Museum Hack, a company that used to run public museum tours and offer private tours for team-building events, was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for social distancing made their traditional business model untenable. The company decided to pivot to a virtual team-building service, called TeamBuilding, but faced several challenges. Firstly, they needed to manage leads from prospect to closed sale, a task that was becoming increasingly complex due to the high demand for their new service. Secondly, they had to identify qualified leads and prioritize action, a process that had to be revisited due to changes in their business model. Thirdly, they needed to streamline general operations, as routine tasks were becoming time-consuming for their rapidly growing business. Lastly, they had to ensure smooth handoff of new clients to the logistics team, a task that was often overlooked due to long working hours.

Swapnil Wale, the founder of Techno-PM, a project management template producer, was facing a significant challenge in delivering his digital products to customers. The process was manual and time-consuming, requiring Swapnil to monitor each purchase, confirm payment, and then send an email to the customer with their digital product. This process was not only inefficient but also unsustainable as it took away valuable time that could be used for managing growth and creating new resources. Furthermore, the lack of an immediate delivery system for digital products was potentially damaging to the customer experience, as customers expect instant access to digital products post-purchase.

Justin Blase, a marketer with a keen interest in automation, wanted to build an eCommerce business that ran almost entirely on automation without compromising on the quality of the product or the uniqueness of the business. He was interested in print-on-demand services and loved the idea of not holding any inventory other than digital image files in the cloud. However, he lacked coding skills and needed a solution that would allow him to automate various aspects of his business, from product creation to post-purchase processes, without the need for a developer.

Unspun, a clothing brand specializing in custom-designed jeans, aimed to disrupt the wasteful cycle prevalent in the apparel industry where clothes are produced in bulk, shipped to stores, and often discarded if unsold. The company's unique selling proposition was its high-touch, personalized customer experience, where every pair of jeans is bespoke and made-to-measure for the individual customer. However, the challenge lay in scaling this highly personalized, seemingly unscalable process. The company needed to connect various tools and workflows to create and scale this unique customer experience. The challenge was to automate a process that felt unique, personal, and not scalable, and do it at scale. The company also needed to bridge the gap between the manufacturing world and the customer-facing world.

MeUndies, a company known for its comfortable underwear and sustainable business practices, faced a significant challenge in managing projects across different teams. Each team had its preferred project management tools, leading to a disjointed and inefficient workflow. The Customer Experience team preferred Asana, while the Dev team used Pivotal Tracker. This led to a situation where requests were initiated and communicated in Asana, then duplicated in Pivotal Tracker, requiring updates in both systems. This was not a sustainable workflow, especially for a lean team aiming to maximize their time efficiency. The challenge was to find a way to integrate these tools and reduce the amount of times someone has to communicate something, thereby improving overall efficiency.

Mode Analytics, a company providing collaborative analytics to customers like Lyft, Trello, and Shopify, was facing a challenge with time-consuming manual tasks. The Senior Demand Generation Manager, Alexa Guerra, identified that tasks such as exporting leads and uploading them to marketing automation software Marketo were prone to human error and negatively impacted workflow. Additionally, Mode had to manually notify each company about the status of their job listing on their jobs board for analysts, data scientists, and data engineers. They also collected leads from G2 Crowd, a business and software review site, which required additional manual work. Furthermore, Mode wanted to improve transparency and visibility of go-to-market processes across the company, but found it difficult to communicate wins effectively.

obo. Agency, an account-based marketing firm, was facing a significant challenge in managing and navigating through APIs of custom software used by their clients. The team was tasked with improving marketing automation, optimizing sales processes, and driving engagement through content and design. This required them to work with these APIs and connect them to other tools. However, the APIs were often disorganized and poorly documented, making the task time-consuming and complex. Business Solutions Analyst, Doug Puccetti, spent a significant portion of his day sifting through these APIs, strategizing how to extract data from a client's API and send it to new, efficient systems. Additionally, the manual migration of data when changing systems was a tedious task that consumed a lot of time and often had to be restarted from scratch if there was an issue with the upload.

Outbrain, a content and product discovery feed, was facing challenges in managing leads efficiently. The company wanted to enable their sales team to reach out to leads as quickly as possible. The process of manually managing leads was tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming. The company was also looking for ways to add more information to the leads before sending them to Salesforce. The challenge was to find a tool that could automate the lead management process, reduce errors, and save time.

Poka, a manufacturing tech company, was facing challenges in maintaining SOC 2 compliance and other security workflows. The company's information security, risks, and compliance analyst, Mathieu Marcotte, was tasked with finding a system that would minimize risk and human error while ensuring their records were always up-to-date. The software solutions they found were either outdated, too expensive, or not agile enough for their startup. They needed a system that would support their information security and compliance processes, and provide the flexibility to create their own SOC 2 controls that exactly fit their needs.

Meny Hoffman, the host of 'Let's Talk Business' podcast and CEO of Ptex Group, was facing a significant challenge in managing the podcast alongside his other responsibilities. The podcast, which features interviews with business owners and thought leaders, required a considerable amount of time and effort to manage, particularly in the onboarding process for the more than 70 guests featured. The process involved multiple steps, including sending emails to guests, preparing interview assets and questions, and maintaining records. Without automation, managing these tasks was overwhelming and time-consuming, making it nearly impossible to launch the podcast.

RoverPass, a platform that simplifies the search and reservation process for campers and RVers, was facing a significant challenge in keeping their team informed. With over 20,000 campsites and RV parks listed on their platform, tracking all the activities such as bookings, cancellations, and payments manually was proving to be a daunting task. The team had to deal with a multitude of tasks including notifying sales reps of new opportunities, handling failed payments, and communicating with partners. The process was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors and inefficiencies. The challenge was to create an efficient workflow that would automate the notification process and keep the team updated in real-time.

ScholarMatch, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, is dedicated to assisting low-income and first-generation students in their journey to college. The organization's mission is to help these students apply for, afford, and succeed in college. In 2016, their efforts resulted in 698 students attending college, with 97% of them on track to graduate. However, the organization faced a challenge in efficiently managing and responding to student feedback. They used an online feedback form via Gravity Forms to stay in touch with students' needs and gauge how well ScholarMatch was meeting their expectations. However, the process of sorting, viewing, and responding to this feedback was time-consuming and inefficient. The team needed a solution that would allow them to quickly and effectively process student feedback, enabling them to improve their services and support more students.

The case study focuses on two businesses, TinySuperheroes and Speak English with Vanessa, both founded by women entrepreneurs. TinySuperheroes, founded by Robyn Rosenberger, provides capes to children dealing with sickness and disabilities. The challenge for Robyn was the time-consuming process of order fulfillment and management. She had to manually create orders for every cape shipped, which was slowing down the business. Speak English with Vanessa, founded by Vanessa Prothe, is an online language teaching platform. Vanessa faced the challenge of managing her courses, payments, and emails manually. This was a significant roadblock for her, especially as she was not tech-savvy and her expertise lay in teaching English, not in coding or managing complex software systems.

Launchpad LA, one of the world’s top startup accelerators, was facing a significant challenge in managing their applicant tracking process. Initially, they relied on a spreadsheet to track their applicants, which proved to be inefficient and cumbersome, especially with non-numeric data filling the spreadsheet's rows and columns. The problem was exacerbated when the number of applicants increased to over 1,000 per class. The selection committee had to sift through more than 300 rows in a Google Spreadsheet to pare the pool down to eight startups. The process was not scalable and became 'very ugly, very quickly', according to Kyle Taylor, Launchpad’s former director of operations. The existing software solutions were targeted at large businesses with large budgets, which was not suitable for Launchpad LA. They needed a cost-effective solution that could handle a high volume of applications and streamline their review process.

BarkBox, a subscription service for dog treats, toys, and gifts, faced several operational challenges. The company, which also runs a charitable donations program, was struggling with the volume of donation requests from dog-related events and organizations across the United States and Canada. Each request had to be vetted and approved, a process that was causing a bottleneck. Additionally, managing in-office dog time, training requests, and remote work requests was proving to be a logistical challenge. The company needed to find a way to automate these processes without taking resources away from the development team.

Be Epic, Inc., a digital marketing agency based in Edmonton, faced the challenge of managing complex processes for their clients, including social media management, SEO, web design, and video production. A significant part of their work involved social media and advertising, where they had to generate and manage leads for their clients. They utilized Facebook Lead Ads for this purpose, but the process of managing multiple ad campaigns, targeting different audiences for each client, and transferring new leads between different apps was time-consuming and complicated. Without a proper process in place, they risked losing leads and wasting valuable time.

Cottage, a San Francisco-based startup, is redefining the process of design, permitting, and construction in residential projects, particularly accessory dwelling units (ADUs). The company's unique approach involves handling the entire development process, from initial design to acquiring planning permissions, and through to construction. However, coordinating this multi-stage process with various stakeholders, including designers and general contractors, posed a significant challenge. The company needed to remain lean and agile, which required efficient tools to manage the process. Additionally, Cottage faced the challenge of integrating various tools used by different teams, such as sales and marketing, with industry-specific software used for site feasibility, design, and construction coordination. The company needed a solution that would allow them to collect and manage data from these disparate tools without overburdening their tech development resources.

Designation, a UX/UI designer bootcamp based in Chicago, was facing a challenge in managing their admissions process. With a small team of less than 10 full-time staff, every person was vital to the day-to-day operations. The admissions team, which initially consisted of only one person, had to contact and schedule interviews with each applicant to qualify them for the bootcamp. This process was time-consuming and inefficient, especially when dealing with unqualified leads. The challenge was to find a way to automate the process, pre-qualify leads, and make the operations more efficient, even in the absence of the team.

Digioh, a platform that runs eCommerce quizzes for businesses worldwide, faced a significant challenge as it grew. The company needed to scale its operations, particularly in sales and customer onboarding, without expanding its lean team of 15 employees. The CEO, Rishi Shah, who also led the company's sales activities, found it increasingly difficult to manually email new prospects as the company's customer base expanded. The process of triaging new sales leads needed to be automated to keep up with the growing demand. Additionally, the company needed an efficient way to onboard new customers once a deal was closed. The challenge was to automate these processes without compromising the high-touch, personalized service that Digioh was known for.

Dollar Flight Club, a small and remote startup, was facing a challenge in managing its resources efficiently. The company, which was bootstrapped into existence, had a significant overlap of responsibilities, especially in the early stages. Engineers hired for specific tasks often found themselves creating custom reports or connections for the sales and marketing teams. As the engineering demands increased, it became increasingly difficult to allocate resources for one-off projects on other teams. The company needed a solution that would allow them to do more work and save time, without constantly relying on the engineers.

eSight Eyewear, a company that provides electronic glasses to help the visually impaired see again, was facing a significant challenge in managing their client scheduling and data management. The popularity of their product, the eSight 3, meant that they had to schedule a large number of in-person demonstrations to show how the technology works. Before implementing a new solution, each of their clients would spend at least 30 minutes responding to scheduling emails. Additionally, eSight's Vision Advocates spent about an hour's worth of work per client just on scheduling the first demonstration. This process involved multiple calls, including reminder calls and often missed calls. The company needed a solution that would streamline this process and improve the scheduling experience.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich (IWT), a content company founded by author Ramit Sethi, was facing a significant challenge in managing and analyzing their vast amount of data. The company produces a large volume of content, including books, courses, podcasts, and blog posts, attracting over a million readers every month. However, the team was struggling to track the performance of their content and understand their readers due to the time-consuming process of manually analyzing data. Basic reports on email subscribers took hours to create, leaving no time for critical analysis of the data. The team needed to answer questions like 'How many people read the guide we published in January?' but the process of exporting a report, opening it in a spreadsheet app, manually running a query, and consolidating the results was extremely time-consuming. The team realized they needed a data warehouse to store and easily access their data without the need for a dedicated data analyst.

Indiegogo, a crowdfunding giant, was grappling with the challenge of managing a large volume of leads and contacts manually. The company was dealing with repetitive tasks that were time-consuming and inefficient. The teams within the company were often siloed, leading to a lack of collaboration and data centralization. The Director of Inside Sales, Garrett Grohman, was dealing with hundreds of campaigns daily, and data entry for these campaigns was a full-time job for two people. Even after using Typeform to gather some of the information, the process was still labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Smart Charge America, a company that installs electric car chargers, has seen substantial growth since its inception. From a small team of three employees in 2016, the company has expanded to over 50 employees and caters to 18 major cities. However, with this growth came the challenge of managing customer information efficiently. The team needed a reliable way to store and track customer information, projects, and opportunities across their residential, commercial, and service sectors. Additionally, they were spending a significant amount of time on repetitive tasks such as manually building customer folders, sending emails and notifications, and creating invoices. This resulted in countless lost productivity hours.

Snap Kitchen, a meal kit service company, was facing a significant challenge in managing customer feedback and care. Despite its success in the health food industry, the company had little technology in place to handle customer interactions efficiently. The company had grown from one store to over 30, and the CEO wanted to transition the company into a food-tech company. One of the first projects for the new Chief Technology Officer, Scott Brittain, was to manage feedback from their newly launched iOS app. Initially, they had a very hands-on model where feedback was sent to a specific customer care individual who would then address the problem. However, this approach was unscalable and time-consuming, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of automation.

Soylent, a company that provides nutrient-rich food alternatives, faced two significant challenges. The first was the complexity of managing legal consultations during their Series A funding round. As a startup, they had to navigate the intricate process of securing substantial funding, which required extensive legal advice. However, the company lacked a legal background and had to hire a team of lawyers. The co-founder/CTO, John Coogan, found himself overwhelmed with information during these consultations, struggling to take comprehensive notes while actively participating in the discussions. The second challenge was building a thriving community around Soylent and maintaining open communication with their customers. They needed a seamless way to sign up interested consumers to their database and keep them updated on various aspects of the company.

Spivo, an eCommerce business specializing in adventure photography equipment, faced a significant challenge with their email management system. They used Shopify as their store platform, which allowed the addition of plugins for various functionalities. However, one of these plugins caused a major issue, resulting in thousands of emails being improperly categorized. Consequently, numerous email funnels, crucial for their marketing and customer engagement, were never sent. This incident highlighted the need for a more efficient and reliable way to manage emails and orders, prompting Spivo to seek a solution that could automate their work and increase reliability.

Startup Audits, a one-person operation, was facing a significant challenge in managing its client onboarding process. The founder, Bram Kanstein, was spending a considerable amount of time on manual tasks such as creating documents, folders, and spreadsheets, and writing individual emails for each new client. This repetitive work was not only time-consuming but also hindered the productivity of the business. The need for a more efficient client onboarding process was evident, as the existing process was bogging down the operations and preventing Bram from focusing on the core aspects of his business.

StoryCorps, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing stories from people across America, faced a significant challenge in managing a vast amount of files and contacts. The organization works with thousands of people each year, and their stories are heard by many thousands more. This resulted in a massive amount of data to manage, including information about donors, contributors, and fans. The organization used Salesforce as a central repository for grant, donor, partnership, and end-user engagement information. However, keeping this data up-to-date and enriched was a daunting task. The challenge was further compounded by the need to track various touchpoints a person has had with the organization, which could range from social media interactions to website visits and podcast engagements.

Small businesses often struggle with the overwhelming number of apps and tools available for various aspects of their operations. These include customer relationship management (CRM) systems, sales automation tools, and email marketing tools. The challenge lies in managing these tools efficiently and cost-effectively. For instance, Synduit, a content and virtual marketing company, needed a way to track client feedback and manage workflows. Similarly, Project Warrior, a UK-based fitness program, required a system to manage contacts and schedule consultations. YP3 Solutions, a product engineering consultation firm, sought the best tools to aid their clients' R&D departments and engineering needs.