Customer experience startup Magnify, which has a presence in Seattle and Bend, Oregon, is looking to grow after raising a $6 million seed round from Madrona Venture Group and other investors earlier this year.
Co-founder and CEO Josh Crossman said Magnify currently has around 10 to 15 employees, including contractors, and the startup aims to hit between 20 and 30 employees over the next year. Although the company is adopting remote work, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Sajo Jacob said Magnify will likely have an engineering presence in Seattle.
"Because of the presence of a lot of tech companies here and myself being here, you'll probably see a little more engineering presence in Seattle," Jacob said. "You'll also see senior talent across the globe."
Magnify has space in the entrepreneur center Create33 at DocuSign Tower in downtown Seattle. The startup also has coworking space in Bend, where Crossman lives, and the company aims to havecenters of gravity in the two cities as Magnify grows, even if the company is hiring remotely. Crossman added that Magnify plans to have regular in-person gatherings as well.
Magnify helps customer success teams provide better experiences for their software clients. Its technology uses artificial intelligence to guide reps on the best next steps for specific users. If a user hasn't noticed a helpful feature in a software system, for example, Magnify can recognize that and suggest sending the user an email or video explaining that feature.
According to Crossman, the product is currently live with some initial pilot clients, but Magnify aims to launch commercially in "the next couple of quarters."
Madrona Venture Labs spun out Magnify in August, when Crossman joined the company. The addition of Jacob, meanwhile, was officially announced on Tuesday. Much of the company's current team actually is supplied by Madrona Venture Labs, but Crossman said Magnify is looking to hire its own employees moving forward.
In addition to Madrona, the seed round had investments from Decibel Partners, Qumulo CEO Bill Richter, former Tableau CMO Elissa Fink and former Auth0 CEO Jon Gelsey, among others.
As for Magnify's physical space needs, Crossman said the company is still figuring out the plan.
"We want great people to come from wherever they come from and from whatever geography they're based in. Nonetheless, I think we're going to be a Seattle and Pacific Northwest company," Crossman said. "How that works for office space and real estate, there are a lot of variables right now that are making that a little tricky."
