Contatta, a visionary and new CRM company co-founded by Pat Sullivan, founder and former CEO of ACT! and SalesLogix, announced today the completion of a $3.25 million financing round led by Grayhawk Capital Venture Fund II and Kickstart Seed Fund II. According to Contatta, all of their current board members reinvested in this round, including Grayhawk ($400K in first and $1.4M for the second round), bringing total financing to $6.4 million to date.
Sullivan commented, “This funding from smart investors gives Contatta the ability to begin to challenge the CRM status quo. Contatta succeeds where other CRMs fail. Salespeople want to love using their CRM and we think they will love using Contatta.”
Brian Smith, Managing Director at Grayhawk Capital states, “With its market leading vision and top-notch management team, we believe Contatta is poised to capitalize on the enormous market opportunity in CRM.”
Sullivan has been named one of the “80 most influential people in marketing history,” by Sales and Marketing Management magazine, two-time winner of the Ernst & Young “ Entrepreneur of the Year” award and taken the role of CEO of Contatta. He is joined by co-founder Adam Ross and together bring more than 30 years of combined CRM experience to the table.
Contatta’s board of directors include Roy Vallee, Former CEO and Chairman of the Board, Avnet; Mark Templeton, CEO, Citrix; Brian Smith, Grayhawk Capital; Raymond Croghan, Croghan Investments & Board Director, Crocs and Clarke Miyasaki, General Partner, Kickstart.
Sullivan recently spoke at AZ Tech Beat’s Free Lunch Friday event where he shared “Lesson’s I’ve Learned.” He kicked off his talk with a slide that simply said “deeply curious”-a reminder for everyone to continue to learn, be curious about life and continue to meet people to learn about what others are doing out in the world. “Those who are deeply curious are successful,” he said. As an avid reader he suggested for all of us to “Read old stuff and new stuff,” to build your knowledge base.
Sullivan revealed some of his secrets to business and creating the best products, secrets he has taken to heart while building Contatta, “People are becoming less tolerant for bad products — good is never good enough. [You need to] make it beautiful. Make it great.” And to ask yourself, “…where’s the hole in the market? Find that one thing and do it incredibly well.” Among other great advice.
As one of our champions in Silicon Desert, Sullivan is dedicated to leading growth in the high-tech ecosystem. “Arizona has a thriving tech industry and we plan to add to that vibrancy. Our team at Contatta includes top local talent and other A-players who have come from around the country to be a part of Contatta and live and work in Phoenix. I’m on a mission to help Arizona thrive,” he said.
Watch his Free Lunch Friday talk here. Learn more about Contatta here. More advice from Sullivan here. @Contatta
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Photos provided by Contatta
