When we launched the Tech Adoption Index last year, we did so based on a clear hypothesis and set of objectives.
Our hypothesis was that small business owners are hungry for tools to help them operate their businesses more efficiently, and these tools are coming in the form of apps or mobile devices that are easy to use, are sold on a freemium or subscription basis and store the relevant data in the cloud.
Our main objective was to measure the shift taking place among small businesses from old school tools and processes to modern cloud based applications for acquiring and managing customers, paying the bills, collecting the money, managing the staff and the supply chain. We wanted to know how SMBs are handling those day to day chores that every business must deal with before they even get around to doing what it is that they actually do — cut hair, fix cars, make coffee, design websites and so on. And most importantly, we want to understand how this shift is fundamentally changing how they conduct business.
We also set out to understand how this shift is changing the landscape of companies servicing small businesses. For example Square, which has built a trusted relationship with SMBs by solving a pain point around payments, is also helping its merchant customers manage staff, book appointments, deliver meals, acquire capital and manage customer relationships. As more companies use point solutions as entry points to sell other adjacent services to SMBs, the competitive matrix for the small business share of wallet becomes infinitely more complex.
We’ve determined that in order to become a trusted source of insight on the small business shift to the cloud, we needed to assemble a team of industry experts and influencers to offer us advice, guidance and candid feedback.
We are very proud to announce the following individuals who have agreed to join the newly formed Tech Adoption Index Board of Advisors. These advisors were chosen because of their unique knowledge and perspectives on the small business SaaS market. We look forward to working with and learning from each of these professionals as we continue to build out our business intelligence service. Additional members may be named to the board in the near future to expand the range of perspectives we can tap into as we continue to grow this program.
Gordon Henry, CMO, DexYP
Brendan King, CEO, Vendasta
Louise Lachmann, CEO, Mono Solutions
Mark MacLeod, Founder, SurePath Capital Partners
Josh Melick, Co-Founder and CEO, Broadly
Kelly Thomas Nojaim, VP, Partner Development, Microsoft
Stu Richards, CEO, Bredin
Sunir Shah, President and CEO, Cloud Software Association
Jon Sofield, Head of Business Development, SMB Channels, North America, Google
