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Hathway Making A Mark in Digital Marketing

Story and photo by Gareth Kelly

gareth 4Read any magazine, newspaper or website these days and you could be forgiven for thinking we are in the midst of a new technology boom, especially here in San Luis Obispo. MindBody, Shopatron, Tektegrity, Rosetta are but a few names that either call SLO home or have a large presence here. Amongst all the noise these tech firms make it’s sometimes difficult to focus on some of the smaller yet vibrant exciting new comers to this particular sphere.
Started by two Cal Poly graduates, Kevin Rice and Jesse Dundon, in 2009 Hathway has grown from humble beginnings with just the two founders into a real player both locally and globally. With a portfolio of clients such as Behr Paints, Transamerica, Applied Materials and TransUnion, Hathway had revenues of about six million dollars in 2014 with around 40 employees.
ITB hathawayTheir co founder and CEO Jesse Dundon was recently named as one of the 30 under 30 entrepreneurs by business industry giant Forbes Magazine in the marketing and advertising sector.
“Myself and Kevin started a website right out of college. We just wanted a Website. Slowly we got sucked into building Websites as freelancers and by June of 2009 we realized our freelance work was what was paying the bills,” said Dundon.
Focusing on open source coding Hathway finally acquired what Dundon regards as a “breakthrough” client that paved the way for their future success. As with many confidentiality agreements within any industry Dundon is reluctant to share that clients name but needless to say it was a milestone for them.
“We pride ourselves on doing nearly everything in house,” said Dundon. “We are a fully stacked digital agency. We can design, build and maintain a company’s app and Website both for their own staff on the back end as well as for the consumer. We even design strategies in order to get the consumers, engagement services as we call it,” Dundon had attended some Forbes 30 under 30 events last year as a guest but had never expected to be shortlisted let alone selected. “I looked at some of the names on the list and saw their achievements, especially the younger ones,” he said. “There are some incredibly impressive young people doing amazing things. I almost feel like I shouldn’t be here.” He was nominated by Tom Leech, a friend of co-founder Rice and also a member of Hathway’s board of advisors.
As Hathway looks to the future, Dundon recognizes some of the challenges local tech firms face as they compete for the same talent pool. “We kind of cheat,” said Dundon. “Whenever we interview people from out of the area, from say Seattle or the East Coast, we always try and arrange the interviews for winter. We fly them out and put them up at the Lighthouse Suites in Avila with an ocean view. How can they not want to move here?”
To find out more about what Dundon and Hathway are all about check them out online at www.wearehathway.com