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Financial analytics company BodeTree just announced a $1.85 million round to prepare for “a heavy scaling mode that we’re entering into,” CEO Chris Meyers said.
The round, which was led by existing investors Green Line Ventures and what Meyers calls “a suite of new high-net individuals,” brings the company’s total funding to $3.25 million since it was founded in late 2010.
Today, BodeTree has about 50,000 users of its dashboard that gives small businesses financial analytics reports and insights - but the team is looking to quadruple that number in the next 12 to 18 months.
“Our primary channel for growth is partnering with aggregators and trade organizations,” Meyers said. “We go to them and say, ‘Let’s roll this out to all your members’ to get past the initial hesitation.”
Hesitation, the status quo and a “feeling of apathy” from small businesses are BodeTree’s biggest hurdles to jump as it reaches these expansion goals, Meyers said.
“We don’t really have any direct competitors, but we are competing with deeply entrenched bad habits,” Meyers said, referring to small business owners’ routines of hiring expensive consultants or using various analytics platforms to supplement QuickBooks.
This behavior of clinging to status quo isn’t really a surprise: the small business world has historically been a challenging place to serve, Meyers said. That’s why BodeTree is relying on small business associations that already have the trust of business owners to introduce them to the web app.
BodeTree currently has about 14 employees split between Denver and Phoenix. The 10 employees working from Phoenix will be moving to Denver shortly, just as Meyers himself did to be closer to co-founder Matt Ankrum: “Phoenix is very transitional. Denver is a much better environment for what we do.”
“Our team is made up of highly-qualified finance people and creative people with a strong human approach,” Meyers said.
With its users in mind, BodeTree is careful to stand at the “intersection of a humanistic approach and heavy data,” by building in educational content, QuickBooks integration, report building with Zero and loan application features.
“Our platform is automated, scalable, yet deeply personal; every data point is actually a nurtured process,” Meyers said. “The innovation really lies in connecting these dots.”
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