“We created this business with 25 employees, 8,000 active users on a daily basis, helping 350 companies accelerate and improve their businesses.”
If you ever spent time attending college in Utah then you probably dabbled in door-to-door sales, a summer-based option to maximize earnings by selling pest control in the Mississippi heat. Or security systems in the Florida swamps. Or satellite television in the Iowa cornfields. It doesn’t matter what you were selling, all of these sales revolve around one thing — the ability of company employees to quickly and effectively sell products in a face-to-face environment.
Brady Anderson, Barima Kwarteng, and Jeff Lockhart used to be college students inside the state of Utah. This meant they were exposed to door-to-door sales and it also meant they were exposed to building software, two sources of Utah strength. Wanting to get more involved with the world of technology, the threesome started doing software consulting with an emphasis on mobile app development. This was fine, but as most people are want to do, they began feening for the challenge of creating their own company and after bouncing around multiple ideas, the tea leaves settled in a familiar pattern.
“Starting a business takes a lot of dedication, time, and attention, way more than I would have expected,” said Anderson. “Expectations on what it could become have vastly changed over time. We always wanted our own product that we could build and create a company with and that’s ultimately what Sales Rabbit became.”
Sales Rabbit initially focused on door-to-door sales of satellite television, providing the industry an all-encompassing platform to manage all the details (employee tracking, area management, analytics, paperless contracts, etc.) of business.
“We had a company that was our beta company starting out,” said Anderson. “Early on, when they reached out to five other companies to introduce our product and get their interest, all five of them said they would pay for it, that was when we thought it could work.”
The launch of a MVP (that stands for minimum viable product, not Steph Curry) in 2013 got the ball rolling and since then, Sales Rabbit has grown in size, scope, and vision. Realizing that any door-to-door sales company would benefit from their software, they started targeting all companies that rely upon in-person sales. Instead of just satellite tv, now the door was opened for a variety of different options — security, solar, pest control, lawn care, etc.
“Sales Rabbit is a face-to-face sales enablement platform,” said Anderson. “In terms of the platform, it’s everything from lead management to e-contracts to leaderboards chat communication. It’s meant to be anything a sales rep needs, or their manager needs, to do everything they need to do.”
To do everything they needed to do, Sales Rabbit pursued additional funds. Enter Kickstart Seed Fund, who recently led a $1.2 million round pushing towards the ultimate vision of Sales Rabbit as a leading tool in the door-to-door sales market.
“Kickstart provides a ton of resources you can use and leverage to take your business to the next level,” said Anderson. “At the same time, they don’t feel the need to micromanage your business, allowing you to keep your own culture and management style.”
Anderson stresses that Sales Rabbit is a constantly-evolving entity, adding new features and tools as demand continues to increase. What started as a tool for door-to-door satellite sales has now transformed into so much more and Anderson is convinced that the best is yet to come.
“We created this business with 25 employees, 8,000 active users on a daily basis, helping 350 companies accelerate and improve their businesses,” said Anderson. “We’ve been able to create a really good culture, really great time, great clients, and across the board it has been a lot of fun.”
Published 4/5/2016
