The “In Their Own Words” series is a collection of short columns from influential Colorado startup founders. After a tumultuous 2020, Inno wanted to give Colorado's startup community an opportunity to reflect on the highs and lows of the last 12 months, and share how they'll work smarter and better in the next 12. Each columnist was asked to answer the question: How are you and your company preparing for 2021?
It’s hard to imagine that anyone in the world was immune to the emotional roller coaster that was 2020. The uncertainty associated with the pandemic was mentally taxing but I’m grateful for everything I learned since the world began to spiral. I mean, isn’t dealing with and overcoming unexpected challenges why people become entrepreneurs in the first place?
My company Curu is a SaaS solution that provides lenders data-driven insights to recover lost loan opportunities and increase the lifetime value of their clients. We moved out to Colorado at the end of 2019 after we graduated from Techstars Western Union program and raised a pre-seed round with some amazing local investors.
In February, about two weeks before the national toilet paper shortage, we signed a term sheet for a $3M seed round. We were nervous that venture capital was going to be dry over the next few months but decided to fundraise anyway. With the support of our lead and previous investors were fortunate enough to close the round in early May.
Since then, things have settled down a bit but unemployment is still at unprecedented levels and massive long-term changes to the consumer lending market are inevitable. Currently, lenders have shifted their priorities from growing their loan portfolios to preventing defaults and learning how to service their clients digitally. Once we recognized that evolution, we hit the drawing board and reevaluated our strategy to ensure our solution fits in this new market environment.
In 2021, we will be focused on solving urgent and timeless pain points. Over the past couple of months, it was easy to get pulled in different directions as the markets were still establishing their strategies in the post-Covid era. Our team’s focus is to build a solution that scales well beyond this recovery period. Along with that, we are doubling down on the segments of the market that will not survive without our solution. This pursuit comes with intense listening and paying close attention to the second and third-degree characteristics for prospective partners that will “close 100% of the time”.
All-in-all, we’re extremely optimistic about what’s ahead in 2021. Honestly, if you can survive a year like 2020, there is no reason you can’t thrive in the years to follow.
