InsightSquared is quietly making a name for itself in the Boston area. The three-year-old startup, which provides smart and simple-to-use analytics products for small businesses, has serious plans for 2014, which can be summed up in a single word: growth. And with 20-times growth in annual sales, an expanding team and a fresh round of funding on a rumored $100 million valuation in the works, InsightSquared will be one firm to watch in the coming months.
In the next year, the Cambridge company will be keeping to “a very aggressive and broad growth map,” according to InsightSquared's CEO Fred Shilmover.
That growth starts with helping companies record and draw meaning from data points to accelerate their success. InsightSquared’s products aim to eliminate the intimidation factor from big data by making it easier for small- to mid-sized-companies to visualize the information collected in business applications like Salesforce, QuickBooks and more.
“We’re saying to businesses, ‘You don’t need to hire a sophisticated analyst,’” said Shilmover. Just as one doesn’t need a manual to use Twitter, the company wants its software offerings to be “that intuitive, but also very powerful.”
“I’ve always been a small business guy,” said the CEO. Prior to co-founding InsightSquared, Shilmover, a Harvard Business School grad, worked at local venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners.
“I like the underdog mentality that you see in a small business. … But when it comes to analytics, they don’t have a level playing field comparable to that of big businesses,” added Shilmover.
As it turns out, however, the key difference lies in a core competency, explained the executive: “All day, small businesses think about how they can build a better company. Analytics always comes second.”
But the company plans to change that, and the small businesses that have signed on – Seamless and Swipely among them – seem to be seeing the value and spreading the word.
InsightSquared saw 20-times growth for its new Salesforce analytics product in 2013. “Every important measure, we’re more than doubling it each year,” noted Shilmover.
To deal with the influx of customers, InsightSquared expanded its sales and marketing team from one person to 30. In the past year alone, the company has more than doubled its staff overall and has plans to move into an office in Kendall Square three times the size of its previous digs in the next few months.
To circumvent the challenge of obtaining top talent, InsightSquared aims to build “the best workplace anyone has ever had,” said the CEO, adding that the company has a ping-pong table, a beer sommelier and daily catered lunch.
“It’s expensive … but we think it’s about creating an environment that makes people happy,” said Shilmover. “When we started [InsightSquared], we knew we were in this for the long haul. We couldn’t burn ourselves – or our people – out.”
The company’s biggest cost at the moment is its payroll, according to chief executive. But when InsightSquared’s rumored massive round of financing on a $100 million valuation closes this quarter, the company should be freed up financially to scale.
To date, InsightSquared has raised $13.5 million in funding from NextView Ventures, Atlas Venture and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Writer's note: A previous version of this article noted that InsightSquared's marketing and sales team increased from 1 to 11. It has increased from 1 to 30.
