Janine Williams is a self-identified “reluctant software CEO.”
The former high school English teacher laughed as she described her current role, something she never would’ve anticipated before she founded Denver-based Impulsify in 2013.
But when she saw a gap in strategy for retail markets inside hotels, she knew there had to be a simpler solution.
Williams said that many hotels look at retail stores like an amenity, instead of an opportunity to generate revenue. For those taking the amenity route, it leads to a business that squanders profits by allowing people to take things for free or giving major discounts, she said.
So, in 2014, Impulsify launched a standard point-of-sale tool to automate many of the processes involved with retail stores. As a result, front-desk employees could focus more on the check-in and check-out process, rather than finding change for a guest looking to purchase a Snickers bar.
Unlike other custom-tailored POS systems used at breweries and restaurants, Impulsify’s solution is designed to help hotels track inventory, sell things at the correct price and identify losses.
“What we specialize in is the commercial business that would benefit from the incremental revenue of having some type of food offering on-premises and in high traffic common areas, but they don’t know anything about retail and don’t need a big complex tool,” she said.
While that product helped the Denver startup get a foothold on the hotel scene, the company’s next innovation in 2017 proved to be ahead of its time.
As Williams saw clients losing time and money by handling transactions at the front desk of the hotel, Impulsify launched a self-checkout kiosk in 2017 that included all of its standard technology and removed the need for employee oversight.
When hotels were searching for contactless options during the Covid-19 pandemic, Impulsify was ready. However, much of the company's other business evaporated, and Williams was forced to lay off a large portion of her staff.
“We were 100% reliant on the hospitality industry at that time and we were nonessential in the minds of many when it came to budgeting,” she said.
Then things began to turn around and Impulsify’s business stabilized, in large part due to the contactless needs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting labor shortage.
“Hotel restaurants and bars were closed or heavily restricted, and now the grab-and-go market was the only thing that got to stay open,” she said. “We thought we were going to go under, and then we boomed and thrived.”
Now, after hiring her staff back to 16 full-time employees and placing Impulsify technology in more than 1,000 hotels nationwide, Williams is ready to ramp up. The company has been bootstrapped since its founding and, for the first time, will look to take on outside investment.
“This year we’re looking to take on some investors and grow and scale faster while this demand is really high,” Williams said.
Aside from growing its product, Williams said Impulsify has diversified its customers and began deploying its solutions to multifamily residential properties and coworking spaces. In the future, she sees an opportunity for Impulsify to work in senior-living communities as well.
And, following Williams’ unique path to being a technology executive, Impulsify is the rare software startup that has a brick-and-mortar store. The company opened grab-and-go market Platte Street Mercantile in December 2019 to further test its solutions and data capabilities on real customers.
“We use it as our lab and learn a lot from it,” Williams said.
