Do more of what you love.....

After a somewhat drawn out closing process, I am delighted to say that Appointedd finally announced funding through the Equity Gap and Apollo syndicates just before the end of August. Very excited that Appointedd is also the second investment for Sunstone and I will also be going on board as a non executive director.

Appointedd is an appointment scheduling app for small service businesses. As well as saving a lot of administrative time, it provides a very functional CRM system and a really insightful management tool. Initial user feedback indicates the app could save small business owners as much as half a day a week. This is a huge benefit to hard pressed SMEs from beauticians and hairdressers to academic tutors to plumbers.

Another great team

It would be easy to rewrite some the reasons which led to the Mallzee investment here. Specifically, in Leah Hutcheon and Billy Jones Appointedd is led by a great team and that is the foundation for any successful Startup. Appointedd is also tackling a very exciting segment of the market. Previous technology revolutions have tended to pass SMEs by. The technology is either too costly or too complex to implement. The incentive for technology providers is to pursue larger, more valuable contracts. I strongly believe SaaS together with easily standardised cloud and mobile software has changed this landscape. 

Quality product with a huge potential market

Appointedd is genuinely designed with the needs of service businesses in mind and I believe it will find fertile ground.  I especially like the way the team have developed the design and functionality of the product. They have taken a semi concierge approach bringing on small numbers of clients and managing them closely and personally to make sure everything works well and meets their real needs.

Of course, one of the other reasons that the SME market has been neglected is that it is hard to reach and the one to one approach that has worked for Appointedd so far is not scaleable as the jargon goes. Leah and Billy have that covered as well. A self service setup wizard will be available very soon and there are also a series of marketing partnerships in the works to bring Appointedd to many thousands of potential customers.

Getting to scale

The immediate agenda will be to deliver on this scaling up. Beyond lies tremendous potential. As customers get used to the benefits of Appointedd they will find new and exciting ways to leverage the customer service and management reporting elements of the system. As new apps to help SMEs appear on the market Appointedd will be able to integrate with this ecosystem for mutual benefit. As external developments like PayM gain traction Appointedd will become easier and more attractive for potential new users.

The site has a new look and a great new setup wizard to welcome the new funds. Everything is ready to go. Can't wait for it all to get started!