Get Ready, BrainStorm has been Funded

Have you heard the news? BrainStorm is excited to announce our $6.4 Million Series A funding round led by Kickstart Seed Fund with additional participation from Jeremy Andrus, who you may know better as the former President and CEO of Skullcandy.

Many people have asked the question, “But wait, hasn’t BrainStorm been in business since 1995? Why are they just now getting a Series A funding?” It’s a little unusual we’ll admit, but BrainStorm has a few reasons for waiting until 2015 to pursue funding:

1. Timing is everything.

We’ve been in the business of corporate learning since 1995, but EdTech is finally in the spotlight, which means it is the prime time for innovation. We have been a leader in this space for a very long time, and we want to continue to progress and be thought leaders in the corporate learning and change management sector. We’ve also seen a significant interest and need for our SaaS solution, QuickHelp. We want to build on that interest and the excitement around EdTech to make QuickHelp better than ever.

2. We’re all about efficiency.

Our entire business model is around making organizations more productive and efficient, so it makes sense that we would wait until we felt we could use this funding as efficiently as possible. Having been in business for many years, we have been able to learn some important lessons on our own dime that organizations typically learn when spending their raised capital. This experience means that we can invest the funds in specific areas with an extremely high degree of confidence that it will provide significant returns. No waste, just results!

3. Our culture is really important to us.

We didn’t want to raise capital if it meant compromising our culture. Eric Farr, one of BrainStorm’s Principals, said it best in an article by Beehive Startups, “We have a really strong corporate culture and it’s critical to us and our employees. It’s based around giving back to the community, it’s based around making sure this is a high-energy, fun place to be, and we want to be in a place where we can continue that culture. We turned down money before we had other alternatives because we didn’t think we could maintain those things. That’s not worth it to us.” Farr goes on to talk about how refreshing it was to work with Kickstarter Seed Fund, who immediately understood our mission and culture.

So what will we do with the funding we’ve raised? A good majority of it will go to growth capital to increase our capacity and help us to run even faster. Another portion has been earmarked for continued development of our SaaS solution, QuickHelp. But one thing’s for sure, big things are happening here at BrainStorm.