Pivoting to Sustainability Through Covid: Part 3 of 3 Company Stories
Surviving and thriving through Covid-19 hasn’t been easy, but we talked to three companies who pivoted to success during the pandemic. Part 3: Maxable
By Kim Folsom
In this three-part series, we’ll take a look at three companies who faced the challenges of the pandemic head on and won. Their stories offer a wealth of advice for any business looking to pivot to sustainability during the virus crisis.
In Part 1 of this series, we talked to SaulPaul about pivoting for sustainability during Covid. In Part 2, we talked to San Diego Code School. Now, in Part 3, we talked with Maxable — a completely different company with some great ideas for changing how you operate to succeed during the pandemic.
Maxable
Caitlin Bigelow is the CEO of Maxable — California’s leading provider of resources for building Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), otherwise known as granny flats, casitas, or tiny houses.
Her background is in content creation, content marketing, and digital marketing. Before founding Maxable, she grew her previous company’s YouTube channel to 120 million views.
In 2017, she saw a big opportunity when the state of California passed legislation to allow for the easier construction of ADUs. Maxable provided the wherewithal for consumers to figure out how to get the job done.
The company had a perfect growth line until Covid hit. Then traffic collapsed and their business practically disappeared overnight.
With no new orders for weeks, Caitlin wondered if the challenges could bring new opportunities. She focused on what the company’s core competencies were and did a pivot to exploit them. Now, the company’s numbers have recovered and they have a whole new set of best practices in place to help them grow.
The key was figuring out how to generate recurring revenues in a business that was focused on one-time events — the once-in-a-lifetime building or remodeling of an ADU. But similar to Michael Roberts’ San Diego Code School, Maxable found that a B2B play could be more lucrative than they imagined.
Originally, the company was trying to connect homeowners to the tools and service providers they needed to build their ADU. Now they pivoted to be a technology marketplace like AirBnB or Uber, which takes commissions from designers, lenders, and architects who they refer consumers to. Now, the contractors that they partner with are their recurring revenue.
They had their own challenges to overcome internally. Accounts receivable was a big blocker — they were doing everything manually. Their payments gateway was an issue. So, they built their own payments gateway that would flow through their own platform rather than through a partner first. Then they improved their online marketing to build out their pipeline.
They couldn’t get Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan money, so they did promotions and discounts to try to get more clients. Once they had a client, they tried to get bigger contracts with them. They even made an important hire right in the middle of the pandemic — something most companies wouldn’t even consider — bringing on a full-time employee who brought existing clients in house.
Once they started generating more revenue, they used it to fund their pivot — and their growth.
Caitlin’s advice? “Find mentorship or someone in an advisory capacity,” she said. “Connect with people on LinkedIn.” She said she was shameless in how she brought people on to her advisory board.
“People want to help,” she said. “They may run billion-dollar products, but they want to help. You just have to reach out to them and get them excited about what you’re doing.”
I second Caitlin’s drive to build out her network and her push to generate recurring revenue. Recurring revenue — and new sources of revenue is so often the key to business success. After all, sales and revenue are like blood to the body. Without them, you’re not going to live very long.
I hope you enjoyed this short series. Those are examples of just three companies who have successfully pivoted and driven straight through the Covid pandemic to great business success. You can do it, too. Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021, and more funding is going to be available.
But with it, or without it, you can grow. You just have to make adjustments. Talk to your customers. Find out where you provide them with the most significant value. How can you help customers make money, save money, or reduce costs? Look at your industry overall. How could you serve customers — or partners — you hadn’t considered before? What could you do that’s better, cheaper, or faster than the competition?
The answers are out there. Having trouble finding them? Consider joining one of our small business growth programs where we’ll help you work on your pivot.
Kim Folsom is the founder and CEO of Founders First Capital Partners, which has helped accelerate the success of hundreds of small, service-based, business-to-business companies since 2015. Visit our website to learn more.
