When Covid-19 hit in March, it almost immediately reshaped Charlotte’s tech and startup ecosystem. And while some struggled to find their footing, facing early challenges and fears of the unknown, many emerged with stories of pivots and continued growth. As Covid-19 lingers, founders will be forced to look ahead in ways they may not have done in the past to continue that growth in 2021.
Recently, we asked Amicus.io co-founder Cor Hoekstra and Rabbu co-founder Emir Dukic — members of the Charlotte Business Journal and Charlotte Inno Startups to Watch class of 2021 — to answer two questions: How would you define success in 2021? And, how are you accounting for the continuing impact of Covid-19 in your planning?
Here’s what each of them had to say. Their responses are edited for length and clarity.
How would you define success in 2021?
Hoekstra: The way I think about that is along three dimensions: No. 1 is strength of culture, which I think is over and beyond just results. It’s a determinant of longevity of any company. We are seeking to build a company that is going to be around for a long time. We’re very intentional relative to shaping culture. We’re not only taking a pulse in terms of results being achieved but also how are those results being achieved.
No. 2 is employee engagement. If I can get the team in a place where they do what they love, then they will do more of that. It will permeate into all interactions with various stakeholders. Human capital has taken on a whole different meaning. When you build something from scratch, your people, at the end of the day, is all you’ve got.
No. 3 is objective and key results, the dimensions of which are executing a classic SaaS software play. We want to triple our top revenue line, which, in essence, means replicating the solution we currently have with as many places as we can.
Dukic: We really want to capitalize on the groundwork we laid in 2020. We’ve grown quite a bit this year, about 40% over the last quarter or so in the number of clients and doors. We have not actualized the revenue from those doors yet just because of the time it takes to onboard them and the fact we’re still going through Covid.
We’re also continuing our sales growth effort. We’ve landed some monumental clients who really want to expand our portfolio and presence in 2021. As a part of that, we really want to educate the market on the problem we’re solving. We just rebranded slightly with our logo and relaunched our website, so we’re taking the next step from a market education perspective and teaching our clients about this new asset class we’re building in real estate.
How are you accounting for the continuing impact of Covid-19 in your planning?
Hoekstra: Covid, in many ways, has accelerated the digital agenda on the part of not only the financial institutions but the charities we work with. In that way, it’s accelerated our go-to-market strategy. I’m anticipating a return back to the offices in the second quarter. I’m anticipating we’ll strike a new balance in terms of how, where and when work gets done.
Dukic: We plan to stay remote as a team for the time being. There’s probably a transition to a hybrid model going forward sometime in Q3 or Q4, where we plan on keeping people remote but having a handful of in-person team meetings. That’s a direct result of Covid.
On the business side, we expect Q1 to stay relatively slow from a travel perspective. The vaccine is here now, but it’s going to take some time for people to feel comfortable traveling en masse, and that’s going to last at least through Q1. We anticipate growth by adding customers, but we don’t expect to see that revenue actualize until Q2. We really think, based on the demand for travel, we’ll be one of the companies that will be a vaccine winner. I think we’re going to see our revenue and opportunity skyrocket — we still have the best type of product for them to socially distance and stay safe with these fully furnished, larger properties.
We are also seeing a lot of people moving out of cities like New York and coming to cities like Charlotte, Miami and Nashville for a couple of months at a time. We’re marketing to those types of tenants, and we believe Covid is going to create a long-lasting kind of demand for these short term, multi-week and multi-month tenants.
