When Justin Adams and Pat Morrell sold their two-year-old tech startup last summer, they planned to take a break, kick back and relax.
But it wasn't long before the entrepreneurial itch was back, and the pair was linking up with fellow innovators Chris Furlong and Tanner Fritz on a new venture.
Morrell, Adams, Fritz and Tanner founded Anduin earlier this year. The startup is an AI platform that automates and improves accounts receivable for accounting and consulting firms.
The founders are no strangers to AI and systems automation, Morrell said. Prior to creating Anduin, he and Adams founded Digitize.AI, a platform that automated pre-authorizations for large health-care systems. The startup, founded in 2017, was acquired last year by Waystar.
"We transitioned out of Digitize in late April and took some time to be with our families, but Justin and I realized we liked building businesses together," Morrell said. "So, we created Anduin and spent much of 2020 interviewing folks in the accounting and professional services space. Eventually we happened upon a pain point they have in accounts receivable."
For six months, the founders worked to take the company from concept to reality. Morrell said they were able to do just that by working closely with three accounting firms as platform beta testers.
"We're really fortunate that coming off of Digitize, we already had a great deal of credibility ... It opened a lot of doors in the professional services world," he said. "We spent much of the summer in the trenches with those three big firms and built "Version 1" with their teams to meet real-world needs."
Morrell said the platform officially launched last week and companies interested in trying it out can do so for free during the first quarter of 2021 through the startup's Trail Blazer program.
"We want to entice folks to test drive us by using the platform for free to assess its value," he said. "We're in the position where we can play the long game with our clients."
Anduin raised a seed round earlier this year through a group of private investors. Morrell declined to disclose the funding amount. He said they will likely look to begin another fund raise sometime in 2021.
"With the right capital partners we can really scale to help our customers," he said.
In the meantime, Morrell said he, Adams, Fritz and Furlong are enjoying the ride.
"Q1 will be fun," he sad. "We're growing quickly and always on the lookout for sharp people who can help us grow our team."
