Tropic, the buyer enablement platform radically simplifying the software purchasing process for businesses and vendors, today announced that it has secured $2.1 million in seed financing led by Founder Collective. In addition, the company announced the general availability of its buyer enablement platform, available today, which enables businesses to effortlessly discover and collaborate with SaaS vendors, radically simplifying the software buying process. With Tropic, both business software buyers and sellers have a centralized platform in which they can evaluate vendor and product fit based on business needs, use cases, features and pricing - as well as directly collaborate throughout the sales process.

In addition to Founder Collective, Tropic secured its financing from Company Ventures; Zach Perret and Will Hockey, founders of Plaid; Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg, founders of Flatiron Health; Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer at Adobe Creative Cloud; and Jason Finger, former CEO of Seamless. The company will use the funding to expand its New York headquarters and scale its engineering, operations, and go-to-market teams. Micah Rosenbloom, partner at Founder Collective, will join Tropic's board.

Tropic is the first buyer enablement platform, designed to make the process of buying business software easy by removing obstacles at every stage, from discovery to decision. Tropic's platform matches businesses to the best vendors based on their unique needs. From there, buyers can collaborate across teams and company stakeholders; compare vendors and products; and communicate and negotiate with vendors in real-time in one place - no endless back-and-forth via email. On the other side, vendors have limited visibility into how they are performing in each deal opportunity relative to competitors at every step in the sales process, enabling them to make changes to their offering or pricing in order to increase their chances of closing the deal.

"Today's tech ecosystem is crowded with sales software that helps SaaS vendors maximize sales revenue, with little concern for a buyer's true needs. Tropic is flipping the paradigm on its head - and putting the power back in the hands of the buyer - by providing a centralized platform for them to evaluate products and own every step of the sales process," said Micah Rosenbloom, partner at Founder Collective. "Tropic is unique because it objectively connects buyers with vendors in a way that virtually eliminates the friction associated with traditional SaaS sales outreach tactics. Tropic represents the first win/win approach for both software buyers and sellers and we're very excited to be a part of the team's growth."

Building on early customer success with companies like Bleacher Report, The Tot, Airtime, and more than 50 other brands, Tropic is rapidly expanding its base due to its ability to save time in a notoriously complex process.

"We used Tropic to purchase a social suite solution. Their platform matched us with vendors we hadn't heard of and made it super easy for the whole team to navigate the decision with transparency," said Andrew Cooper, Director of Brand at Airtime, the social streaming app cofounded by Facebook's Sean Parker. "I also loved that we could share feedback easily with vendors on the platform without writing any emails, but the best part was how easily we could communicate the decision to leadership: executives immediately understood the rationale in our decision with Tropic's evaluation system."

Buyer Enablement: A New Way Forward for Businesses And SaaS Vendors

Buyer enablement has traditionally been defined in terms of sales enablement: billions of VC dollars have been invested into platforms to equip vendor sales reps with the tools they need to sell effectively, which only occasionally includes providing buyers with resources that are intended to guide them to a sale. The asymmetry in the SaaS buying process leads to billions of dollars in inefficient spending: businesses waste time and resources researching solutions; emailing, calling, and demoing with sales teams; and unwittingly buying software they don't need or use because of poor fit. Meanwhile, vendors waste time and resources pursuing leads that are a poor fit or, worse, grapple with unhappy customers who were sold something they might not have wanted or needed. Tropic's buyer enablement platform solves both problems by creating a transparent, collaborative system for evaluation and sales negotiation that offers businesses an unbiased view of offerings in the marketplace - as well as recommendations based on their own needs - and offers vendors a clear understanding of each business's specific needs.

With Tropic, business software buyers are able to:

Evaluate vendors and products at zero cost. With Tropic, buyers can discover vendors and products that meet their business's unique needs without spending time or resources on research. Buyers are matched with vendors by independent domain experts who lend their experience and knowledge to ensure an optimal use case fit.
Collaborate with vendors at each step of the sales process. For the first time, buyers and vendors have a centralized collaboration platform that enables real-time communication between business teams and multiple vendors, dramatically reducing back-and-forth emails and calls. Important evaluation and sales information is securely stored for easy review.
Trust their purchasing decision every time. Because buyers have total control over and visibility into the sales process - as well as a qualified team of independent experts who can help - buyers can trust that their buying decision is always a right choice.
With Tropic, SaaS vendors are able to:

Connect and collaborate with pre-qualified buyers. For the first time, vendors are able to share product information, negotiate terms, and communicate directly with prospective buyers in real-time within a secure, centralized SaaS platform.
Gain valuable insight into the buyer's unique business and user needs. With Tropic, vendors have complete transparency into a buyer's unique needs and goals, ensuring a better product/use case fit - and dramatically reducing the time and resources wasted on pursuing the wrong customers.
See why they are winning (or losing) deals and optimize their sales process. Tropic's industry-first platform reveals how vendors are stacking up relative to other software that buyers are evaluating, enabling them to adapt their offering, pricing, or other terms to remain competitive during individual deals and in aggregate.
"Businesses today waste billions of dollars on software that doesn't fit their needs, simply because they didn't have all the information they needed to make an informed decision. Meanwhile, vendors chase businesses whose use cases will never be a good fit, frustrating countless sales teams. Tropic solves both of these," said David Campbell, cofounder and CEO, Tropic. "Tropic's buyer enablement platform reverses the software sales process by putting the information and power in the hands of buyers. We provide the technology and expert insight to help businesses find the perfect software for their needs; centralize all the information they need to make a decision and collaborate with vendors in real-time; and, ultimately, make the best software choices for their business."

To learn more about Tropic and to sign up for free, please visit http://www.tropicapp.io.

About Tropic:
Tropic is the easiest way to buy business software. Tropic built the first buyer enablement platform to remove obstacles at every stage of the software purchasing process, and we are redefining the way businesses and vendors interact with one another. Our mission is to create a transparent and trust-driven community where businesses are empowered to make informed technology buying choices best suited for their needs - with ease and confidence. Tropic is headquartered in New York City and backed by Founder Collective, Company Ventures, and leading investors. Learn more at http://www.tropicapp.io.