It’s a big month, BOCA is celebrating it’s 14th anniversary!!! What started off as a one-woman show in San Francisco has now grown into a boutique agency with 25 crazy-talented people spread across the country.
BOCA’s founder Kathleen Shanahan launched her consulting business in February 2008. She celebrated with a leap year party at a swanky restaurant in SF (alongside now Governor Gavin Newsom who was simultaneously celebrating). The night was full of fun and potential as the team of four and its two founding clients, Devicescape and Narus, marked the beginning of a new era.
Fast forward two years later to 2010…business was booming. What started out as a small consultancy, was evolving. Shanahan was pregnant with her first child and crushing it with BOCA. While eating lunch one day at her favorite Cafe Francisco on Francisco Street, she had an epiphany – she built a business and it was time to make things even more official. BOCA transitioned from a small consultancy of 1099 employees to a full-service communications agency where she rolled out W2s, 401Ks, vacations plans and the like. BOCA was representing stellar brands such as oDesk (now known as UpWork) and Shipwire (now part of Ingram Micro’s cloud division). She was a proud mama of BOCA and a soon to be little girl.
Throughout the past fourteen years, BOCA has worked with some of the biggest names in B2B high tech, biotech and MedTech. From the early days, BOCA sculpted its client roster and focus. The BOCA team traveled around the world to gain insight and expertise into how technology is marketed outside of the U.S. so that the company can be relevant and savvy regardless of where you land on a map.
Since its inception, BOCA has consistently strived to stay at the forefront of the PR game. BOCA has enjoyed working with outstanding organizations like Silicon Valley Public Relations Society of America, sponsoring events and participating in panels. BOCA is proud to have been nominated for numerous awards, including the PRWeek U.S. Awards and In2 SABRE Awards, and, this year, Expertise named BOCA as one of the BEST PR agencies in San Francisco — Woo hoo!!
From the beginning, BOCA has grounded its work in its core values: authenticity, creativity, family, passion and savvy. Last year, BOCA’s very first intern Sammy Totah became an agency partner. As a company, we have continued to grow and expand, welcoming a bunch of new team members over the past couple of months to further enhance our outstanding client service and strengthen our team. BOCA prides itself on being a family-oriented company with a focus on authenticity — anyone who is a part of BOCA is a part of the family.
Today, BOCA will hold its annual State of the Union event, where we will honor the past 14 years and look ahead to the next 14 and beyond. To toast the occasion, we sent out swag bags to our team members and valentines goodies to our clients and BOCA friendlies to make sure everyone knows just how much they are truly appreciated. BOCA’s journey has been an incredible one and we can’t wait to see where it leads us next!