Bootstrapped Start-Up to $100B Brand with Global Impact

Fearless, founded in 2009, is one of the greater Baltimore region’s largest minority-owned business and largest software developer. Led by CEO Delali Dzirasa who was recognized in 2021 as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic, Fearless is a $100M business with over 250 employees, 48% female and 44% BIPOC, breaking the mold in the tech industry where less than 10% of employees are black and less than 30% are female.

Overview

Fearless works with some of the biggest agencies in the federal government – Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Small Business Administration (SBA), General Services Administration (GSA), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), National Security Agency (NSA), and the U.S. Airforce – and with major private enterprises including the NFL, Exelon and Deloitte.

The bootstrapped start-up grew as an SBA 8a, HubZone company, but it has outgrown this designation and now competes with much-larger, established companies in the $100B federal marketplace.

A Future Vision

Fearless leadership recognized that it needed a bold new vision and strategy to compete with large federal contractors. In 2023, it announced that it was evolving beyond technology to become an impact-focused digital services integrator building software with a soul, while creating the conditions for organizations and their people to thrive.
By 2030, Fearless aims to:

Improve 100 million lives
Be positioned in 10 countries
Generate $1 billion in revenue

To achieve these ambitious goals, it secured $17M in financing to support working capital and to fuel acquisitions.

The PR Campaign

An announcement means nothing without amplification, so we worked with the Fearless leadership and brand communications teams over a 6-month period to refine messaging and develop a PR strategy to generate attention among key target audiences.

With multiple storylines and key messages to promote, we needed an intentional plan for a public roll-out, and internal buy-in so that we didn’t lose opportunity for meaningful press coverage.

First, we had to carefully monitor and refine the CEOs key talking points for presentations, events and speaking engagements.

Second, we had to be strategic in developing our media strategy in order to secure coverage from targeted media, nationally and locally.

Finally, we had to create a timeline for each storyline so that they built upon one another and generated the awareness and brand positioning intended.

With a plan in place, we were able to begin building out the tactics.

Draft and finalize series of press releases; secure approval for content and quotes from all appropriate entities (ie. investors, acquired companies)
Develop targeted media list
Craft preliminary media pitch
Secure informational interviews with national media
Determine which outlets will get an exclusive and timing of the embargoed press release for all other media
Secure exclusive nationally and locally
Generate interest among outlets with long deadlines – ie. magazines – to ensure timing aligns with other media coverage
Prepare all possible company representatives and stakeholders (ie. investors, acquired companies) for interviews
Work with the brand communications team to develop social content and a timeline that aligns with the media announcement
Work with the brand communications team on the creation of assets including headshots, logos, website updates and coordination with acquired companies

Secured Media Coverage

Inc
AfroTech
Black Enterprise
Washington Technology
I95 Magazine (cover article)
Baltimore Business Journal
Technical.ly
Baltimore Times
Afro
Maryland Daily Record
Baltimore Fishbowl

Kristi has been an integral part of increasing our brand awareness and truly maintaining our awareness and recognition throughout the area.

Kristi is thoughtful, strategic, and consistently identifies opportunities to leverage partnerships and/or promotional strategies to lead us toward our objectives. I am impressed with her ability and approach to collaborating across senior leadership teams to create cross-functional content and campaigns. Kristi approaches work with poise and confidence and she would be a positive addition to anyone’s team.