INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
than consumers, but not as lucrative as larger enterprises, leaving them caught somewhere in an unsatisfying middle.But today, two serial
whom have previously backed Frohwein and Petralia
Deus himself is a longtime Kabbage employee whose most recent role there has been head of new venture sandbox Kabbage Labs
(Frohwein, who is CEO of the new venture, and Petralia, are also keeping their day jobs running Kabbage.) Backers include Propel Venture
Partners (the investment arm of banking giant BBVA), Felicis Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, American Express Ventures, GroTech Ventures,
been a strong growth story (pun intended), with the company demonstrating that it can build products that speak to the needs of
billion and is growing at more than 55% at the moment, Frohwein said, and is starting to branch out into a new range of other financial
services such as marketing and payments
provide financing for businesses on their platform; through white-label services; and through its own direct channels.)With Drum, Frohwein
be a challenge in fixing themselves, but that sit outside of the kinds of problems that Kabbage itself is aiming to solve
locally or further afield by using digital channels and the sales expertise they bring to the table.With the rise in internet usage, a lot
of businesses have shifted their sales and marketing efforts to digital platforms, essentially managing the work themselves by way of Google
AdWords campaigns, through Facebook and so on
organizational step too steep.The idea behind Drum is to provide these businesses with a platform that lets both salespeople who have time
or want to work on a project basis connect with businesses that might not want to take the step of full-time hires, but could use the
expertise and human power of people to help them with sales
of viewing the engagement of salespeople in the context of an on-demand, gig economy model, it seems there might also be drawbacks.I noted
to Frohwein that matching a driver to a particular delivery may be less personality-specific than matching a salesperson to a particular
specific people to make them better matches for the businesses looking to retain their services (using AI-based tools)
potential issue might be the fact that some salespeople might prove to use approaches that are not ultimately the ones you would want to
have for your own brand or business
Again, this is a problem Frohwein believes can be addressed
(In that regard, this is not unlike something like Airbnb, which mostly seems to work very well for people, with a few troubling hiccups
among the many success stories.)The next step past connecting businesses and salespeople is the third side of this three-sided marketplace
Drum aims to provide a platform for the products and services themselves to get sold, whether they are concert tickets or roofing supplies
This will be developed over time, Frohwein said, and will serve to complement the work of the Drummers who might be working in physical,
real-world sales as well as across digital channels.The main message is that it will be harnessing a large group of businesses that want to
