The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. has awarded Richmond software company EDai a $75,000 Commonwealth Commercialization Fund grant to help bring a software-as-a-service product to market.
EDai, which provides data and economic development information, is set to launch its platform in July — right at the start of the fiscal year for state and local governments. Sean Brazier founded EDai two years ago after working as a lead strategist for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and helping lure Amazon’s HQ2 to Northern Virginia. He saw that data was historically presented to economic development officials in PowerPoint presentations in giant proposals and knew there had to be a more dynamic way of using and presenting the information.
Brazier left state economic development and started a consulting practice. Over the last two years, Brazier has run his business and built out the EDai platform. Several of his clients have used the tool, but Brazier believes the product can stand on its own. He sought the grant after he was confident the platform was ready.
“I wanted to bootstrap this to prove there is a market for it before I asked for money,” Brazier said. “I have been doing this for two years on the consulting side and I believe there is clear demand for these types of insights and supports and now we have a product.”
Along the way, Brazier participated in the Covintus and Lighthouse Labs. Brazier also brought on a partner, Zach Paul, a database expert. The two met a few years ago, and Brazier reached out after Paul left another job.
“We hit it off, and I asked him this spring if he would be interested in joining,” Brazier said.
He also recently brought on the company’s first employee, a data analyst.
The platform was originally built off Tableau Software, but the economics did not work as a SaaS product, Brazier said. Paul is helping Brazier rebuild the software on a different platform that will work as a scalable, stand-alone software product.
The EDai platform is aimed at economic development officials in mid-sized market and companies that do not have in-house economic development expertise. Large cities and major corporations have analysts and others who can do the research and present data on proposed economic projects. The platform democratizes access to the data and presents it in a meaningful way, Brazier said.
“Over the last 18 months, I have had 10 to 15 folks dive in really deep and provide feedback.” Brazier said of his consulting clients who have used the platform. “People see the potential of it.”
Brazier said one of the biggest challenges is creating an interface that is intuitive and easy to use. The people who will be using the platform are not database experts and need a user-friendly platform.
“To do that, we have to figure out the right navigation and what is the right flow,” Brazier said. “Also, you need to simplify the insights so they can get what they need without having to schedule a 30-minute call [with the company].”
The company has no revenue, and Brazier is not sure if he would seek additional funding. He wants to better understand the demand for the platform before raising money.
