PBN 2025 FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES
$250,000 TO $2.5 MILLION 1. Half Street Group
CEO (or equivalent): Mike Raia, founder and president
2024 Revenue: $812,956
2022 Revenue: $390,194
Revenue growth: 108.3%
WHAT STARTED AS a solo marketing and public relations practice side hustle for Mike Raia five years ago has quickly turned into an accelerating enterprise.
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Half Street Group, based in Providence, has a diverse portfolio, with specialties that include nonprofits and education. Its suite of services ranges from public relations, reputation management, executive communications, campaign development and execution to social and digital media strategy.
The company’s economic prosperity is reaching overdrive, as Half Street Group’s revenue has jumped 108.3% from $390,194 in 2022 to $812,956 in 2024.
Raia attributes the company’s success to two things: good people and good clients.
“I hired well. I wanted to hire people who are interested in our clients and buy into their mission,” said Raia, who now has four employees and a couple of interns. He is the only one on the team who wasn’t born in Rhode Island.
Raia points to Nadia Engenheiro, who joined Half Street Group last year as a digital and social media specialist, an important addition to the staff and whose skill set is driving revenues.
“This expanded what we were able to do for existing clients, as well as attracted new business. We’re getting more sophisticated with these tools,” Raia said.
Engenheiro said she wouldn’t have wanted to work elsewhere, not only because the firm was known for having a collaborative team but she also was interested in working with social impact clients. Engenheiro does video production, digital newsletters, podcast production, content creation, audience development and growth, and more.
“To be able to tell the stories of these businesses that are benefiting Rhode Island, this is impactful, meaningful work,” she said.
Half Street works with organizations such as One Neighborhood Builders, Social Enterprise Greenhouse, Meals on Wheels, Boys Town New England, Providence College, St. Helena Parish School District and Partnership for Rhode Island.
Ninety percent of the firm’s clients are based in Rhode Island and that’s not by happenstance. Raia said Half Street Group is “choosy” about who it works withs.
“We seek out leaders whose values we are proud to have our name next to, to speak on their behalf. We don’t have to take projects just for revenue,” he said. “We look at reputation, brand equity.”
Raia says that social and digital media is critical for nonprofits and smaller organizations, being a way for them to show their funders and governmental partners what they are doing without blowing their budget. Raia is concerned about the headwinds in the economy, especially for social enterprises and nonprofits that are being affected by politics in Washington.
“With the chaos in [Washington, D.C.], it’s more important that they show their value to potential funders,” Raia said. “We’re the ones to do impact storytelling.”
That’s one reason Raia is confident about the firm’s future. He says there will always be a market for thought leadership and helping shape the narrative.
On what distinguishes Half Street Group from competitors, Raia says he is a generation younger than the leaders of some of its competitors. Half Street Group is not a lobbying firm or government relations like others, he says.
The firm’s growth also speaks volumes about its business model.
“I’ve seen growth every year,” Raia said. “I was even profitable the first year. I’m able to offer benefits and pay employees market rate.”
It’s not only the bottom line that puts a smile on Raia’s face. The firm gets to be a part of its clients’ success, he says.
“We got to celebrate when Crossroads Rhode Island [a nonprofit that provides services to the homeless] completed their capital campaign that will now mean 300 apartments for those who were homeless,” Raia said.
Raia says he is intimately involved with clients, but he leaves the execution of strategy to his staff members. Five years down the road, he sees continued growth but it is to be done just so.
“I don’t want us to be too big such that I don’t have relationships with clients,” Raia said.
