💰 Get Funded! Founder Interviews by Serac Ventures w/ Serge Amouzou, CEO and Founder 🚀 07-26-2024

All right, we are now live for another week of our Get Funded Office Hours series. For those that do not know me, my name is Darrel Frater. I am Senior Associate at Serac Ventures. We're a seed-stage venture capital firm in the state of Oklahoma investing across the country. We invest in early-stage companies at the seed and pre-seed stage. In the industries such as fintech, commerce enablement, B2B and SMB SaaS, future of work, creator economy, gig economy, writing checks anywhere between $250K and $1 million actively deploying. And we're super excited to host these weekly office hours highlighting amazing early-stage founders. And each week we bring a new founder up here to learn about their story about building their company. And we're super excited to have Serge here, who is the founder and CEO of DataTrixx, and we're going to jump right into this interview. Serge, please jump right in and tell us what DataTrixx is. You're on mute, so unmute yourself and we can get started.

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much, Darrel, for having me here. Yeah, no, like you said, my name is Serge Amouzou. I'm the founder and CEO of DataTrixx. We're productivity software for CPAs. Fundamentally, what we're solving for is that nearly 75% of CPAs here in the US and in Canada are boomers and they are retiring. And the rate of entrance for new CPAs, you know, it's like 50%. And so the industry needs more automation and streamlined workflow than ever. That's what we provide them. And so you can think of us as, you know, without DataTrix, you know, CPAs are in the accounting software, they're in Excel, they're in spreadsheets, they're in PowerPoint, they're in Canva, you know, they're in financial planning analysis software just to put the advisor reporting together. And this is taking them 4 to 6 hours to do. With our software, we trim it down to just 15 minutes. And so using, you know, machine learning proprietary algorithms, we're able to write up trend analysis at Trust and Graph, and then boom, once they share that with the client, everything is good to go from there. So that's DataTrixx in a nutshell.

That's incredible, man. So let's dive deeper into the nuts and bolts of how it works. Who is it for? Tell us a little bit about your customers. Who are they? What kind of people or businesses are they? Let us know who DataTrixx is for, and let's walk through exactly how you help help them in their opportunities for their businesses?

Yeah, I mean, as a software company, we sell across the stack, um, you know, um, and, uh, and in that, in that vein, you know, the CPA firm of 1 person and 20 clients can use our software, you know, so, and in fact, you know, so can a Fortune 120 company or a Fortune 100 company as a result, right? Uh, we also have a couple firms that have, you know, say for example, 800 clients, right? 1,000 clients, some even 500 clients. And so this gives us opportunity to serve a variety of clients as a result. And of course, you know, the more clients they have, the better for us as we can actually help them reduce the time it takes to get these advisory reports done for them as a result.

That's good. I would love to dive deeper into that. So tell me a little bit about the experience that your clients were facing Or kind of how they did that kind of work before they found you and Datatrics?

Yeah, no, as I mentioned, right, before Datatrics, they're in the accounting software, they're in Excel, they're in PowerPoint, they're in spreadsheets, you know, and financial analysis software just to put their advisory reporting together. So they have to go through, you know, a multitude of different software just to compile the data. And then, you know, they're back in spreadsheets and say, okay, look, we want to choose this dataset, let's create this chart here. And then after that, they have to go now write up this trend analysis about how the business is performing in terms of what do the numbers numbers mean, uh, for the client, right? And then once they do all of that, they need to, you know, put, put it together in a, in a, in a, uh, you know, a PowerPoint presentation, save that into a PDF, email that over to the client. And whenever there's a change, they need to go back and do all of that process again just to get final version out to the client. And let's say the client needs to quickly have access to some updated information. They're having to run the CPAs like, hey, look, can we get this latest for our board meeting and things of that nature? And oftentimes, you know, they're very late in delivering those and getting those deliverable out to those clients. And so again, it's incredibly time-consuming process as a result. And that's where we come in and, you know, essentially within one platform, you know, they're able to write financial analysis, right? For example, if a client is serving a public company, right, they're oftentimes required to have something called management discussion analysis, right? And in that process, you know, this is something that takes minimum 10 hours to put together. Right? Now with our software, you know, our clients can go in there and get that done in a matter of like seconds, right? In minutes. They can have their management discussion analysis done for the client side as a result. They can add visualizations. And then, you know, again, next thing you know, all they have to do is just share that with the client. And when the client logs into our platform, they can see exactly what the CP has prepared for them, right? And whenever any— anything changes in the accounting software, right, it's incredibly dynamic. All that will instantly just pop up. The client can see it and everything is just, you know, streamlined across the board.

Wow, that's incredible. So you're serving CPAs, bookkeepers, accounting firms, and prior to using DataTricks, these individuals at these organizations were taking up to 10 hours to generate these reports, and now they're able to get them out to their clients in seconds, minutes, just to be able to, you know, streamline that process. That's incredible. What does that do for organization to be able to save that much time? and allowing them to be able to get those things out quicker to their clients.

Absolutely. I mean, this allows our CPA clients to scale tremendously, right? They can go from, you know, if we take an auditor, you know, one of the advisors in one CPA firm, for example, right, they can go from managing, you know, their normal client count right now to like 8x the amount of clients that they used to manage, right? So it creates an incredible opportunity for our clients to scale advisory, right? Get more clients and actually just, you know, serve more clients as a result.

That's incredible. Being able to 8x their service business could really be life-changing for a small CPA or even a large firm that's looking to scale into that next stage of growth. I think this is super incredible.

Yeah. And in addition to that, as they scale, they actually don't have to worry about expanding their workforce, right? Because we're using AI, machine learning, and the power of technology to help them handle more clients than they normally are able to do now as a result.

That's exciting. Let's dive deeper into the technology piece. You talked about using AI. Let us know a little bit about the ins and workings of the platform and what makes it special.

Yeah, absolutely. So we're building our own, you know, models as well. But yeah, fundamentally what I mean, we know the age of ChatGPT, GPTs and things of that nature. You know, we're very much working on top of those platforms as well, right? We're bringing AI into our platform, allowing them to, you know, quickly get insight into their data. Right? And one of the big contributing factors here is that now, you know, we can actually have LLMs actually telling the clients and the users the contributing factors behind the numbers, right? You know, the reason for the, for income increase or revenue increase or expense increase, right? Hey, due to credit card expense in this area, right? Things of that nature. It can even tell them areas in which they can actually improve, right? It will focus more in order to grow the business, right? You know, get into the black, you know, increase the balance sheet and things of that nature as a result. And so, and then as I mentioned, we also actually have our own proprietary algorithms as well, right, that on top of this help with the visualization aspect of things, right? So we, we speed the time it takes them to add visualization to their, to their reports, right, as a result.

That's exciting. Any customer testimonials or case studies that you want to share, just like how a particular customer, if you're open to sharing, used Data tricks and now has seen some type of results or improvement in their business?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of our clients, for example, Innovate Financial Solutions, you know, when they came to us, you know, their advisors were— I mean, as I said, they were— the process was so incredibly manual, right? They were spending time in Excel, you know, QuickBooks, Xero, you know, all these different accounting software, you know, just gathering the data alone, right, before even putting together the advisor report. And this was, again, was taking them 4 to 6 hours to do. Right? And when they— when we onboarded them onto Datatrics, you know, literally within, you know, their advisors were not spending 15 minutes getting everything done for the client, right? So we actually allowed Innovative Financial Solutions to actually grow tremendously as a result, right? And so, you know, and this actually tells us we're a company that can scale as a result of that.

That's exciting. And they're saving, you know, anywhere between 4, 6, 10 hours at times in their business using Datatrics. What's your business model? How are you making money when you're, you know, providing so much value to them?

Yeah, absolutely. So the way our platform works is that when our clients first onboard, we get— they get 3 free clients just for trying things out, you know, and then they get 1 editor as well who's actually gonna be, you know, managing those clients. And then from there, it's $100 per client per month. And then it's also $100 per editor per month as a result from there. So it allows us to scale tremendously. It allows our clients to have, you know, to derive tremendous value from our platform as well.

That's wonderful. So 3 free clients, then after that, you know, $100 per month per client. Um, and that's, I think that's super fair. Accounting firms, CPAs, they got money to be able to spend that, especially if you are showing them a huge ROI in that spend. Uh, I could make, it makes a lot of sense why, uh, people will want to get access to this and be able to use it to grow their CPA business. We'd love to hear kind of where you're at in terms of like traction, etc. You do have active customers. Where are you in regards to just traction? We have a lot of investors, founders, other people that listen to this. We'd love to hear just some success stories of where you're at with traction.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we already have paying clients, have, you know, 5-figure monthly recurring revenue and we're working on some pretty big deals right now. You know, these are 7-figure deals. We have a couple of them in process. you know, going into proof of concept with them and, you know, all of that. So yeah, I mean, and so, you know, we're, I mean, you know, we have traction, we're booming, you know, we're constantly bringing on new clients through the prospects, through the pipeline and growing the company from there.

Awesome, man. And let's take a step back. I want to go back to your origin story. You know, what got you started kind of in your career, where you went from there, and walk us through the pathway of starting DataTrixx and getting to where you're at today. Give us a beginning, man.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so, you know, I'm a serial entrepreneur, uh, self-taught software engineer. Um, I started my first, uh, company when I was in high school. It was actually a software development agency, um, again, back when I was in high school. Um, and I was lucky enough to exit that business when I was 21. Um, and then since then I've just been starting businesses. Um, and, you know, in the process, one of my businesses actually failed. Uh, but, and coming out of it, you know, I, as I look back, I realized that the reason why it failed was because I didn't understand the financial metrics behind this particular business well enough. Right? And I realized that if I actually had understood the metrics, I could have looked at alternatives of financing it, alternatives of moving things forward. And so as a result, I actually wanted to, you know, play part in helping other businesses, you know, not having to go through the same issue that I, that I went through, right? Actually, you know, through this business, I literally almost died through that process actually as well, right? And so it was such a big event that I wanted to be a catalyst for other businesses not having to go through that same process. And so that's actually why we— why I started DataTreks. And initially we actually started as a financial planning and analysis software, right? You know, to help business forecast and function and things of that nature. But one thing we've observed was that no matter how beautifully you make financial metrics available to business owners, they don't know how to manipulate the data, right? And so, but we saw that they were all turning to the CPAs for this advisory reporting that they needed, right? But that process for the CPAs to get the advisory reporting done, you know, was just so incredibly, you know, time-consuming. as a result. So we saw that by actually solving this pain point for, for CPAs, we can actually help carry our mission forward, right, of helping businesses thrive by helping them understand their financials by serving the CPAs. And so that's when we actually pivoted to what Dilitrix is now as a result.

That's super exciting and congrats, man. Not many people can say that they exited a startup at age of 21, man. That's impressive. I'm sure you learned a lot both from the success And from the failures, man.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

One of your biggest takeaways from both the success and the failing of a different business.

My biggest takeaways from both the success and the failing. This is a great question. You know, I think not one— each business is not built the same, right? And so this is my— again, I mean, my entire professional career has just been building businesses, right? And You know, one is never easier than the other is what I've observed, right? And I think having exited, I think that was pure luck, right? You know, you know, that was pure luck. And then my other business failing, that was also unforeseen, right? Because, you know, when you start a business, you're, you're ready to go. You're like, oh, let's go. We have this goal. We have this mission. Let's make it happen. And then things happen along the way that are sometimes just out of your control, right? Uh, and, and, and so, you know, you have to learn to quickly recover from that, right? Uh, and sort of move on to the next step, uh, or the next, um, uh, I guess calling or mission or, you know, that, that you think you can bring about in, in terms of a change in the world. Um, and so, yeah, it's, it's never a one-size-fits-all, uh, when you're starting a business. Each business has its own challenges and you have to be adaptable. You have to be someone who learns quickly, uh, uh, to be able to navigate Uh, um, um, uh, in, in different environments. So for example, DataTricks is my first, I would say first true software company, right, that I've started. I say, you know, my, one of my previous businesses was hardware and software, so that's very different, right? Um, and so, you know, you would think software is just easy. I mean, relatively speaking compared to hardware, it's easier, but building a business is just never easy as, as easy as you would think.

That's phenomenal, man. And for those that know me, uh, people know I don't believe in luck, man. I believe in divine appointments. So I want you to give yourself more credit for what you've done. You know, a lot of people say that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity, and I feel like time and time again you are prepared for such a moment, for these great things that happen in your life. So kudos to you for just being a good steward of everything that has been given to you and being able to operate in that and, you know, use it not just for your own good, but to serve and support others. So I'm super proud of you. Even the way—

Absolutely, I agree.

You've connected has been divine. I was a speaker for the HBCU VC event in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the team that presented your company for their capstone project was phenomenal. So shout out to JT And the rest of his team that presented your business so well that I felt compelled to get in touch with you and learn more about DataTrixx. So you're having an impact on people and they're seeing it and they are promoting you and championing you. And the Bible speaks about how God goes before us into rooms, and I can see God's hand all over you and your business as you are getting talked about in positive lights in rooms that you don't even know yet you've been in. Uh, so continue to have that faith and continue to move forward with that optimism of what's going to happen next in your life. And I'm sure that a lot of great things are to come for you and DataTreks. I would love to jump into kind of what is next on the horizon for you and your business. We talked about kind of where you're at, where you've been. Let's do more forward-looking discussion to see where you're going next with this company.

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, for us, you know, we're serving a large enough market that we can do our own initial public offering, right? Or we can be acquired by a company like Intuit, Oracle, potentially even Block as a result, right? So that's the long-term, you know, vision or sort of long-term potential for the company. But in terms of serving our client, I mean, our mission is to empower professionals to deliver high-value client advisory services effortlessly while reshaping the industry's future through innovation and technological excellence as a result. And so we focus on building that for our clients. And on top of that, our vision is to be the driving force behind a more efficient, insightful, and client-centric financial landscape where professionals thrive and clients receive the best possible financial guidance as a result. And so we believe that firmly and fervently. And so that's result, each day, you know, we're working towards that goal, right, of improving the level of professionals and businesses, because businesses are really what, you know, drive the economy for especially smaller businesses, right? And so, so yeah, I mean, this, you know, we work every day to embody our vision and mission moving forward.

And one thing I love about your business and just you specifically is your maniacal focus on serving your customers. I feel like a lot of times founders are too unfocused in regards to what they're focused on. A lot of times they're optimizing for the VCs or optimizing for the media, optimizing for all these things besides just singularly focused on serving their customer. And it seems like CPAs, bookkeepers, accounting firms, that's who you serve and you do it extremely well. So kudos to you. I'm excited.

Thank you.

I feel like when you're doing that at a very high level, You get to succeed and it opens the door for if you do plan to expand to other types of people and businesses. But when you serve the core audience correctly, it really becomes a foundation of your success that you can build upon. So keep up that focus, man. That's one reason why I was super excited about you. And I know when you have that and your market's big enough and your customer type, they have the money.

Oh yeah.

And as long as you're helping them save money or make more money, you're going to be in business for a very long time. So absolutely super excited about that. We'd love to jump into fundraising history and plans. What have you done in terms of raising capital for your business so far and where do you plan to go next?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've raised, you know, our first round of pre-seed, you know, I think 2 years ago or a year and a half or so ago now. And so, so, you know, that's helped us to get to where we are now. And so now we're, you know, we're doing a seed round. And so, you know, we're excited about that. You know, the goal for us now with the seed is actually to, you know, obviously achieve our milestones, right? We have big goals for this year, which we're already on track to achieving, and also for even next year as well as a result for in terms of our projections as well. And so, and then I think, you know, you wanted to know what was that experience like?

experience like?

You know, I think from a, you know, fundraising standpoint, one thing that has really served us well, and I tell founders this all the time, it's all about relationship, right? Authenticity. Focus on just being yourself, right? You know, each person you meet, you have to just be authentic, you know, and, you know, I gave a talk at Dripper University. I was invited to give a talk there. And, you know, one of the things that actually share with the audience was, you know, turn around, like, look next to you and say hi to the person next to you, right? Because, I mean, especially I'm in San Francisco and it's all about, you know, you never know who you're going to meet. So whenever you meet people, don't discount them. You know, always be your true authentic self and don't meet people with expectations in mind, right? You know, just be you. And I think that has been incredibly helpful in our fundraising. You know, when we did our pre-seed, as a result. So that was part of the experience of that route.

That's incredible. Super great advice. I'm actually reading a book right now called Leadership by the Good Book. It's by a man that was the owner and CEO of Worldwide Technologies, David, I can't remember his last name. But that book was phenomenal and it speaks about his philosophy, um, that was rooted from the Bible where every person you meet has value.

Yeah.

So don't discredit anyone you meet. Treat everyone with respect, serve people, and don't only interact with people that you think you can get something from. Um, it, it does you and it does other people a disservice when you have that mindset. Um, so I'm glad that you just naturally have that way of view, and it's going to serve you extremely well, and I know it has already. So sharing that piece of advice, but don't spare us any details. I want to know how much you raised in the pre-seed and give us some insight on that process. How much did you raise? Who are some of the great investors that are supporting you already? We'd love to learn more about the detail. We have a lot of founders, so I got to get that information out of you so they can hear.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our pre-seed, it was total of, I think we did $360K in pre-seed of, you know, family office and angel investors. You know, our, you know, investors are— one of our investors was like formerly at Google X, right? So incredibly talented people. Another one of our investors is at Turing, which is an AI company. Another one, you know, another investor, it was actually this woman. I met her at a bar. Okay. And she wrote us a $100K check. I mean, you know, so, you know, and this is just next level. And so to founders out there again trying to raise, this is why I mentioned the authenticity piece, right? If I'm being totally honest, the amount that we raised, I did not— I was not anticipating to raise that amount at all. I mean, I say like from those people that I raised from, right? I didn't— my first conversation with them was not about fundraising. You know, I was just generally catching up with people, right? Or in this, in the case for this other woman who wrote us a $100K check, literally I met her at a bar. I was celebrating my citizenship, you know, because I became an American. And I was like, you know, and we had a barbecue. And at the end, my friends were like, I was going to, you know, I was going to be, I was going to call it a day because we were at my place. And I was like, we spent the entire day doing a barbecue. I was going to be done. My friends are like, oh no, let's go out. I'm like, okay, sure. So we end up going out. Of course, I'm drunk. I'm having a good time. And I meet this woman as we were leaving the bar. She was, you know, more of a mature woman. And we were having a conversation. She learned that I was from Togo. She, she's traveled to Togo. Next thing you know, you know, we stayed in touch. She invited me to the opera, which I couldn't make for whatever reason. And then later on, I saw her in my neighborhood. And I was just like, let's add a dinner to the calendar right now, right? And next thing you know, we're having dinner. Actually, we ended up having lunch. But something amazing happened, and this is something that I strongly advise every single founder: send out investor updates. So something amazing happened in a sense that the week before I was going to meet up with this lady to to get lunch, we had just closed $200K from a family office. Right again, I was just catching up with this guy. Next thing you know, they're committing and investing in our company. Right, and it was the first time I really raised. venture capital, right? And I was just so elated. I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. This is phenomenal. I'm like, I gotta let everybody know, you know? So immediately. And so the thing is, as I was planning lunch with this lady, so I follow up with her the following week. I was like, oh, hey, you know, are we still down for dinner? She's like, oh, hey, actually, you know what? I'm no longer gonna be in your neighborhood. Why don't you slip over to my neighborhood and I'll get you lunch? And here's my email, right? And so as a result, we took it from Facebook, chatting on Facebook to email. And as a result of that, she fell into my CRM. So when I sent out the updates, I think we're going to have lunch on a Wednesday or Tuesday, and I sent out the update on a Monday. Because she fell into my CRM, she ended up reading the update that we had just closed, you know, $200K investment, and, you know, da-da-da. And so as we're having lunch, she's like, oh yeah, I didn't know you were raising. I'm like, yeah, you know, yeah. And but again, I didn't know, I just met this woman at a bar. I didn't know any other detail about her. And as we kept having lunch, next thing you know, again, I was just enthusiastically sharing everything about my company, right? Next thing you know, she goes, she's like, well, I want to invest. And at that point I was like, okay, well, this conversation just took a turn for the— for, you know, it just took a different turn. And as she mentioned that, I just thought, well, okay, to me it was like, okay, well, lunch is happening, but I'm like, at this point now I need to understand, you know, has she invested before, right? Like, does she know, you know, like, is this something she's done before? And I asked her, she's like, yeah, you know, I invested back in like the '90s and like, you know, put $75K into that company, you know, and ended up not doing all that well. So I'm like, okay, to me it was just mental. I'm like, all right, that's cool. And as we kept going, she's like, oh, you know what, sorry, I lied. And she's like, oh, this is actually going to tell you how much money I have now. And she, you know, I, I didn't even ask her if I could share the story, but, you know, I, I think, um, it's just important to, to, for, for founders to know, right, in terms of Being authentic, right? But anyways, so she goes, "Oh, this is gonna tell you how much money I have." And she told me that the woman I met her with, that she invested two hundred k in that woman's company. To me, it was just another mental. I was like, "Okay, cool." And as long as kept going, I said, "Well, you know, if you're comfortable investing two hundred k into that company, are you comfortable investing two hundred k in our company?" Right? And she's like, "Well, you know, I have to see if I want to lose that money." Da da da. So I'm like, "Well, you know, okay, why don't you start with maybe half of it?" And of course you can, you know, double down later. She's like, yeah, sure, absolutely. And that was it, right? Within the next day she signed the document. The following week, that was our place to pick up the check, right? So those were part of the stories. And another investor, you know, in this case, I actually met him in, in a hot tub in our building, right? You know, great friend of mine. Next thing you know, he became an investor in, in my company. So, you know, all this to share that, You know that raise happened without me intentionally meeting people to say, "Hey, I'm raising." You know that it up, right? It happens so organically, so authentically. And so I encourage founders to yeah, I encourage founders to you know continue to just be authentic, right? Certainly don't be afraid to have the conversation, but be authentic. Don't have expectation with people, even if you don't like people. Just you don't have to discount them. Just you know you may not necessarily you know be. overly warm with them, but, you know, just, just let it be, right? Because you never know, a couple months from now you may see that person, you may actually have a different view towards them, right? And so just be kind, you know, um, be authentic towards everyone, and, you know, magic happens that way.

Serge, this has been incredible, man. Thank you for sharing these stories. As we wrap up, I would love to just one highlight, just congratulations on being able to put together That's $360K raised from family offices, angel investors, meeting people at a bar, at a hot tub, within your network, and being authentically you. A lot of people don't realize the power of being authentic and unapologetically yourself, and that's how you build meaningful relationships. It's built on trust and mutual respect. One thing I love to always say is optimize for the organic. Don't try to play someone else's game. Don't try to you know, I've seen it on TV, I've seen someone else's story, and I'm gonna try to do it like them. You can learn from those experiences, but ultimately you need to digest it and make it your own. And it seems time and time again you have done that in your life and you're seeing great success through it. Tell us, please, as we close out, what's the best way for us to stay in touch and follow your journey and support you?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, folks can reach out to me directly at sales@datatricks.com. That's with an X and S. Um, you know, we're also available on social media. So our LinkedIn is DataTricks. Uh, you know, you can find me on LinkedIn as well. Please add me and shoot me a message. Uh, and then folks can find our website, it's datatricks.com. Again, that's with an X and S. Um, and, uh, yeah, we're, you know, you can reach us in those, on those avenues.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Serge, for being on our Get Funded Office Hours series, and we're super excited to follow those. I hope to be added to those updates one of these days too.

Absolutely. Excellent. Thanks so much, Darrel. Really appreciate, uh, really appreciate you having me on this.

Thank you. This was fun, man. And we're gonna transition in about 28 minutes to Twitter Spaces for our office hours. We have my friend Jigni, who is a principal at BBQ Capital. They are based in San Francisco as well. So, sir, you might have heard of them before. And yeah, please join us there if you want to pitch Jigni and myself. We'll get started on Twitter or X Spaces shortly. Well, thank you all for joining us today. And we'll see you on Twitter. See ya. Bye-bye.