Urban Airship appoints CFO as it crosses the 5 billion push notification mark

While funding starting to flow is a good sign of startup activity in the Portland area, so is the traction some of these companies are beginning to show with their customer bases.

Take for example Urban Airship, which today announced it has served more than five billion push notifications. A staggering number, especially considering they hit 1 billion less than a year ago.

“I’m amazed at the growth we’ve seen in such a short time. Our team has delivered on the vision of a ubiquitous messaging layer for any connected device and we’re just getting warmed up over here,” said Scott Kveton, CEO of Urban Airship, in a press release. “The market is rapidly adopting push notifications as a critical communications channel. It’s clear that mobile is changing everything.”

If you’re curious about how Urban Airship made it to this milestone, they’ve provided an infographic that outlines the journey. As well as some interesting metrics about mobile usage. According to GigaOm, those numbers reveal some interesting things about the mobile market.

The milestone is helpful in understanding how the game has changed for mobile developers. While they used to chase download numbers, they’re now seeing that it’s not enough to get users in the door; it’s about keeping them engaged over time. That’s how developers can keep monetizing them, through in-app purchases and mobile advertising. And one of the most effective things is a timely push notification that can alert a user to new content, an update, a local deal or some other message.

Urban Airship also used this milestone as an opportunity to announce the hiring of Dylan Anderson as Chief Financial Officer for the company. Dylan has a significant history of managing finances for Portland startups.

Anderson, a seasoned start-up veteran, has more than 18 years of financial and operational leadership in early-stage, innovative companies. He brings strong credentials in fund raising, M&A, and both pre- and post-IPO companies. Most recently he was CFO for Max-Viz, Inc., a VC–backed avionics technology company, where he led the finance, legal, HR and administrative teams.

For more on the hire and the five billion notification milestone, see the press release or the Urban Airship blog.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy View all posts by Rick Turoczy