Culture

Spokeo employees and their families took time to relax and enjoy summer at our annual company picnic. Food trucks, a bouncy house obstacle course, and a giant nerf battle made for a perfect summer day in the park!

Spokeo is proud to aid law enforcement investigation efforts by providing search tools that meld social media and public records. From small, local precincts, to the large, Federal Agency level, Spokeo is eager to aid as part of an arsenal of search tools available to law enforcement.

Don't call us a start-up! This April (2017) Spokeo celebrated 11 years of connecting people through intelligent data.

Spokeo celebrated the end of another great year, surrounded by celebrities. Wax figures of celebrities, that is, with a party at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Hollywood.

Spokeo was honored by the Asian Business Association with a "Technology Company of the Year" award. We work hard to provide the best product we can to our customers and it's rewarding to receive such high praise for our efforts.

With the dog days of summer setting in, Spokeo took the opportunity to invite all of our employees' families to a picnic in the park. Food trucks, face painting, and life-sized foosball is how Spokeo picnics!

From four founders to more than 200 employees, Spokeo employees toasted to not only immense growth as a company, but to growth as a family. 10 years after launching as a social network aggregator, Spokeo offers access for consumers, businesses and families looking to stay connected and informed.

Spokeo presented arguments to the Supreme Court of the United States in “Spokeo, Inc. v. Robbins” on the very important issue of whether the Constitution permits a lawsuit to proceed merely on the allegation that federal law has been violated when the plaintiff cannot claim that he has been harmed in a concrete way. Recognizing the importance of the issue to its business, the company proudly led the defense through the trial court, the appellate court and onto the U.S. Supreme Court in taking a stand against no-injury lawsuits. In doing so, Spokeo has capably represented the interests of much larger businesses and technology giants.

Spokeo launched Enterprise, a tailored Spokeo search experience providing business users a specialized platform to help them find, validate and connect with their customers and make team management and organization simple.

The third annual company picnic not only offered the best in entertainment and food for Spokeo employees, but also an unexpected torrential downpour in the midst of one of Southern California’s most severe droughts. Always up for a challenge, Spokeo employees celebrated in the rain by participating in a life-size human foosball tournament.

Ernst & Young LLP announced Spokeo CEO and Co-founder Harrison Tang, as the winner in the Consumer Services category of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2015 Awards in Greater Los Angeles. The award recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.

With just 24 hours, teams of Spokeo employees battled it out to create Spokeo’s next big idea in Spokeo’s first-ever Hackathon. From utilizing facial recognition, to reinventing an advanced search, to utilizing Amazon Echo for hands-free searches and even to implementing live chat for our customer service portal, Spokeo employees from all disciplines, did not disappoint. After an all-employee vote, one champion team was crowned and three were given an additional nod of recognition.

A team of Spokeo volunteers gathered to cook a delicious meal of fried chicken and grilled veggies for residents of the Ronald McDonald House in Pasadena. This is one of several community support events that Spokeo employees have the opportunity to join.

After 9 years of operating through a physical data center, Spokeo opted to migrate its entire database, consisting of 12 billion records, to the cloud. The migration took months of work, and was a true learning experience, but resulted in a faster and fresher Spokeo offering for customers.

Following the launch of Family.me earlier in the year, Spokeo celebrated the launch of Spokeo 9.0 and its ninth birthday with a "Family of Thrones" themed event in a castle complete with a cake that looked like a roasted pig and an epic lip sync battle.

In February of 2015, Spokeo expanded its offerings with the launch of Family.me, a private social network bringing families together through historical records and memory sharing. The launch took place at RootsTech, the largest national genealogy conference in the country.

Amongst many accolades, Spokeo was proud to rank #75 on the prestigious list of "America's Most Promising Companies" by “Forbes Magazine.” Other rankings for Spokeo include the Deloitte Fast 500, Inc. 5000, SoCalTech 50 and LA Business Journals’ Fastest Growing Companies.

Aaron Patterson is a mild-mannered genius programmer whose wisdom in the Ruby world is unparalleled. Spokeo was lucky enough to have him come sit in for a day and unleash the secrets of the Ruby-verse on to our own development team. It was a good day.

From four single founders, to more than 100 employees (at the time) with families, Spokeo celebrated with its littlest members at the very first “Spokeo Kids Day.”

The I.C.E. (Innovate, Collaborate and Execute) in 2014 competition encouraged Spokeans to showcase their ingenuity and creativity. Self-selected teams were required to ideate a new product encompassing the three themes of connection, family and technology. After weeks of team selection and collaboration, four teams presented to the company and one winner (Team Minerva) was named champion!

Spokeo partnered with the Mixed Roots Foundation and an advisory committee of adoption leaders to honor volunteers known as “search angels” who volunteer their time and skills to help adoptees and birth families reconnect. Four angels were recognized the inaugural year with free enterprise-level Spokeo accounts, cash grants, an all-expenses paid trip to speak at a national adoption conference, and most importantly, the opportunity to offer any families they reunite a reunion scholarship from Spokeo.

Spokeo kicked off the Spokeo Connections Scholarship to help students with the high costs of education. With a strong focus on making connections, the scholarship is awarded through an essay contest and the winner is awarded $1,000 towards their education. Since its inception, the program has granted seven students with financial assistance and looks forward to recognizing many more!

On its 7th anniversary, Spokeo unveiled an entirely new look for the brand, including a front page overhaul and a new logo. The updates said goodbye to “Calvin the hedgehog,” who’d represented the company for years, and focused on real people and the connections Spokeo helps make by bringing them together.

Bizshark for business users launched offering “just contacts, no bull.” The business contact search platform focused on serving the 28 small businesses in the US who previously had no access to affordable contact databases.

After 3 years in the Bay Area, the founders decided to pack up and relocate to Los Angeles. Several of the founders held San Gabriel Valley roots and Pasadena was selected as the new home base for its location near world-class institutions and social atmosphere. Since moving to Pasadena in 2009, the company remains committed to the city and participates in several community efforts to support local causes and the prominence of the city as a hub of innovation and design.

What began as an idea after a failed attempt at a “Skype-mouse phone” business, Spokeo officially launched to help users keep up with their contacts across a variety of social networks. Working out of their parents’ basement, the founders persevered and now manage a business that hits $78 million in revenue in 2015 and employs more than 200 people.