Thirty years of building things on the internet.
From a free web host run out of a bedroom to a 400-person agency, Alex has been on the operating side of every shift in search and digital advertising since the 1990s.
Alex Melen is an award-winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and author. He co-founded SmartSites in 2011 with his brother Michael, growing it from a two-person startup into one of the largest independent digital marketing agencies in the United States, with more than 400 full-time employees, six offices, and over 1,000 active clients. SmartSites has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies for ten consecutive years and to the NJBIZ list of top private companies in New Jersey.
Alex started building websites in the early 1990s and founded T35 Hosting in 1997, one of the first free web hosting providers (in the same wave as GeoCities, Angelfire and Tripod), which grew to more than a million users worldwide. He was named one of YoungBiz Magazine's Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs in America in 2001, received Babson College's Student Business of the Year Award in 2006, and was named one of BusinessWeek's Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25 the same year. In 2012 he was invited to the White House to meet with the Obama administration on young entrepreneurship.
Today Alex speaks regularly at marketing, automotive, e-commerce, and technology conferences on generative engine optimization (GEO), AI in advertising, automotive digital marketing, and what it takes to scale an agency. His book, Automotive Search Marketing, is now in its second edition with a new section on AI search, ChatGPT ads, and AI measurement.
What colleagues and clients say.
“Alex is simply incredible. He is very modest but just show him your business problem — and, shortly after, the problem disappears… While others talk, Alex does — and constantly learns.”
“I had the pleasure of working under Alex's supervision for almost 2 years and his ability to manage multiple projects was unlike anything I've seen before. Our team size and client portfolio nearly doubled each year!”
“…together he helped me obtain my goals to reduce the advertising spend immediately and dramatically. In less than six months, with Alex's support and knowledge, I was able to increase the quality and quantity of leads for my client.”
“Alex is a detail-oriented manager who watches the balance sheet like a hawk without losing sight of the company's strategic objectives.”
Milestones
- 1997Founds T35 Hosting from Fair Lawn, New Jersey: free, ad-supported web hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth, in the same wave as GeoCities, Angelfire and Tripod. It grows to more than a million users worldwide.
- 2001Named one of YoungBiz Magazine's Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs in America.
- 2006Babson College Student Business of the Year; BusinessWeek's Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25.
- 2009A patent on subdomain hosting, used to threaten T35, LiveJournal and other hosts, is struck down after a challenge by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- 2011Co-founds SmartSites with his brother Michael Melen.
- 2012T35 retires its free plan after 15 years and continues as a paid hosting provider.
- 2012Invited to the White House to meet with the Obama administration on young entrepreneurship.
- 2023Automotive Search Marketing: A Car Dealer's Guide to Google published by Leaders Press.
- 2023Named to Auto Remarketing's 40 Under 40: Industry list.
- 2026SmartSites makes the Inc. 5000 for the tenth consecutive year. Alex is named a finalist for Microsoft Advertising's Trailblazer of the Year (North America Partner Awards).
- 2026Second edition released with a new section on AI search, ChatGPT ads and AI measurement. SmartSites passes 400 employees and 1,000 clients.
Awards & honors
Bring Alex to your next event.
Keynotes, breakouts, and workshops on AI search, digital marketing, and scaling a business. Tell him about your audience and he will come back with a talk built for the room.