Seven years ago, Sagar Shukla and Nigel Hammond joined Charlotte fintech company DealCloud and recognized a problem — employees having minimum knowledge of a buyer's needs. Not having full visibility of a client's needs or how they're using a software solution can result in missed revenue opportunities, Shukla said.
When Hammond and Shukla joined DealCloud in 2016, it had 10 employees. It grew to 200 in 2018. The company was acquired by Intapp that year, ultimately going public in 2021 and expanding to 800 employees.
Through their tenure at DealCloud, Shukla and Hammond saw the same organizational silo issues persist. That eventually led to the birth of Nashville, Tennessee-based Foresight — an enterprise software startup co-founded by Hammond and Shukla to solve such problems.
"Our platform is really unique in that we're designed around the client," Shukla said. "We go directly to the client, and we've devised a way where we can get the client's biggest business priorities, their needs, their pain points, what's on their mind. We capture all that data, which is missing today."
The startup, which launched in 2022, sells software with an end goal of helping businesses build their client base more efficiently and gain higher revenue. Foresight uses a personalized questionnaire where clients share their basic priorities, and then the startup analyzes the data and provides sales teams with insights.
What brought Foresight to Charlotte?
Hammond and Shukla relocated to Nashville from London and New York City, respectively, in April 2021 to create Foresight. Hammond is still running operations in Nashville, while Shukla moved back to Charlotte, his hometown, in January of this year to build the company's presence here.
"Half of our clients are fintech companies, and Charlotte is the hub for that," Shukla said.
In July, Foresight closed on a $1.2 million seed round led by venture capital firms such as Charlotte Fund, CreativeCo Capital and Durham-based IDEA Fund Partners, with participation from Charleston-based Meeting Street Capital. That funding comes after the startup raised a $500,000 seed round in November 2021, seven months after its launch.
The startup plans to use the latest capital to grow its team of six to 12 over the next six to nine months. It expects to open a second headquarters in Charlotte by the fourth quarter of this year.
What's next for Foresight?
"There's a lot of excitement and energy here," Shukla said. "So, we want to tap into that, open up an office here and create an environment where people want to come to work for a startup and support our growth."
Foresight recently signed a multiyear deal with its first publicly traded client, a Charlotte-based fintech company. The startup did not disclose the name of that business, but it aims to sign several more deals in the future. Following that transaction and its latest capital boost, Foresight saw its revenue pass the six-figure mark this year.
The company is considering another seed round over the next two months, then starting to raise its Series A round at the end of next year. Foresight aims to use those funds to accelerate its product, grow its client base and continue to expand the company's headcount.
"Our goal is to transform the way that these teams work with our platform," he said. "That's going to help them drive more revenue and keep their clients and do it a lot more efficiently than they're doing it today."
