TextUs

TextUs provides a conversational business texting platform that lets organizations send and receive SMS at scale with customers, job candidates and employees. Users get a dedicated business phone number (or port an existing one), import contacts from a CRM, ATS or spreadsheet, and then send one-to-one messages, bulk broadcasts or scheduled and triggered automated campaigns, managing replies from a shared dashboard or mobile app. Features include message templates, merge-field personalization, multi-step drip campaigns, opt-out management and consent tracking for compliance, and bi-directional integrations that sync contacts and log conversations back into the system of record.

The product is positioned around go-to-market use cases: outbound prospecting and follow-up for SDRs and account executives, promotional and event campaigns for demand generation teams, appointment reminders and service updates for customer success and support, and candidate engagement for recruiting, staffing and HR teams. Integrations span CRMs (Salesforce, including embedded SMS and Marketing Cloud support, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle), applicant tracking and HR systems (Bullhorn, Greenhouse, JobDiva, Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, TrackerRMS, TalentReef), healthcare staffing systems (LaborEdge, Symplr, Bluesky), and Zapier for connections to thousands of additional applications. More recent additions include AI-assisted SMS with delivery risk detection and compliance controls, and WhatsApp messaging alongside SMS in a single inbox.

Founding story

TextUs was created in 2013 by Ted Guggenheim and Andrew Kimmell, who came from the music industry rather than technology: Guggenheim worked alongside artists including Sting, the Samples and the Dave Matthews Band, while Kimmell designed album covers and merchandise for acts such as 3OH!3, STS9 and The String Cheese Incident. They positioned the product against the assumption that business outreach had to be formal and impersonal, at a time when many executives doubted text messaging had a role in business.

Business model

Subscription software sold on 12-month or longer agreements, with plans tiered as Essential, Pro, Enterprise and Custom. Customers purchase a set volume of message credits up front and draw down against that balance, with additional messages billed at an overage rate; carriers segment texts so a standard 160-character message consumes one credit while longer or special-character messages use several and MMS uses three. Plans can be upgraded or expanded mid-term with prorated billing, while downgrades take effect at renewal. Essential and Pro include email and ticket support; Enterprise and Custom add a dedicated customer success manager.

Recurring platform subscriptions combined with prepaid, consumption-based message credits and overage charges.

Traction

Reported growth of 886% from 2015 to 2017 with annual revenue over $2.4 million, earning a debut on the Inc. 5000 list at #573 in 2018. The company had 48 employees at the time of its December 2021 Series C and planned to hire roughly 40 more, and states its platform is used by thousands of businesses.

Latest developments

In April 2026 TextUs released AI-powered SMS with smart delivery combining AI messaging, risk detection and compliance controls, and named Doug Busley senior vice president of engineering. In August 2026 it added WhatsApp messaging, uniting SMS and WhatsApp in a single inbox. The company has also expanded its native Salesforce integration with embedded SMS, bi-directional sync and Marketing Cloud support, and named Nick Madison chief revenue officer. Its executive team is led by CEO Martin Payne, with Andrew Davis as VP marketing and Chad Prezlomski as SVP of revenue.