Even before he became part of it, Dave Saunders ’90 had a feel for the business world and the social scene that supports it. When he graduated from the University of Mary Washington, he said, it was common for colleagues to gather on Monday morning to chat about the weekend or share wallet-sized photos of their kids.
At his marketing and new media firm Madison+Main, Dave Saunders ’90 uses online applications like Twitter and Facebook to help companies grow. The chief idea officer and president of the multimillion-dollar business said his liberal arts education taught him to think big.
“Today we don’t share it with two or three people around the water cooler, we share it with 500 friends on Facebook,” Saunders said. “We live in the information age, but we’re not all cognizant of how information is accessed and disseminated.”
Saunders makes it his job to know – and he helps small and midsize companies navigate that fast-paced, quickly changing world. As president, founder, and chief idea officer at Madison+Main, a marketing and new media firm with offices in Richmond and Virginia Beach, Saunders is considered an expert in the field.
When he started the firm in 2005, he saw potential in smaller companies and opportunity in emerging media. Today he uses Twitter, Facebook, and other online applications to reinforce company brands and enhance traditional advertising, marketing, and public relations. Many of Madison+Main’s clients have blossomed throughout the economic downturn, and they have repaid Saunders with extraordinary loyalty.
“I’ll take a client with a bigger idea than bank account any day,” Saunders said. “The concept here was to bring Madison Avenue ideas to Main Street clients. We came up with a flexible working model that allowed us to really make a difference for these companies.”
With a Mary Washington English degree in hand, Saunders headed west in the early ’90s and started a Los Angeles-based advertising and design firm in a friend’s garage; it quickly outgrew those headquarters. Saunders sold the successful firm, became marketing program director for the Los Angeles Times, and, after 11 years in L.A., returned to Virginia to be marketing manager for Media General, owner of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The big change came in 2005: Saunders quit his job, borrowed $25,000, and started a one-employee company. Six years later, Madison+Main is a multimillion-dollar operation with 15 employees, 42 subcontractors, 12 strategic partners, and 58 clients.
Saunders’ reputation grew with his company, and in 2008, he taught the nation’s first interactive social media undergraduate course at Virginia Commonwealth University. He guest lectures at VCU, and he does training at the school’s Center for Corporate Education. He speaks to businesses about new media and corporate responsibility, and his pocket guide of marketing strategies for small-business owners is due out next fall.
Saunders’ key responsibilities aren’t all business. He has two children, he coaches baseball, and he chaperones choir trips.
UMW’s diverse curriculum and student body broadened his worldview, Saunders said. He remembers “amazing” professors and distinguished visitors in residence, including consumer activist Ralph Nader and civil rights leader James Farmer. Gershon Greenberg lectured about Judaism, which Saunders, a self-described “hillbilly Methodist from Lynchburg, Va.,” said he found fascinating.
He learned about politics, the press, and public relations from political science professor Mark Rozell. Saunders found his niche as the editor of The Bullet student newspaper, and he juggled sports-related jobs at Mary Washington and at The Free Lance-Star.
Saunders credits Mary Washington for his ability to “wear a lot of hats.”
“I think a liberal arts college that has an excellent campus life and rigorous academics prepares people for the 21st century better than a major university,” Saunders said. “The most valuable people that are coming out of school today are generalists.”