Allen Rogers and Will Hunt like solving problems to help other people build their businesses.
It’s why the two founded bloomRail in 2019.
bloomRail is a consulting and software company that helps e-commerce sellers manage their inventory, increase profits and grow their brands through logistics optimization.
Recently, when the startup was gearing up for its expansion, it turned to the Lighthouse Labs startup accelerator for guidance.
bloomRail was one of eight teams to participate in the accelerator’s first hybrid cohort that wrapped up earlier this month. Each startup received $20,000 in equity-free grant funding, along with connections to alumni, mentors, corporate partners and the investor community.
“Lighthouse Labs gave us clear direction,” Rogers said. “The mentorship and guidance helped us establish our critical path and a baseline for benchmarking success.”
A key to expansion success, Rogers learned during the program, is consistency.
“Consistency in messaging, consistency in setting and following a process (and) consistency in focus on our core customer,” he said.
Lighthouse Labs Executive Director Erin Powell said Rogers and Hunt were looking for a community to support them during their journey and got plugged in with Startup Virginia. From there they learned about Lighthouse Labs and submitted an application to the 11th cohort.
"Allen and Will are both very thoughtful about how to approach their business,” she said. “They have a massive market opportunity to make Amazon sellers more efficient with their inventory, not to mention an incredible expansion opportunity to other e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Etsy.”
With supply chain issues like increased inventory costs and reduced revenue due to shipping delays challenging Amazon sellers, Powell noted that bloomRail is much needed.
“Through their hard work, bloomRail was able to bring their product to market during the cohort, learning a lot about various customer segments and their go-to market strategy,” she said. “This team of founders has clarity on what they need to do to continue to gain traction, as well as gain strategic investment to fuel the growth of bloomRail.”
Joseph Kunkel, an entrepreneur and mentor at Lighthouse, said mentoring is his way of paying it forward for all the people who helped him years ago.
“I loved working with bloomRail because they are focused on a huge and growing need, helping smaller businesses thrive online, and because the two founders are experts with complementary skills that really understand how to best serve this customer,” he said.
Rogers said it was the guidance they received throughout the accelerator program that helped pave a clear path forward for the startup as it looks toward building out the team, fundraising and onboarding new users.
“Their tagline is investing in the lives of founders, and we feel like they really do that,” he said.
Beyond the Lighthouse Labs mentors and resources, Rogers said his cohort peers were some of the most influential people he and Hunt have met.
“It’s a dynamic, passionate, and talented group, and being around them has had an outsized influence on building our sense of purpose and pushing us to keep up,” he said. “We are certain what we are building addresses a real problem. Any good start-up is trying to address a real problem that exists for a lot of folks."