Startups

HAAWK, Inc. Ranks #1957 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 With 266% Revenue Growth Over Three Years

Attributes 266% Revenue Growth to the continued proliferation of user-generated video content

Los Angeles, CA, August 13, 2024 — HAAWK, Inc. (“HAAWK”) today announced it ranked number 1957 on the 2024 Inc. 5000, a ranking of the 5000 fastest-growing companies in the United States of America. HAAWK achieved 266% 3-year revenue growth to achieve this milestone. In addition, HAAWK ranked as the USA’s #16 fastest-growing company in the media category, #119 in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, and #303 in California. This is the third time HAAWK has made the Inc. 5000 list in the company’s history.

HAAWK chief executive officer, Ryan Born, credits the continued proliferation of user-generated content (UGC) with the company’s 266% revenue growth. He said, “Capturing more watch time than ever before, UGC remains a high-growth segment within both media production and consumption. Music remains a primary focus and integral building block for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other UGC platforms. Since inception, HAAWK has been committed to building tools and services that assist music producers, labels, publishers, and video creators with UGC monetization. Our dedication to the creator community will continue to deliver growth.”

About HAAWK, Inc.

HAAWK is a media software and services company specializing in managing and monetizing the copyrights of independent music, film, and television catalogs. The company provides copyright monitoring and monetization tools to assist creators in maximizing earnings on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other UGC platforms. Signature services include best-in-class YouTube Content ID and Facebook Rights Manager administration, SaaS products for independent video creators to legally and affordably access copyright-free music, and digital music distribution. HAAWK’s roster of clients includes independent music producers, record labels, publishers, songwriters, composers, TV/film studios, and production music libraries.

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I recently connected with fellow entrepreneur Ryan Tansom for an interview on his podcast, Life After Business, to talk about my entrepreneurial journey – the failures, the successes, fundraising, changing business models, finding your stride, and more.  You can listen to the full discussion here:

https://lifeafterbusinesscom.castos.com/episodes/-16085

and here’s a nice summary (copy / pasted from the GEXP Collaborative Life After Business website):

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The co-founder of HAAWK, Inc. Ryan Born joins me for today’s episode. Before HAAWK, Ryan was the founder and CEO of AudioMicro, Inc. AudioMicro was a media rights management company. Its most successful venture was AdRev. Ryan explains what that service was and why he felt it worked.

We take the journey with Ryan through AudioMicro’s beginnings, the pivots, the changes in the media rights industry, and what life was like after AudioMicro changed owners. This episode is a great example of the struggle and the hustle many entrepreneurs face on a daily basis.

What you will learn about:

• Ryan’s early career as a CPA.
• His time with WireImage and what it taught him.
• The only two things that generate wealth.
• The changes in the media rights industry.
• The problems Ryan saw with the system.
• How AudioMicro and microstock changed the system.
• How Ryan raised the capital for AudioMicro.
• The mistakes he made early on in the business.
• Ryan’s advice for building an effective pitch.
• Why EBITDA is important and not important at the same time.
• Other factors that buyers look at during a sale.
• Why you need to break even as soon as possible.
• The struggles AudioMicro had in the beginning.
• The list of avenues AudioMicro tried that didn’t work.
• Why you need to choose your investors wisely.
• How AdRev worked.
• Why Ryan didn’t hire an investment banker for his sale of AudioMicro.
• The indicators that it was time to sell.
• The dance Ryan and his investors did to get offers.
• How getting the best offer is like playing poker.
• The benefit of having a knowledgeable team around you.
• What happened after AudioMicro sold.
• The beginnings of HAAWK.
• The thing Ryan is doing differently with HAAWK.
• Ryan’s parting words for the audience.

Introducing HAAWK.

HAAWK monitors, monetizes, and enforces copyrights on user-generated video and audio platforms (YouTube Content ID, Facebook, Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, and more). We’re building fresh technology to help bring accountability, transparency, and newfound revenue to today’s music and video rights holders. HAAWK was co-founded by myself and Ben Barger, an aeronautical engineer and operations specialist who headed up operations at our previous company, AdRev/AudioMicro, Inc..

HAAWK just closed it’s first round of funding, a $2.5M series seed round led by some of Southern California’s top VC firms and HAAWK recently acquired the assets of Dart Music, a music distribution and metadata company to help jumpstart our product offering and expand our distribution reach.

Details of HAAWK’s funding and the Dart acquisition were covered in TechCrunch, Music Business Worldwide, Digital Music News, and SocalTECH.

Thank you for your support.

I’m pleased to announce that as part of Inc. Magazine’s 2015 Inc. 500 ranking of the USA’s fastest growing private companies, AudioMicro, Inc. (including our 4 brands – AdRev, DashGo, AudioMicro, & ImageCollect) was named as the USA’s 5th fastest growing media company (and #162 overall). This accolade is based on our actual revenue growth over the past 3 years, with revenue last year growing to $13.4 million. It’s the 3rd year in a row that we’ve made the Inc. 500 (we were #2 in media in both 2014 and 2013) and if the first part of this year is any indicator, we’re in a solid position to make the list for the 4th straight time next year.  A special thank you goes out to our customers, clients, partners, and most importantly to our amazing team for all of your hard work through the years.