Wildfire

01 / WHAT IT BUILT

What the company did

Wildfire Interactive was a Redwood City-based social marketing software company founded in 2008 by Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard. Its platform let businesses create, optimize and measure their presence on social networks - Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn - with pages, promotions, ads, messages and monitoring in one place. It grew to serve more than 16,000 businesses, including 30 of the top 50 global brands. It was not a failure: Google acquired it in 2012 for a reported $350 million (plus earnouts), folded it into DoubleClick, and the founders stayed at Google until 2015.

03 / EVENT HISTORY

Events in the structured record

1. 2008
   Founded

   Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard found Wildfire in Redwood City to manage social media marketing for businesses.

2. 2010
   Funding

   Wildfire raises a $4 million Series A; investors include Summit Partners, Facebook, Accel Partners and the Founder's Fund.

3. 2012
   Acquired by Google

   Google acquires Wildfire in July 2012 for a reported $350 million plus earnouts to expand into social marketing.

4. 2014
   Integrated into DoubleClick

   Google integrates Wildfire into its DoubleClick ad platform, limiting further investment; the founders leave Google in 2015.