Tatango

U.S. company offering SMS/MMS marketing services

TatangoCompany type| dot-com company

|

Industry| Short Messaging Service
Founded| October 2007; 17 years ago (2007-10)
Headquarters|

Seattle, Washington

U.S.

Key people

| CEO Derek Johnson,
Alex Mittelstaedt (Director of Sales)
Services| Short Messaging Service
Website| www.tatango.com
Footnotes / references
Alexa Rank:  79,439 (April 2014[update])[1]

Tatango is a U.S. based company offering text message marketing (SMS/MMS) services.[2][3][4] Tatango is a privately held corporation based in Seattle, Washington with investments from the Seattle Alliance of Angels.[5][6]

## History

[edit]

Derek Johnson developed the service, originally named NetworkText, during his time at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business. Initially, it was started as a way for his fraternity (Delta Upsilon) to communicate.

Initially operating as NetworkText, Tatango allowed groups and organizations to send text messages to their members, with 30-40 character advertisements included at the bottom of each message. The service was free for groups and organizations in collaboration with 4INFO. This was later changed on July 26, 2008, and the company started charging a monthly fee to use the service.

Johnson left college and moved to Bellingham, WA, where he founded NetworkText with Matt Pelo. Pelo left the company later that year. In 2008, the company was renamed Tatango, and offices were established. Tatango moved from being a limited-liability company to a corporation late in 2008. In October that same year, Tatango launched a voice messaging service[7] which has since been discontinued.

Tatango acquired HungryThumb in 2012,[8] followed by Broadtexter[9] the following year. In 2016 Tatango launched the U.S. Short Code Directory.[10][11]

In 2022, Kevin Fitzgerald became the CEO, and Derek Johnson became Chief Innovation Officer.[12]

## Highlights

[edit]

* In 2009, Tatango's CEO was included in Business Week's "Best Young Entrepreneurs" list.[13]

## Press

[edit]

* Tatango has been mentioned in media outlets such as TechCrunch,[14] Cnet, [15] The Seattle Times, [16] and LifeHacker.[17]
* Former Tatango CEO, Derek Johnson, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal.[18]
* Mentioned in the Forbes article "Killer app of the 2012 election".[19]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Tatango.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
2. ^ "filed-ctia-opposition-to-twilio" (PDF). Ctia.
3. ^ "Tatango launches presidential SMS marketing campaign for Ted Cruz's bid". GeekWire. 2 April 2015.
4. ^ "Maturing Millennial Population Helps Jellystone Park Franchisees Top $100 Million in Revenue for the First Time". Business Wire. 4 October 2016.
5. ^ "Tatango launches presidential SMS marketing campaign for Ted Cruz's bid". GeekWire. 2 April 2015.
6. ^ "Donald Trump's campaign sued over text messages". Chicago Tribune.
7. ^ "Tatango makes sending group voice messages free". CNET.
8. ^ "Group text developer Tatango eats up restaurant SMS service HungryThumb". GeekWire. 4 December 2012.
9. ^ "Tatango Acquires Text Message Marketing Platform Broadtexter 02/06/2013". mediapost.
10. ^ "Tatango Launches U.S. Short Code Directory". Press Release Rocket.
11. ^ "SMS Campaigns Application Provider Tatango". Common Short Codes.
12. ^ "Leading SMS Fundraising Platform Tatango Announces New CEO Kevin Fitzgerald". Cision PRWeb.
13. ^ "Tatango's Johnson makes top entrepreneurs list". BBJ Today. 4 November 2009.
14. ^ "Tatango Opens Their Group SMS Service To The Public". TechCrunch, September 5, 2008, Greg Kumparak. 5 September 2008.
15. ^ "atango makes sending group voice messages free". Cnet, October 15, 2008, Don Reisinger. 5 September 2008.
16. ^ "Texting simplifies group messages". the Seattle Times, October 15, 2007, Charles Bermant.
17. ^ "Tatango Mass-Messages Your Opt-In Friends for Free, LifeHacker". September 7, 2008, Kevin Purdy.
18. ^ "What Sneakers Say About Your Soul. Young Workers Rebel Against Standard Business Attire; the Significance of Chuck Taylors". WSJ.
19. ^ "Killer app of the 2012 election". Forbes.com.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website