Old hand learns some new tricks
David Franklin is no newcomer to business, having helped to start a data analytics company in Santa Fe in 1999 that grew into a $5 million business before he and his co-founders sold it to the New Jerseybased global riskmanagement giant Verisk Analytics Inc.
But even as a serial entrepreneur, Franklin said he learned a lot from participating last fall in the ABQid business accelerator, which helped him and two partners in the startup company attachedapps begin an initial market launch of their new software product.
“It’s not that ABQid teaches someone like me to do things they didn’t know,” Franklin said. “Rather, it taught me a new emphasis on getting your idea fully developed and out in front of people to pick it apart and flesh it out. It teaches rapid prototyping through intense, constant feedback from the market — like putting your idea on steroids.”
Attachedapps, which Franklin and his team created in 2012, is commercializing software designed to help small businesses manage their sales.
During the ABQid program, Franklin and his partners did numerous interviews with information technology service companies that help businesses set up computer networks. Those are the firms attachedapps needs to target as partners to resell its sales management software.
“We talked with them about pricing, revenuesharing — all the elements that would go into a partnership agreement — and we got a ton of feedback from them,” Franklin said. “We absolutely refocused our sales and marketing approach as a result.”
That strategy of real-world testing and “pivoting” helped accelerate attachedapps’ launch in the market.
“We’re out selling product now,” Franklin said. “We’ve recruited an initial set of partners who are now reselling our apps to their partners, so the process has begun.”