ReachLocal is a global leader in online marketing, but it didn’t start off that way. Since its launch in 2004, the company has grown from no revenues to $203 million in revenues for 2009.
 
As the company moved along its growth trajectory, in 2007, Rho Ventures led ReachLocal’s $55 million Series D financing. On the path from corporate infancy to maturity, many changes must take place.

“Habib is a great coach. He and the board showed a lot of faith in me and our management team,” said ReachLocal CEO Zorik Gordon. “He allowed us to make mistakes, but believed in our capabilities. Habib has a rare ability to see through the traditional VC checklist. When it came to our management team, he was of the mind that ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
 
Rho saw the potential in the company’s five founders to grow with the company to maturity, and worked with them to effectively navigate a tremendous growth. “We had some strategic decisions to make during the economic downward spiral that affected every part of the economy. Habib had seen this script before and worked with me and my management team to get everyone on the same page to emerge as a stronger and better positioned company,” said Zorik.

Rho has been a partner to ReachLocal through good and bad times, withstanding the economic downturn and providing strategic guidance to help push the company to its greatest potential, such as recently surpassing its 1,000 employee mark.
 
“Working through an economic destruction allows you to really get to know someone,” Gordon said. “It’s one thing when things are 150 percent year over year and you’re booming. The entire board of directors stayed calm, and Rho was a real asset. They’re not traders and not speculators.”

In 2009, ReachLocal was ranked No. 1 on the 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ list of the fastest growing technology companies in North America.