Back in the 90s, the notion of knowledge management was born, the idea that there is corporate memory locked inside employees, who know the ins and outs of various systems. The problem was recording and updating that knowledge. Scribe, a San Francisco-based startup, has figured out a way to easily capture and document internal processes in an automated way.
It’s an idea that is apparently resonating with customers, with revenue up a whopping 400% last year, according to the company. That kind of growth will definitely get investor attention, and the company announced a $25 million Series B today, certainly a healthy amount by today’s standards.
CEO and co-founder Jennifer Smith said the idea behind the company is pretty simple. There are folks who know how to do stuff like entering leads into the CRM or signing up for a 401(k). Some companies try to keep a Wiki or hold Zoom meetings to share knowledge, but they wanted to make it much easier.
“You hit the record button, you do something, you hit stop recording, and then, boom, you automatically get this document generated with all these written instructions,” Smith told TechCrunch. The written instructions include steps to complete the process with screenshots, all generated from the recording, automatically.
“And then you can share that with anyone who needs to do the process on the other side. So the idea is you’re scaling the expertise that lives in people’s heads and was previously very siloed. And you’re doing that in an automatic way. It’s always in the context in the flow of work,” she said.
Those instructions can be embedded into an application and more complex multi-part processes can be broken down into more manageable chunks and grouped together. The idea is to keep the instructions within the process, so you don’t have to switch context to find them, she said.
The five-year-old company was launched way before generative AI, but it can benefit from the technology and has been working to find ways to incorporate it into their product. “It’s about scaling expertise, and generative AI, like I said, I mean, we didn’t dream that we would have tools this powerful at our disposal this quickly and we’re building towards that,” she said.
Smith says they are in 97% of Fortune 500 companies today and are cash flow positive. They were able to raise now, in spite of the fact that they hadn’t spent most of their $22 million Series A. At a time when many startups are struggling to get investment dollars, this is a good position to be in.
With close to 50 employees today, the plan is to scale the company and double to perhaps 100 in the next year or so. As she does this she wants to be sure that the company doesn’t lose its cultural identity as it grows.
“I have seen a lot of companies who have scaled up faster, in terms of headcount. And I could make the argument as to why we might want to do that, but it always places a strain on culture, and so I’d rather we grow in a really measured way, and be under-resourced if we have to be, but do it in a way that preserves our culture,” she said.
Today’s round, which brings the total raised to $55 million, was led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from New York Life Ventures and existing investors Amplify Partners, Tiger Global and XYZ Ventures. It is interesting to note that a process-heavy industry like insurance is investing in the company.
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