15 years in, it’s clear: All business is social

15 years ago, when our founders Justyn, Aaron, Gil and Pete started Sprout Social, social media was unpredictable, experimental and deeply personal. Fast forward to today—social isn’t just another part of the marketing mix anymore. It’s the channel where your brand’s success is determined, and the new center of gravity for your entire business.

Sprout has grown from a scrappy start-up into a data-driven global company, evolving alongside social itself. In today’s chaotic social landscape—marked by platform uncertainty, shifts in consumer behavior and the exponential rise of AI—Sprout stands out as the trusted leader, paving the way for brands.

Given the rate of change in the social industry, the past decade-and-a-half has felt like a lifetime. But the truth is, there’s so much more to come. This is a moment to reflect on our journey, and to lay out what’s next—not just for Sprout, but for business itself.

Looking back: How an industry underdog became a leader

Sprout’s early days were spent in a windowless, one-room office in Chicago filled with La Croix can towers. Our founders knew that one day social media would change the way the world communicates and how virtually every aspect of business operates. They just needed to convince everyone else.

Sprout won over our first customers—the earliest brand social adopters—with this vision. We secured partnerships with Facebook and Twitter (now known as X), networks on their own incredible growth trajectories.

Over the next decade, we expanded, evolved and reimagined our platform to go far beyond basic scheduling and message management. We launched game-changing features like Analytics, Employee Advocacy and Customer Engagement. Through strategic acquisitions of SimplyMeasured, Repustate and Tagger, we laid the foundation for robust Listening and Influencer Marketing solutions and accelerated our AI technology roadmap. We scaled our integrations to match evolving tech stacks, rolled out thousands of new features and even announced a global partnership with Salesforce. The result: a comprehensive, intuitive platform built to meet the complexity of social.

Fueled by a world-class product and newly international team, Sprout went public in 2019—a truly transformative moment in our company history. We grew our small yet mighty startup into a publicly traded company. Ringing the bell with my wife, daughters and team at Sprout’s IPO will always be one of the greatest moments of my life.

Today: Social is what drives business forward

But that was just the beginning. At Sprout, we don’t settle for the status quo—we push boundaries and redefine what’s possible. Since going public, we’ve maintained a compound annual growth rate of 32%, a testament to how our team consistently exceeds expectations and sets new standards for our industry.

Our sustained growth proves what our founders knew would happen from day one. Social already dominated the attention economy. Now its impact is quickly bleeding into the actual economy. The entire customer journey happens on social. And in this new era, brands need a platform that not only streamlines workflows, but also turns social data into strategic insight.

The most forward-thinking companies don’t treat social as a broadcast channel—they embed it into every part of their business. One CMO recently told me their top priority when selecting a social media management platform is finding one that equips every team across their organization with real-time intel on customers, products and competitors. It’s time to start treating social media management like core business infrastructure.

Learn more about how our customers like Etsy, Razorfish and Sesame Workshop view social as more than a marketing channel and put it at the forefront of their brand vision.

Why now is a defining time for brands

Every brand I talk to is feeling pressure—budgets are tightening, teams are leaner, and traditional channels like organic search and paid media are eroding. If your brand is still investing heavily in search, email and traditional paid, it’s time to reevaluate how those dollars are working.

Social media has become the epicenter of culture. It’s the first place people go to discover trends and products, engage with communities, research brands and make purchase decisions. Yet, as the network landscape becomes more volatile and user behavior shifts, brand relevance and loyalty are harder to win than ever. It’s not about checking a box, or posting just to post—it’s about using social to drive measurable results.

At the same time, the rise of AI is unlocking entirely new ways for brands to scale personalization, drive search behavior, automate engagement and extract deeper insights from every interaction. It’s hard to fathom just how quickly AI disruption is moving, and brands risk being left behind if they don’t evolve at the same exponential pace.

What makes this moment especially powerful is how much easier it’s becoming to directly tie social to revenue and pipeline. With more sophisticated commerce integrations and the undeniable influence of creator partnerships, marketers now have clearer attribution models and new paths to conversion—making social not just measurable, but business-critical.

What the future holds: The era of bold social

Looking ahead, we’re guided by a core belief: All business is social. The traditional playbooks for social media—and even for business itself—are rapidly becoming outdated. We’re stepping into an era of audacious social, where the brands willing to take risks and make intrepid moves will be the ones that reshape what’s possible in business.

But social media won’t change business unless bold people are willing to change social. The companies that win will be the ones brave enough to center social in everything they do—from product development to customer experience to revenue growth.

Take Unilever. The multinational CPG is allocating 50% of their overall marketing budget to social media, and plans to partner with 20 times more influencers as a part of their influencer- and social-first strategy.

Or Papa Johns. Social insights led the brand to bring back their fan favorite Cheesy Burger Pizza, and discover that Jason Kelce was a fan—resulting in an incredibly successful partnership that strengthened their brand’s cultural resonance.

We’ve reached a critical juncture in the evolution of social media—one that will define the next era of business strategy, customer engagement and competitive advantage. At Sprout, we’re here to power that social-first shift. As your trusted platform, we’re purpose-built for this era of consumer behavior and ready to help you lead with confidence, act with agility and turn bold ideas into lasting impact.

Don’t just manage social, move business

From a one-room office in Chicago to powering tens of thousands of global brands, Sprout has always believed that social isn’t just a marketing function—it’s the connective tissue of modern business. 15 years in, we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible.

As we step into this next chapter, we’re more committed than ever to helping organizations navigate change, lead with purpose and center social insights in all they do. The future is bold—and with Sprout by your side, it’s yours to shape.

Read more about how Sprout Social is turning social strategy into business strategy.

The post 15 years in, it’s clear: All business is social appeared first on Sprout Social.