Introducing indie.biz, Because Being Independent Shouldn't Mean Being Alone
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) March 07, 2017 -- Seattle-based startup indie.biz launches the beta version of its content and marketplace platform today, as the first publisher of business guides and custom, data-driven planning tools designed for independent businesses.
Created by Microsoft alum Michael Megalli, indie.biz addresses the complex needs and myriad questions that often go unanswered in the process of starting or running a small business. Companies with fewer than 20 employees make up 97 percent of all US businesses and account for nearly half of our economy. Yet this influential market is largely under served by data-rich information about developing, launching and operating businesses that can enhance their success and survival. It’s no wonder that the startup process takes years to complete and generates very low success rates.
“People who take the risk of striking out on their own are doing something that’s both an act of faith and heroism,” says Megalli. “I believe we owe it to them to do a better job providing them the information and knowledge they need to succeed.”
Megalli has spent his career helping large and small companies build entrepreneurship into their brands. In the course of developing indie.biz over the last two years, his team interviewed hundreds of small businesses owners and researched the climate in which they operate. He sees the perennial drive toward independence as a basic test of economies that grow based on a range of personal values rather than just the profit motive. “What we’ve learned is that the vast majority of entrepreneurs are not "business people," he adds. “They are people who learn the business-side so they can build something they believe in. Going independent is a kind of intuitive leap.”
What’s been missing along the way, he discovered, is any clearinghouse of well-curated, easy-to-follow information to teach independents — as he terms them — those basics of business. Megalli has been on a mission to develop a resource that could empower best practices and create better outcomes through better preparation, clad in a beautifully designed user experience that makes the information truly accessible. From business models to financial basics, to legal, marketing and hiring tutorials, his vision is to distill and decipher a wide span of academic writing, sociodemographic data and business theory into usable guides and recommended libraries for the general public.
Following the principles of radical transparency in his own business model, indie.biz is 100% and always will be free to its users — whether they are developing a personal business profile with indie’s powerful database, using its guides or shopping in its marketplace. “If you buy something we tell you about, we get a commission. No costs are passed on to our users, and no personal information is ever shared. It’s that simple,” says Megalli. “What I’m interested in is bringing all these hidden people together to help make their ideas into realities. Indie is meant to be a community where we are stronger together.”
For more information on indie.biz, see Michael Megalli’s introduction or access the full site at indie.biz.
Michael Megalli, indie.biz, http://indie.biz, +1 (646) 239-6939, [email protected]
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