Vancouver-based communications software startup Broadsight has hired Steve Lowry as its next CEO.
Lowry, who had been advising Broadsight for a year and a half, assumed the role earlier this month. He replaces Broadsight co-founder and senior public relations (PR) professional Kurt Heinrich, who has transitioned to chief strategy officer (CSO).
“It just struck me as a great opportunity to create a category … There are companies involved in PR tech, but from what I’ve seen, no one is doing exactly what we’re doing,” Lowry told BetaKit in an interview.
“It just struck me as a great opportunity to create a category.”
Steve Lowry, Broadsight
Broadsight, which aims to build “the Salesforce for comms,” offers a web-based workflow management platform for PR and communications professionals. The startup’s software aims to help media relations teams manage communications, media requests, and issues more efficiently with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and track the impact of their work.
Heinrich, who is executive director of media relations and issues management at the University of British Columbia (UBC), initially launched Broadsight as a Google Sheet database to satisfy his own needs. Over time, it has spun out of UBC and grown into a standalone company whose software has also been adopted by other large universities and organizations.
Lowry said Heinrich recently decided to step aside and recruit a new leader with more experience building tech startups to lead Broadsight through its next stage of growth, but will remain very involved with the business going forward. Broadsight co-founder and CTO John-Jose Nunez rounds out the company’s three-member C-suite.
Lowry has previously launched and built two tech startups of his own—in-cab advertising business Play Taxi Media and online ad marketplace Discover Media House—and spent some time working in corporate development roles with two prominent British Columbia tech companies in social media management firm Hootsuite and legaltech scaleup Clio.
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He also served as vice president of technology banking at Silicon Valley Bank and helped found Vancouver innovation advocacy organization Frontier Collective and the AI Network of British Columbia.
Lowry said he hopes to use his experience and network to build Broadsight into “a one-stop shop” for professionals to communicate with journalists and manage their teams.
To date, Broadsight has largely been self-financed, raising less than $100,000 CAD in external funding from friends and family.
According to Lowry, the now nine-person startup has grown 10 percent month-over-month during the last six months, caters to 15 large clients—including four of Canada’s top 10 universities by enrollment and a number of health authorities—and is approaching profitability.
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Lowry indicated that Broadsight is looking to raise $500,000 in pre-seed financing this year, but is mindful of current market conditions and has not yet fully committed to the venture capital route.
Broadsight is currently targeting large organizations faced with managing inbound requests and public scrutiny. In the future, Lowry sees potential for it to meet the needs of clients of all sizes.
Lowry also believes there is more room for Broadsight to deploy AI tools, noting the startup is already using the tech to analyze and summarize emails from journalists and help generate key messaging. The goal is to remove busy work and free up communications professionals to focus on crafting responses and building relationships.
Feature image courtesy Broadsight.