SoloFire (Lehi), a platform for medical device sales reps, simplifies access to marketing materials, enhances productivity, and resolves inefficiencies. Recently acquired by its co-founders, with an investment from Startup Ignition Ventures, the company plans significant updates this year.
SoloFire is a SaaS product which aims to make it much easier for sales reps to access and distribute marketing materials. Based in Lehi, Utah, SoloFire has been around for over a decade. It had different ownership entities which Ben and Jason have been a part of. Ben and Jason decided they wanted to purchase SoloFire to have full control over the vision of the business and implement cutting edge technology like AI.
This software aims to fix inefficiencies sales reps encounter. As Co-Founder and Co-Owner Ben Mosbarger explains:
“Sales reps lack easy access to sales and marketing materials in the field. Because of this they miss out on opportunities, or there's a bunch of inefficiencies. For example they could send out content to their customers which contains false or out of date information.”
Mosbarger, along with Co-Owner and CTO Jason Etherington purchased the product only a few weeks ago. This purchase was made possible by Etherington and Mosbarger forming a partnership with Startup Ignition Ventures.
"SolofFire has been a fascinating investment for Startup Ignition Ventures," said John Richards, managing partner for the pre-seed venture fund. "Two managers, quasi-creators of the business model and product had the opportunity to do a management buyout of the software, intellectual property, and book of business. We guided them on creating a new entity, getting an investment from us to help fund the buyout, plan the financial needs of the venture, and consummate the acquisition. This is one of the best investments we have made to rapidly increase our limited partners fortunes. Also, as a bonus, Ben and Jason are nice guys to work with and they have a great future."
Being used primarily by medical companies such as Medtronic, the product has helped improve sales reps’ productivity while in the field. Customers have given testimonials about SoloFire, and one such testimonial by Erica Vigneau states:
“The greatest thing about SoloFire, is when a rep sends files and the customer clicks on a link in a file, the reps are notified exactly what the customer is clicking on. That’s basically an in for the rep.”
Another such testimonial explained how it helped improve workflow. Mallory Berko stated:
“They can actually demo through the product as they would as if it were sitting in their facility. SoloFire is more hands-on. It’s more interactive. But, it also allows us to provide our tools to our reps in one place to easily access when talking to our customers.”
SoloFire also doesn’t require internet access to share and make edits to any content. Mosbarger explains:
“Lots of these reps are going to be in the belly of the hospital, and they need to show content, but they don't have the internet. With our application, that's not a problem. They can just open up the app, whether it's on their laptop, phone, or iPad, and they can show and share all the content, even without the Internet. The new changes or new files are saved in local storage, then as soon as the device has internet access, it sends out those new changes or files.”
The software has been designed to be as accessible as possible. As CTO and Co-Owner Jason Etherington says:
“What’s really unique about our platform is that it's device agnostic. it works on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. We have native applications for each of those, so that wherever you are your content is there with you. None of our competitors can say this. None of them offer iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. Native apps are really important when it has to work without internet access."
SoloFire also can give presentations, and can record interactions from its audience. Etherington explains:
“Another unique aspect of our software is PowerPoints. We have a proprietary PowerPoint technology which converts the presentation into something that will record interactions that you'd expect from a presentation, but they can be viewed through our application as if it were being viewed natively within PowerPoint. Most of the time pptx files have to be flattened to pdf's when share. Not with SoloFire, you can build a Powerpoint deck with embedded links and videos, and it will present just as you intended.”
SoloFire may also have the potential to remove the need to send files via email, due to a feature it calls Spaces according to Etherington:
“When reps out in the field go out to share these documents with their clients, they're able to select multiple files and send them out. Instead of sending these documents as individual attachments, Solofire creates a new Space which is specific to that content. So the user only receives one link to that Space.”
He continues, “Using a Space, I can just send you all the documents needed for the current project or sales collateral. It’ll house all my communication and contact info, and provide the ability to add others to that secure Space. And because it's in a Space we can notify sales reps when their prospects engage with content. It's really useful and powerful.”
The software is used by medical device manufactures that count on distributor networks for revenue. By providing a technology advantage the distributor network is more likely to sell the products that are top of mind and have great support collateral from the manufacturer, thus SoloFire provides a meaningful advantage over other manufacturers.
“Let’s say you have to onboard a new distributor or even a new employee. Using our technology, you can include all the onboarding training materials, including videos, quizzes, etc. and when they have finished their training they can access all the sales collateral they need out in the field. The advantage of this is you get to record all of the interactions, and don’t even need to be connected to the internet to do so, and you don’t even need PowerPoint.”
Mosbarger and Etherington have a huge advantage because they have been with SoloFire from the beginning and are now the owners of the technology. They’re looking to make big upgrades to both the software and the company as a whole, as Etherington states:
“Over the years, we've had a lot of ideas about cool ways to enhance the software. Now that Ben and I have the leadership positions, we can realize those ideas and make our platform stronger and better.”
Mosbarger and Etherington know that SoloFire is in need of some technology upgrades and we have the best customer, which we speak with regularly and they are a wonderful source of ideas for feature development. We will double down our feature development and give our customers a voice in the product development process.
Etherington added:
“It’s worth noting that since acquiring the business just a few weeks ago sales have increased by 10%.”
SoloFire already has a large user base, but is looking to continue growing, as Mosbarger states:
“Ideas are the currency of the world today and most of the time people don't know how to spend it. So, when we ask customers for a few ideas on how to make SoloFire better they will give us their very best ideas first for free!”
Mosbarger and Etherington also want to incorporate AI into SoloFire, as Etherington explains:
“Some of the features we want to add will include exciting uses of AI. We realize how important AI is now, and we have some really great ideas on how we can help sales reps perform better using AI tools.”
SoloFire pricing starts at $50 per user per month with generous pricing breaks for medium to large teams.
To learn more about SoloFire, click here.
