'Beneath the Beast'

Forget zero to $250 million in sales in a decade. Forget zero to 450 employees, too. Even forget that the online advertising niche didn't really exist when Greg Murtagh founded Triad Retail Media in 2004.

What really drives Murtagh's passion these days is a honey badger. Not just any honey badger, but the star of a frantic YouTube satire video with 67 million views. Or, says Murtagh: “The most fearless animal in the world.”

The honey badger is also the St. Petersburg-based firm's mascot. Triad, run out of a three-story building in the Carillon Office Park, has a stuffed honey badger that's a roving trophy of sorts. A sales team can win it for a few days with a big account victory. Other departments lay claim to it with work that outdoes the competition. A few even take the honey badger and play pranks on colleagues with it.