Being resilient is key to being a startup founder. For the founders of Milwaukee-based fintech startup
Investii, this meant repurposing the technology behind their app to create a completely new company with a new set of users.
Nishant Deshpande, co-founder of Investii, announced this week the startup no longer exists for its original purpose. In its place, a new company called
OpenPitch has been formed.
OpenPitch uses a lot of the same technology that powered Investii but is geared toward business owners and investors. The app is intended to help users simplify and automate financial updates. Open Pitch connects directly to a company’s business bank account to calculate key financial metrics while providing investors with accurate data to support their portfolio companies.
Previously, Investii’s
cloud-based software platform helped everyday people visualize all of their finances in one place, move funds among all accounts and earn rewards points for moving money into savings vehicles.
“What we learned is that most people prefer to try and earn an extra dollar rather than save one,” said Deshpande. “People would rather go try to drive for Uber or Door Dash to make some extra income rather than lower the expectations for their life.”
As Investii took part in gener8tor’s Madison accelerator program last summer, the team found that the primary users of its app were startup founders and other business owners.
“We talked to other founders in our cohort and they told us they loved the app because it showed them how much runway they had,” said Deshpande. “Obviously, every business wants to make more sales. A lot of times for founders, it’s about how you can limit your spending so you can extend your company’s runway. Our app did a really good job of showing how many months of runway a company had.”
After further discussions with investor groups, it became apparent that there was another issue Investii’s technology could solve. Investors currently rely on monthly or quarterly updates from startups to inform them of a startup’s financial status. If a founder doesn’t send an update, then an investor has no true idea how that startup is doing.
“If a founder stays mum and doesn’t tell an investor what they need help with, then the investors can’t actually add value, help them raise capital, help them restructure or do anything,” said Deshpande. “That’s when we realized we could repurpose a lot of the technology we used for the Investii app, make it business facing and create this product that allows founders to automate their financial updates so they can focus on building and their investors can get better data.”
OpenPitch will officially launch on June 2 and there is currently a waitlist of approximately 15 investment groups looking to use the app. There are waitlists open for both founders and investors looking to use the platform. Deshpande and his team have raised $300,000 since founding what was previously known as Investii in January 2021.
