This Startup Cold Called Netflix, T-Mobile, Delta - And Won

Cold calling typically has a bad reputation. Yet, on the rare occasions, this practice can be undeniably fruitful. Look no further than Sparkcentral for evidence of such an instance.

The customer engagement startup has attracted a number of high-profile clients, including Netflix, Inc. NFLX, Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL, T-Mobile US Inc TMUS, Sears Holdings Corp SHLD, Uber and Dropbox. "I would say that 70 percent of our customers are from cold calling," Davy Kestens, co-founder and CEO of Sparkcentral, told Benzinga.

That percentage includes all of the aforementioned firms except Dropbox, which was obtained after Dropbox acquired Mailbox, an existing Sparkcentral customer.

Series B And Aftermath

This week, Sparkcentral announced that has raised $12 million in a Series B led by Split Rock Partners. Kestens said that he and his team want to build a platform to improve the relationship between large enterprises and their customers.

"We're a pretty tiny startup that's getting all these large, big brands, which is really exciting," said Kestens. "I think a lot of large enterprises mainly look at the big players in the market…and just start with those and ignore everyone else. We have to combat that as well."

This might have worked to Kestens' advantage. With so many competitors flooding the industry, Sparkcentral knew it had to act quickly. "We really felt that we had to put in a lot of effort and outreach and try to get these brands aware of what we were building," said Kestens.

Related Link: Michigan Startup Raises $10 Million To Revolutionize A Multi-Billion-Dollar Industry

Growth Ahead

Sparkcentral has raised $17.6 million since the company was founded in June 2011. As with most startups, the Series B will go toward the firm's growth plans, which include hiring a VP of sales who can scale the company.

Kestens also wants to ensure that Sparkcentral provides its own customers with the best experience possible.

"It's really important for us to have great customer service," he said. "It'd be awkward if we didn't as a customer service company."

Sparkcentral is also keeping its eye on the international market.

"We started in San Francisco," Kestens added. "We realized that Silicon Valley is a great place to sit and recruit talent. On the one hand, the environment is also hyper-competitive for finding talent and there's limits to it. We thought it was necessary to expand on the fact we already had a few international engineers on our team and start capitalizing on that and set up an organization, a subsidiary, on the other side of the world."

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.