Although Media Mezcla was founded in 2002, excitement about Howard Dean's run for president moved founder Ben Schaffer to make the company a politically-oriented software vendor in 2004. During that campaign, Schaffer met a lot of people who went on to consult with other campaigns and who complained about the software they were using. "People would ask me, what software would you recommend because we're not happy," says Schaffer, so he set out to build better software with which people could be happy.

This led to the development of Campaign Engine, Media Mezcla's proprietary system that his team built from scratch. Media Mezcla had their first clients online in May 2005.