Rand Fishkin's Bio, Speaker Rates, Contact Details

Howdy! On this page you’ll find Rand’s:

Biography:

For professional events and republication, please use the following bio: Rand Fishkin is cofounder and CEO of SparkToro, makers of fine audience research software, and indie game developer Snackbar Studio. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his writing, videos, speaking, and his book, Lost and Founder. When Rand’s not working, he’s usually cooking a fancy meal for the love of his life, author Geraldine DeRuiter.

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Professional Backstory: Rand dropped out of the University of Washington in 2000 to work full-time in web design, an endeavor that brought failure and debt. In 2003, desperate for ways to pay off the company debt, he created the SEOmoz blog, which, over the next decade, became the world’s most popular community and content resource for search marketers. In 2007, the company (Moz) transitioned from consulting to software. That same year, he proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Geraldine DeRuiter, with a TV commercial that received widespread publicity (and, later, an awkward appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show). The two married in 2008 in a move Rand considers the best of his life.

During Rand’s 17 years at the company, Moz grew to 200+ employees, $50M+ in revenue, and traffic to 30M+ visitors/year. Rand stepped down as CEO in 2014 during a rough bout with depression and left Moz in 2018, remaining on the board of directors until 2020. The company was sold to private equity in 2021.

In 2018, Rand started SparkToro with Casey Henry and published, with Penguin/Random House, Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World. Rand previously co-contributed to two books: Art of SEO, and Inbound Marketing & SEO. He’s been profiled in the Seattle Times, featured in Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, named to BusinessWeek’s 30 Under 30, written about in Newsweek, The Next Web, the Inc 500, and hundreds of other publications. He is, however, most proud of his prominent appearances in Geraldine’s books All Over the Place and If You Can’t Take the Heat. Geraldine and Rand are also small investors in TinySeed Accelerator, LegUp, TeamSportz, Techstars Seattle and Backstage Capital.

Get in touch: email rand at sparktoro dot com (please don’t use Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. I’m not great about checking them)
Social Networks (from most to least used): Threads, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, Quora, Pinterest.

Booking Rand to Speak:

A sample of Rand’s presentations & videos:

Speaking requirements:

For virtual speaking events, a $500 donation to https://www.givedirectly.org/ is appreciated.
For in-person events, requirements vary based on location:
- <3 hour flight from Seattle – $1,000 donation to Give Directly and reimbursement for flight + hotel
- 3-6 hour flight from Seattle – $1,000 donation to Give Directly, purchase of 150+ copies of Lost & Founder (bulk rates available through the publisher), and reimbursement of flight + hotel
- 6+ hour flight from Seattle – $2,000 donation to Give Directly, purchase of 300+ copies of Lost & Founder (bulk rates available through the publisher), and reimbursement of flight + hotel

I’m currently accepting travel-required speaking invitations after: October 2024. If you’d like me to speak at an event after the date above, please drop a line to [email protected].