Center City based
RJMetrics just closed on a $1.2 million round of financing from a syndicate that includes
both local and national players. "Now I can go back to actively running the business," says CEO Robert J Moore, who recalls that the fast growing business intelligence company made a decision around the end of the third quarter of last year to go to market and see what potential deals might look like.
"We found a deal that made economic sense and we moved extremely quickly," says Moore. "Honestly, from the moment we decided we definitely wanted to raise money, it took less than a week to get all the commitments."
Moore and co-founder Jake Stein, who is COO, met while both were working for
Insight Venture Partners, which gave the pair an edge during the fundraising process. "It's very common in these negotiations for entrepreneurs to be confused or intimidated by the legal aspects of raising capital," says Moore. "When one of these deals takes place, there are literally dozens and dozens of small terms, and they can go over the heads of people raising money."
The inspiration for RJMetrics also came while Moore was at Insight. "Part of my job was due diligence on new investments. A lot was driven by data analysis, which I was doing by hand in Excel and MS Access. I was doing that analysis dozens of times, and common themes emerged. As a programmer, I realized I could replace myself with a program."
The productized version of Moore's program is available to businesses for a low monthly subscription fee, and RJMetrics considers venture firms a lead generation channel. The company now has 60 customers, up from 20 in the beginning of 2011, and has grown from 4 to 12 employees in the same time period. The cash influx, which is already in the bank, will go to marketing and continued expansion.
Source: Robert Moore, RJMetrics
Writer: Sue Spolan