Experienced tech executive Sanjay Patel has operated venture capital-backed companies before.
However, the CEO of Orlando-based Datanautix launched his current company in 2006 with the intention of not seeking any investors, he told Orlando Inno. “This is more fun.”
Datanautix took a big step forward when it signed an agreement with Intrado Corp. to bring the telecommunications firm on as a customer, the company announced Aug. 18. Thanks to that partnership and others on the horizon, Datanautix expects to double its revenue year-over-year in 2021 and again in 2022, Patel said.
The company’s artificial intelligence-powered Ana platform analyzes qualitative customer feedback to help businesses. Datanautix’s technology has been used by JW Marriott, Red Lobster, the Orlando Magic and the University of Central Florida. Its new partnership with Omaha, Nebraska-based Intrado will enable Intrado to provide customers with open-ended surveys that generate new questions based on the customer’s previous responses.
“By combining Ana with [Intrado’s AI platform] Mosaic, Intrado can provide a modern and comprehensive, end-to-end solution for gathering customer feedback,” Rhonda Gibler, senior vice president, CX general manager at Intrado, said in a prepared statement.
Meanwhile, Datanautix is rebounding after the Covid-19 pandemic derailed the company’s original growth plans. The firm, part of the University of Central Florida Downtown Orlando Innovation District, planned to expand its customer network outside of Central Florida in 2020. The pandemic disrupted those plans, but Datanautix got back on track by partnering with Intrado. Plus, Patel said the Intrado partnership is expected to lead to the company signing two other clients this year. “Our 2022 will exceed what we thought 2022 would be in 2019.”
Of course, Datanautix is achieving this growth without any investor dollars in the bank. Venture and seed capital is a common way for tech startups to fund themselves as they scale when they are still pre-revenue. The lack of capital behind the company makes it more careful about how it spends money and more deliberate in how it builds out its technology, Patel said.
In the case of Datanautix, it makes sense the company did not seek investment because of the deep experience Patel and his team already possessed when they launched the startup, said Rajiv Menon, chair of the Orlando Tech Council, who is not involved with the firm. Founders must always weigh whether or not to take outside investment, said Menon, who also is CEO of Orlando-based software firm Informulate. It can be critical to achieve rapid growth, but it also can make a startup an "all or nothing" venture. "If it doesn’t result in the return on investment, it can kill the company. It’s a tradeoff."
The growth of small businesses like Datanautix, which employs 10 people, is important for Central Florida. These companies often add local jobs and create economic impact as they scale. Startups also create innovative solutions for businesses, help develop a community and make it easier for other new companies to form in the future. Part of Datanautix’s growth plans are to prove Orlando can support such high-tech startups, Patel said.
“Part of our objective here is to show you actually can do a bootstrapped tech startup in Orlando. When we started this, Orlando was not the place you’d view as a place for tech startups. We’re getting better.”
Sign up here for The Beat, Orlando Inno’s free newsletter. And be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
