Andy Halko of Insivia
Meet Andy Halko, founder of
Insivia, a strategic marketing and sales agency.
What is Insivia?
Insivia is a strategic marketing and sales agency providing design, media and technology solutions for reaching targets, converting leads, closing sales and retaining customers.
We focus on results-oriented solutions including web, search optimization, social media, video, augmented reality, content marketing and more -- all integrated, consistent and top quality.
How did you come to be an entrepreneur?
I started the business right out of college in a spare room of my college house that I was still sharing with friends. I had been lucky to be the second employee of a start-up tech company that I started with in high school in Pittsburgh and worked with throughout college. The owner not only gave me the freedom to start exploring web services for their customers, but I was on the ground floor watching him build his business. Combine that with an entrepreneurial family -- my father owned a business for 35 years -- and a personality that enjoys risk, it was a natural path.
Over the last 10 years since starting Insivia, I have gotten to work with hundreds of great companies learning how they do business and helping them grow, which has really let me meld all their knowledge into my own entrepreneurial path.
What inspires you?
First of all, great work, helping my clients accomplish big things and new ideas inspire me. I think it is extremely important to have pride in what you do and it is always my goal to be able to walk around with my head held high about what Insivia does.
Our clients are always trying to achieve big things for their businesses – increasing exposure, closing more sales, finding employees, providing better customer experiences and more. It provides a huge sense of satisfaction to know that we can be a major driver in shaping and changing other businesses and in turn affecting potentially hundreds of thousands of people.
And lastly, new ideas inspire me. There is nothing like that feeling of coming up with an idea for a business that everyone in the room stops and says that is a game changer. When you can have those ideas for a company, it is like sinking a hole in one.
What’s next for you and your company?
The great thing about this business is that it is ever changing. Our focus on helping companies convert leads, close sales and retain customers will always stay the same, but the mediums are new each and every day.
We are really excited to have gotten into new devices and interfaces -- right now it is mobile and TV, but soon every business will have to interact with their customers through interfaces that are built into our homes, our cars, the tables at coffee shops -- everything.
We want to make sure no matter how a prospect or customer interacts with a company, that the experience is great and the actions that both want to achieve are reached. With every surface of our lives becoming digitally connected, every company is a digital company. We are excited to be the ones helping people navigate this new and sometimes scary future.
Who was your first customer and where did you find them?
One of our first customers officially was
University Hospitals. Starting the business right out of college, we looked to our personal networks first (mainly because it's all we had). We were recommended to one of UH’s departments to provide a front facing website and an intranet for employees, students and doctors.
What resources/organizations here did you take advantage of and how did they help?
I have been fortunate enough to be involved with many organizations in town. One of the first organizations I turned to was
COSE where I became ingrained and I met great people across Northeast Ohio.
Today I am involved with groups such as
AAF,
SME,
NEOSA,
Gorilla Group,
Wire-Net and many, many more. One of the most valuable has been
Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) which is an amazing group of like-minded business owners in Cleveland and around the world who look to help each other grow personally and professionally.
What are some of the advantages to doing business in Cleveland?
Great people.