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SharpSpring

Rick Carlson created Gainesville-based SharpSpring to help marketing firms measure the success of their efforts across all advertising platforms — from social media websites to print. “It’s one thing to be able to execute on all these new tactics,” Carlson says. “It’s another thing entirely to be able to analyze and understand what is working.”

SharpSpring offers online software to help businesses collect sales leads, analyze where those leads are coming from and use that information to optimize and automate sales and marketing efforts. He started the company in December 2011 and now has six employees. “We work with marketing firm partners who use our product to better establish the (return on investment) of what they are doing for their customers.”