Bootstrapped Startup Ampush Joins Facebook’s Elite Ranks Of Marketing Developers

Ampush, a bootstrapped social media marketing platform, was named a FacebookStrategic Preferred Marketing Developer(sPMD) today.

Facebook says being an sPMD is the “highest distinction of excellence,” and that companies are selected if they are “driving outstanding positive impact in our marketing developer ecosystem.”

Ampush, founded in 2009 and touting clients like MasterCard, LivingSocial, and Kellogg’s, hasn’t raised any outside funding yet. Ampush CEO and co-founder Jesse Pujji says the company is “not adverse to capital at all,” but has been profitable on an annual basis since 2011 and hasn’t needed to raise money yet.

“We figure it’s better off that way,” Pujji tells me.

The sPMD companies are evaluated every six months, but Ampush is being added off-cycle. Ampush will be the 14th sPMD, joining major players like Adobe and Salesforce.

Pujji says the company has been growing and innovating alongside new Facebook products. Ampushwon the grand prize in Facebook’s Preferred Marketing Developer Innovation Competition in March for its “Project YOGA,” or Your Open Graph Applications. Ampush’s ads integration helps advertisers amplify Open Graph stories and reach new customers through the News Feed.

Ampush’s ad manager platform.

Pujji and co-founders Nick Shah and Chris Amos met when they were 17 at a pre-college summer program and roomed together their freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. While they were all interested in entrepreneurship, they worked in consulting and banking for four years after school.

“I don’t think at the time we had the conviction to really start a business,” Pujji tells me. After a few years, though, they realized their hearts weren’t in banking and consulting, so the trio decided to “pull the Band-Aid off and just leave our jobs.”

Since then, the company has expanded rapidly, reaching the top of Facebook’s marketing developers. With the sPMD designation, Ampush will gain priority product and business support and access to alpha and beta trials, among other perks.

Pujji says making the exclusive list helps the company gain clients, as it’s a prerequisite for meeting with some of the largest advertisers, and it acts as publicity and positive signaling for smaller advertisers.