Clarity (company)

Background

The inspiration for Clarity came from Martell’s beneficial experiences during the founding of his first two companies, Spheric Technologies and Flowtown, whereby his mentors provided a significant amount of valuable guidance in telephone conversations.

As Martell embarked upon the process of starting another company after Flowtown’s acquisition, Martell noted that "99 percent" of the useful entrepreneurial advice that he had received "was over the phone." Following the launch of the company, Martell further explained that he moved to San Francisco for the sole purpose of seeking the guidance of mentors and stated: “I know that getting the right advice at the right time can dramatically change an entrepreneur’s life."

Launch

Clarity had a provincial launch in New Brunswick in January 2012 and was opened to the public on May 2012. Martell, who self-funded the startup, began with a group of around 1,000 advisors, including 500 Startups angel investor Dave McClure, lean startup expert Eric Ries, and Color and Science labs co-founder Peter Pham. Four full-time staff members were employed at inception, and Martel stated that he hoped to increase this total to 12 by the end of 2012. (In May 2014, the Clarity website features six employees.)

At the time of Clarity's launch, its emphasis was technology and business, but Martell explained that he was open to expansion, with topics such as fitness and restaurant businesses mentioned. Martell also revealed following the official launch announcement that he was also part of the mentor list and had found that both parties benefit from the interaction:

I’ve done about 400 calls myself during the beta, and what people don’t realize is that it’s hard to give someone advice without taking something away from it yourself. I’ll say, "Hey, I’m driving on the 101 Highway for 45 minutes, call me if you want to talk about product or marketing." You queue the calls, and you get in this rhythm, and it’s actually really energizing.

Martell added that he had also engaged with people who had interesting ideas: "I’ve talked to some entrepreneurs I’d absolutely invest in."

On December 4, 2012, Clarity announced that it had raised US$1.6 million in a seed investment round. Investors included Freestyle Capital, Mark Cuban, Boris Wertz from Version One Ventures and Real Ventures. Martell informed the media that his plans for the new round of investment involved the continuation of refining the backend of the platform and reaching more international customers:

Things that have come up that we’re going to be addressing are localization — adding languages such as Spanish and French, and building the product and the search technology to be able to support those kind of filters so that people in Quebec or France can find other entrepreneurs that can speak French, and people in South America or parts of Europe can find folks who speak Spanish.

New products were also presented as part of the December 2012 announcement, one of which was Clarity Needs, a service that matches Clarity users who are seeking specific advice.

Product description

Clarity connects advice seekers with a pool of experts in areas such as sales, marketing, business development, venture capital and customer acquisition. In December 2012, the company was able to facilitate access to around 7,500 mentors, who charge a self-determined rate, which the mentor may donate to a charity—the mentor receives 85% of the revenue, while Clarity only retains the remaining 15% if the money is not directed to a charity. The advisor aids the entrepreneur and charges a fee for his or her time. Users can search or browse the service directory to find experts, which also includes Cuban and Phil Gordon.

Martell states that the service offers additional value for entrepreneurs who don’t live near big cities like San Francisco, New York or Toronto. The company states on its website: "Regardless if you live in San Francisco or rural Canada, getting advice from those who've been successful is one of the best ways to move your dreams forward."

Mentors are usually asked about specific challenges and the user is then able to consider the advice they received upon returning to the operation of their business. By October 2012, over 12,000 calls had been processed through the service, with entrepreneurs from nearly 50 countries.

In December 2012, Martell announced that the company has introduced conference lines that allowed dial-in initiated by the entrepreneurs and experts themselves to replace the initial function that would contact participants directly at appointment times. Martell explained that the change was necessary due to the increase in demand and had increased Clarity's call-completion rate: "In the early days, we had this idea of a call list, so you could request a call of somebody, and if they were free it would call you back ... Before, our call-completion rate was only around 20 percent, and now it’s around 70 percent”.

Reception

The Huffington Post noted that Clarity gave users a "huge advantage" and stated that the service has some of "the top startup advisors any startup in the world could hope for." Clarity has also received profiles in publications such as Wired, CBC News, the Financial Post, GigaOM, PandoDaily and TechCrunch.