Small businesses need all the help they can get to grow bigger. That's where
BodeTree fits in. The company offers an online platform to help small businesses understand where they are and tools to help them grow as they see fit -- mostly for free.
The Denver-based company recently announced a $2 million round of financing that will help expand its client base from about 50,000 small businesses to 200,000 through unique partnerships with local small business associations in Arizona, Michigan and Ohio. "Really, what that enables us to do is to scale to 20,000 to 30,000 users at a time through [each] organization," says BodeTree CEO Chris Meyer.
Where other small business platforms and tools focus on visualizing data through dashboards, BodeTree offers a steering wheel and control pedals. "The thing we compete against most poignantly is inaction and kind of the status quo of business owners not recognizing that these sorts of insights are available to them," says Meyer. "We visualize data but we have more of a humanistic approach.…Data visualization is a means to an end as opposed to an end in itself. We're more focused on where they [i.e., the businesses] stand today relative to the competition. Relative to what could be and really where they want to go in the future."
To this end, BodeTree offers tools that include valuation, target setting and interactive comparative analysis using data from the Risk Management Association (RMA), which banks use to rate investment risks. Meyer says the majority of tools are free but the company offers a premium service for $49.95 a month or $495 a year. Those services include peer comparison, reporting and capital raising.
"We connect the user with specific solutions to help them take action," he adds. "Funding is a huge component. We have an automated funding solution in there and several partners and applications that can actually help them act on the insight that we provide."
That includes helping businesses get credit cards, loans and funding through regional and national banks as well as alternative funders like
Kabbage. The platform can streamline the underwriting process from 90 days to about five or six days, Meyer says.
Contact Confluence Denver Innovation & Jobs News Editor Chris Meehan with tips and leads for future stories at chris@confluence-denver.com.
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