Nashville's 12South Taproom has 30 beers on tap, but served up something just as important to Sagar Shukla and Nigel Hammond when they visited right before Thanksgiving 2020.
What the pair sensed there, and throughout that weekend visit, persuading them to choose Nashville as the home of their business software startup Foresight over New York, Silicon Valley or Washington, D.C.
The trip delivered what Nashville-based investor Joe Maxwell had promised. Maxwell is managing partner at Fintop Capital, which had boosted the early-stage startup where Shukla and Hammond previously worked and met.
"Joe Maxwell specifically said, 'You need to come to Nashville. We're going to back you, and we'll make you successful. Nashville's the next big tech town,' " Shukla said in an interview. "You feel that energy from the digital community. We went to 12South Taproom … and we felt that energy."
Three months later, the duo moved to Nashville (Shukla relocated from New York City; Hammond moved from London).
They've followed that by adding a third full-time employee and raising $500,000.
One-third of that funding came from a syndicate of Nashville investors that Maxwell personally led. Another third came from people tied to DealCloud, where Shukla and Hammond previously worked and which was acquired by Intapp Inc. (Nasdaq: INTA). Fintop Capital was an investor in DealCloud. The final third, Shukla said, came from "strategic investors and institutions that will help us raise our Series A [round]."
More money talk: Foresight is cash-flow positive, with a few recurring contracts signed, Shukla said. Revenue is under $100,000 currently.
What they do: "We help sales people make more money," Shukla said — specifically those selling software to other businesses. Foresight aims to do that by turning anecdotal information sales reps might gather when speaking with customers into digitized intelligence that can be viewed across the company. Those could be notes from a conversation, or insights from a chat or an email or other forum.
"Foresight puts me in the conversation in all the rooms I'm not a part of," Shukla said.
The ideal results include reducing the time it takes to bring a new sales rep up to speed, being able to close sales faster, and more quickly scaling a company, Shukla said. The Covid-19 pandemic added urgency to that mission, as companies armed themselves with more technology to better manage customer relationships.
The idea stems from what Shukla and Hammond observed as DealCloud grew. They were employees nine and 10; two years later, there were 200 employees. Intapp bought DealCloud in 2018 and it now has 800 employees, Shukla said.
"We realized the biggest challenge the entire company faced was knowledge on our buyers, and why they were buying, and what problems we were solving for them," Shukla said. "We talked to hundreds of other software companies, and they're all experiencing the same thing."
Where you'll find Foresight: The company is moving into some Brentwood office space (and 12South Taproom remains a favorite haunt).
What's next: Foresight hopes to double its full-time headcount to six people in 2022, and is partnering with Nashville-based DevDigital to bring on additional developers, Shukla said.
"A good outcome for us one year from now is that we have 10 to 20 clients actively using our solution and seeing their reps drive more revenue and make more money," Shukla said. "Revenue growth is important for us, but what’s top of mind is clients having solid outcomes and case studies."
