill is a guy who has done this growth acceleration before with Triad, and that is exciting to have a guy like that on your team,” Andrews said. “Everything is aligned for Collective Bias to really explode.”

 

At Home in NWA

Andrews, a deep-rooted North Carolina native who still owns a home in Raleigh, said he plans to remain in Northwest Arkansas while pursuing his next endeavor.

“It would have to be something pretty compelling to be somewhere else; this is the Silicon Valley of retail,” he said. “And it’s not just Wal-Mart. They power it, but it’s the entire ecosystem built around it. It’s hard to find a place that has more raw talent than this area.

“But if I ever did move, it would probably be back to North Carolina. Probably to Chapel Hill. It reminds me a lot of Fayetteville, to be honest. Same kind of thing. It’s a place that’s really got a lot of energy and lots of smart people.”

 Andrews added he isn’t in a great hurry to do anything right off the bat while decompressing from Collective Bias.

Mornings spent sipping coffee on the back deck at Arsaga’s in Fayetteville have been common.

Spending time with his wife and 7-year-old daughter is also taking precedence, as is returning to his roots as a retailer.

Andrews, who spent more than two decades in CPG marketing for Sara Lee, Kodak, Newell Rubbermaid and Wal-Mart before starting Collective Bias, said one of his first afternoons following his departure was spent doing his own version of retail therapy — going on store walks.

“That is good old-fashioned retail,” he said. “I haven’t store-walked in a year, like I should. And that’s bad. That is the core of how we built this business. It’s not much fun, but it is if you are a retail geek like me.”