Perry Rosenbloom moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 2011 and started a small business offering digital marketing and custom website services. After building a website for his mother-in-law, an independent therapist, Perry created a scrappy subscription-based website builder platform to make websites for other behavioral health professionals.
The Brighter Vision company grew steadily and efficiently without big outside funding and eventually provided custom mobile-ready websites and marketing tools to over 4,000 therapists.
The company grew to 35 employees with an all-new website-building platform before being acquired by EverCommerce in 2020 for $17.5 million. Perry is now working on a new startup called Motion.io.
Best quote from Perry:
“My best advice for new founders is to never stop talking to potential users: existing users and future users. I did all the sales at Brighter Vision from day one. I understood what every single person’s major pain point was.
“By the time we sold the company, I knew our customers in the behavioral health market better than anyone. And that’s from talking with people. Understanding what their needs were in those early days allowed us to build a product that was successful.
“It’s usually a 30 or 40-minute conversation, but the last five minutes is where all the value is going to be. Their guard is down and you’re just having a free-flowing conversation. I ask them, “Tell me what that would allow you to do.” What job they’re trying to accomplish through a specific feature or a specific toolset?”
In this episode, Perry explains:
- How he started the company as an SEO agency and custom website designer for any type of company, then changed focus to offer only a subscription website platform just for behavioral health professionals
- Why they didn’t consider raising VC funding early on despite growing revenue steadily with their software platform and recurring revenue
- How they measured every penny of sales and marketing expenses across every channel and promotion to fine-tune their customer acquisition investments
- Why he eventually decided to sell the business rather than continue or raise funding to grow much bigger
- The process he used for talking to potential acquirers and eventually negotiating a best-fit acquisition by a larger company
Brighter Vision Company Facts
- Founded: 2011
- Description: Brighter Vision is the leading custom website and marketing platform for behavioral health professionals
- Number of Employees: 35 employees at the time of acquisition in 2020
- Funding: $200,000 angel investment in 2019 to help build software faster
- Acquisition: Brighter Vision was acquired in 2020 by EverCommerce for a reported $17.5 million
- HQ Location: Boulder, Colorado
