Problem-solving startups need local feedback

Editor's note: a previous version of this story incorrectly identified the website for FairMechanics

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Steve Chin

Photo by Shawn Millsaps

Competition Finalist Charles Chin, middle, and business partner Albert Lin, right, reads a business card from Ken Woody, president of Innova LLC., left, during "What's the Big Idea" business plan competition held at the Relix Theatre in Knoxville, Tenn., on Thursday, June 20, 2013. (Shawn Millsaps/Special to the News Sentinel)

Steve Chin wowed the audience with the tale of a website for gamers that allowed them to easily house their scores, analyze the statistics and track their results against others with intuitive graphics.

Users surpassed the million mark, but the founders — including the University of Tennessee’s Dr. Jian Huang, an acclaimed researcher in data visualization — couldn’t entice anyone to pay for it.

Noting that “failure is the best teacher for startups,” Chin says the team set out “to find a big problem to solve.”

The result was Survature Inc., which is developing an online survey tool that reveals not only what the survey taker answered, but how and when they answered it using a patent-pending technology called Answer Cloud.

In its simplest terms, Chin says, “Survature helps businesses know what really matters to clients. If you enable businesses to find out what matters, businesses can do what matters.”

Chin, a company co-founder and its senior vice president of product development, was among three entrepreneurs to pitch their company for a $10,000 prize package at Knoxville’s “What’s the Big Idea?” competition.

The three companies had little in common — the winner was the inventor of a pipefitter’s tool and the other finalist, an educational video game developer — but they all made reference to a problem each was trying to solve.

That commonality is particularly true among technology startups centered around helping businesses do business.

That local businesses will embrace them, mentor them, develop relationships with them and try out their products are keys to building a local environment perceived as friendly to entrepreneurs and a healthy economy in the future, says Michael Carroll, a veteran entrepreneur and director of the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center.

“It doesn’t need to be rocket science or high finance, we are probably not going to create an Apple or Google,” Carroll says. “I think we often look at things as technology or business and they are both.”

Building relationships

The “What’s the Big Idea?” competition this year emphasized developing local relationships by including coaching from local entpreneurs John Tolsma, Parker Frost and Jimmy Rodefer for the finalists, a la “The Voice,” for the first time.

“We got a lot out of the program,” Chin says. “We made a lot of contacts who are interested in helping us fund raise and small businesses that want to use our program.”

Survature is being championed by a host of organizations, including the UT Research Foundation — where its housed in an incubator — Tech 2020, Launch Tennessee and others.

“We’ve likened this experience in Knoxville to making stone soup,” says Chin, a software developer, intellectual property attorney and adjunct faculty at UT. “It’s really kind of wonderful community building.”

The fledgling startup Dwelln did not make the competition’s final cut, but one of its co-founders says the process helped the development team focus and determine programming and graphic design hours — and costs — needed to roll out its concept.

Casey Peters, director of chart capture operations at TeamHealth, has worked for more than a year on the idea for Dwelln with Suzy Trotta, a Realtor, and Brandon Rochelle and Joseph Nother, co-founders of Designsensory. Their concept is an online tool for owners of between one and five rental properties.

“We entered the competition as a catalyst to get us to focus on a strategic timeline on how to get this out,” Peters said.

Coached by Rodefer, a CPA, Dwelln’s team created a financial forecast to show “what we need to do and what capital we need to do it. We got a lot of time and tools to help us get to the next level,” he adds.

Try it out

One of the biggest challenges for tech startups is garnering early adopters, especially in a somewhat risk-averse East Tennessee.

Chin says what Survature needs now is real-world feedback to refine the survey tool and better address customers’ needs.

“We are really targeting local businesses in Knoxville,” he says. “We want face-to-face interactions where we see a real demonstration of how our products works with people here. We get their feedback to improve our product, but we also believe our product adds core value to businesses and helps them make better use of their resources.”

Vendor Registry, creator of a web-based vendor management tool that uses a database and notification system to link buyers and sellers, was among the first startups to receive assistance through the East Tennessee Regional Accelerator Coalition, a state-funded effort launched in 2012.

It too is growing its base locally, and has signed 300 government agencies, colleges and utilities to participate in East Tennessee.

Chris Van Beke

Its unexpected challenge, says co-founder Chris Van Beke, is “not that many people are searching for what we do” because the service has never existed before.

That’s led Van Beke and partner, Brian Strong, to hit the pavement, and tout the system to potential vendors through special events.

“If you can’t get the mountain to come to you, you go to it,” Van Beke says. “Once we have a few minutes with someone to explain our vision, we have a very high conversion rate. Our mission as a company is to simplify doing business with local governments.”

Vendor Registry was one of 250 startups from the Southeast to apply to present at June’s Southland conference, which introduces entrepreneurs and investors. The company was one of 50 chosen to showcase, although not the 20 asked to make pitches.

Photo by Saul Young, 2012 Knoxville News Sentinel // Buy this photo

Brian Strong

Strong says venture capital, at this point, “would be to add fuel to the fire,” but the company is comfortable building its base locally first.

“We still have some things we want to prove before we get that capital,” says Van Beke.

FairMechanics.com is also relying on the local market to build its foundation. The site allows vehicle owners to post their maintenance and repair needs and compare bids and reviews from participating mechanics before making their selection.

Leo Knight

Leo Knight, co-founder of the site with Augustine Gattuso, says about 35 mechanics have signed on to the system, and the company continues to seek more, as well as those seeking their services.

The company has developed what its calling an affiliate program to help promote the site, working with NAPA, Advanced Auto Parts and Halvoline Express Lubes to promote the service with cards and kiosks inside their stores.

The company has set up an advisory board that includes local executives and strategists — “those guys have been instrumental in our success” — and while he’s having a disclosure statement prepared to seek funding he is not sure they will need to take on equity investors.

“With the way the affiliate model is working, I don’t know if we will have to raise additional money,” Knight says. “They really see this as a value-added for their customers.”

The Entrepreneur Center’s Carroll notes there has been no shortage of professionals who have volunteered to teach classes and provide services to fledging companies.

What the startups really need, he says, are relationships with CPAs, lawyers, other entrepreneurs and potential customers to try their products so “that the relationship can nourish them when they need it.”