OfficerReports CEO Courtney Sparkman Appears on WRKF’s ‘Out to Lunch’

Recently I had a chance to talk with Baton Rouge Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel on WRKF’s “Out to Lunch.” Sevetri Wilson of Exempt Me Now was the second guest on the show, and the three of us spent an hour talking about the history of our businesses, the challenges facing entrepreneurs, and our thoughts about working in Baton Rouge. Here are a few of the highlights from our discussion.

OfficerReports’ Tech Startup Roots

Stephanie started off asking about the history of OfficerReports.com, so I shared with her how in 2001 my father, a retiring law enforcement officer, wanted to start a security guard company. I figured there was no way in the world I would get involved in that, but we ended up founding Cequr Security in 2002.

We learned a lot of lessons from our time managing our security company.  We had a lot of good times, but my biggest frustration with Cequr was how manual our processes were. I had never seen so much paper in my life – Daily Activity Reports, Incident Reports, Pass On Logs, the list goes on and on.  Prior to starting Cequr, I had worked in marketing research, which is all about data and software.  So naturally I thought there has to be an easier way to track and manage the operations of a security company using software.

If you were part of a billion dollar organization there was software that was capable of helping you manage your operations — of course, but there wasn’t much for smaller companies like ours. Over the years I learned that when you’re working with remote workers, like security officers, it’s vital that you’re able to remotely track their work. So in 2012 I took a leap of faith and taught myself how to code and started developing what eventually became OfficerReports.com.

It was definitely a startup effort. It is actually a little embarrassing looking back at my first “minimally viable product”, it wasn’t even a tenth of what the software is today. After launching, I realized quickly that I wasn’t a true a developer, so I brought on my current co-founder Victor Scott.  Victor is a true software engineer and led the way on developing our software.  OfficerReports.com now includes a comprehensive app that security officers use to show they’re doing their jobs and updates their managers and clients in real-time.

A New Way of Selling

During our conversation we also talked a little about how sales has changed.  When I was working in sales and marketing, the typical sales professional was always asking prospective customers “Hey, are you ready to buy from me yet?” As I began growing OfficerReports.com, I quickly learned that people have changed the way that they buy. They don’t want to pick up the phone and talk to a salesperson. Instead, they want to go online and learn about you and your products. But even more so, I realized that prospective customers are more interested in solving their day-to-day problems.

As a result of that insight, we’ve invested heavily in content marketing over the past three years as our main form of outreach. I also shared with Stephanie one of the things that if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’ve probably heard me say before — I think social media is the best thing that’s EVER happened to small businesses.

How to Fund Your Business

During our conversation Sevetri talked about the journey for getting funding for Exempt Me Now; She shared some really great information on Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) Agreements.  In a SAFE Agreement, rather than receiving equity, investors receive a warrant entitling them to shares in the company if and when it next raises investment capital, is acquired, or has an IPO.

In terms of funding for OfficerReports.com,  although we have talked with several investors, to date Vic and I have elected to bootstrap the business because one of our greatest fears is partnering with the wrong investor(s).  We’ve all heard the horror stories.  We both believe that taking an investment really requires a lot of trust from both parties and trust takes a while to build.

As we continued to talk, Stephanie asked a really great question. She asked if we were to assemble three former supervisors in a room, what would they say that’s not true about us. For me, I was once told that I’m too quick to make a decision. In reality I’m usually really comfortable making decisions and that’s only because I’m constantly thinking about situations that I might find myself in. As an entrepreneur, I believe that you have to be ready for anything, which requires constant contemplation of what is to come. In many cases, by the time a decision comes along that needs to be made, I’ve already thought it through.

Moving to Baton Rouge

Sevetri and I agreed that working here in Baton Rouge is fantastic. I’ve been here a little over a year, and I can honestly say that I love it. There’s a strong culture for entrepreneurs, and they’re really all about growing their businesses and helping others. I’m looking forward to continuing to be a part of that and helping build the community.

If you’d like, you can hear the whole interview here.

 

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By Courtney Sparkman

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