Chris Barling, co-founder and chairman of Devon-based Powered Now, explains why the business should win the innovation in funding category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
Our goal is to change the way the building and home maintenance industry works.
In 2012 my co-founder, Ben Dyer, and I saw that the arrival of smart mobile devices could solve the critical reason why trade businesses like plumbers, electricians and builders were slow to adopt technology.
The sector needed its tech to be wire-free, mobile, simple and robust. Our vision is big; there are nearly 12 million trade businesses in the English-speaking developed world.
First we had to build the software, then we had to get the word out. That requires lots of investment up front.
Having done something similar before with my first startup, ecommerce software pioneer Actinic, you might think it would be easy to raise the funds, but it wasn’t. Ben and I trudged around flights of angels, with limited success. Then we approached Crowdcube’s equity crowdfunding site.
We hit our £350k target in 10 days and went on to raise £585k in just over a month – not bad. What’s new was pre-funding the pitch with £200k that angels agreed to commit.
Since then, nearly 30,000 trade companies have downloaded the product, our paying customers are shooting up with over 10% in the US. Thanks to the spend on product development, Apple recently featured Powered Now as a best business app and we won Crowdcube Startup of the Year. And now we are back on Crowdcube for a second round.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
