What were you doing previously and what inspired you to launch your company?

My background is in private equity and investment banking which is where I identified the need for a better financial data platform that does not cost as much as college tuition. The problem with legacy financial data platforms is that they are very expensive, are prone to data quality issues from manual data entry, and can take considerable time to update when new information is released. We've built TagniFi using modern technology such as tagged financial statements (where our name comes from) to deliver data more efficiently, timely, and with better data quality. We cover every public company with a standardized balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement as well as the footnotes from 10-K and 10-Q filings with the SEC. We see tagged (structured) data as the future so we're building our company around that movement.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

At the end of the day, we're in the time business. If our clients had to go through every 10-K or 10-Q to collect the data they need for their analysis, it would take them hours, days, or even weeks to collect what they need. We have 11 datasets that are all accessible from our website (TagniFi Console), our Excel plugin, or our API which our clients use to access the data they need within seconds. For example, we have valuation clients that use our public company and M&A data to value private companies for their clients. Another example would be our low-latency API feeds to we deliver to hedge funds within minutes of the SEC filing release. Like most founders, my DNA is geared toward building stuff, and we're always building new datasets or features for the TagniFi platform which I really enjoy. It's also exciting for me to see our team members grow in their roles and take on new responsibilities. As founders, we get to pick the people we work with and we've been blessed with some great people that share the mission we have for TagniFi.

Name the biggest challenge you faced in the process of launching the company. How did you overcome it?

As a bootstrapped company, I've always had a list of 10 things I want to build but we only have the resources to build a few of these a year. That has been a challenge but it is a sacrifice we've made to maintain 100% ownership of the company since we see this as a 20-year opportunity. Maintaining 100% ownership is very important to us and, while raising money is not an easy process itself, I think the sacrifice will be worth it as our growth compounds over that 20- or 30-year period. We've been remote since day 1 which can also be a challenge. Our co-founder and CTO is located in the Portland area so being on opposite sides of the country makes it difficult to brainstorm in front of a whiteboard. Prior to COVID, we made a point to meet up every 6 months and I'm looking forward to getting back into that habit when things return to normal post-COVID.

Where do you see your company headed next?

We're going to keep re-investing our cash flow into growing TagniFi as long as the opportunities are out there to deliver our data to underserved markets. For example, we're about to release a new database of private equity investors which will really level the playing field in the lower middle-market for M&A advisors and smaller private equity firms. We've been building this database for over a year so it's a big investment for us but one where we see a lot of upside. We've been focused on the US market since we started the company, primarily because our technology utilizes tagged financial statements which have been available since 2009 in the US but other countries have lagged in requiring this tagging. Starting next year, Europe will begin requiring this tagging so we are planning to expand into Europe in 2021.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you'd share with another founder just starting out.

I recently read a great book called From Impossible To Inevitable by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin which really resonated with me on many levels. One of the things they really hammer in with this book is 'Nailing a Niche' which is something that I agree with 100%. I think a lot of founders try to be everything to everyone which is not going to end well 99% of the time. We live in a world of specialization so you really need to strive to be the best in the world at something in order to be successful. That 'something' may be a niche product for left-handed librarians, but at least you will own that market. Once you own that niche you can leverage that into entering other tangential markets that make sense for you. Finally, I believe startups are an endurance sport that usually take 5, 10, or even 20 years to successfully execute so steady progress will get you much further than a quick sprint.

What were you doing previously and what inspired you to launch your company?

Prior to Porchboxx and really the entire startup game, I was flipping homes. My background was heavy in residential finance, securitization, and mortgage-backed securities and I come from a family of contractors, so it was easy to transition from my previous life in residential finance.

The inspiration for Porchboxx came from a Zoom call I had with a VC during quarantine that, while holding his two-week-old baby, he had some porch pirates walk up to his porch and walk off with his groceries. He was explaining this happened a lot and that his wife would either let their food sit outside for a while (*for virus reasons) or she would bring them inside and hand wash everything.

He goes: "Find a way to fix this problem and we’ll invest." That was May 6^th. On May 28^th we incorporated and beginning of August we had a fully functioning MVP.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

Porchboxx protects your packages from porch pirates, disinfects your items from any potential infectious threat, keeps your items cool/warm to prevent spoilage, and acts as a security system that will integrate with almost any IoT device.

What gets me amped up is seeing something that was just a figment of the imagination a few months ago, scale to something that could be the gold standard for how people receive and handle their packages. COVID-19 is going to continue to shape the eCommerce landscape, and home delivery is going to continue to be the new "thing" for most Americans. This addresses a lot of the issues that come with that.

Name the biggest challenge you faced in the process of launching the company. How did you overcome it?

Honestly, we haven’t hit any real heavy roadblocks yet. This isn’t my first product to develop, so I had all the resources necessary at my fingertips which made it easy to get to prototyping. However,  I know we will have some hard bridges to cross when it comes to production and logistics, so come see in six months when we’re live and ask me to answer this question again.

Where do you see your company headed next?

Ideally, we hope to license our IP to an IoT company that sees a fit with our tech in their space. I think the problem(s) we are solving are big enough that someone is going to take notice pretty quickly, realize what our patent covers, and want to capitalize on that.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you'd share with another founder just starting out.

Stop comparing yourself to your peers.  Worrying about what someone else is doing, or thinking that because they’re working 18 hours, you should be too is not the way to go through life. What's normal for one person, isn’t normal for another, and you're going to have lulls in your work cycle that can be hard to get through because you see everyone else plugging away. Set realistic goals, focus on them and as long as you’re on schedule, it shouldn’t matter what anyone else is doing.

What were you doing previously and what inspired you to launch your company?

Before pursuing Blocklight full time, my career had primarily been in the Chicago food industry at a co-packing company. My path began in manufacturing and industrial operations before transitioning to the IT, finance, and strategy side of the business, ultimately arriving in the continuous improvement leadership position. It was here that I learned the foundational components of business and how all of the pieces fit together - from operations management to monthly accounting reconciliations and everything in between.

It was also at this company that I was introduced to the world of startups. After five years with them, I was asked by management if I knew anyone who would be interested in taking the company’s internal quality software to market. I thought, “why not me?”, and after expressing interest in the role I joined three others tasked with bringing the software to market. What. An. Experience. We wound up building the company out of 1871 and I jumped feet first into the technology scene - I mean I couldn’t get enough; seminars, workshops, trainings, networking - I was addicted. Fast forward two years and the software was being used modestly across the midwest. However, the experience as a founder and exposure to the community I received during those 2 years was invaluable.

As I was exploring what to do next, I came in contact with a few owners of e-commerce stores who expressed difficulty running their (fast-growing) shops. Their non-technical nature, budget limitations that kept roles like business development and data analyst unattainable, and time restrictions given their non-work obligations was the catalyst for the creation of Blocklight. We knew that we could bridge the gap when it came to simply having business data and extracting actionable value from it.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

Organizing business data, understanding it, and then taking action based on what you discover is a difficult, time-consuming task for the already overwhelmed e-commerce store owner. Blocklight helps these store owners visualize their entire business in one place. We break down traditionally disparate data silos and help stores organize their sales, marketing, and financial data customized to their business.

I get excited to work with our team and the businesses we serve. Our team’s passion for helping small businesses with the tools we create always helps keep my tank full. I also really get excited when we meet with these businesses - getting them to double down on something we’ve done right or put us on notice about something that’s not providing value gives me a recharged desire to help. Maybe it’s proximity placebo, maybe not, but I always feel the best and most energized when we’re doing tight iterations in short cycle times with our customers.

Name the biggest challenge you faced in the process of launching the company. How did you overcome it?

Our biggest challenge was a founding team issue/disagreement. I truly can’t stress the importance of making sure you are thorough in vetting and understanding your potential partners. These relationships should be viewed similar to a marriage - you’re going to be together at least to the company’s event horizon and maybe even beyond so due diligence can’t be underestimated.

Radical transparency and resilience are how we overcame it. I’m a firm believer in the entire team having a vested interest in the company’s trajectory and not being in the dark about anything. In my experience, this level of inclusion leads to a very loyal, open, and positive culture. When the team has a voice and is informed, the bond of the team becomes impenetrable and all threats, internal or external, are able to be overcome. The caveat to this is that it can’t be something fake or surface-level - your team knows the good and the bad too.

Where do you see your company headed next?

Our mission is to give businesses self-reliance by way of their own analytics. In the short term, we will continue to enhance our analytics platform to provide more value and tools to drive growth even easier. We’ll also soon be launching in the Shopify App Store. In the mid-long term, we’re going to empower the businesses we work with to solve even more problems that plague the e-commerce industry with their business analytics profiles.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you'd share with another founder just starting out.

Be prepared to get creative and uncomfortable, but don’t lose your North Star. Being a startup founder is admittedly one of the most difficult (if not the most difficult) thing I’ve ever done in my life, and I know I’m not alone. You’re never going to be fully prepared for everything you will encounter, it’s impossible; you’re the sales, marketing, product, finance, HR, and customer service department. Be confident in your ability to analyze and creatively solve any problem, listen to those who have experienced the challenges you’re going through, (try to) never burn a bridge, and treat everyone you encounter with the same respect you’d like to receive. Remember, a brand is nothing more than a promise delivered - so always remember your promise and don’t ever let the noise make you forget why you got started in the first place.