Using Facebook For Lead Generation: Underground Elephant CEO Jason Kulpa (Part 1)

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Jason Kulpa founded Underground Elephant in 2008. Underground Elephant is a leader in technology-based marketing, and is one of the fastest-growing advertising agencies in San Diego. Kulpa was recently recognized for his outstanding leadership, and awarded the “Most Admired CEO” award by the San Diego Business Journal in 2010. He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and has a bachelor of science in business and Communication from Arizona State University.

Sramana: Jason, would you give us some context to begin your story? Where did you grow up?

Jason Kulpa: I was born in Chicago and moved to Arizona when I was very young. I grew up in Yuma, which is a small town that borders Mexico. I attended Arizona State University. I moved out to San Diego 10 years ago without a job or a plan and discovered the Internet marketing world.

Sramana: How did you discover Internet marketing, and how did that lead up to the genesis of the venture that you founded?

Jason Kulpa: When I moved to San Diego I took an entry-level position at an email marketing firm. Most of my work experience was in print media. I was familiar with print advertising such as circulation and readers. I took a job where I was a salesperson who contacted people and get them to hire us to send out bulk emails for them, for example we would send out 5 million email messages for a specific price. That is where I got my start in the Internet.

When I started I did not understand what a CPM was or how it all worked. I had to restart my career and it was a brand new experience for me. That experience was in a market that I felt was inefficient, and that experience ultimately led to the founding of Underground Elephant.

Sramana: What were the inefficiencies you noticed?

Jason Kulpa: When I first came to San Diego I was working in email marketing, but that gradually moved into lead generation, which was the performance model of email marketing. After that first job I started a company which arbitraged leads. We were sitting in the middle, aggregating different sources of publishers and providing them to clients. I grew that company to the point that it had revenues of $5 million per year.

I felt this was inefficient because we had lack of controls in the market. My vision was to create an entity that took control, from start to finish, of the entire process. I then sold that company and used some of those proceeds to start Underground Elephant. I was able to sell the previous company for more than $10 million.

Sramana: When did you found Underground Elephant?

Jason Kulpa: I started it in 2008.

Sramana: What were the circumstances? Where there other people involved?

Jason Kulpa: The company has been bootstrapped. I had a vision for a more efficient way to connect consumers with clients. I started the company to further the vision of creating a more efficient marketplace. I started the company by myself. I placed an ad in Craigslist and started hiring employees.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Using Facebook For Lead Generation: Underground Elephant CEO Jason Kulpa
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