MRGN 📊

Setting the Scene

• Many small business owners, especially those running local mom-and-pop shops, lack a business degree.

• While a business degree isn't necessary, it often helps in navigating areas like revenue forecasting, modeling, and predictive analytics.

• However, due to this expertise gap, numerous business owners:

  • Rely on unsophisticated bookkeeping methods like pen and paper or cluttered Excel files.

  • Remain unaware of how data can empower their decision-making.

• This week's company provides an automated platform that simplifies financials and uses machine learning to help small business owners make data-driven decisions.

In a Sentence

MRGN is an AI-powered platform designed for SMBs to simplify financial analytics and guide business decisions. 

• SMBs: Target customers include small to medium-sized businesses such as retail stores, restaurants, and franchises.

• Simplify: Input basic financial information, or connect your accounting software like Quickbooks, and MRGN generates budgets, intuitive charts, analytics, and predictions.

• Guide: Utilizing internal and external data, MRGN puts together an operating plan for business owners to follow.

The Basics

• Industry: Fintech, Information Technology, AI

• Headquarters: NYC

• Year founded: 2020

• Employee count: 11 FTEs

• Investors: Singularity Capital, Ride Home Fund, DataPower Ventures

• Amount raised: $250k pre-seed

• Currently raising: $1.25M (round opens next week)

• Business model: B2B SaaS (3 plans based on number of seats)

• Early traction: On-boarded 1,000 SMBs in open beta, secured a deal with a large fast food chain, and in late-stage discussions with a large household name and two municipalities

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

• Are you a startup founder or CEO looking to grow the business but stuck doing all the administrative and operational work yourself?

• Oceans is the best solution to get back all those lost hours. Hire full-time, highly experienced executive assistants, sales, marketing, and finance professionals from a global talent pool.

• The best part: hiring talent through Oceans cost 80% less compared to US-based candidates.

• We are talking about professionals with 5+ years of experience working for global brands such as HSBC, Unilever, The World Bank, Morgan Stanley and more.

Due Diligence

WHAT WE LIKE

• ✅ Market opportunity: Although big businesses often steal the spotlight in the US, they make up a mere 0.01% of the landscape, while the vast majority of businesses are small.

  • MRGN's solution adds value to underserved SMBs.

• 👩‍💻 Consumer demand: 80% of small businesses in the US aren't fully leveraging available tech tools, yet 65% of business owners are keen on investing in AI technology.

  • MRGN's user-friendly interface caters to business owners, especially those without a formal business degree.

• 🏁 Competitive Pricing: With a pricing model that's accessible for small to medium-sized businesses, MRGN provides a cost-effective solution in a market where similar services can be expensive.

POTENTIAL RISKS

• 🤔 Over-reliance: While MRGN aids decision-making, it's vital for business owners to use it as a guiding tool, not the sole source, as it may not cover all aspects of business operations.

• 🔒 Security: Given MRGN's access to sensitive financial data, maintaining robust security measures is crucial to uphold consumer trust and comply with data protection regulations.

• 🐌 Slow adoption: Established small businesses, especially those accustomed to traditional methods, may require convincing to transition to a new solution, which may slow down the platform's adoption rate.

Founder Profile

• Yoni Rubin, CEO: 15 years of experience in the management of tech startups, helping raise $250M for both public and privately held companies.

• Vivek Elayidom, CTO: Previously CTO at mDrift Technologies.

Comps

• Dryrun: Backed by Intuit Prosperity Fund, Accelerate Fund, Startup TNT and others.

• Forecastr: Backed by Render Capital, Capital Midwest Fund, Techstars, and others.

• Pry: Backed by Y Combinator, Hyphen Capital, Outbound Capital, NOMO Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, and others.

• Finmark: Backed by Y Combinator, BVP, American Express Ventures, Draper Associates, IDEA Fund Partners, and others.

📌 Bulletin Board

• 🎉 See you tonight: We have an off-the-charts guest list of founders and funders signed up for our TechWeek event tonight in NYC. It’s not too late to get on the list.

  • A huge thank you to our sponsors Mercury, Hirexe and Republic.

• 📰 This week in venture: While there are some signs of a shifting dynamic, startups continue to face scarcity of capital, creating favorable terms for investors.

• 💡 The innovation situation: The US just bet big on Hydrogen, acceleration of innovation and investment in the space may follow.

• 👋 See you in two weeks: We’ll be back in two weeks, but if you miss us during this short break, you can catch up on past features here.

🗳 Cast Your Vote

Last Week Today

• The results are in: Popl, a digital business card solution for individuals and teams to manage their networks and leads was a hit with subscribers."

• Subscriber feedback: “$10M ARR and they haven’t raised their Series A, wow….”

✍️ Written by Brett and Juliana

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