Insercorp celebrating 10th anniversary

Published 1:46 pm Saturday, November 11, 2017

FRANKLIN
Insercorp Ltd. announces it has achieved another major milestone for a small startup business by celebrating 10 years in business. The celebration included community and business events throughout the month of September as well as the launch of a new version of Insercorp’s flagship product, iPlasmaCMS2 — a website content management system which is used by businesses, education, government, health care providers, and non-profit organizations.

“It’s been a long and challenging journey to make it to the 10-year mark after having started with nothing but a laptop and $100 back in 2007,” said Tim Bradshaw, founder and CEO of Insercorp LTD.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Business Employment Dynamics, only about 30 percent (less than ⅓) of all small businesses make it to the 10-year mark. It is quite the accomplishment for the company to reach the 10-year milestone considering it has operated the way it started debt free with no loans and no outside investment.

In 2003, Tim Bradshaw had launched his first major Internet endeavor, GamePlasma: an independent online media outlet centered on the interactive entertainment industry. The GamePlasma Network was in the top 1 percent of websites according to Alexa Rankings at its peak from 2004-2006, delivering daily video game news, reviews, previews, interviews and multimedia to a million monthly users. By 2006, Tim had hired programmer Josh Kimbrel to develop a custom content management system for GamePlasma and its network of online communities and affiliates.

On Sept. 12, 2007, Tim and Josh formed Bradshaw-Kimbrel Technology Group LLC (BKTG) to provide better quality website solutions to the commercial market by using advanced technologies and methods developed for the GamePlasma Network. BKTG was accepted into the Franklin Business Incubator in the Spring of 2008 where the new startup established its headquarters providing sales, consulting, and support services while operations and production were managed by Josh and his team of developers in Georgia.

Having understood the need for non-technical users to be able to easily manage content on their websites BKTG immediately began developing iPlasmaCMS, which was to be designed to be modular and scalable and intended to allow the operation of any type of website.

Built on an enterprise framework the first version of iPlasmaCMS launched in 2008. Over the next year as BKTG created its footprint in the Hampton Roads market and began community-focused projects in its backyard by supporting events like We Be Jammin the development team was hard at work implementing methods and practices that Tim had discovered during his time as Publisher of GamePlasma which had been accredited and recognized as one of 20 interactive entertainment publications worldwide to determine the industry-recognized “GameRankings” score for video games (similar to Nielsen Ratings for the television market). As BKTG began to grow and Tim’s focus shifted away from the video game industry, GamePlasma was eventually shut down while its servers were repurposed for BKTG’s expanding client base. By 2009, BKTG had already designed and developed dozens of websites, having launched a website for its first government client, the Town of Smithfield.

BKTG Graduates from the Franklin Business Incubator

In April 2009, having relied on contractors and commission-based sales representatives BKTG hired its first employee and moved its headquarters to the other side of Downtown Franklin at 105 W. 1st Avenue. The move proved BKTG’s solvency and garnered media exposure and support from the local and regional communities, continuing to exceed clients’ expectations with every new project.

In August 2009, while redesigning a website for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce iPlasmaCMS 2.0 was launched as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform where clients would receive automatic updates, bug fixes, security patches, managed web hosting, as well as support and training for a low annual fee. Later that year and shortly after BKTG’s 2-year anniversary Tim had acquired Josh’s half of BKTG to consolidate operations and deliver more reliable services to clients.

A New Era Begins: Insercorp incorporates

In April 2010, the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved BKTG’s entity conversion and incorporation as Insercorp Ltd., a Virginia corporation. Originally intended as an acronym for “Integrated Services Corporation,” Insercorp was meant to be a new-age tech company name which could outgrow and outlive its founder and president Tim Bradshaw.

In 2012, Insercorp was recognized by the Office of the Governor of Virginia for Job Creator Appreciation Month and Bradshaw was one of 100 entrepreneurs from across the Commonwealth who was invited to participate in the 2012 Year of the Entrepreneur Kick-Off Event at the Capitol.

Insercorp sets its beliefs in building strong and lasting relationships with its clients and vendors. Insercorp provides scalable solutions to accommodate the varying needs of its clients, treated more like business partners, sharing knowledge and experience and always looking for the best value. Insercorp’s success is through helping its clients succeed.

With a heavy focus on building a better community Insercorp has provided sponsorships in addition to donating time and services through volunteering and in-kind services year round to organizations like the Downtown Franklin Association and the Asian Business Association of Hampton Roads. Insercorp also supports the small business community through the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce by sponsoring events like the Hampton Roads Transportation Summit and ProcureCon Richmond.

Making the move to Main Street

In October 2014, Insercorp relocated to its permanent headquarters as the anchor tenant of the newly opened “Bradshaw Building” in Downtown Franklin.

Located at 300 N. Main St., Insercorp’s new office is easily accessible with street parking and nearby public parking lots. The new location has allowed Insercorp to further grow as a focal point of Franklin’s business community while serving as a resource for young undeveloped talent offering internships and apprenticeships to individuals and through programs such as Opportunity Inc.

By 2017, Insercorp, had successfully delivered over 200 website projects since its inception and had expanded its services to include comprehensive, award-winning creative services, transforming into a full service digital marketing agency.

Accelerating Growth

Over the years, Insercorp has developed strategic relationships with key partners and vendors to deliver cutting edge solutions to its clients. As a GoDaddy Premier Services customer (and one of GoDaddy’s oldest dedicated hosting customers) Insercorp is able to provide state-of-the-art hosting solutions. Insercorp’s brand YouRegister.net provides additional services including domain name registration and management, SSL certificates, business-class email services, and more.

This year, Insercorp has announced partnerships with several companies to provide additional integrated solutions for its increasingly diverse client base. Insercorp is a Certified Solutions Provider for Constant Contact, the global leader in email marketing.

Through its partnership with Plesk Inc., Insercorp is also an authorized distributor of Plesk Onyx, the leading WebOps platform to run, automate and grow applications, websites and hosting businesses.

With the help of Plesk, Insercorp is also developing a relationship with Amazon Web Services, the leader in Cloud hosting infrastructure, with the goal of offering automated cloud solutions by the end of this year.

In addition to building and growing relationships with these key players in the Web industry Insercorp has invested in outreach to the Web Development Community by sponsoring events such as Revolution Conference in Virginia Beach.

A Celebration for the Community

Insercorp’s successes would not have come to fruition if not for the unwavering support of the community. In September, Insercorp launched its 10-year anniversary celebration with the announcement of several events to celebrate this major milestone with its local community in Franklin.

The celebration was kicked off with two public events for the local community: Insercorp’s 10-Year Community Birthday Bash and the Birthday Bash After-Party at Fred’s. The two community events were held back-to-back on Thursday, Sept. 7, at Barrett’s Landing in Downtown Franklin. Presented by the Downtown Franklin Association, Insercorp was able to sponsor a free concert to end the summer featuring the Popwire Band. Over 300 attendees enjoyed live music, beverages, food, dancing, and fun throughout the evening. Local radio station and one of Insercorp’s oldest clients, Real Country 101.7, sponsored a raffle to win tickets to see the Zac Brown Band, which Southampton native Bridget Rose (recent winner of the FM99 Rock Girl Contest) helped Insercorp in drawing and announcing the winner. An exclusive Snapchat Geofilter was available during the event displaying Insercorp’s 10-year anniversary celebration logo. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Downtown Franklin Association to support our local community.

The after-party at Fred’s saw a special return appearance of Franklin’s own DJ David “Squirrel” Floyd and the party was held in honor and memoriam of Insercorp’s friend and longtime supporter, DJ Tony “ToeKnee” Longoria, who passed away in a fatal accident last year. Tony and David worked with DJ Wayne Cook with Coast 2 Coast DJs, which was one of BKTG’s first clients while in the Franklin Business Incubator.

The celebration continued throughout September with a business function at the newly opened Franklin’s Seafood & Steakhouse in Downtown Franklin. This private event brought together Insercorp’s team with its clients, vendors, partners and friends in a business networking atmosphere with special presentations about Insercorp’s history as well as its economic and community impact.

As a gift to its clients for allowing Insercorp to achieve this great milestone, the growing tech startup launched version 2.8 of iPlasmaCMS, its proprietary web-based content management system, with an all new interface and responsive design, making it even easier for the non-tech savvy website administrator to update their website on the go! iPlasmaCMS is an enterprise web application built on the Zend Framework, and used by dozens of organizations throughout Hampton Roads including businesses, government agencies, non-profit organizations, health care providers and education institutions.

Forward to the future

Leveraging key relationships in the local, regional, and digital communities has allowed Insercorp to sustain 45 percent growth in revenue year-over-year for three consecutive years.

The company has continued to increase its Operations and Support team here in Franklin, as well as increasing its capacity by bringing on specialists as associate developers and consultants to be able to manage larger projects.

Applying its experience and knowledge developing its own enterprise app, Insercorp’s services have expanded in recent years to become a solutions provider for other startups in need of a technology partner to develop custom web-based applications.

Insercorp looks forward to many more anniversary celebrations in the future as its footprint continues to grow as a leader in innovative and creative solutions for marketing and technology with clients across the United States, and strategic partnerships with key hosting infrastructure, content distribution, and web security partners.