A Buckeye-based startup is helping businesses improve their bottom line by eliminating underutilized software expenses and licenses.
Marro Technologies’ platform monitors and assesses software for medium and enterprise-level businesses, providing in-depth usage data by individual, department, region and more.
“What we do is provide a tracking agent that tracks software employees use day-to-day and provides employers with a report that lets them know if they are spending too much," said Demetrius Bethea, founder and CEO of Marro Technologies.
Businesses can then leverage that data to optimize software utilization and reduce spend to operate faster and leaner.
Since launching in 2023, Marro Technologies has gained market traction among clients in the finance, e-commerce, health care and retail industries.
The company reports $2.1 million in total booked revenue since it launched its beta platform in January 2023 and is now gearing up to expand its tracking agent to include a new internal threat detection feature.
The feature, designed with a prominent U.S. Department of Defense contractor, detects unauthorized or potentially harmful app usage within businesses and government agencies. The company will provide defense contractors with early access to the tool and roll it out to enterprise-level clients in November, Bethea said.
Marro Technologies was connected to a U.S. Department of Defense procurement officer while participating in the University of Arizona’s Crucible at Forge, an 8-week accelerator program that helps startups prepare for investment.
That connection led to a partnership with the Department of Defense contractor to help design Marro's threat detection tool, Bethea said.
From staffing to streamlining software
Prior to founding Marro Technologies, Bethea operated The Royal Umbrella, a staffing firm for medical and technology professionals. After selling The Royal Umbrella to a larger company in 2020, Bethea was ready to embark on a new business concept.
“I realized my true passion was not placing people in companies, but improving how people function in companies,” he said.
He engaged in discussions with former staffing clients about their most pressing challenges and found that many struggled with rising software expenses, prompting the idea for Marro Technologies.
Oftentimes, chief technology officers or IT professionals within companies were tasked with manually figuring out software usage data and keeping track of the number of licenses, he added.
“The issue is — when it comes to software — if you miss two or three licenses, that could be millions of dollars, depending on the company,” Bethea said.
Marro Technologies is primarily bootstrapped and will likely open a funding round to support expansion of its C suite and customer service and sales teams as it prepares for the next stage of growth.
Marro Technologies has four employees and plans to hire a full-stack engineer by the end of the year, Bethea added.
“We really want to make an impact in the defense contract space and expand our product into a suite of different features,” Bethea said. “We also want to create more job opportunities.”
