Setting the Scene
Many small business owners, especially those running local mom-and-pop shops, lack a business degree.
While a business degree isn't necessary, it often helps in navigating areas like revenue forecasting, modeling, and predictive analytics.
However, due to this expertise gap, numerous business owners:
Rely on unsophisticated bookkeeping methods like pen and paper or cluttered Excel files.
Remain unaware of how data can empower their decision-making.
This week's company provides an automated platform that simplifies financials and uses machine learning to help small business owners make data-driven decisions.
In a Sentence
MRGN is an AI-powered platform designed for SMBs to simplify financial analytics and guide business decisions.
SMBs: Target customers include small to medium-sized businesses such as retail stores, restaurants, and franchises.
Simplify: Input basic financial information, or connect your accounting software like Quickbooks, and MRGN generates budgets, intuitive charts, analytics, and predictions.
Guide: Utilizing internal and external data, MRGN puts together an operating plan for business owners to follow.
Bulleted Version
- Think of MRGN as Google Translate for a company’s financial data, translating complex analytics into an easily understood and digestible format. 💬
The Basics:
- Headquarters: NYC
- Employee Count: 11 FTEs
- Investors:
- Funding amount: $250k pre-seed
- Currently raising: $1.25M (round opens next week)
- Business model: B2B SaaS (3 plans based on number of seats)
- Early traction: On-boarded 1,000 SMBs in open beta, secured a deal with a large fast food chain, and in late-stage discussions with a large household name and two municipalities
Due Diligence
✅ Market opportunity: Although big businesses often steal the spotlight in the US, they make up a mere 0.01% of the landscape, while the vast majority of businesses are small.
MRGN's solution adds value to underserved SMBs.
👩💻 Consumer demand: 80% of small businesses in the US aren't fully leveraging available tech tools, yet 65% of business owners are keen on investing in AI technology.
MRGN's user-friendly interface caters to business owners, especially those without a formal business degree.
🏁 Competitive Pricing: With a pricing model that's accessible for small to medium-sized businesses, MRGN provides a cost-effective solution in a market where similar services can be expensive.
🤔 Over-reliance: While MRGN aids decision-making, it's vital for business owners to use it as a guiding tool, not the sole source, as it may not cover all aspects of business operations.
🔒 Security: Given MRGN's access to sensitive financial data, maintaining robust security measures is crucial to uphold consumer trust and comply with data protection regulations.
🐌 Slow adoption: Established small businesses, especially those accustomed to traditional methods, may require convincing to transition to a new solution, which may slow down the platform's adoption rate.
Founder Profile
Yoni Rubin, CEO: 15 years of experience in the management of tech startups, helping raise $250M for both public and privately held companies.
Vivek Elayidom, CTO: Previously CTO at mDrift Technologies.
Comps
Dryrun: Backed by Intuit Prosperity Fund, Accelerate Fund, Startup TNT and others.
Forecastr: Backed by Render Capital, Capital Midwest Fund, Techstars, and others.
Pry: Backed by Y Combinator, Hyphen Capital, Outbound Capital, NOMO Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, and others.
Finmark: Backed by Y Combinator, BVP, American Express Ventures, Draper Associates, IDEA Fund Partners, and others.
Why MRGN
By simplifying financial data through a user-friendly interface and guiding small business owners to make data-driven decisions, we predict MRGN’s success is imminent.
