Olathe startup Approach is ready to climb to new heights with its $1.5 million seed round.
Approach, which built gym management software, already is post-revenue and has customers in the U.S., Canada, Germany and Australia.
“It really solidifies us as a company that’s here to stay and a company that’s proven itself,” Approach co-founder and CEO Andrew Potter told the Kansas City Business Journal.
The round was led by Crux Collective, which supports locally owned and operated climbing gyms with business resources and funding. Crux Collective was founded by the executive team that propelled Crux Climbing Center into a multimillion-dollar and multi-location climbing gym in four years. Approach also received support through the Kansas Angel Investment Tax Credit, a program that helped Approach raise the round, Potter said.
“I think it’s really cool that a company like this is coming out of Kansas City,” Crux Collective co-founder and CEO Kevin Goradia told KCBJ. “They deserve all the praise they’re going to get. … In my opinion, they’ve put Kansas City on the map with this.”
Potter, who also co-founded local climbing gym company RoKC, said Approach was born out of frustrations with the software he used to manage his gyms. The available software was outdated, clunky and caused multiple issues when RoKC expanded to three locations. The software, for example, couldn’t handle memberships that worked across multiple locations and the database wasn’t a live feed, which meant employees had to constantly hit refresh when a member checked in or made a purchase.
"It was the decision of, 'Hey, I have a choice to wake up everyday and be frustrated with the solution, or I can do something about it,'" Potter said.
Approach’s cloud-based software is intuitive, user-friendly and can seamlessly handle multiple locations, he said.
It also integrates with other software, such as Amazon’s business intelligence tool QuickSite. Approach’s software combines business intelligence, membership and waiver management, a calendar and point-of-sale with inventory management. It also features customized dashboards and real-time notifications on retail sales, check-ins and customer trends.
Crux Collective learned about Approach through a gym it invested in, which was using the software. The Approach team has been nimble in adding requested features from clients, and employees can learn how to use the software in a couple of hours, not days, Goradia said. Being cloud-based is a huge advantage, he said, and Approach is HIPAA compliant, which opens the door to expanding to the health and wellness space.
“I think everyone with any investment wants to say they’re going to be a leader. I definitely see them being the leader in climbing gyms,” Goradia said. “The biggest excitement for me is their ability to go overseas and adapt to all the different rules and regulations and language barriers. They’ve proven that in a short amount of time. … I haven’t (previously) seen a point-of-sale system that’s been able to translate overseas in the fitness industry.”
Although Approach is focused on building its climbing gym customer base, the software also can be used at other fitness facilities such as yoga and CrossFit studios.
Approach plans to use the funding to enhance its software, invest in marketing and onboarding new clients and building out its engineering and customer service team. It employs about a dozen people and plans to add two to three employees over the next six to eight months, Potter said. Depending on growth, it could reach 20 to 30 employees by the end of 2022, he said.
“Our goal over the next five years is to really put a foothold in not just the climbing gym industry but a handful of industries as well,” Potter said.
