chicago il 2010 headquarters citadel center 131 s. dearborn st chicago il 60603 area served worldwide founder s justyn howard aaron rankin gil lara peter soung key people justyn howard ceo aaron rankin cto gil lara cco scott brandt cmo 1 industry internet products social media management social media marketing social customer service social media analytics employees 200 2 slogan s social media management software for business website sproutsocial.com type of site social media management social media analytics social crm social media measurement users more than 15 000 3 available in multilingual 4 sprout social makes social media management advocacy and analytics software for businesses . sprout helps brands communicate with customers on social channels collaborate across teams and measure the effectiveness of their efforts . sprout s platform offers users the ability to integrate with twitter facebook linkedin instagram google zendesk uservoice feedly and google analytics . bambu by sprout social launched in august 2015 is a social media employee advocacy platform that enables organizations to curate content so that their employees can read and share it across social networks . 5 sprout social was founded in 2010 by justyn howard aaron rankin gil lara and peter soung . 6 sprout is a privately held company backed by the venture funds of goldman sachs new enterprise associates and lightbank . 7 customers include hyatt marvel microsoft uber zendesk and zipcar . 8 contents 1 history 2 software & services 2.1 social media marketing 2.2 social media engagement 2.3 social customer service 2.4 social media analytics 2.5 employee advocacy 2.6 social media image resizing 3 network integrations & partnerships 4 culture 5 awards 6 further reading 7 references 8 external links history edit in late 2009 current sprout social ceo justyn howard was employed at an enterprise software company and was looking for a tool that would help him use social media to connect and communicate with customers . he found that the current solutions in the market focused on consumers and lacked the business layer that would make social media really work for brands . therefore he decided to build a solution to that problem and worked with current sprout cto aaron rankin current chief creative officer gil lara and current director of web and mobile engineering peter soung to do it . 9 sprout social inc. was founded in april 2010 . the company has raised a total of 60 million including an initial 1 million in 2010 from lightbank a series b round of funding that brought in an additional 10 million from new enterprise associates nea in february 2011 and a series c round that raised 42 million from goldman sachs merchant banking division and nea . 10 11 in november 2011 sprout launched s2 the second edition of the platform which is basis of the current model . this edition included personalized dashboards tailored to each user s specific social media responsibilities multi user support iphone functionality several integration options for strategic partners and other features . 12 13 in april 2015 sprout launched in app support of spanish and portuguese languages . 14 in august 2015 sprout launched bambu by sprout social a social media advocacy platform for employees . bambu enables organizations to curate selected content that employees can read and share using their personal linkedin twitter and facebook profiles . 15 in march 2016 sprout launched landscape by sprout social a free tool that resizes images for seven different social networks as well as for custom dimensions . 16 software & services edit available via web browser ios and android apps sprout social s namesake engagement platform is a web based application that provides users the ability to manage multiple social profiles across a variety of social media networks from a single interface . in 2015 software review site g2 crowd named sprout social the top rated social media management tool in customer satisfaction . 17 social media marketing edit sprout enables teams and users to execute a social media marketing strategy by creating scheduling and publishing content . the sprout queue enables users to schedule content while patented viralpost technology distributes content at an optimal time . sprout integrates with google analytics to provide insight into social media campaign roi . 18 19 20 social media engagement edit sprout s smart inbox is a unified stream of messages that gives users a comprehensive view of incoming messages and actions across their social networks . this function allows users to monitor respond and take action . users can create custom brand keyword searches to capture and monitor all mentions of their brand . users can tag and filter messages assign messages as tasks to their team members identify sales leads and mark messages as complete . 21 social customer service edit the social customer service function enables social users and customer care teams to connect with customers view conversation history solve issues and create brand advocates . sprout s tasking feature allows users to assign messages to the appropriate team member . sprout s suggested replies feature offers responses to incoming messages based on previous replies . 22 the social crm feature logs all conversation history between the profile and the user . sprout integrates with zendesk and uservoice . 18 23 social media analytics edit the social media analytics function provides audience intelligence and benchmarking capabilities . sprout s reports include group engagement team task performance facebook pages twitter profiles trends twitter comparison twitter listening instagram profiles and sent messages and incorporates google analytics and bitly tracking . 24 employee advocacy edit bambu by sprout social is a platform for employee advocacy that provides employers a central platform where they can add curate and organize content to update employees about company and industry news . employees can then share approved content on linkedin twitter and facebook and employers can track the types and impact of content shared . 25 social media image resizing edit landscape by sprout social is a free tool that allows streamlined image resizing for twitter facebook instagram linkedin google pinterest youtube and custom sizes . 26 network integrations & partnerships edit sprout social s partnerships include facebook marketing partner since july 2012 27 twitter official partner since november 2012 28 29 30 google pages certified third party management tool since may 2013 31 linkedin company page partner since september 2015 32 instagram partner program member since november 2015 33 34 in november 2015 sprout partnered with twitter for its relaunch of the twitter official partner program working together to further technology solutions for social customer service . 35 36 additionally sprout social integrates with zendesk 37 uservoice 38 bitly feedly google analytics 39 culture edit in 2015 sprout social was named one of the chicago tribune s top workplaces based on an employee survey conducted by a third party . 40 in april of 2014 sprout social was named one of crain s chicago business best places to work as the no. 2 best place for millennials . 41 sprout social has grown quickly since its founding in 2010 outgrowing its office and moving into 64 000 square feet in chicago s citadel center in february 2014 . 42 founder justyn howard cites open communication creates progress as his motto . 6 jim conti director of talent gives an explanation of sprout social s approach to workplace culture it means that you are comfortable coming into work that you re doing a job you re proud of and that you re doing it with people you really enjoy . 43 awards edit 2016 chicago s fast 50 sprout social 2 crain s chicago business 44 most innovative social media marketing platform marketing & tech innovation awards 45 2015 no. 78 overall no. 8 software company inc. 500 46 no. 21 overall deloitte technology fast 500 47 chicago tribune top workplace 48 best use of technology in customer service bronze the stevie awards for sales and customer service 49 top social media management tool for customer satisfaction g2 crowd 50 most innovative social media marketing platform finalist the hubbies 51 2014 40 under 40 justyn howard ceo crain s chicago business 6 social media monitoring award silver wommy awards by word of mouth marketing association 52 best places to work for employee engagement 2 crain s chicago business 53 best places to work for millennials 2 crain s chicago business 54 techweek 100 justyn howard ceo techweek chicago 55 techweek 100 aaron rankin cto techweek chicago 55 startup of the year moxie awards by built in chicago 56 cto of the year aaron rankin moxie awards by built in chicago 56 rising star award citylights by illinois technology association 57 top 100 digital companies in chicago built in chicago 58 chicago s coolest offices runner up crain s chicago business 59 2013 best young companies to work for turnstone 60 best software company moxie awards by built in chicago 61 top 50 gen y employer 4 brill street 62 techweek 100 justyn howard ceo techweek chicago 63 top 100 digital companies in chicago built in chicago 64 technologist of the year justyn howard ceo illinois technology association 65 2012 best mobile app moxie awards by built in chicago 66 2011 tech 25 justyn howard ceo crain s chicago business 67 further reading edit sprout social premium is pc mag s editors choice at pc magazine what a growing sprout social knows about mobile at chicago tribune references edit sprout social crunchbase profile . crunchbase . retrieved 13 june 2016 . http fortune.com 2016 02 17 social media management sprout social http careers.stackoverflow.com company sproutsocial introducing sprout social in spanish & portuguese . sprout social . retrieved 13 june 2016 . 1 . martech advisor . retrieved on 2016 13 06 . a b c justyn howard of sprout social is on crain s chicago 40 under 40 2014 list . chicagobusiness.com . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . 2 . chicagobusiness.com . retrieved on 2016 13 06 . 3 . fortune . retrieved on 2016 13 06 . interview with sprout social founder justyn howard . doeswhat 2013 04 22 . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . sprout social gets 10 million from nea digits wsj . blogs.wsj.com 2011 02 22 . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . sprout social snags new funding continues to shake up social media management . thenextweb.com 2011 02 23 . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . sprout social launches giant new edition of its social media toolkit . thenextweb.com 2011 11 09 . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . sprout social releases new s2 edition of social media management platform . business wire 2011 11 09 . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . 4 . sprout social . retrieved on 2016 06 14 . 5 . martech advisor . retrieved on 2016 13 06 . 6 . marketing land . retrieved on 2016 13 06 . 7 venturebeat.com . retrieved 2016 14 2016 . a b smtoolbox manage your social media with sprout social . social media today 2014 02 23 . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . 10 questions to ask when measuring your social media roi . entrepreneur.com 2015 03 18 . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . 8 . google patents . retrieved on 2016 06 14 . 8 incredible features of sprout social and how to try them . nrmedia.biz . retrieved on 2016 06 14 . sprout social targets twitter stress with suggested replies . cmswire.com . retrieved on 2016 06 14 . sprout social helps brands improve customer service net features . website magazine . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . social media tools review sprout social . peakinboundmarketing.com 2014 08 26 . retrieved on 2015 05 18 . sprout social introduces bambu to enhance social advocacy for employees . martechadvisor.com . retrieved on 2016 06 14 . sprout social s landscape optimizes images for the social web . marketingland.com . retrieved on 2016 06 14