Many entrepreneurs credit Tampa Bay’s collaborative spirit for the area’s nascent reputation as a technology hub; two St. Petersburg-based startups have formalized their belief in the power of partnerships.
Osama Sabbah, founder of Bedrock, has enlisted Spontivly to help revolutionize how procurement officials connect and build relationships with suppliers. The strategic collaboration is part of a “bridge-building” campaign he announced in June.
At the time, Sabbah said he sought to discern how to “create as many partnerships as possible and grow this company in so many directions.” He found one of the first answers in his proverbial backyard.
“By adding Spontivly, we become an analytics company,” Sabbah said. “We cover the entire procure-to-pay process and have a ton of data.”
The world increasingly revolves around the ability to store and disseminate vast amounts of information. The partners believe integrating Spontivly’s innovative data analytics dashboards with Bedrock’s procurement solutions platform will increase efficiency, reduce costs and strengthen supply chains.
Marissa Huggins, cofounder of Spontivly, said the partnership with Bedrock highlights another use case for the company’s tech. While her client list includes social media conglomerates and professional sports franchises, many startups also want to incorporate data analytics.
However, as Sabbah found, creating an easily understandable dashboard presents a significant hurdle. With Spontivly’s help, Bedrock’s Fortune 1000 customers can instantaneously visualize procurement data, like spending and supply chain metrics, for corporate leadership.
“Fundamentally, we really believe data has been too hard to access for teams for too long,” Huggins said.
She explained that data sources increasingly charge customers additional fees to unlock their information. In addition, the challenge extends beyond efficient access as employees must then read and process complex statistics and metrics.
Huggins believes Spontivly’s dashboards help any employee comprehend pertinent information. “The more teams we can partner with, the more we can disrupt that lack of access and help companies make data-driven decisions,” she said.
Huggins said that differentiates her software from more intricate systems that historically have dominated the data visualization space. “There’s been this thing in our industry for so long, where people get analysis paralysis,” Huggins said. “We make the data digestible and less chaotic.”
Camels and partnerships
Most entrepreneurs want their startups to achieve unicorn status. The mythological creature denotes a privately held company valued at over $1 billion.
Sabbah prefers to create a camel by prioritizing long-term success over rapid expansion. He believes fostering a local ecosystem with fellow startups like Spontivly will help “slowly build a resilient company that will continue to grow, no matter what.”
Sabbah noted that Bedrock is a more mature company than its latest partner. He hopes to give it a “leg up” and plans to introduce Spontivly’s founders – Huggins and Anthony Nagendrarag – to his clients.
“They’re going to benefit in the long run, and eventually this area will benefit,” Sabbah said. “We can’t do what Silicon Valley is doing. We can’t do what Austin is supporting because they’ve been building it for decades.
“So, for us to get an advantage, we’re building it the right way – to be resilient and last for a long time, but also working to get as close as possible.”
Sabbah also believes local partnerships will increase investment opportunities. Bedrock recently acquired St. Petersburg-based Procoto, which was Tampa Bay.Ventures’ first investment.
The venture capital firm has also invested in Spontivly. The startup announced a partnership with the Tampa Bay Rowdies in May, as its cofounders are “doubling down” on their new and permanent home after relocating in 2022.
“I think that’s how a small ecosystem becomes huge,” Huggins said of the collaborations. “I think the startups making their way and navigating this market right now are the most resilient startups we’ve seen in a long time.”
Huggins wants founders to realize collaborative benefits instead of seeing each other as competition. She called partnering with Bedrock “a cornerstone of showcasing that to the community.”
Huggins said many colleagues are struggling to overcome a “treacherous” market. She also noted that entrepreneurs have difficulty communicating during challenging times when partnerships become more advantageous.
“No founder makes it alone … and no person makes it without support from a community,” Huggins added. “I think the narrative needs to be that in times of hardship, people need to bind together.”
Sabbah stressed that building the infrastructure to foster a resilient tech ecosystem takes time. He and his colleagues have put their “heads down trying to do that for the past couple of years.”
“With time, you’ll be able to see a lot of the success stories come to the surface,” Sabbah said. “If I’m looking from the outside right now, I’m thinking, ‘How can I be a part of that, and how can I support it?’”
The post New partnership propels St. Pete startups appeared first on St Pete Catalyst.