Little Guide

What Little Guide does

Little Guide, operated by SwiftRay, LLC (a Georgia LLC dba Little Guide®), is a storytelling-based local advertising platform that connects small businesses with community shoppers through three integrated channels: an annual print publication, dedicated business feature pages on market-specific websites (mylittleguide.com), and branded social media promotion. Each market edition is organized into categories — Eat & Drink, Experience, Shopping, Services, Stay, and Healthcare — and features narrative profiles of business owners rather than traditional display advertising. The platform currently serves four U.S. markets (Augusta, GA; Amelia Island, FL; Bakersfield, CA; and Macon, GA), reaching an aggregate community of approximately 1.1 million residents and 500,000 qualified shoppers, with 65,000 print books distributed annually per city.

The company operates through a franchise/distributor model in which independent local market directors (Brian Allen in Augusta; Elaine Harrison and Terry Cox in Amelia Island; Priyanka Saha in Bakersfield; Jennifer Dobson in Macon) handle local sales, content collection, and market operations. Corporate leadership is a four-person executive team led by founder Stuart Rayburn, alongside a Sales Director, Production Director, and Finance Director, giving total headcount of approximately 10-15. The technology stack is deliberately lightweight — a responsive website, Facebook and Instagram channels, email marketing, and a JotForm partnership inquiry form — with no proprietary platform or disclosed AI capability.

Little Guide generates revenue by selling advertising memberships to small businesses, packaged as combined print, web, and social media exposure. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed; SMB partners include restaurants, retail shops, service providers, and healthcare practices. The company is privately held with no disclosed institutional funding, no parent company, and no M&A activity, and it actively recruits new local distributors to expand into additional U.S. cities.

Name

Little Guide

Legal name

SwiftRay, LLC

Website

https://mylittleguide.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Little Guide is a storytelling-based local advertising platform that connects small businesses with community shoppers through annual print publications, dedicated website features, and branded social media promotion. It operates a franchise/distributor model across four U.S. markets: Augusta, Amelia Island, Bakersfield, and Macon.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Local Business Advertising & Marketing Services

NAICS

Book Publishers (51313), Book Publishers (513130)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

Lifestyle, Travel & Leisure Books Publishing (MPAJAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Humor, Gift & Specialty Format Books (Journals, Coloring, etc.) (MPAJAAAN)

Keywords

• Local business advertising
• Print publication guide
• Community marketing platform
• Small business promotion
• Local discovery directory

Headquarters

HQ city

Augusta

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Advertising Membership Partnerships: Little Guide generates revenue by selling advertising partnerships to small businesses. Businesses pay for featured coverage across print (the Little Guide book), website (dedicated business profile pages), and social media promotion through Little Guide's branded channels. The company positions this as a storytelling-based advertising experience rather than traditional directory advertising.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Little Guide produces annually distributed print guide books showcasing local small businesses in regional U.S. markets, complemented by dedicated website business profiles on mylittleguide.com and social media promotion through branded channels. The company sells advertising partnerships to local business owners, using storytelling-driven content rather than traditional directory listings to build emotional connections between businesses and community shoppers.

Product overview

Little Guide is a local advertising platform that operates across multiple independently managed regional markets. The core offering consists of three integrated products: the Little Guide print book (a high-quality publication distributed annually in each market), website advertising (dedicated business features on market-specific websites), and social media promotion (content distributed through Little Guide's brand channels). The platform's mission is to improve communities by encouraging people to shop locally and support small businesses through storytelling-driven marketing that connects local businesses with customers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Little Guide Book (Print Publication) Annual high-quality print publication distributed in each market city, featuring storytelling content about local businesses organized by category (Eat & Drink, Experience, Shopping, Services, Stay, Healthcare). Distributed in premium locations where engaged customers can discover and connect with local businesses year-round.
• Little Guide Website Advertising Dedicated business profile pages on mylittleguide.com featuring storytelling content, calls-to-action, and links driving traffic and conversions to partner businesses, allowing customers to find businesses anytime, anywhere.
• Little Guide Social Media Promotion Exclusive social media content distributed through Little Guide's branded Facebook and Instagram channels that promotes partner businesses to keep them top of mind and drive customer interaction.

Quantifiable outcome

• 250+ small businesses actively using Little Guide for promotion
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Local Distributors (Franchise Model)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLittle Guide markets are independently managed by local distributors who pay for the right to operate a Little Guide market in their city. These distributors handle local sales, content collection, and market operations. The company actively recruits new distributors through franchise information on their website.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Local.com: Online local business directory and city guide providing SMB listings and consumer discovery by geography. Operates in the same local business directory category as Little Guide's website product.
• Where Magazine (Morrison Media): Network of city-specific print and digital travel/local guides distributed through hotels and visitor centers. Closely comparable in the curated local print + digital city guide category, with similar premium distribution channels.
• Hometown.com: Local community directory and small-town guide platform covering local businesses, events, and news. Directly comparable to Little Guide's city-guide format, particularly in smaller and mid-sized markets.
• Alignable: SMB-focused local business networking and referral platform that enables small businesses to connect with peers and customers in their geography. Closely comparable in serving the local SMB promotional use case that Little Guide addresses.
• Edible Brands (Edible Communities): Franchise-based publisher of local 'Edible' magazines across dozens of U.S. cities. Uses an identical distributor/franchise model to publish premium local print and digital content about restaurants and small businesses, directly comparable to Little Guide's franchise playbook and advertiser base.
• Cityvisitor.com: Network of city-specific local guides publishing curated directories of restaurants, shops, and services per U.S. city. Closely mirrors Little Guide's city-by-city guide structure and SMB advertiser model.
• Our Town Magazine: Network of hyper-local monthly print magazines covering individual U.S. towns and cities with curated local business features. Directly comparable to Little Guide's print-led local storytelling model and SMB advertiser base.

Broad incumbents

• Nextdoor: Neighborhood-level social platform where SMBs run targeted local advertising campaigns. A broad incumbent in hyper-local SMB advertising with materially larger scale and reach than Little Guide.
• Yelp: Dominant digital local business discovery platform where SMBs buy advertising to appear in search results. Yelp is the broad incumbent competing for the same SMB advertising dollar that Little Guide sells, though without the print or storytelling format.
• TripAdvisor: Global travel and local experience discovery platform where restaurants and attractions compete for visibility. Comparable as a broad incumbent in local SMB discovery, particularly relevant to Little Guide's tourism-driven markets such as Amelia Island.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/LittleGuideAugusta
• Instagraminstagram.com/littleguide
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/little-guide

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Little Guide