Equity crowdfunding platform Fundable is announcing that it has acquired Clarity.fm, the Dan Martell-founded startup that connects entrepreneurs with mentors like Mark Cuban, Brad Feld and Eric Ries over the phone.
It was just under a year ago that Fundable announced its acquisition of LaunchRock, a service that helps startups create pre-launch landing pages, as well as acquire and retain customers. At this point, Fundable seems to have built up a network of sites providing different tools and resources to entrepreneurs (it also owns Bizplan, which helps startups develop business plans to attract funding, and the startup blog KillerStartups).
So as part of today’s announcement, Fundable is also launching a new umbrella brand for all its properties, Startups.co. The company now pitches itself as a one-stop shop where entrepreneurs can get “Customers, Press, Funding, and Mentors.”
Fundable/Startups.co founder and CEO Wil Schroter said customers will still be able to use the different products separately, but he also plans to add more integration over time, for example by allowing someone who launched through LaunchRock to move their customer data to Fundable, where those customers could help them raise money.
Clarity seems like a natural fit for this platform. Martell told me, “Our visions are the same,” adding that one big overlap is the fact that 20 percent of the calls on Clarity are related to financing in some way.
Founded in 2010, Clarity has supposedly been used by 17,414 entrepreneurs who made 150,000 phone calls in the last year. Martell pointed to the diversity of those users when I asked about whether a burst tech bubble could affect Clarity and Startups.co’s business: “They’re not tech bubble companies. Most of Clarity’s customers are just kind of mom-and-pop entrepreneurs.”
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Martell said that the entire Clarity team would be joining Startups.co. Back in 2012, Clarity raised a $1.6 million seed round. Investors include Baseline Ventures, Mark Cuban, Venture51, Howard Lindzon, Freestyle Capital, Real Ventures and 500 Startups.
And yes, Schroter is interested in expanding the Startups.co platform, potentially through more acquisitions. What other services might he acquire?
“At a really broad level, I’m interested in all the places where entrepreneurs get stuck,” he said. “If they get stuck in hiring, then obviously job services would be interesting. If entrepreneurs get stuck in finding service providers, then that would interesting.”