Investing in seed *ideas* is largely BS.
We raised our seed as an adtech company and sold the business 10 years later as a vertical SaaS company for flooring retailers.
Coming out of Google to build an adtech startup was sexy and exciting to VCs.
The irony is that the quiet, unsexy market nobody paid attention to ended up producing the real outcome.
Investing in *people* at seed though is never BS.
After nearly a decade of building @Broadlume, I’m excited to announce that we've been acquired by @CynclyCo 🎉🎉
It's been an incredible 10-year journey, but to be honest, one that I can't take credit for.
If you're a founder reading this, please trust me:
The team and people you surround yourself with will make or break your company. They are the reason your company will succeed.
Broadlume was never a straight line of success.
But if you are passionately curious about your business, work hard, and surround yourself with great people, anything is possible. Broadlume is a testament to that.
To the Broadlume Team – Thank you for everything. You taught me what passion, hard work, and resilience truly mean. I've grown so much personally and professionally because of you, and I truly can't thank you enough. Getting to work with you every day was an absolute pleasure, and I can't wait for this next chapter together.
Our Leadership Team – Your dedication, vision, and ability to inspire taught me so much. I know there were early mornings and long nights, but building a business with you was the most fun thing I've ever done in my life. The memories we built will be with me forever. Thank you for always pushing us to get better and leveling up our entire organization.
Our Board/Investors – You believed in us while also pushing us to get better. We are lucky to have had you in our corner. Your unwavering belief in us (even when we told you we were pivoting from adtech to flooring software) was the foundation that allowed us to build something revolutionary in an industry that needed it. @dafrankel@ralphfolz@aeyal1@ZelkovaVC@tjmahony@DaveBalter@PSG_equity@Techstars@Mikeyjrog@JasonSPinsky@NattyZ@AngelList
The Flooring Industry, Customers, and Partners – Thank you for believing in us and allowing us to service your business, family, and community. This truly is the best industry in the world, and I now finally understand why nobody ever leaves the flooring industry. While our name is changing, our dedication to you isn’t. I promise you that at Cyncly, we will continue to empower flooring businesses of all sizes to dream bigger, work smarter, and achieve unprecedented success. It's time to unify the industry.
My Friends and Family – You know you mean the world to me. Thank you for constantly cheering us on. Your personal, professional, and emotional support helped get us here. And thank you for always being there, no matter what.
@jilliankcanning – There aren't enough ways to say I love you and thank you. Thank you for your endless patience, love, sacrifice, and for being on this journey with me. There have been a lot of long nights and stressful moments, and you were always there for me. You are the absolute best. Thank you for encouraging and teaching me to be the best version of myself.
@danielppratt – I can't believe you dealt with me for 10 years!! I apologize for all your grey hairs, but damn, that was a fun ride. But more than anything we accomplished together, your friendship means the world to me. I couldn't imagine starting Broadlume without you. I truly admire the leader that you are and the empathy you consistently show. You have the highest EQ of anyone I know.
❤️ Thank you again, and I can't wait to see what the combination of Broadlume and Cyncly can do.
Here's the letter I wrote to the flooring industry and our internal teams. 👇
https://t.co/SOaFMEY6Ds
I spent the last week with 400+ of my best friends
We built FloorCon for flooring retailers to network & learn, but the truth is, our non-flooring speakers came from @Broadlume networking
@TimTebow - A mutual connection
@StuckeyStop - Linkedin DM
@drbillnye - Twitter/X DM
Women of the Flooring Business held a meet-and-greet event at last week's FloorCon 2023, hosted by @Broadlume - and it was everything! Can't wait for the next one 👷♀️👩🏽🔧👩🏻💻🦸🏽♀️
An ex-Googler built a $220m company by creating software for flooring stores.
They scaled to $10s of million in revenue in just a few years.
The wild story you've never heard of 🧵
This year our mission at @Broadlume is simple.
We are going to partner with every flooring retailer in America to DO THE WORK.
We can no longer as an industry
🚫 talk about the work
🚫 strategize about the work
🚫 complain about the work
We have to simply put, DO THE WORK.
The theme of @Broadlume's FloorCon 2022 event this month, “Welcome to the Retail Revolution,” emphasized the importance of helping retailers control their own destiny.
Learn more: https://t.co/nNR7V2BYVn
Happy Planksgiving from the Broadlume team! We all have so much to be thankful for! Wishing you and your family a harvest of blessings this season. 🍁🏈🦃
The flooring industry may not have massive creative departments or billions of $$ to spend on agencies.
But don’t count them out for making some of the best creative content ever made.
Best banner ad 👇
🕵️ Psst, don’t let the box stores see this…
We created The Flooring Retailer’s Playbook—it’s your secret weapon, with everything you need to take down the big box stores and set up your business for success in 2022 and beyond.
Get the e-book now 👉https://t.co/ekFCSiqqmW
It's not boring, it's flooring. 😄
Congrats @Broadlume (@Techstars#Boulder 2015) on the $60M fundraise from @PSG_equity. The $90B flooring industry finally has an all-in-one marketing & management platform.
https://t.co/ziXuSlWZe8