A new Milwaukee-based startup called Dinvy LLC recently launched its automated time tracking, project planning and revenue recognition software platform.
The company had its soft launch in November but officially launched Tuesday with a marketing campaign aimed at getting local businesses on board to use the software.
The co-founders of Dinvy, which include managing director Dennis Casey and director of sales Tim Schmitt, started the company after previously working together at Canpango, a Milwaukee-based Salesforce implementation company acquired by ScanSource Inc. in 2018 for an undisclosed amount. ScanSource shut down Canpango in 2020 as a cost-cutting measure.
Dinvy has been piloting and developing its software with Milwaukee-based robotic process automation firm Neostella LLC, which was founded in 2019 by Canpango's former CEO and co-founder Matt Lautz. Casey and Lautz were also previously executives at Corvisa LLC, a Milwaukee cloud communications software firm now owned by ShoreTel Inc.
Having previously worked in professional services for years, the Dinvy team designed its software to solve pain points they experienced with other time tracking and invoicing software platforms, Schmitt said.
Dinvy's software integrates with communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom to boost time tracking adoption and transparency. The platform's other key differentiator is its automatic handling of revenue recognition, Schmitt said. The software also does invoicing and quoting.
To attract early customers beyond Neostella, Dinvy is offering its software for free for up to 50 users for five years to 10 Milwaukee small businesses. It's taking this approach in order to support other Milwaukee entrepreneurs, test product-market fit and encourage potential customers to switch from other time tracking software platforms to Dinvy, Schmitt said.
"From our experience, getting the first five (customers), getting the first 10 ... is always going to be the hardest," Schmitt said. "There are companies that are dominant in the space ... if people want to change (platforms), if people want to improve their process, we believe that we need to reduce those barriers to entry and incentivize them to think about it."
