Nutshell is making a sizable impact on Ann Arbor in two ways this year. First, the tech startup has just finished raising millions of dollars to fuel its rapid growth. Second, its co-founders and CEO have recently purchased three buildings in downtown Ann Arbor with the idea of creating a tech hub.
"This is about creating a center of gravity for all things tech in downtown Ann Arbor," says Joe Malcoun, CEO of
Nutshell.
Malcoun and three of Nutshell's co-founders purchased 202, 206 and 208 E Huron St through their Cahoots Capital holding company earlier this year. They plan to turn the 24,000 square feet between the three buildings into one tech hub that will house Nutshell and other tech firms, including Notion and Coolhouse Labs.
The group is in the process of choosing a general contractor for the renovation project. They hope to have the new space online and ready to go by summer of next year. Nutshell expects to move into the space not long after it becomes available.
"We really don't want to leave downtown Ann Arbor," Malcoun says. "It's an important part of our value proposition to our employees our company culture."
Nutshell makes customer relationship management software. The platform helps companies organize and automate its systems so its staff can work smarter and collaborate more with each other and their customers.
The 4-year-old startup has watched its revenue jump 60 percent over the last year, prompting it to double its staff to 25 employees and an intern thanks to 12 new hires. Malcoun is looking to hire another 10-12 people now that it has landed a new round of investment. The rest of the money will go toward ratcheting up its marketing efforts.
"The pure volume of marketing will increase," Malcoun says. "More importantly we are committing to an in-bound marketing campaign. We want to build a relationship with people before they purchase our product."
Malcoun describes Nutshell’s latest investment round as a Series A2 worth "several million dollars." He declined to specify how much it was worth but did add that Ann Arbor-based
Plymouth Venture Partners is leading the round.
"It's a growth round, an extension of our Series A," Malcoun says. "We are calling it a Series A2 as a sort of homage to Ann Arbor."
Source: Joe Malcoun, CEO of Nutshell
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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