Posted by Early Growth
October 1, 2019 | 5-minute read (926 words)
While we are still in the early innings, artificial intelligence (“AI”) promises to revolutionize the way that we work and play. But having said that, many businesses today don’t have access to this disruptive technology. Most often, they either don’t know how they can use AI to accomplish their business goals or simply don’t have the in-house talent to use AI to accomplish those goals.
LeadCrunch was founded to solve that problem. The company—which raised $11.6 million in January this year—helps small businesses use AI to help them find their best customers. The company was founded in August 2013 by Olin Hyde. In its six years of existence, LeadCrunch has evolved into a vital tool for businesses that want to leverage the company’s “Vector Marketing” to identify the warmest of leads.
Bernhard Peters, the VP of Finance, spoke about LeadCrunch’s past, its plans for the future, and how Early Growth supported this truly game-changing company.
The Early Days
Peters explained that LeadCrunch started with AI at its core. The overarching idea of the company was that with AI, businesses could win on the merits of their actual product or service, rather than from the sheer size of their organization or a slick marketing campaign. After finding some initial success by using AI techniques to win a contract with Lockheed Martin, Hyde and his colleagues realized that the company needed to embrace a larger mission.
“We didn’t want the military to be our future, as we were more interested in the impact of AI on relationships and people,” Peters said. “We wondered if we could apply this military targeting technology to help companies target customers. It turns out … we’re pretty good at it!”
Ultimately, the LeadCrunch platform helps its clients identify prospects who are most likely to become a client’s lasting, lucrative clients. It does this by using AI and a patented approach to B2B data that the company calls Vector Marketing. From there, LeadCrunch engages a client's personas with their B2B content. Everything is on a cost-per-lead basis , and the company offers a quality guarantee on every lead. According to the company, within three years of using LeadCrunch, the company’s clients grow three times faster than their competitors.
LeadCrunch Today
LeadCrunch is already making a dent in the universe. Peters says that the ultimate goal is helping their clients use AI to accomplish their business goals.
“For the first time in human history, AI enables machines to perform cognitive functions that previously required humans. Just like the internal combustion engine changed the role of horses, AI will change the role of people in business … By thinking differently about B2B relationships, we can unlock the fullest potential of our team and the organizations we serve.”
Peters and his colleagues are working hard to continue the company’s stratospheric growth. 2019 is projected to be another year where the company experiences 200 to 300 percent growth. With several exciting products in the pipeline and the ability to grow with their customers, Peters and his team are aggressively moving forward.
“It’s a really exciting position to be in—to see our customers leverage the tremendous value of this technology to outperform their goals, and to know that this is only the beginning of what we’re aiming to achieve here,” he said.
A Partnership With EGFS
LeadCrunch partnered with EGFS after the company closed its Series A round of investment. Working with EGFS, LeadCrunch wanted help building a strong, mature foundation through the company’s next stage of growth.
“Early Growth was the perfect partner at the perfect time for our organization,” Peters said. “We grew so rapidly in our early years that it was difficult to build and maintain processes and systems that could keep up.”
Under the guidance of Dan Morgan, one of EG’s fractional CFO’s, LeadCrunch integrated an array of effective platforms, secured a substantial revolving line of credit, and implemented long-lasting adaptive policies and procedures. Along with this, he helped train an in-house team that Peters and his colleagues still use today. While Peters and his team appreciated all that EG had to offer, EG’s speed was especially compelling to LeadCrunch.
“What’s awesome about Early Growth is that they were able to start immediately, then dynamically load the manpower according to our needs, getting more resources when times were critical and then scaling back as the workload lightened. If we had tried to do it ourselves with an in-house team, we’d still be playing catch-up, tearing our hair out every step of the way.”
LeadCrunch certainly has a promising future ahead of it. Its talent, ability to execute, and partnership with EG significantly increase the chances of realizing its vision of democratizing AI. Peters and his colleagues are tremendously excited to take LeadCrunch to the next level.
“will eliminate the mundane tasks and elevate people into roles that require cognitive skills that machines can’t perform - such as empathy and creativity. It’s in unlocking these skills that we believe will elevate the way the world sees relationships in the business world.”
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