We’re proud to share that the Northwest Indiana Times recently published a feature article profiling the history and growth of Livemercial. The piece gives a good summary of the history of livemercial, which highlights livemercial’s rise from the ashes of the dot-com bubble burst of the late 1990s.

The article traces the journey of founder and CEO Johnny Mathis Jr., who in the aftermath of the dot-com crash developed a new streaming video technology, called the Livemercial Player, that would later become part of the company’s Virtual Call Center. Mathis described it as “a ‘micro site’ built around a single product. At the time, the industry relied on a ‘shopping cart’ for a buyer to purchase different products. Instead, the call center encourages the buyer to increase the dollar value of a single purchase through additional purchases. We call this an ‘upsell tree.‘”

That innovative approach to online direct response laid the foundation for everything Livemercial has become today. From those early days of the Livemercial Player, the company has evolved into a full-service online direct response marketing platform serving some of the biggest brands in the As Seen on TV and direct-to-consumer space.

“Livemercial has grown steadily to the point where it now employs 100 people nationwide,” the article notes, describing the company’s impressive expansion from a small startup to a major player in the industry. The company operates from its corporate headquarters near the Porter County Municipal Airport (VPZ) in Valparaiso, Indiana — a location that Mathis chose deliberately to build something meaningful in his home community.

As Mathis told the Times: “I didn’t have any support for my ideas. I want to help others with their ideas and grow our business as well.” That philosophy of innovation, support, and community has been at the heart of Livemercial since day one, and it continues to drive everything we do. We’re grateful to the Northwest Indiana Times for sharing our story with the community, and we’re excited about the chapters yet to be written.