Participated · Equity · Jun 2023

Ovation offers a hospitality-focused software platform that begins with a two-question guest survey and expands into tools for managing feedback, online reviews, and day-to-day store operations. The Salt Lake City company positions itself as a partner rather than a traditional SaaS vendor, emphasizing human connection to drive higher customer satisfaction and revenue. Its technology is used by more than 1,000 restaurant brands, including Dave's Hot Chicken, Swig, The Great Greek, and Mooyah, reaching thousands of individual restaurant locations. Operators use Ovation to surface actionable insights and resolve issues before they lead to lost business, enabling timely guest recovery. Investors who also use the product praise its ability to deliver real-time, store-level insights. Ovation has raised $12 million in total funding to date, indicating prior capital of about $9 million before the latest round. The new funds will support continued product development and expansion across additional restaurant groups, furthering its mission to strengthen guest relationships in multi-unit dining.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2023

Patri is a Salt Lake City, UT–based SaaS company that provides AI-powered revenue intelligence focused on a company’s Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Its core product, RevFit AI, helps find, refine, monitor, and apply dynamic ICPs across the go-to-market motion. RevFit AI facilitates deal prioritization by scoring the ICP fit of each opportunity and uses an AI-generated ICP Engine to surface pipeline health and refine forecasts. Patri is a Salesforce partner and RevFit AI is currently available only for Salesforce CRM users, with access for other CRMs forthcoming. The company is led by founder and CEO Josh Ellars. Patri raised $2.4M in funding and intends to use the proceeds to expand operations and its business reach.

Participated · Series A · Dec 2013

AnswerDash offers a SaaS-based contextual self-service help platform that delivers instant, context-sensitive assistance on websites and mobile apps. The product is designed to reduce customer support costs, increase sales conversion rates and provide insights into customers’ needs. The company is led by Dr. William Colleran, who was appointed CEO to accelerate growth. AnswerDash was recognized as a 2015 Cool Vendor by Gartner for its innovative CRM customer service and support solution. The company intends to use new funding to expand its sales and marketing teams and continue enhancing its SaaS offering. AnswerDash is based in Seattle, Washington. AnswerDash offers a cloud-based contextual help service that turns every word, image, or UI element on a web page into a clickable hotspot that surfaces relevant questions and answers. The system uses a line of JavaScript and the page's DOM to create hotspots in real time and a customized open-source natural language engine to match context to Q&As; answers may be text, video, links, or images. New user questions are emailed to the site, added to the AnswerDash database, and the company recommends prepopulating about 20 Q&As so visitor-driven questions form most of the inventory. The product integrates options for asking new questions and escalating to live chat or phone support, and a beta has been tested with selected companies. AnswerDash operates a subscription model starting at $79 per month based on usage, and initial customers include the US Green Building Council, PetHub, and Red Awning. The company raised $2.54 million late last year from Seattle-area angel and VC investors and grew out of NSF-funded research conducted in human-interface labs at the University of Washington.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2012

EnergySavvy is a Seattle, WA-based cloud software company that provides utilities with data-driven solutions to improve customer experience, engagement and operations. The company offers cloud-based analytics and engagement tools to enable utilities to develop insights and deliver new customer experience solutions. EnergySavvy serves nearly 40 utilities and state energy programs. It is launching a Customer Experience Transformation (CXT) consulting practice, led by advisor Jim Madej, to help clients develop roadmaps, manage business cases and deliver new customer experience solutions. The company intends to use the funds from the financing to continue investing in its solutions. EnergySavvy is led by CEO Aaron Goldfeder. Founded in 2008 and based in Seattle, EnergySavvy builds cloud-based software to help utilities encourage customers to adopt energy-saving habits. The company recently launched Optix Engage Direct, a mail-in survey platform to engage households utilities can’t reach online, including older and lower-income customers. The new offline offering complements EnergySavvy’s existing online products as a way to reach customers who would benefit most from energy-saving programs. The launch reflects a deliberate expansion of channels rather than a replacement of its cloud software. An SEC filing shows the company raised fresh funding to add operating flexibility as it executes on these offerings. Tom King, former CEO of National Grid (Europe), joined the company’s board, prompting existing investors to increase their stakes. EnergySavvy provides utilities and their partners with Optix, a demand-side management system that uses real-time data analytics to engage customers, contractors and trade allies while optimizing program performance. The company is led by CEO and co‑founder Aaron Goldfeder and is based in Seattle, WA and Cambridge, Mass. EnergySavvy serves 24 utility and program clients in more than 20 states. The company announced it will use new funding to scale engineering and sales teams and is hiring. Financially, the company recently received additional investment and previously announced a $7M round (May 2014). EnergySavvy is a Seattle, WA- and Cambridge, MA-based provider of energy efficiency cloud software for utilities and state programs. Led by CEO and co-founder Aaron Goldfeder, the company offers Optix, a cloud-based platform that uses real-time data analytics to engage customers, contractors and trade allies while optimizing program performance. It serves 24 utility and program clients in more than 20 states. EnergySavvy raised $7M in funding to accelerate product development and expand sales and marketing. The round was led by Prelude Ventures with participation from existing investor Pivotal Investments, and Prelude’s Managing Director Tim Woodward joined the company’s board. EnergySavvy builds an online service that helps homeowners track energy use and quantify how energy-efficiency upgrades can save money. The company serves utility customers including Puget Sound Energy, Black HillsEnergy and Long Island Power Authority. CEO Aaron Goldfeder said the new capital will be used to expand existing revenue through the addition of new products and to grow the sales and customer support network. The company plans to build out its Seattle engineering team, targeting a total of 30 employees by the end of the year. EnergySavvy is led by Goldfeder and co-founder Leo Shklovskii. The latest financing was $3 million, bringing total funding to $5 million.

Participated · Series A · May 2012

EveryMove offers a lifestyle-based rewards program that links devices and applications capturing users' healthy activities and converts that data into rewards from brands, employers and health care providers. The company has partnered with MyFitnessPal, Endomondo and Precor (Preva) to enable activity tracking and point-earning across apps and fitness equipment. Rewards partners include Blue Nile, Cabela’s, Hotel Monaco and ESPN. EveryMove launched an Android version of its application on the Android Play Store. Led by CEO Russell Benaroya and based in Seattle, the company recently raised $3.5M in Series A-1 financing. It plans to use the funds to expand its market presence nationally and increase marketing activities. EveryMove offers an interactive web and mobile platform that passively collects lifestyle data from health apps, devices, and platforms to connect users with rewards and incentives from plans, employers, and brands. The company emphasizes consumer control and data portability so information is not tied to an employer or insurer. It intends to monetize on a cost-per-action basis by taking a fee when users redeem rewards, positioning itself as a marketplace intermediary. EveryMove has been working closely with Premera Blue Cross on customer development and sees long-term opportunity in lifestyle analytics to inform company decisions. The startup is an alum of TechStars’ Seattle accelerator and is currently in private beta. It plans to use the Series A capital to ramp up its team and prepare for a broader market launch in the third quarter.