EyeMail Inc. is an American

communications technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...

and

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based Information technology, digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and service ...

company based in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Founded by entrepreneur Lisa S. Jones, EyeMail Inc. is both a

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

and woman-owned business enterprise (WBE), and is an officially certified

Minority Business Enterprise Minority business enterprise (MBE) is an American designation for businesses which are at least 51% owned, operated and controlled on a daily basis by one or more (in combination) American citizens of the following ethnic minority and/or gender (e ...

(MBE) by the NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council). The company is an " email video" provider, offering a technology that enables up to 60 seconds-long HD videos to be compressed and embedded directly into emails, avoiding the need to click on a link or access a browser to play them. Some of EyeMail Inc.'s chief clients include

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...

, Porsche North America, and

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

, although the company also partners with mid-tier and emerging brands, as well as

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

s. In 2023, EyeMail Inc. appeared on '' Inc.'' magazine's annual list of the fastest-growing companies in the US Southeast region at number 181.

History

Origins and growth (2004–2014)

EyeMail Inc. was founded by Lisa S. Jones in 2004 and is headquartered in

. Jones is originally from Montgomery,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, and enrolled at the

Alabama A&M University Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M or AAMU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. It was one of about 180 " normal s ...

, university from which she received BBA and

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

degrees. She also studied marketing management at the

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was founded in 1900 as the first institution in the ...

. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Jones worked as a logistics and supply chain expert at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, eventually relocating to Atlanta to expand her career in supplier diversity for companies such as

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

. Jones has revealed that she founded EyeMail Inc. after the unexpected passing away of her mother, making a "vow to start and scale a global company in her honor". In 2004, Jones filed her first patent focused on video in email. For five years, she developed EyeMail Inc. during her spare time, as she was also working full-time as an executive in telecommunications in Atlanta. Initially, EyeMail Inc. was turned down by a number of American development agencies, so Jones worked with several international technical teams until choosing a final partnership, which developed the product in only six months. During her development process, Jones participated in

's Mentor/Protégé Innovation Lab Program, which "provided more support and expertise", as well as its Innovation Center, becoming the first African-American woman to do so. In 2008, Jones presented EyeMail Inc. in the first season of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

reality competition Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

show '' The Next Tycoon'', which she won. Jones subsequently contacted Georgia's Greater Women's Business Council (GWBC) and offered to create a free EyeMail Inc. campaign for them. The campaign caught the attention of

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

executives, and the company became EyeMail Inc.'s first client. This prompted Jones to leave her day job and fully dedicate herself to the company. Following Time Warner, EyeMail Inc. began to work with other companies like

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, Porsche North America,

Aetna Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

, the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

, and

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., often referred to as Home Depot, is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportat ...

, among others. In 2008, EyeMail Inc. was listed at number 3 on the '' Atlanta Tribune''s list for the "Top 8 Atlanta Businesses to Watch". In 2008, EyeMail Inc. began a formal relationship with The Coca-Cola Company as part of their mentor program through the Georgia Minority Supplier Diversity Council (GMSDC). Three years later, the mentorship program with The Coca-Cola Company resulted in EyeMail Inc.'s selection by the Microsoft Corporation as a premier MWBE supplier in digital marketing. EyeMail's business partnership with The Coca-Cola Company was pivotal to the growth of the company, purportedly causing its revenue to quadruple. This allowed Jones' company to expand to Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, India and the United Kingdom. As both a black-owned and

woman-owned business A woman-owned business is a specific designation used by government agencies and industry associations to identify a business organization owned and operated by female business owners. Most definitions of this term involve a practical look at the le ...

, EyeMail Inc. is a partner of the Billion Dollar Roundtable organization, where it classified as a Minority Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) strategic partner. As EyeMail Inc.'s CEO, Jones took part as a panelist at the 2014 Billion Dollar Summit held by the ''Minority Business News USA'' (MBNUSA).

Recent years (2015–present)

Writing for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' magazine in 2021, Laurel Donnellan noted that: "EyeMail's next-generation email experience has repeatedly proven with increases to click-through and call-to-action open rates while bringing email to life for a more engaging & memorable experience. Customers have achieved open rates of 60% and click-through rates of 38%, far above the industry average." In 2018, Jones announced that the company would expand its

business model A business model describes how a Company, business organization creates, delivers, and captures value creation, value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-pub ...

of custom-made campaigns, moving towards a

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike o ...

(SaaS) platform. As of 2020, EyeMail Inc. partners with both private businesses—including The Coca-Cola Company and Delta Air Lines—as well as nonprofit organizations, such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Recently, EyeMail Inc. has launched a new product called EyeCon, which animates a logo or email signature, which, according to ''Forbes''s Lauren Donellan, "brings company logos to life". The company's business model grew significantly due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, as the need for employers to effectively communicate digitally became more relevant. In 2020, EyeMail Inc. announced the release of new options to support the hearing and visually impaired with

close captioning Closed captioning (CC) is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information, where the viewer is given the choice of whether the text is displayed. Closed cap ...

, so they can also engage with the company's video email technology. This new venture was done in collaboration with Senior Architects at Microsoft's Innovation Lab. The company is also developing a "video in text solution" to expand product offerings, expected to be launched in 2022. In 2020, EyeMail Inc.was chosen by

as one of 15 participants in the Stacy's Pita Chips's Rise Project, a mentorship program to support black women business owners. As part of the project, EyeMail was added to a Female Founder Finder directory, which directs consumers to nearby female-founded businesses. In early 2023, EyeMail's Lisa S. Jones was listed among the "finest email mavens" by Uplers. In May, she was among the winners of the Enterprising Women of the Year Award, and the following month she listed as one of Top 100 Women of the Future in Emerging Tech by Women of the Future. In June, Microsoft dedicated a special case study on EyeMail Inc., noting that it grew 71% in 2 years and delivers managed services projects 40% faster following the adoption of Microsoft 365 Business Premium. The company has thus " arneda spot on the Inc. list of fast-growing small companies in the US Southeast region for 2023." Writing for Microsoft the same year, Susanna Ray uses EyeMail Inc. as an example of "black-owned companies

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

are using corporate connections to give back". The writer noted: "When Microsoft announced its Racial Equity Initiative in 2020 and set a goal to double the number of Black suppliers it does business with, a procurement engagement manager for the company remembered Jones and reached out, partnering with EyeMail to integrate video in email marketing communications as part of the Windows 11 launch in 2021." In the same article, Jones stated:

I started crying when I got my first contract with Microsoft, because I was full of gratitude. Everyone told me, "You're a woman, you're a Black woman, you're from Alabama, you don't have the right network, you're not a coder" — I could go on and on. But I said, "I am going to make it." So when I was awarded the Microsoft contract, and the supplier number, the whole process of onboarding was fabulous, and it was exhilarating. We have a lot of Fortune 500 customers on our roster now, and there are so many tangible and intangible benefits to this relationship that continue to evolve and show up.

Jones has recently announced the upcoming launches of EyeMail Software as a Service (SaaS) Storytelling Platform, which also includes new products and features such as EyeCon, EyeViewer Assistant (EVA) and Video in Text. In November 2023, EyeMail Inc. was selected among the winners of Invest Connect, a pitch competition organized by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) as part of their Bridge Builders initiative, aimed to link black-owned businesses with investors.

Awards and nominations

References

External links