Platform46 provides a real-time notification & collaboration framework, integrating an organisation’s IT applications with the employees preferred communication device – whether that is the Intranet, mail client, or mobile device.
IPitch: What problem is your business or idea trying to solve?
Platform46: A common flaw of organisations is that they cannot tell who the most productive people are, and often the employee’s don’t know either. Even an improvement of a few percent can make a huge difference. With Platform46 a company can break down previous Silo’s. In addition, staff can view everything that is happening about particular customers, employee’s, projects, and business units at a click of a button – anytime, anywhere.
IPitch: How long have you been in business for?
Platform46: Platform46 was founded in May 2009
IPitch: Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Platform46:
Tim Ayling – CEO
Previously VP Asia-Pac Entrust Inc. Tim has an MSc in Secure E-Commerce & is undergoing an MBA from AGSM. He has global experience having worked in the software industry in Australia, Asia, UK, Scandinavia & South Africa.
Richard Atkinson – CTO
Richard has 12 years experience managing web projects and software development teams. He was the Web Technologies Manager at the Reserve Bank of Australia for 10 years.
IPitch How much traction do you have in the market? Have you had any ‘big wins’ so far?
Platform46: We have been concentrating on building a partner network. We are currently deploying over ten partners for their own use, with a view to them reselling to their customers. We’re not able to talk about our big wins at this stage, but happy to do under an NDA!
IPitch: What’s the end goal / exit strategy for your business?
Platform46: We’re looking firstly to build a successful money-making company. The end-goal is to either IPO or, more likely, be acquired by a company who can take our technology and take their solutions to a new level.
IPitch: Are you looking to raise money?
Platform46: The short answer is “Yes!” We are currently seeking approximately $250,000 of investment to enable us to drive the growth we need in a very fast-paced market. At this point we have enough capital to continue what we’re doing, but we are very keen to expand outside of Australia, especially the UK & US – even potentially Asia.
IPitch: What does an ideal investor look like to you?
Platform46: The ideal investor is someone who “gets” what we’re doing, and can add value outside of the money. Experience in foreign markets, for example, would be of huge value to us, especially given that’s where we want to be heading in 2011.
IPitch: Personally, (for the directors or employees) what challenges have you faced in establishing and running a Startup?
Platform46: Fund-raising was certainly a challenge, though we closed our first round of $200,000 in January. The most common obstacle in the sales cycle has been the fact that we are a startup, and hence we can be perceived as a risk. This is another reason to have our partners use the software for free – giving us immediate users.
IPitch: Have you come across any resources that you think are just awesome, and you’d like to share with other Australian Startups. If so, what are they?
Platform46: Well I’m no accountant, but I find SAASU hugely impressive. Free for twenty transactions a month – I tell everyone about them, including friends of mine who run their own 1-man bands. Zoho CRM is pretty good too, for startups… I’m not sure how it would scale as the team grows, but it’s free for three users & anything that’s free at startup level is a good thing
IPitch: Is there an opportunity you’re looking for to bring your Startup to the next level? If so, what is it?
Platform46: We are looking at two avenues to take our business to the next level:
1. OEM partners, where established software vendors white-label our software as a notification add-on to their products
2. New resellers, especially in the CRM & ERP markets
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