Digbi recently published an exciting study that showed its program, while clinically proven to improve a patient’s GI/microbiome health, can also improve the mental health of members struggling with diagnosed anxiety and sleep disorders.
Read MoreToday we turn Partner PoV over to Anna Jaffe, the CEO of our portfolio company Mobi Systems.
8 Minutes of Insight Anna Jaffe, CEO, Mobi Systems
Goal: Many clients we speak to in partnership with the AWS Travel and Hospitality team have the goal of providing personalized digital experiences that span across the entire travel journey of their customers. This strategic shift enables a brand to go from a sophisticated service provider to ‘expert vacation host.’
Challenge: To enable this shift, companies need high quality data on what their customers would likely enjoy doing throughout an entire travel journey. This data empowers marketing to be significantly more effective, helps operations serve guests to their exacting standards, and vastly improves digital experiences for customers. However, there is a Catch 22: how does a company provide personalized experiences, with little—if any—historical data for content that surrounds their core services? In other words, how does a hotel know what concerts to show to a guest, without previous insight into what music they like? The hotel likely has years of data on what type of hotel room they prefer and in what location, but it knows little to nothing about anything else, such as a concert preference.
Solution: This is where Mobi comes in. We have designed our B2B AI solutions to work with travel and hospitality businesses to gather powerful preferential data within seconds. This data empowers Mobi’s customers to serve their travelers personally curated digital experiences at every stage of their journey. Moreover, as a B2B partner, the powerful data insights we collect are all available to your organization, to ensure marketing, operations, sales, finance, and all other stakeholders have access to the complete guest preference profile.
Today’s Partner PoV comes from Principal Blair Simpson…..
At Frontier, we established themes that drive our areas of investment interest. Additionally, we use tested business frameworks to identify companies which have the highest likelihood of success and where we can add the most value, based on our unique strengths as a firm. We love to back founders and companies who are uniquely positioned to transform existing industries and disrupt the status quo.
That is why we are excited about HData, our latest addition to the Frontier portfolio. HData provides business intelligence and compliance software to energy utilities that report to the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC). At scale, the company’s FERC Pro platform can become the single source of verified data for the energy ecosystem of producers, regulators, and interveners.
Early Market Validation: Building technology is hard – finding customers can be even harder. Frontier looks for companies that have demonstrated that a market segment is willing to buy, and more importantly, pay for, a solution. HData has large, paying customers such as utility giant Nexterra, and has also secured a strategic partnership with Alabama Power Company. HData is competing within an industry that has budget and is ripe for disruption, and is already delighting customers along the way.
B2B SaaS: While many business models can create value, Frontier focuses mostly on business-to-business enterprise software. HData sells its FERC Pro compliance solution directly to energy utilities. HData has a broad solution, so over time the company can expand its footprint within a customer to deliver even greater value across business divisions. This is a time-tested ‘land and expand’ strategy that B2B SaaS companies use to grow quickly. Beyond the initial target market of utilities, there are additional segments HData may serve in the future.
Timing for Growth: We look for companies and founders that know how and when to accelerate a proven model. In the venture-backed startup world, this means putting capital to work for hyper growth. With its first cohort of customers, the company has achieved early signs of product-market fit, and dialed in a customer acquisition strategy. At an industry level, new regulations are changing how utilities do business and provide a tailwind for HData, which has the purpose-built solution to support customers adapting to these changes. With internal operations finely tuned, and market forces behind them, the company is ready for its next phase of go-to-market.
Team: We saved the best for last. Building a business in today’s competitive environment requires the right type of entrepreneur. This means uniquely qualified individuals who thrive in the chaotic world of free market disruption; the leadership team at HData fits this profile. Frontier was fortunate to build its relationship with HData over time, allowing us to get to know this group and see their potential through multiple touchpoints. CEO and co-founder Hudson Hollister previously founded Data Coalition, where he successfully lobbied the US Congress to pass the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act in 2014.
We believe HData has a clear business advantage, is competing within a large market, and has the right team in place to disrupt and win. The company is aligned with Frontier’s investment themes of Data & Personalization and Real-Time Feedback, because it unlocks unique data sets that inform business decision-making, provides new ways to leverage data within the broader energy ecosystem, and gives utilities faster insight into how their businesses operate. We are thrilled to partner with this team and support the company’s next chapter.
Today we turn over the Partner PoV column to our portfolio company, Noteworth…..
Improving the patient care journey is paramount to healthcare professionals across all disciplines. Especially based on the requirements imposed by the current pandemic and the ongoing need to address increasing numbers of ambulatory patients. A number of digital healthcare solutions have shown up in the last decade to digitize patient records and automate areas such as remote patient monitoring and chronic care management, but the best solution will ultimately be one that crosses all patient care boundaries under one platform and that is at the heart of Digital Medicine.
Today’s Partner PoV comes courtesy of our associate Blair Simpson……
Frontier’s investment thesis is based on a series of themes that guide the partnership’s portfolio construction. It is through this lens that Frontier VC identifies new opportunities for technology to reshape how businesses and consumers interact, and the founders and teams uniquely positioned to disrupt the status quo.
Project Canary is the latest addition to the Frontier portfolio. The company provides a software and IoT solution for collecting, reporting, and validating Methane emissions data. While ESG reporting solutions and “carbon trackers” have proliferated over the years, there has yet to be a monitoring solution for the Natural Gas industry that is continuous, reliable, and cost-effective. Project Canary meets this need by integrating a next generation emissions monitoring technology with a powerful, data-driven software platform. The company employs a powerful combination of real-time feedback, distribution & access, and data & personalization.
The primary customers Project Canary serve are Natural Gas producers and transporters. With 2.5 million miles of natural gas pipelines in the US alone, the scale of this opportunity is massive. Historically, O&G companies have been reactive in their approach to monitoring emissions. They’ve relied on spreadsheets populated with estimates of methane emissions leakage that are completely detached from the reality of what’s occurring in the field. Increased pressure from regulatory agencies and capital markets has prompted the need for higher fidelity in this emissions data, and Natural Gas producers are shifting to a proactive approach in response. Just as a company’s financial reporting must be compliant and auditable, emissions reporting is subject to the same scrutiny. These reporting requirements are already present in Europe, Canada, many states with the US, and we expect this trend to continue globally. Project Canary’s remotely operated IoT device and software platform give customers the real-time feedback and unique data set necessary to thrive in an evolving energy landscape.
Achieving a net-zero emissions energy infrastructure is critical for mitigating the effects of climate change. Given that methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the world needs a certified, transparent solution to prove that net-zero truly means net-zero. Maintaining this infrastructure will require the most comprehensive monitoring solutions, and Canary is positioned to serve the Natural Gas producers and transporters that power homes, business, and communities around the world.
The founders, Chris Romer and Will Foiles, are uniquely positioned to drive this initiative forward. We are happy to have backed them, and their enormous and important mission.
