Gushcloud weathered a PR disaster. It’s now growing and profitable.

Considering that just a few years ago, their business appeared to be on the brink of collapse amid a public relations crisis that made national news, Althea Lim and Vincent Ha are now calm and phlegmatic as they look back on the incident. The duo co-founded Gushcloud, a Singapore-based digital marketing agency for influencers.

Just before Christmas in 2014, Gushcloud was rocked by allegations about its business practices that called its integrity into question. Xiaxue, a popular Singaporean blogger, made accusations in a blog post running more than 5,000 words.

The drama – a forerunner of the YouTuber feuds that are now quotidian – stretched on for several months, and led to Gushcloud losing 90% of its Singaporean marketing campaigns, Lim and Ha reveal to Tech in Asia. The co-founders also talked to us about how they weathered the storm and put their business not just back on track but also on a new path.

At that time, the startup’s home market accounted for nearly half of its revenue. As such, Gushcloud had to survive on revenue from Indonesia and Malaysia, its two other markets that remained largely unaffected by the conflict making headlines across Singapore.

Ha describes the impact as “a few months of pain,” during which influencers and brands kept in touch but signaled they wanted to steer clear of doing campaigns with Gushcloud in Singapore while the uproar rumbled on.

“Fortunately, after five or six months, we recovered steadily until we were better than [we were] originally,” says Ha.

Mentors helped

Recalling the conflict, Lim says it was “personally and professionally extremely challenging” and as well as “one of the most difficult times of our lives.”

She adds: “First of all, our teams were extremely young. I think four years ago, the average age of our organization was barely 23 years old. The [influencer] territories were extremely uncharted. We were trying to figure out industry protocols and practices with fellow industry practitioners. So [the allegations] came as quite a shock to us.”

Amid the social media backlash and the scrutiny of news media, it got so grim that the founders felt haunted by the specter of shutting down the startup.

“The days were very long, to be honest,” shares Lim. She and Ha were also getting input from various lawyers and several PR agencies. “Vincent and I spent a lot of time going through all this advice and figuring out what really made sense. At that point in time, we genuinely thought we’d have to close the company and do something else.”

Others even suggested changing Gushcloud’s name or that the co-founders step down, according to Lim. The co-founders didn’t seriously consider or take any drastic action, but the fact that these ideas came up in conversation is a measure of the crisis they faced.

Those talks also brought something else to light, she says. “I think what really came out of that was that we had very good mentors who really came to speak with us and said, ‘You know, you’re young.’ We really need to look at something [that can show us] how we can improve. If there’s any mistake that we made, have the courage to stand up and apologize for it. If not, then take this and figure out how to be better from it.”

Introspection

The entrepreneurs seem keen to put the hullabaloo behind them. Lim and Ha avoid talking about Xiaxue’s claims, saying they stand by their lengthy, point-by-point rebuttal.

The Korea years

Leaving the mothership

Evolution

Influencers rising