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Douglas Hanna got a major shout-out in the startup world last month when Inc named him to its prestigious “30 Under 30” list. But for Hanna there was an extra distinction: his company, Austin-based Help.com hasn’t even launched publicly yet.
The startup will continue in private beta for the next several months while his 10-person team continues to tweak, tinker and improve their product. Expectations are high for a company that has raised $6 million in investment dollars pre-launch.
Hanna first encountered the problem he would go on to solve during his previous role at web hosting company HostGator. Currently, there’s a host of software options for businesses with a small number of employees and customers and a large amount of options in the enterprise space. In between though, businesses tend to outgrow their software and are left unserved, he said.
Help.com creates customer service management software that fills that void in the marketplace — small companies looking to scale into grander ones.
The company's software focuses mainly on reporting functionality, integration and efficiency features. The prototypical company that would go for this is a SaaS company that’s conducting business online.
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“It’s not that we can’t help brick and mortar companies, but we’ve seen the most results for web-based companies,” Hanna said (pictured left).
While expectations for Help.com are high, their aspirations may be even higher. No offense to most Austin startups, Hanna said, but they are comfortable as lifestyle businesses that consistently turn a profit and remain sustainable. In contrast, he wants aggressive, dramatic growth and thinks Help.com has the market potential -- though he was reluctant to put a numerical figure on it -- to do just that. Customer service software is just the first step of what will be many more products to help businesses.
Beyond the pure mission and purpose of the business, there are a few other factors that Help.com’s founder is hoping set what he’s doing apart.
Company culture has been at the top of the priority list from day one, and is part of why Help.com calls Austin home. Hanna had been living in the Texas city and thought the vibe, growing startup scene and talent pool would be the ideal place to build what’s considered an employer of record. That means offering more than just perks and benefits to lure employees, but to become a standout work environment.
“I thought this would be the most desirable place to attract the kind of people we want,” he said, “that it would be easier to create in Austin than almost anywhere else.”
Help.com is actively hiring, especially for engineers.
