SmartBug Media® Founder Ryan Malone Named One of America’s Top 10 CEOs on Comparably’s List

Leading Intelligent Inbound^® Marketing Agency Also Recognized on “Best Company Culture” and “Best Companies for Women” Lists

IRVINE, Calif., December 17, 2020—SmartBug Media^®—a leading Intelligent Inbound^® marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads, increasing awareness, and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, and public relations—today announced that it has earned spots on Comparably’s “Best Company Culture,” “Best CEOs,” and “Best Companies for Women” lists in the small to mid-size companies categories. Notably, SmartBug^® Founder and CEO Ryan Malone ranked No. 10 on the “Best CEOs'' list. These three new recognitions bring the company’s total to 16 Comparably awards earned since 2018.

“Comparably awards are especially meaningful to me because they are an expression of employee sentiment, which reflects our values,” says Malone. “I’m extremely humbled by the rankings, and proud to provide our employees with a satisfying balance between great work opportunities and the flexibility to spend quality time outside their careers. We invest heavily in programs that foster a positive work culture, and I strongly believe that they result in SmartBug’s consistent high-caliber work and solid client relationships.”

Since Malone founded SmartBug as an innovative remote model in 2008, the company has experienced sustained growth, expanding to represent more than 140 clients and employ more than 100 full-time employees across 40 states and in several countries. Over the years, SmartBug has developed strong remote processes and best practices, making it resilient and a trusted authority and advisor to other companies navigating the challenges brought on by this year’s global pandemic, as well as a better place to work for its employees.

One of these best practices is an initiative called Healthy SmartBug, which ensures the company is “happy, healthy, safe, and resilient.” Malone conducts one-on-one SmartBug Connect calls with every employee to find out, from their perspective, how to make SmartBug healthier. Healthy SmartBug conversations have produced hundreds of ideas for the leadership team to consider, prioritize, and ultimately roll out in order to improve the health of the company. 

“I’ve learned that business leaders should look at their company and their employees in the same way they would a family that they need to protect, nurture, and develop,” explains Malone. “Healthy SmartBug aims to do this by empowering our employees from the bottom up to solve real challenges, becoming invested and ultimately having a positive impact on our company.” 

SmartBug ranked No. 12 on the “Best Companies for Women” list for small to mid-sized companies. Women make up 68 percent of all employees at the agency, and 67 percent of those employed by SmartBug at the manager level and above are women.

“The Best Companies for Women understand the importance of providing an inclusive environment of diverse voices,” said Comparably CEO Jason Nazar. “Female employees rated Smartbug as one of the best places to work in 2020, commending the company's strong leadership in Ryan Malone and progressive all-remote work culture."

Comparably Awards are derived from sentiment ratings provided by employees who anonymously rate their employers on Comparably.com during a 12-month period. There are no fees or costs associated with participating, nor is nomination required. The final data set was compiled from 10 million ratings across 60,000 U.S. companies.

SmartBug’s recognition by Comparably follows recent announcements that it was named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in America for the fourth year in a row and that it was also recently named to the Adweek 100: Fastest Growing list for the second consecutive year. The company has also earned hundreds of Marcom Awards.

To see the full list of award-winning companies and to learn more about the methodology used to determine winners, visit Comparably’s blog.

ABOUT COMPARABLY 

Comparably (www.comparably.com) is a leading workplace culture and compensation monitoring site that provides the most comprehensive and accurate representation of what it’s like to work at companies. Employees can anonymously rate their employers in 20 different workplace culture categories, providing the public a transparent and in-depth look at the experiences workers have based on their gender, ethnicity, age, department, experience, location, education, and company size. Since launching in 2016, Comparably has accumulated 10 million ratings across 60,000 U.S. companies. The platform has become one of the fastest-growing SaaS solutions for employer branding and a trusted third-party site for workplace and salary data, including its annual Best Places to Work series.

ABOUT SMARTBUG MEDIA^®

SmartBug Media^® is a globally recognized Intelligent Inbound^® marketing agency assisting businesses in growing revenue by generating leads, increasing brand awareness, and building customer loyalty through content marketing, sales enablement, web development, marketing automation, and public relations.

As HubSpot’s 2018 Global Partner of the Year, SmartBug^® is the highest-rated HubSpot partner in the world today. The company has not only been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies four years in a row, but it has also been named to the Adweek 100: Fastest Growing list twice and won a number of Great Place to Work^® and Comparably awards. With hundreds of awards for client work—and a team holding a combined 650 marketing certifications—SmartBug is fully dedicated to delivering client success and an unparalleled agency experience. For more information about SmartBug Media, visit smartbugmedia.com.

For SmartBug Media Inquiries, Contact: 

Jennifer Tolkachev
SmartBug Media 
949-236-6448 x865
jtolkachev@smartbugmedia.com