Prime Invincibility

Melville, NY- (The New York Enterprise Report)

How a Long Island lawyer with little technology skill built a successful Internet company

The former president of NBC Universal doesn’t come knocking on everyone’s door, offering to buy their company. But that is just what Steve Rosenberg did for Prime Visibility, an Internet marketing services firm specializing in search engine optimization (SEO ), website on-page optimization, and pay-per-click management. The company’s 2007 revenue was nearly $5 million and was ranked on Inc.’s 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America in 2007 and 2008. Their clients include Fox News, Brother Printers, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Nielsen. Prime Visibility CEO and founder Andrew Hazen has come a long way from his days as a lawyer doing mortgage foreclosures.After failing out of SUNY Oswego twice (a result of excessive partying) Hazen graduated in 1995 and went on to attend Thomas M. Cooley Law School from 1996 to 1998. During his studies, he took a class in cyber law. It was in that class that Hazen created his first website; it was a simple site that helped law students. He linked to different case laws and old exams to help students prepare for class. Soon after launching the class project site, an attorney in Texas found the website and wanted to hire him to do case law research. He figured if an attorney was willing to pay him for research, there must be a huge market of lazy students who would pay him, too. In 1996, he registered Lazystudents.com and launched an online business while still a full-time law student. The website offered two services: a subscription-based database of useful links for students in all subjects and a custom research service. “Google didn’t even exist yet,” says Hazen. “What I was doing was almost like a mini Yahoo. But I’m not a techie or a programmer. The funny part was I charged everybody a $9.95 fee, but I gave every person the same password, which was, ‘lazy link,’ because I couldn’t figure out how to create multiple passwords.”

The Start of SEO

Hazen wanted to market his site online, but with his student loans piling up he couldn’t afford to advertise with services such as Collegeclub.com and Student Advantage. Instead, Hazen set the goal of getting his website to appear on the first page of Yahoo results for the search “term papers.” He began reading online forums and getting ideas. Through a lot of trial and error, he got his website to appear third in a list of 8.8 million results.

In addition to running his online business, Hazen graduated a three-year law program in two years. He passed the bar, returned to Long Island, and began practicing law. “I was doing mortgage foreclosures,” says Hazen. “I was going to court and throwing people out of their houses and feeling terribly guilty about it. Then I had this idea to put all the Long Island businesses on the Internet and get them found.” In 1998, without discussing his plan with his wife, he went into the office of the owner of his law firm to resign. “I told him I’m going to follow my dream and start an Internet company,” says Hazen. “That conversation turned into the owner offering to back me, give me seed money, and be my partner.” The law firm moved a couple of administrative assistants out of a corner, put up drywall, and that was the first Prime Visibility office.

Growing the Company

According to Hazen there were two major catalysts for the growth of his business from two slabs of drywall to millions in revenue. In 2000, Tourneau and Lauren Hutton signed on as clients, giving the company a higher level of credibility. The second catalyst was a 2003 documentary called “The Google Boys” that appeared on A&E’s Biography channel. It was a one hour special about Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, and the producers interviewed Hazen about SEO. He appeared in the documentary for only three minutes and fifty-two seconds, but the publicity was priceless. “If you go to YouTube right now and type in ‘search engine marketing,’ that video is number one,” says Hazen. “So now, people actually think that Google’s recommending me because they see me on a special with Larry and Sergey—not in the same screen, but one minute they’re looking at Larry and Sergey, the next it’s this guy from Prime Visibility.”

Hiring for an Emerging Industry

Since Prime Visibility was a pioneer in the SEO industry, finding qualified employees was a major challenge for Hazen. “There wasn’t a real career for search engine optimization,” he says. “So, I hired web designers that I could teach to do optimization. Unfortunately, we went through a period when people would come to us for a year or two, get paid about $30,000 or $40,000 and learn optimization. Then, they’d take what we taught them, and go get a job in Manhattan and make $70,000. I used to call it Prime Visibility University.” Prime Visibility now combats turnover with employee stock options. The benefit has increased employee retention and employee commitment to the success of the business.

Selling the Business

Hazen’s partners from the law firm did not interfere with the running of the business nor did they take any money out of the company. However, the company was making millions in revenue and Hazen wanted to buy them out. After years of working on a deal, he bought out his partners in 2006. “I finally closed a deal where I bought out my original partners from the law firm,” says Hazen. “In theory, nothing changed with the operations, but I just felt good that I owned a hundred percent of the company.”

Three months later, in November 2006, Hazen was introduced to Steve Rosenberg, the former president of NBC Television. When Rosenberg left NBC in 2004, he noticed a seismic shift in advertising dollars going from television to digital and decided to invest in Internet companies. After being introduced to Hazen, Rosenberg decided to examine the idea of acquiring Prime Visibility “Steve basically went out, raised money, and acquired my company,” says Hazen, who closed on the sale December 28, 2007; he now owns a stake and also serves as CEO.

Hazen captured the trials and tribulations of the selling process with a reality show called “STARTUP.” He co-produced and starred in the program, which appeared on hdonlinecinema.com. The show featured Hazen stressing out about his company “showing really good numbers” to the investors. “I had to run the company lean and mean. It got to the point when my wife called me to tell me that my seven year old went to go get a haircut and the credit card was declined because I owed American Express $185,000.”

Hazen says he’s a workaholic, and he means that in a good way. “I know that whether you’re Donald Trump or Andrew Hazen or Guy Kawasaki, there are twenty-four hours in a day and what you decide to do with them will make or break your future.”

Original Article Published March 2009