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Franchising is a robust development technique for companies searching for speedy growth with out bearing the total burden of capital funding and operational prices. Nonetheless, managing franchises comes with advanced challenges that demand a fragile stability between management and adaptability. Harmonyze permits franchisors to function profitable franchise networks with AI brokers. The platform automates and centralizes each authorized and operational compliance and monitoring and reporting, whereas facilitating coordinated know-how deployment throughout the franchise community, permitting for speedy experimentation. For quickly scaling franchisors, sustaining model consistency and high quality throughout a number of places is essential. Harmonyze helps guarantee clients have a constant expertise aligned with model requirements. By automating operational duties throughout the franchise community, the platform not solely generates value financial savings for each franchisors and franchisees but in addition frees up franchisors to give attention to strategic, revenue-generating initiatives.
AlleyWatch caught up with Harmonyze CEO and Cofounder Gary Liskovich to study extra concerning the enterprise, the corporate’s strategic plans, current spherical of funding, and far, way more…
Who have been your buyers and the way a lot did you elevate?Harmonyze profitable closed greater than $2M in pre-seed funding. The spherical was led by Bowery Capital, with significant participation from Focal.VC, in addition to particular person buyers that embrace CXOs at franchisors, AI firms, and personal fairness companies.
Inform us concerning the services or products that Harmonyze affords.Harmonyze makes it simpler for franchisors to run distinctive and worthwhile companies. Utilizing AI brokers, Harmonyze automates operational and compliance duties, centralizes network-wide monitoring and reporting, and permits speedy two-way innovation between franchisor and franchisee. This progressive resolution not solely drives down prices for franchisors, but in addition frees up their groups to give attention to strategic, revenue-generating actions, in the end enhancing margins.
What impressed the beginning of Harmonyze?
My cofounder, Jonny Greenspan, and I grew up in Brooklyn collectively, the place Jonny’s dad was a franchisee. We didn’t realize it on the time, however this expertise began to form our data of the franchise {industry}, which might ultimately encourage Harmonyze. After Jonny and I graduated faculty and independently labored at quite a few know-how startups, we began to mess around with constructing AI for authorized and compliance-related issues. As we analyzed which industries would profit most from this resolution, we remembered Jonny’s dad’s franchising expertise. Scaled franchise networks are extremely advanced and generate a powerful quantity of unstructured knowledge — the right setting for AI to unlock worth. Over the previous 12 months we’ve finished in depth discovery with franchisors and the response and preliminary business traction has been overwhelmingly thrilling. How is Harmonyze totally different?Harmonyze is an AI-first firm led by skilled technologists and purpose-built for franchisors’ operations, from coordinating compliance duties to staying on high of assorted laws. Our AI brokers interpret the huge quantities of unstructured knowledge that circulate by way of franchise networks after which automate hundreds of in any other case handbook processes. After creating an in depth understanding of a franchisor’s enterprise (Edible Preparations is sort of totally different than the UPS Retailer franchise, for instance), we deploy the correct set of AI brokers to a safe, personal cloud. Right here, these brokers full and coordinate duties between one another by way of a proprietary framework we developed particularly to mirror the way in which data is handed all through franchise methods.
What market does Harmonyze goal and the way large is it?Harmonyze is purpose-built for franchisors — a significant sector of the economic system, however one which has lengthy been underserved by know-how startups. Populars manufacturers like Orange Principle, ACE {Hardware}, the UPS Retailer, and nearly each fast service restaurant function franchise fashions. By 2028, the franchise market is forecasted to succeed in roughly $5 trillion globally, representing a ten.41% CAGR from 2023 to 2028. The operations leaders that run these franchise networks are charged with coordinating hundreds of duties throughout numerous places, usually on the expense of essential strategic work that elevates the model. Harmonyze’s AI is purpose-built for franchisors, and helps them considerably streamline and simplify the complexities of working profitable companies.
What’s your small business mannequin?Harmonzye is a subscription mannequin with pricing dependent upon the dimensions of a franchisor’s community.
How are you getting ready for a possible financial slowdown?The franchise {industry} is robust and rising quickly around the globe. An financial slowdown, nevertheless, would power franchisors to do much more to assist their franchisees, additional burdening their groups consequently. Harmonyze is thoughtfully designed to automate hundreds of in any other case handbook duties, saving prices whereas liberating up groups to give attention to the sorts of strategic, revenue-generating actions which are particularly important throughout difficult intervals.
What was the funding course of like?We have been very organized in our fundraising strategy, which resulted in an easy and fast course of total. I imagine a part of our success was how we framed the franchisor-specific downside after which defined why skilled technologists, versus industry-specific veterans, have been the very best to resolve it utilizing AI.
What are the most important challenges that you simply confronted whereas elevating capital?Whereas everybody, together with VCs, store from and luxuriate in franchise companies on a weekly, if not day by day, foundation, there may be not a deep understanding of their distinctive complexities. We needed to do a number of educating through the fundraising course of to beat this. Nonetheless, this additionally gave us an ideal alternative to reveal simply how nicely we understood the issue we have been fixing, which each VC needs to see. As an early-stage firm, we have been additionally constructing merchandise and onboarding new shoppers as we have been fundraising — doing each concurrently was difficult. Lastly, many VC groups are extremely distributed in the present day, which meant digital conferences have been the norm. Video calls have their advantages, but it surely’s not all the time straightforward to do a considerate chemistry verify nearly. It was actually essential that we labored with the correct buyers that will assist us and our development, so we have been in the end thrilled to accomplice with Bowery Capital and Focal.VC.
What components about your small business led your buyers to put in writing the verify?As soon as buyers understood the complexities of the franchise {industry} and the way massive this sector of the economic system is, they have been energized by the chance for innovation. My co-founder and I are each extremely technical and have a confirmed monitor file of constructing AI merchandise for enterprise clients, which instilled confidence within the buyers that we have been the correct leaders to deal with this problem. And at last, Jonny and I benefited from being finest buddies since center faculty — we have been in lock-step all through the complete course of.
As soon as buyers understood the complexities of the franchise {industry} and the way massive this sector of the economic system is, they have been energized by the chance for innovation. My co-founder and I are each extremely technical and have a confirmed monitor file of constructing AI merchandise for enterprise clients, which instilled confidence within the buyers that we have been the correct leaders to deal with this problem. And at last, Jonny and I benefited from being finest buddies since center faculty — we have been in lock-step all through the complete course of.
What are the milestones you intend to realize within the subsequent six months?
With our pre-seed spherical closed, we’re laser-focused on increasing the variety of franchisors we work with and deploying an order of magnitude extra AI brokers that clear up their issues.
What recommendation are you able to provide firms in New York that do not need a contemporary injection of capital within the financial institution?Make investments the useful resource you do have — your time — in buyer discovery and striving for excellence. This prices nothing and can return dividends by shaping a useful product and sharpening your pitch to buyers.
The place do you see the corporate going within the close to time period?Our focus is on working intently with extra enterprise design companions and ambitiously creating new AI brokers that clear up their most urgent challenges. To assist these targets, we are going to proceed to develop our staff with a give attention to engineering and business roles.
What’s your favourite summer season vacation spot in and across the metropolis?Each Jonny and I grew up in South Brooklyn, so we love Coney Island! We extremely suggest stopping by Tottono’s Pizzeria and Nathan’s while you’re within the neighborhood.
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