TestBox is the winner of the 2022 Colorado Inno Award in the IT & services category.
TestBox, an early-stage startup that aims to make it easier for companies to test and buy software, launched in Boulder with a team that had mostly come from the Bay Area. The team snagged $10 million in venture capital to build out its solution, which it described as a “sandbox” where users can compare different software options.
Location: Boulder
Top Exec: Samuel Senior, CEO
What inspired your business? A few years ago, our co-founders kept seeing a trend where employees at all sorts of companies were growing frustrated and starting to dread when they had to buy enterprise software. Historically, the software sales process is drawn out, arduous and ineffective at showing prospective buyers how each piece of software works. With TestBox, software buyers can test drive before they buy.
What was TestBox’s biggest accomplishment in the past year? [W]e are proudest of having not only grown quickly as a team over the past year, raised funding and built a number of large distribution partnerships with industry leaders, but also [we did] all of this while not sacrificing on our culture. We… have placed the fostering of an inclusive and psychologically safe environment at the forefront of our company culture efforts.
What about your biggest challenge? Over the past year, the biggest challenge has been growing our brand presence and user base. We have built out a sales and marketing team that is incredibly talented, moving very quickly and experimenting and building to grow our presence.
Why did TestBox choose Colorado as its headquarters? Most of our team lived in San Francisco prior to working on TestBox. [T]he intense expectations and pressure that came out of being in that pressure cooker for the startup world weighed on us all. Colorado takes us away from the intense expectations and pressures that are associated with other startup hubs in the country. There is a heavy emphasis on wellbeing and mental wellness, alongside the beautiful outdoors. This helps foster a positive company culture that is high-performing but supportive of the people.
What are your goals for the next year? We are going to expand into 10 to 15 more software categories. This will broaden our reach and push us into being a true software marketplace. We are also going to continue expanding our marketing efforts with participation in conferences across the country, growing our brand presence and further raising awareness of TestBox.
If you had to choose a mascot for your company, what would it be? We actually have a mascot already — Pedals! Pedals is a box, symbolizing TestBox. We named it Pedals because our co-founders both love to cycle and wanted to bring some of their passion into TestBox. Pedals is here to make buying and testing software so much better than it currently is.
Colorado Inno Awards IT & services finalists:
- E2 Optics
- Gtmhub
