DURHAM – Have an idea for a business, but don’t know how to get started? A new company cofounded by well-known Triangle entrepreneur Robbie Allen is hoping to make it easy for you.
Enter Startomatic, a platform launched this week that offers a “complete toolkit” to get your new company legally formed and online within 48 hours, its website promises.
From choosing a name and logo, drafting and filing legal documents, securing a domain name, creating a website, and setting up company email and social media accounts, it handles all of the tasks required to launch a business.
“Our mission is simple. We want to increase the rate of new company creation and extend the average lifespan of small businesses,” said Allen, who is the former founder and CEO of two artificial intelligence/machine learning firms, Automated Insights and Infinia ML.
It comes at a time when some 31 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses are closed and only 45 percent of the owners plan to rehire the same workers they had onboard before the COVID-19 pandemic wrecked much of the US economy, according to a new survey from Facebook.
“It’s very daunting to build a business,” added Allen. “There are so many different facets of a company; so many areas you have to figure out including legal, sales, marketing, finance, HR. I looked around and there are very few software solutions that have been built to help the early entrepreneur. I thought I could build software that automates much of the process of starting and running a new business.”
“Even before the pandemic, we knew the U.S. workforce was changing, and that entrepreneurship was going to play an increasingly important role in our economy. Now, we know Startomatic is the perfect vehicle for innovators and job creators to quickly and affordably get their ideas into the real world, and get America’s economic engine running better than ever.”
With his business partner, Andrew Fisher, a “recovering” corporate lawyer and cupcake bakery owner, the pair built a product called LAUNCH, which includes logo design, domain registration, and website design, legal formation, social media and trademark search. It is currently being offered to the first 500 companies 500 companies at the discounted flat fee of $299 (normally $499) plus state filing fees, which range from $150-$300 in most states.
The second product, OPERATE, is a monthly subscription service with a customizable library of common legal documents, advanced website builder, SEO and DNS tools, trademark search, custom logo generation, and more.
For those reticent to start a business during these uncertain times, Allen offered up some reassurance.
“In many ways, this is a great time to start a company,” he explained. “Especially if you’ve recently lost a job, now might be the right time to launch a new business and Startomatic is a new resource to make that process easier, quicker, and less expensive than ever before.”
