Washington, D.C.-based Contactually has long been an active participant in the D.C. tech scene and many of the 56 professionals that currently make up the startup come directly from that community. In just the last seven months, this year’s DC Inno Tech Madness winner has brought on roughly 3,000 new customers to a growing client list that already included ReMax and Keller Williams Key Partners, according to data provided to DC Inno, and that only tells part of their growth story.
Between 2013 and July of 2015, the customer relations management software creator grew from 16 to more than 50 full-time marketing, sales and engineering professionals. By year's end, Contactually also expects to add about 20 to 30 more people to its team.
In the last 12 months, perhaps the startup's most influential business decision came from an evolving focus on business clients rather than individual buyers. In this form, offices can be sold a suite of software to help manage and track the work employees are doing to manage and find business referrals via a number of channels including email, social media and phone calls.
The goal of the company’s software is to help users better organize, manage and connect with contacts who then may lead directly to business deals. Contactually is used by a number of sales representatives and businesses in the finance, real estate and retail sectors, among other industries.
Contactually co-founder and COO Tony Cappaert said while the company has raised $3.5 million in venture capital, annual recurring revenue (ARR) greatly exceeds that number. That sort of growth, he said, represents a fairly rare feat in the software-as-a-service startup world.
Later this year, Contactually will begin to focus on raising its third venture capital investment round. Previous investors include 500 Startups, Middle Bridge Partners, Middleland Capital and the now-defunct Crystal Tech Fund. That funding, Cappaert said, will be used to do two things: to add sales pros and data scientists to the team and to further develop the company’s CRM software platform.
And @Contactually makes the top 5 #CRM list! "The 2015 Ultimate Guide To Startup Sales Tools by @bowerycapital" http://t.co/D0zchJCwS8
— Tony Cappaert (@cappaert) July 22, 2015
Cappaert told DC Inno he expects the upcoming product development—funded by a late year raise—to enable the creation of new features and tools for customers by better leveraging big data that’s already collected on the platform. As a result, the goal will be to provide Contactually users with a better idea of their return on investment.
Cappaert said Contactually has grown its projected ARR by 150 percent from the start of 2015—“We're incredibly focused on continuing to rapidly grow ARR.”
Perhaps the startup’s greatest challenge, since it's grown so quickly, Cappaert said, is to establish a consistent and innovative product cycle that also grows to accommodate customer needs. “Ensuring we do so is definitely our biggest challenge,” he added.
“There are hundreds of CRMs, but nearly all of them are focused on helping sales manager better pull reports on the team's performance.”
The fact of the matter is that CRM software providers are also dime a dozen though. In just the District, there are a dozen or so businesses that promise a wide variety of “customer retention solutions.”
As Cappaert put it “there are hundreds of CRMs, but nearly all of them are focused on helping sales manager better pull reports on the team's performance.”
Contactually has an end-user mantra.
“We're unique in that we've build Contactually to help the end user better engage with their top contacts—leads, referral partners, current clients—and do so in a way that increasingly saves them time and prevents opportunities from slipping through the cracks. That's something no other CRM does well,” said Contactually’s co-founder.
