About Us


A Multidisciplinary Team

Our team is made up of PR Experts and Search Marketing experts who are passionate about utilizing Search Marketing to help clients create their online image – powerfully impacting how the client is perceived.

Sam Michelson, CEO

Prior to creating RepRelations, Sam founded several online businesses, YouNeverCall (a leading cell phone website) CondominiumCentral (a licensed online luxury condos broker) and Five Blocks (a Search Engine Optimization firm). Sam is the inventor of two US Patents - one in text categorization, the other in interactive advertising. Sam holds a BA in Psychology from Yeshiva University and a Masters of Science in Management from Boston University.

David Goldman, VP Sales and Marketing

Over the past 13 years, David Goldman has specialized in bringing emerging consumer technologies and companies to market using public relations. He began his technology marketing career at the global public relations agency Manning Selvage & Lee in 1997 as the lead media contact for eBay and was a member of the team that took eBay public. He also has represented Google, XM Satellite Radio and Blockbuster Online. David is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

How it Started

Our group has run a number of web-based businesses over the past 6 years and has become proficient in many of the skills needed to run a successful retail or lead-generation business online.

About three years ago one our websites was doing over 100 orders per day, with average order value at several hundred $US. After several months we noticed a significant dip in orders connected with higher shopping cart abandonment, though our site visits and offers remained similar. When we researched further, we found that a search for the brand name resulted in several negative comments on complaint sites. All seemed to be from the same unhappy (or perhaps mentally disturbed) customer.

We realized that as a small/medium-sized online store, people were probably looking up the store before they decided on a final purchase. When they did so, we were failing the so-called reputation test.

Something had to be done, but what? We searched to find if there was a company who could help us and found nobody who offered what we needed. We found one rather vocal company that said they would help, but whose main method involves contacting sites and threatening lawsuits if they don't remove offensive materials. We didn't think that was a good plan when dealing with complaint websites.

To make a long story short, we spent more than a year developing an approach to solve our own online reputation management issue. This approach utilized a lot of knowledge we had, but also involved a new way of analyzing the situation and a much broader approach to a solution.

Read more about our approach.