Erik Remmel.
20 years in marketing. Now I build the software.
Co-founder of Helium Digital. AI software founder for high-touch local and professional service businesses. This is the long version.
The way it actually happened.
I started in marketing in 2005. Print and early digital, then search and social as those became things. I built a Tampa Bay marketing agency called Life Improvement Media. Mostly service businesses — dentists, contractors, professionals, the kind of clients who taught me that marketing isn't about cleverness. It's about consistency, repetition, and the fundamentals nobody wants to talk about anymore.
Somewhere along that arc, a guy named Ernie Bilodeau hired Life Improvement Media as his agency.
I didn't know it at the time, but that was the most important client meeting of my career.
Ernie had a corporate career behind him and was running multiple franchises when we met. He'd already operated real businesses — scaled teams, navigated downturns, made the hard calls that look easy in hindsight. He hired me to handle his marketing, and we started talking. About strategy. About operations. About what we were each good at and what neither of us could do alone.
We became friends first. Partners second.
By 2018 the direction was obvious. We formalized the partnership and started Helium Digital — a holding company for everything we were building together. The agency work continued. We launched the Helium Radio Network. We picked up more brands. We served clients across local services, real estate, professional services — the same kinds of buyers we'd both spent years working with.
Then 2024 happened. AI hit hard, fast, and across every part of marketing at once. We couldn't unsee it. So we started building software.
Today Helium Digital sells five AI marketing products:
- SERA — AI search, visibility, and GEO
- LeadFlow — AI lead generation
- ListingVidz — AI video for realtors
- PRESS — print and direct mail
- Launched — the all-in-one platform when you want everything in one place
The SaaS side is growing fast. The agency engagements continue. Different motions, same audience: the local and professional service businesses who actually need this stuff to work.
20 years in, marketing is more interesting than ever.
After two decades doing this, I still find marketing genuinely interesting — and I think that's rare. Most people in this industry are tired. Most content is either hype or homework.
The fundamentals haven't changed. The tools have. And the businesses who figure out the new tools first are about to pull away from the ones who don't. That's true at the SMB level, the franchise level, the agency level, and at scale.
I write publicly because there's a third lane between the hype and the homework — the practitioner's lane. It's underpopulated and it's where the actually interesting work is happening. People building things, shipping software, running real campaigns, watching real numbers move.
This site is where I post in that lane. Real takes from inside a real marketing company building real software for real local service businesses.
If that's useful, follow along.
Five principles.
The fundamentals of marketing haven't changed. The tools have.
You still need to be known, trusted, and easy to choose. AI doesn't replace any of that. It just changes how each part gets executed.
Local service businesses are the most underrated AI buyers.
They have real revenue, real urgency, real margins. They've just been waiting for someone to build them software that actually fits how they operate.
Most "AI marketing" content is either hype or homework.
I'm trying to do a third thing — show what's actually working inside a real marketing company building for real businesses.
The right play is usually less software, not more.
I build software for a living. I still tell prospects, often, that they don't need another tool. They need to use the ones they have correctly.
Specificity wins.
Specific products. Specific buyers. Specific outcomes. Generic positioning loses to specificity every time.
I build software for a living. I still tell prospects, often, that they don't need another tool. They need to use the ones they have correctly.
— Principle #4Two modes of engagement.
If you want to use one of our AI products directly — SERA, LeadFlow, ListingVidz, PRESS, or the full Launched platform — the fastest path is to see the products and book a demo for the one that matches your need.
If you need a partner to think through AI marketing strategy, set up the right workflows, or build a 90-day implementation plan, that's a separate conversation. Most engagements start with a discovery call where we figure out whether you need software, consulting, or both.
Let's talk.
The fastest way to reach me is LinkedIn. The second fastest is the contact page.