Amicus.io, which was recently acquired by TIFIN, is an early-stage fintech company that aligns the incentives of donors, financial institutions, corporations, and philanthropic organizations for charitable giving at scale. CEO and Co-Founder Cor Hoekstra says in some ways, his work for tech giants such as Oracle and IBM informed the venture. For example, one thing he learned was the importance of sales
"It dawned on me one day, I had this idea that at some point in my career I wanted to lead a smaller software company or business unit," Hoekstra says. "To do that and do it well, I realized that you have to master the art and science of sales. And so during my career, I've basically been in a lot of different roles in the context of both Oracle and IBM, but the one skill set that has served me the most as we ventured into Amicus was everything I learned in the context of sales and developing relationships at the executive level, cultivating a level of trust, but then also be able to deliver ultimately what you sell."
Hoekstra has been able to attract strong capital partners in the first few years of Amicus.io, including a round of just under $10 million. In identifying those capital partners, he says he was mindful relative to the type of investor or investor profile that he was targeting.
"It was very important, because we are a mission-driven company, that the capital that we attracted was mission aligned," he says. "So, that translated predominantly into individual investors as well as family offices that identified with the vision for the company and, as compared to other sources of capital would, be more patient."
The story you he crafted as he pitched investors has continued to evolve, he says. That's in part because he's learned a great deal about how people in the fintech space talk. Because it's so broad, the solution plays differently in the context of not only the financial institutions, but also wealth management as well as the asset managers.
"Within those segments people speak a different language," Hoekstra says. "So, ultimately what allowed us to attract the type of capital that we did was the ability to drive to product market fit and to do so with some of the Tier 1 financial institutions that in essence allowed us that in strategic partnership with those financial institutions to develop a digital platform that was best in class.
Hoekstra spoke on the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast about attracting investors, differentiation, and what he sees as the future for the company. Click on the player to catch the full conversation.
