As a founder in 2008, Randall Nachman joined Louisiana Technology Park for the resources and connections it provided for his loan software startup, ATLOS, which he sold in 2017.
Now he’s back again with Novateus, a custom software development company. He aims to tap into Tech Park’s community as he optimizes the user experience in two broad categories of software – project management and digital forms automation.
Nachman discusses what drives him as a serial entrepreneur and how he plans to launch new products during a global pandemic.
Focus on Solving User Experience Problems
Nachman has a gift for pinpointing and solving user experience problems. “It’s not hard to motivate me to try to do something that I think can be done better,” Nachman says.
In the early 2000s, Nachman ran a mortgage brokerage in New Orleans when most lenders still used paper documents. Legally, loan records have to be kept for a specific time, requiring expensive offsite storage for the paper trail.
Seeing this opportunity for change, Nachman developed loan software to automate processes and signatures, long before electronic signatures were common. Hurricane Katrina wiped out his firm’s physical records — but thanks to his in-house software, he had digital copies.
Harness the Power of Community Resources
Nachman came back to the Tech Park for the flexibility and room to grow. Office spaces can be quickly set up and expand when necessary, which supports rapid scaling. This kind of growth is costly to do with a traditional lease, he says.
Tech Park also provides a built-in community of peers. Startups in all stages of development are available around every corner. “You’re with people that are going through the same things that you’re going through,” Nachman says. “It’s great to network with those people.”
Though he is not seeking outside capital for his current projects yet, Nachman thinks being at the Tech Park gives him an edge in fundraising. “It’s a lot harder to raise money in Baton Rouge than say Austin, Texas,” he says. “But you know your chances of raising money here are still better than they would be outside of the park.”
Build Tools to Adapt to a Post-COVID World
Taking a software product to market can be intimidating — especially during a global pandemic. With the post-COVID shift to remote work, Nachman thinks the market is right for his products.
Nachman is currently developing his HTML-based form-building software, Formsio, and his project management software, Cuewell. He sees Formsio supporting digital transformation in the financial, lending and health care sectors. With Cuewell, he wants the project management software to fill user experience gaps left by the leading software, such as native accounting features and time-tracking capabilities.
Both Formsio and Cuewell support an easier transition to remote work. “The stuff that I’m selling is even more valuable to businesses that have to learn to work in a virtual environment,” Nachman says. Understanding your prospects’ evolving needs and demonstrating the value your product brings in a post-COVID-19 world is essential. If you can successfully provide value to one customer, word will travel. “Almost every one of our customers has referred us to another customer,” he says.
