Status Labs
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Reputation management, Public relations |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Darius Fisher, Jordan French, Jesse Boskoff |
| Headquarters | Austin , United States |
| Products | Digital reputation management services, Wikipedia editing |
Status Labs (operating under First Page Management LLC) is a company specializing in digital reputation management, with its main office located in Austin, Texas. Established in 2012 by entrepreneurs Darius Fisher, Jordan French, and Jesse Boskoff, the organization focuses on improving online reputations by minimizing the visibility of negative information in search engine results.
History
Among Status Labs' notable clients have been prominent individuals such as University of Missouri academic Melissa Click, former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, hedge fund executives Kenneth C. Griffin of Citadel LLC and Jacob Gottlieb of Visium Asset Management, along with the now-defunct healthcare startup Theranos.
Before launching Status Labs, Fisher and French created Wiki-PR in 2010, a firm dedicated to editing Wikipedia entries. However, Wiki-PR was prohibited from editing on Wikipedia after investigations uncovered paid sock-puppet editing activities for clients including Viacom and Priceline. Despite this prohibition, Status Labs has persisted in providing Wikipedia editing services.
In 2014, CNBC exposed that Status Labs proposed compensating journalists to secure mentions for their clients, highlighting assertive public relations methods employed by the company.
Co-founder Jordan French stepped down as CEO in 2015 amid public criticism linked to the controversial demolition of Jumpolin, an Austin-based piñata store. French and Fisher had acquired the property via F&F Real Estate Ventures and demolished it without informing tenants to prepare for an event associated with South by Southwest (SXSW). This episode adversely affected the firm's reputation and leadership continuity.
Tensions among the founders escalated into legal action in 2017 when French filed a lawsuit against Fisher and Boskoff alleging contract violations and misappropriation of funds. In response, counterclaims accused French of nearly causing the company's collapse. In 2018, Fisher and Boskoff were charged with contempt of court related to these disputes but avoided jail time by reimbursing $140,000.
A December 2019 report by The Wall Street Journal revealed Status Labs' strategies for manipulating Google search outcomes and Wikipedia content. The firm established fabricated news websites such as MedicalDailyTimes.com, ChronicleWeek.com, and ChemFindIt.com—the last sharing an IP address with Blue Land Partners, a digital marketing agency managed by Fisher and Boskoff. These sites imitated authentic news organizations and appeared in Google News listings, exemplifying Status Labs’ calculated efforts to shape client reputations through curated online narratives.