Making their moves: clearCi Director of Sales Michael Clews and CEO Joe Levy take a break at clearCI's Fort Lauderdale headquarters. Below, the clearCi team talks strategy. Photos by the Miami Herald's Joe Rimkus.
Headquarters: Fort Lauderdale
Concept: clearCi helps companies collect, analyze and manage intelligence so they can effectively compete in today’s digital era. clearCi supports more than 70 companies in 10 countries. Its patent-pending SaaS application works as an automated Competitive Intelligence (CI) informant to collect data about competitors and distribute it to decision makers across the enterprise.
Story: Joe Levy and Tomer Sofinzon analyzed many industries to find a market ripe for disruption. They realized competitive intelligence, as an organized function, was missing a dominant player, and they saw tremendous growth potential. They partnered with developers Kfir Sasson and Ron Oz, experienced in CI, to create a technology solution that could turn data into actionable intelligence. After a year of R&D, clearCi launched its software in 2011, and Levy teamed up with former Meltwater colleague Michael Clews to begin marketing and selling the product to mid- and large-sized global enterprises.
Launched: March 2011
Management team: Joe Levy (founder/CEO), Tomer Sofinzon (founder/corporate development), Kfir Sasson (founder/CTO), Michael Clews (founder/director of sales)
Number of employees: 15
Financing: About $500,000 from self funding, friends & family. Currently exploring a Series A round.
Recent milestones reached: Now serves more than 70 customers, adding 50 in 2012 alone. By the end of 2012, clearCi won four awards at UP-START Cloud Awards competition in San Francisco. It also expanded its marketing and sales team in October 2012 to seven full time employees.
Biggest startup challenge: Creating national market awareness about a technology many people are not familiar with using to support strategy and improved decision making.
Next step: clearCi is expanding sales operations in Fort Lauderdale and ramping up product development at its Israeli R&D center.
Strategy: Aside from expanding its product features and capabilities, clearCi plans to continue educating the market about enterprise intelligence and innovative CI techniques and leveraging relationships to grow clearCi’s user base.
This is a regular feature in Business Monday and on Starting Gate. See other Startup Spotlights under the Srartup Spotlight category on this blog. To have your company considered for inclusion, email ndahlberg@miamiherald.com
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/19/3405280/startup-spotlight-clearci.html#storylink=cpy