CaHill Tech has been busy the past few months.
The Buffalo startup closed Oct. 1 on a $1 million seed round and was recently announced as a finalist in this year’s 43North competition, moving one step closer to one of five $1 million prizes.
Carley Hill founded the business, which has developed a mobile training tool for companies and workers in the construction industry, in 2019.
CaHill Tech is also about two-thirds of the way through the Techstars Iowa accelerator program, which contributed $120,000 into the startup’s seed round.
Other investors include Launch NY, WNY Impact Investment Fund, Launch NY Investor Network, Jeff DiStefano, Chris DiStefano, Gary Hill and Ryan Forrestel.
The seed funding will go toward product development and sales and marketing, according to Mariah Ramos, growth, marketing and customer relationship management specialist.
“The product will continue to evolve,” she said.
Over the next few business quarters, CaHill will work on translations and transcriptions in different languages to make the education more accessible.
The company, which employs 10, just redid its website and expects to hire six additional workers (including a chief operating officer and roles on its sales, media and client success teams) over the next three months.
The startup, which has 42 clients with a 100% retention rate, has been able to grow and scale thanks to a solid, diverse initial team of five and then building from there, according to Ramos.
“Even if the initial five members of the team didn’t have the skills or strengths in certain areas, we weren’t afraid to use contractors in order to get us to the next step,” she said. “We were super aggressive with that and weren’t afraid to go to market.”
The business, which employs mostly women, has added to its team by capitalizing on recent graduates and retirees. This way, they have innovative young people eager to work on new projects as well as seasoned professionals bringing years of experience to the table.
“It’s great to have both sides of the spectrum,” Ramos said.
When it comes to tips for startup success, founder Hill gave the following tips.
- If you can, bootstrap.
- Know the box and think outside of it.
- Be creative and be diligent.
- Leverage your network. (They want to help you!)
- Don’t put things off (especially things like taking naps when you need it).
CaHill Tech is one of 27 local companies to acknowledge a private, growth-oriented round of funding this year. The list includes Torch Labs ($40 million), Centivo ($30 million), Circuit Clinical ($29 million), Kangarootime ($26 million), SparkCharge ($22 million), CleanFiber ($8.5 million), PostProcess Technologies ($5 million), VeriTX ($4.5 million), HELIXintel ($4 million), Blockfusion ($2.6 million), ShearShare ($2.3 million), Azuna ($2.5 million), Patient Pattern ($2 million), OneBridge Benefits ($2 million), BetterMynd ($1 million), Empire Hemp Co. ($1 million), CaHill Tech ($1 million), Buffalo Film Works ($750,000), FavorDrop ($725,000), Ellicottville Greens ($300,000), Swift Rails ($255,000) AireXpert ($125,000), Arbol ($110,000), Lemma Labs ($100,000), Timberhut (undisclosed), Flox (undisclosed) and Ognomy (undisclosed).
