Catherine Juon and Linda Girard founded Pure Visibility in April, 2005. Both founders were veteran entrepreneurs in the Internet space, drawn to this emerging field and particularly search engine optimization and marketing. According to Co-Founder and Catalyst Catherine Juon, “In some ways, we are both educators and evangelists as much as anything else.” Pure Visibility had a few homes in Ann Arbor, successively growing out of each into the next.

Hatching the Company

There was a “fated” feeling to Linda and Catherine’s first meeting and subsequent planning to start Pure Visibility – according to Catherine,

“We both have the bootstrap angle in common, and definitely the shared background of talking internet stuff before google existed, and before half the business world knew what the internet was. I remember our paths continuing to cross – at points very insistently! In particular, I remember Jill Wagner making a point at Ann Arbor Ad Club meeting that the two of us must meet. I remember sitting at Ashley’s one day and talking about Linda’s business plan, excitedly scribbling how she could be growing, looking at her already impressive client list, her passion, and the opportunities in front of her…And I remember Linda waiting, pretty insistently and almost patiently, for me to realize that my real dream was to start a search engine marketing company together with her ;)”

The Incubator Space

Pure Visibility first occupied a space in a business incubator on North Main in Ann Arbor. It was a small space to house the two very active founders and one more focus-requiring analyst. Pure Visibility’s first employee, Steve Loszewski, kept accidentally setting off the fire alarm. The old space on North Main was transforming, becoming less of an incubator space and more of a single-company rental. And Pure Visibility needed more than a shared conference room. So, we looked for our own space.

The Pineapple Building on Depot Street

The Pineapple Building on Depot Street in Ann Arbor was a larger space than the incubator space, with a lot more natural light. It had two conference rooms and a larger open collaborative space where everyone sat. Its visible location and the Search Engine Marketing sign above the door occasionally brought in walk-in customers and job applicants – one of which we hired!

The Pineapple has entered Pure Visibility lore – a traditional welcome symbol, Pineapples have become literal gifts and figurative ones. Each week we share figurative Pineapples – good things – at our all-hands meeting.

By the end of our time there, we were overflowing a little bit into the park across the street for informal meetings (and even a job interview!).

The First National Building

By 2007, Pure Visibility had outgrown the Pineapple Building. According to Catherine,

“The need to move became progressively more clear as rooms became more multi-purpose. The most absurd was the conference room/printer room/storage room/workspace. A teleconference doesn’t work very well when the printer is spitting out pages in your other ear…! We knew we wanted to stay in Ann Arbor, and our preference was to stay with First Martin as they have been great landlords – always responsive, we always have felt cared for. And the upgrades they made at the pineapple building were fabulous – how many landlords find a concrete guy that dreams up sidewalk motifs with pineapples or landscapers that bother to design the plantings to look like pineapple tops? We love to put that same kind of special touch in our own work, so they’re a great match for us.”

So, the company moved on up a few blocks up the hill to the First National Building on Washington and Main Street in August, 2007.

The Next Phase

We have room to grow at the First National Building, but we dream big, so eventually we will outgrow this space as well. We’re excited to see what the future holds for the company and the team!