Talking Small Biz: In the lead, from dorm room to Cira Centre

STEPHEN GILL AND Zachary Robbins, both 26 and of Center City, cofounded Leadnomics in 2007 while classmates at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. The company, now based in the Cira Centre next to 30th Street Station, generates leads for banks and insurance companies with online advertising campaigns. The fast-growing company employs 35. I spoke with Gill.

Q: How's the business model work?

A: We own a portal, a micro-content website for auto insurance. Cheapquotesdirect.com is one such site. People go there and enter their information, make and model of cars, casual information about their driving history. Insurance companies who are clients use the marketing information to generate quotes and contact consumers with rate offerings.

Q: Hence, Leadnomics?

A: I think the name bridges the gap between traditional and online marketing. It's unique, easy to understand and synthesizes the concept of generating leads for consumers with the right economics for our partners. So the insurance companies or their agencies pay us for every single customer we deliver to them through our online-marketing sites.

Q: How'd you fund the start-up?

A: I had a marketing business between 2004 and 2007. We rolled some of the profit into starting Leadnomics at Rowan, a classic dorm-room start-up. Then we got an office and began hiring.

Q: What's the biggest challenge you've faced?

A: Finding talent. We're fortunate enough to be in this space [Cira Centre] and we have some tax incentives from the state and city to be in this Opportunity Zone. That's one of the reasons we came here. But recruiting good people is hard.

Q: So the brain drain is still a problem?

A: Oh, yeah, for sure. I think with New York being so close, the first place [would-be hires] look is New York and find a job there and don't even look in their own back yard here. So we try to get out there and compete, but there are probably opportunities to hire we haven't tapped yet.

Q: The Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing companies said that between 2008 and 2011 your revenues grew more than 6,400 percent to more than $11 million. How'd you do last year?

A: Our goal is to double [revenues] every year, and we did that in 2012 and hope to do it this year.

Q: So you're a $22 million company?

A: That's a good guess.

Q: So how do you and Zach divvy up the job responsibilities?

A: Zach and I brought on a COO in December. Zach focuses on daily operational stuff. I focus more on growth strategy, recruiting and business development.