Uberflip CEO Yoav Schwartz on empowering better content experiences

Toronto-based Uberflip began in 2012 when CEO Yoav Schwartz and President & CMO Randy Frisch put their heads together to build Flipbooks, a platform used to help marketers create interactive PDFs for their customers. From there, they began to wonder if more could be done.

“We began asking ourselves how we could really help marketers take content and create great user experiences online, backing it up with data to show them how effective their content is,” Schwartz says.

With that vision, Schwartz and Frisch created Uberflip, evolving from its conception to a well-rounded platform for the multifaceted needs of today’s marketers.

About Uberflip

Today, the company has about 140 employees. Their most recent funding was in April 2018, a round of $32 million Series A. Their total valuation comes to $36 million, and they’re still early stage venture.

Here’s a snapshot of Uberflip’s customers:

We sat down with CEO Schwartz to hear more about how the company has grown and where it plans to go next.

ClickZ: How did you first begin expanding from Flipbooks?

Yoav Schwartz: When we first started, we saw marketers struggling with how to better use static content like PDFs. We then saw the same struggles with social media, blogs, etc. What marketers were delivering to users was out of their control because they didn’t have adequate tools to help them do their job. So we began with the basics.

We first began with a Mailchimp integration, pulling together content to create good web experiences and to generate customer leads through email marketing campaigns. From the beginning, we’ve been very focused on helping marketers create beautiful customer experiences alongside business growth.

We grew from there and our integrations got more interesting and sophisticated, allowing our customers to do even more. We felt like we were at the right place at the right time. And we didn’t want to create another sales tool for the sales team. Rather, we wanted to create a tool for the marketing team.

CZ: So what exactly can companies and marketers use your platform for?

YS: Well to start, the platform pulls all content that’s marketed across various channels and puts it one central location, one platform. From there the content can be organized, personalized, and distributed across multiple channels, generating positive content experiences for the customer and real results for our clients.

We integrate with and leverage multiple marketing automation platforms. For example, Snowflake uses us exclusively for account-based marketing (ABM). By using our platform, they have 100% engagement across all accounts, which is insane. That’s not all Uberflip — they’re doing a lot of things right. But to be fully engaged with your customers, you need to provide a great, personalized user experience. Every single one of their 1200 experiences is personalized.

CZ: 100%! That’s unheard of.

YS: Right! What we realized is that content creation is great, but it really comes down to content marketing and personalization. We had to stop calling ourselves a content solution and begin thinking about content in terms of the customer experience.

That’s actually been a major challenge for us. We realized early on that we were building a new category because the one that preceded us was wrongfully labeled for what we were doing.

Originally, we got pigeonholed as a content creation company, but that’s not what we do. We don’t create content — we market it.

CZ: What kind of analytics do you provide for your clients?

YS: It’s not just about producing experiences for the customer. It’s also about providing clear insights for the client about what’s working and what’s not — metrics on a macro and micro level. Uberflip provides insights and recommendations based on how each individual account is performing and how everything is performing as a whole so marketers can make informed and efficient marketing decisions.

Admittedly, insights is an area that we didn’t invest in heavily enough at first, but it’s where we’re making massive strides today.

We had great metrics, but we weren’t able to generate insights. As digital marketing matured, we started to see that insights was an important piece that our customers needed in a platform. So we really put our heads down to redevelop how we do insights on both the individual and macro level.

Now we believe that no one has a better view of the consumption patterns of our clients’ customers. We house all their content, integrate with all of their outside tools, have a wealth of data, and are able to present a story out of that data. We’re really excited to see how that unfolds over the next year, along with other advancements on the product side.

CZ: Company culture and philanthropy are important parts of Uberflip as well, right?

YS: Right. Our company has six core values, one being “Give Back.” We dedicate 1% of our revenue growth to charity and we allow all of our employees to participate in that. If there’s something they’re passionate about, we want to encourage and help with that. Last year, we had several fundraising events and raised $50,000 for Sick Kids, a hospital right here in Toronto. They’re building a new facility and we were really keen on helping.

We’re passionate about the work we do and always want to remember that there’s always more we can do outside of work.

Quick facts about Uberflip

Founded: 2012
HQ: Toronto, Canada
Employees: 140
Customers: Staples, Microsoft, DocuSign, Blackbaud, and more
Martech category: Content & Experience: Content Marketing