November 11, 1999

Ten Fast Facts

MarketFitz WHO: A privately held marketing services company founded in 1998. WHAT: Provides help to businesses that need temporary marketing, advertising, public relations and creative services professionals. WHERE: Cyberspace

Fast Fact #1: MarketFitz has no real offices.

Comment: "It's a virtual company," says founder and president Heather Fitzpatrick. "You really don't need offices in this day and age." Instead, MarketFitz makes do with a 72-square-foot executive suite on the 42nd floor of the 2 Union Square Building. The cramped space houses a server, fax machine, file cabinets and assorted supplies. Before that, Fitzpatrick's home in Ballard doubled as the company's nerve center.

Fast Fact #2: MarketFitz recently expanded to Portland.

Heather Fitzpatrick, president and CEO of MarketFitz, Inc.

Comment: The Portland operation is based out of a residential apartment. It's cheaper than renting downtown office space, explains Fitzpatrick. Plus it provides a place to crash when she visits the Oregon branch. "Look for us to be opening other offices in the not too-distant future," she says. "We'll start on the West Coast. There's just a tremendous need for the service we're providing."

Fast Fact #3: Fitzpatrick sketched her original plan for MarketFitz on the back of a napkin.

Comment: Before founding the company, Fitzpatrick was director of marketing and communications at the Seattle division of Deloitte & Touche. During a May 1997 business flight to Nashville, she read an article about outsourcing. The article made her think about her own struggles to find temporary marketing help. She knew that a growing number of talented professionals work independently, but businesses didn't necessarily know how to find them. What the two groups needed was a matchmaker. She grabbed a napkin and began doodling. "By the time I was done, I had a really full napkin," she says.

Fast Fact #4: Fitzpatrick still has the napkin.

Comment: "It's in a file somewhere," she says. The napkin provided the starting point for a business plan that led to the company incorporating in February of 1998. Fitzpatrick quit her job at Deloitte & Touche three months later and sank her savings into MarketFitz, which debuted in June. "I kind of blinked and all of a sudden I was in business," she says.

Fast Fact #5: MarketFitz hires only about 2 percent of the people who apply as associates.

Comment: MarketFitz has between 125 and 150 associates in Seattle and about 30 in Portland. Associates are considered MarketFitz employees. MarketFitz pays them hourly wages and offers a complete benefit package as long as they work an average of 24 hours a week. They typically work out of their homes.

So does the company's core staff of relationship managers (who consult with clients) and talent managers (who recruit and guide the associates). "We can make it work through the technology ... a lot of phone calls and a lot of e-mail," Fitzpatrick says.

Fast Fact 6#: Fitzpatrick once ran a lemonade stand on the Burke Gilman Trail.

Comment: "It was quite a lucrative little venture," recalls Fitzpatrick, who also made and sold candles and formed a Pet Club. "I've been creating and organizing things since I was a little kid."

Fast Fact #7: Fitzpatrick graduated from Colgate University in New York.

Comment: A French major who minored in economics, Fitzpatrick later earned a master's in business administration from the University of Washington and also became a certified public accountant. Nevertheless, "I think I learned 90 percent of what I know about business sitting at the dinner table listening to my dad talk," she says. The Fitzpatrick family has owned Fitz Auto Parts in Woodinville since 1930. Plus her father, Don Jr., helped found Town Bank there.

Fast Fact #8: MarketFitz contributes a certain percentage of its services to charity.

Comment: MarketFitz employees receive a point for every hour they work. Each point is worth 60 cents in "funny money," which can then be spent to purchase the services of other MarketFitz employees on behalf of a charity chosen by the point donor Ñ with MarketFitz paying the donated employee's wages out of its own coffers.

Fast Fact #9: Fitzpatrick is a licensed pilot.

Comment: She owns a single-engine, white, orange and brown Bonanza formerly flown by her grandfather. "It's not MarketFitz colors (red, white and blue) - yet," she says.

Fast Fact #10: Fitzpatrick's employees recently told her they were worried about her work/life balance.

Comment: "Ohhh, life. I remember that word," says the 33-year-old Fitzpatrick. Fortunately, she says, her boyfriend shares her entrepreneurial drive. "For a fun weekend away, we may go off in the woods with a pad of paper and talk about how you grow a company."

Previous columns:

• Ten Fast Facts, 10-28-1999