ThriveHive breaks local business out of cookie-cutter marketing mold

ThriveHive, a startup that provides a comprehensive marketing platform for local businesses, just announced that it’s closed a $1.5 million seed funding round today. The money will contribute towards customer acquisition and further developing the software, which creates custom marketing plans and marketing tools for small businesses.

ThriveHive customers answer a set of questions about their current marketing practices and receive an initial assessment. Businesses can begin with a 30-day free trial and then choose from multiple subscription options, ranging from $99 to $699 a month.

The ThriveHive platform offers big data analysis in addition to monthly marketing performance reports, support for marketing campaigns, and organizational tools that help local businesses manage their activities. It also looks at what strategies will be most effective for growth based on the idea that each local business is unique and the marketing should be unique as well.

“We believe that local business marketing is broken today,” said ThriveHive CEO Max Faingezicht in a press release. “The current choices for these small business owners to grow their businesses are either one-size-fits-all solutions or point solutions that do not address all their marketing needs.”

In addition to big data analysis, the three founders of ThriveHive also use their expertise to tailor custom marketing plans. Faingezicht and COO Adam Blake are graduates of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. They are both entrepreneurs who grew frustrated with the current model and marketing tools available for small businesses. Third founder Maria Battaglia has experience as a marketing executive at large companies Monster.com, NBC, and IBM.

Competitors include Hubspot and Intuit, a provider of business and financial management tools for small businesses, which acquired marketing software-as-a-service company Demandforce for $423.5 million this past April.

The first round of investors included MIT Professor Ed Roberts, Mitch Roberts, and Jean Hammond, as well as seed stage venture capital groups Founder Collective and IBCC. ThriveHive was founded in 2011 and is based in Cambridge, Mass.