Life After Notman – Fundmetric
Life After Notman – Fundmetric
Life After Notman – Fundmetric
Coming from the Atlantic region of Canada, a region still relatively young in the tech startup world, we knew that to make Fundmetric successful, we would have to go to where the successes were already established. When we were accepted into the 2016 FounderFuel program, we seized the opportunity to set ourselves up in Notman House and interact with the brilliant minds that can be seen throughout the building. Going down to get a cup of coffee or grab a burger at one of Café Osmo’s BBQ can often result in meeting with one of Montreal’s top tech, entrepreneurial, or venture capital minds.
Fundmetric is a software that helps charities turn one time donors into lifetime supporters. When we arrived at Notman House for the 2016 FounderFuel Cohort, we had little thought about life after Notman. Since leaving Notman, we have successfully raised money, grown exponentially in terms of both user engagement and revenue, improved our margins and successfully sold the product to US based clients.
Perhaps, more interesting than the results after Notman, is the sense community that Notman created. As an Atlantic Canadian Company that has travelled extensively for our business, Notman provided us with numerous serendipitous collisions with entrepreneurs and clients. Just yesterday, a Montreal based charity who we met at Notman requested a meeting. Our software uses data provided by fellow Notman company Macromeasures who we met while at a Notman event. One of the keys to our fast acceleration has been the opportunities that are still occurring because of our time at there.
Notman House provided our entire team with real-life examples of how we could grow faster and our team embraced it. We have a larger office in Halifax, but for weeks no-one complained about the small Notman office because of how much fun they had building the company with great people in Montreal. We brought a large university prospect to Notman and they commented on the level of activity and excitement that was all around them in the cafe. Looking back, I would encourage everyone who gets the opportunity to work from Notman, first to make it happen (take the space or work from the cafe) and second to go out of their way to help other startups. It certainly paid off for us.
With these experiences during our time at Notman House, we’ve continued to pay it forward in our return to the Atlantic Region. Fundmetric is actively involved in the startup community and a part of the rapid regional growth. Serving as mentors and speakers in programs spanning 3 provinces, seeing new startups learn from our own mistakes and lessons we were able to take with us from Montreal is its own reward. Because of our time at Notman, we’ve been able to take an invaluable amount of information back home with us and I believe we are already seeing the results in the environment’s growth.
Now, as we prepare to add clients on a two week trip to New York City at the end of January, the questions have already been asked about whether we will be stopping in Montreal. I think this is the strongest testament to the memories and successes created at Notman in 2016.
-The Fundmetric Team
