BizAnytime, an online collaborative workstation, is moving out of beta and into the world of mobile workspaces. I spoke to CEO Leif Hartwig last week about the past, present, and future of his company, why it’s important to have online workspaces, and the process of creating this kind of complex concept.
Hartwig’s background in financial services led him to start a consulting company teaching small businesses how to grow and balance their lives. After diving into the small business community, he realized that an entire cloud-based work world was in the development stages. Hartwig set out to create a lower cost way to connect and collaborate. “The value wasn’t in development of BizAnytime,” he said, “it was the business experience understanding how they work and think.” He added that the goal was to introduce technology and communication that is easy and affordable. From there, BizAnytime went through prototype testing and is now available for $10 per month per person.
“This is not project management software. It is truly meant to be a collaborative workspace where people are meant to work. A workspace is the meeting place for a particular project, idea, or daily updates,” Hartwig said. BizAnytime eliminates the need for trivial morning meetings, conferences, and even an office space. With its low barrier to enter and highly mobilized platform, BizAnytime is a solution for remote collaboration. Users can set up their own online office and connect with team members in shared workspaces. They can create as many workspaces as they need and utilize chat space and video conferencing all within the application. 75 GB of cloud space allows for multiple workspaces and collaborations, as well as widgets like Twitter and Facebook that all show up on the main page “dashboard.”
BizAnytime came out of beta testing as of April and are preparing to take off. “Our funding methodology is very strategic. Our objective over 90 days is to raise $1 million from Angel investors. This is in founder’s rounds, SEED rounds, and Series A funding. As we grow with our traction and our valuation grows, we will use our Series A funding somewhere beyond 90 days and attract investors,” newly appointed CRO Ryan Kelly told me. Fresh off of his COO position at Appointment-Plus, Kelly is heading up the process of funding for BizAnytime. “The best model is to raise funding as you need it. All of us make mistakes and grow and I think we’ve done pretty much everything right at this point. When we come out of the last bit of Angel funding, we’ll see the big boys,” he said.
For the future, Kelly and Hartwig discussed their free trial period to allow new members to use the software by invitation from current customers; they also mentioned a national insurance company who is in the works of integrating their software.
As for the advancement of the product, Hartwig and Kelly said, “We recognize the need to always to be able to change, adapt, and grow with our web app. We built a foundation that we call ‘Stackable.’ As the world evolves and there are new tools that customers want, we’ll be able to add those. Our sustainable competitive advantage: always be changing, adding, and adapting to the market. We designed the site for everyone to use in their own way.”
For more information on BizAnytime, click here.
