In 2018, the company's CEO and COO appeared on the BBC show Dragons' Den where they accepted an offer from entrepreneur Peter Jones.
[1] BrandYourself was founded by three students from Syracuse University – Pete Kistler, Patrick Ambron, and Evan McGowan-Watson – in 2010.
[2] The business was inspired by Kistler's supposed difficulty finding a job as a computer programmer in 2008, due to a drug dealer with the same name.
[8] In 2015, BrandYourself co-founder Ambron appeared on the TV show Shark Tank, in an attempt to raise capital for the company.
[14][15] Later that year it introduced a tool that evaluates Facebook, LinkedIn and company pages and provides suggestions on how to improve their search engine optimization.
[16] In 2013 the company, initially focused on students and small businesses with smaller budgets, began to compete more directly with its larger competitors by adding professional services.
[17] Patrick Ambron stated in an interview that the exposure from Shark Tank led to the professional services side of the business growing its revenue by $1 million within a matter of months after the show aired.
[3][4] In 2017, the company started offering the service to secondary school students and their parents as they prepare to apply to colleges and universities.
[19] In March 2018, BrandYourself introduced artificial intelligence software that scans a user's social media profiles and detects any comments, photos, and posts that may potentially be viewed in a negative light.