MRGN

Making strategic decisions based on graphs and charts is archaic and requires a business degree. Not only are traditional BI solutions inaccessible to small businesses, but they fail to account for factors outside of your company, like competitor activity, stock market and economics, traffic and weather etc. This inadequacy is responsible for 82% of SMB dissolutions. 

True business intelligence; not just visualization. MRGN provides predictive insights around your KPIs, hiring plans, financing strategies and more, all premised on your operating plan (which MRGN builds for you as well).

The enterprise space has enjoyed a robust software stack for far too long, so MRGN is targeting a substantially underserved 30M SMB market with a TAM of $26.1B. We sell to founders, management members and bookkeepers, though our platform is built for novice users with little to no finance acumen. Our user registrations have included SaaS ventures, law firms, construction companies, restaurants, food and beverage brands, and financial services firms.

MRGN is the only end-to-end machine learning-based business intelligence solution for tech ventures and SMBs. Our ML methodology is not only proprietary, but can be applied to the mid-market and enterprise spaces as well, with full IP protection (forthcoming). Our methodology leverages APIs to multiple data sources, including big data, CRMs, task management systems and other publicly available data, in order to combine that data into digestible contextual intelligence about any given business on the MRGN platform. The Machine Learning engine then uses newly ingested information in order to continuously provide the business with adaptive intelligence. For example, the platform will be able to tell any business how its specific KPIs compare to industry benchmarks, where those KPIs are trending, how its hiring plan fits its growth plans, if its planning to pay new hires the correct market rates and much more.

We just launched soft out of beta with 1,000 small businesses on platform. Hard launch is on April 15th, at which point we will be on-boarding Taco John's and the City of Miami, accounting for $24k in MRR. 

Our closed beta program of 150 SMBs validated the platform's ability to create an operating plan in a programmatic fashion, and our open beta program of 1,000 SMBs validated our simulation component. We are currently in the process of developing our patent pending machine learning engine that will power our third-party insights. 

The one value that serves as the north star for the MRGN team is appreciation of outside perspectives. We are an open, friendly and collaborative team that proactively seeks out contrarian opinions of others, and where better to obtain such opinions than from one of the most esteemed institutions in the world. 

We are looking for those who smarter than us to bluntly tell us what we can do better, and we'd be honored to join the MIT program. Thanks for the opportunity!

MRGN is the only FP&A platform for SMBs that allows them to understand how any cash-flow-impacting event may affect their businesses.

My team and I have consistently found ourselves in various positions throughout our careers of not understanding our business metrics. Spreadsheets were cumbersome and dashboards didn’t do much. So, we set out to build the platform that would interpret all of that mumbo jumbo into plain English using AI/ML.

We grew very frustrated watching our small businesses, as well as many others, trail off due to a lack of access to data and technology commonly enjoyed by large enterprises.

Coupled with the small business attrition rate of 90% within 18-24 months, we set out to do something about it.

Our mission is to invert that metric entirely over the course of the next 15 years.

Small business are innately an underserved segment, unfortunately. Even more so, small business owners who are struggling to keep their businesses afloat, settle in the US, stay up to date with technology and understand best practice around business management and cash flow oversight. 

MRGN's goal is to address these issues at the root, by providing a platform that is unique, enjoyable, affordable, and whose value to the end user is unparalleled. 

Our platform breaks down into three primary value propositions. The ability to create your operating plan, and then simulate various scenarios on top of it are both features that are powered by simple mathematical calculations. Not proprietary in the least.

Our true game changer is our patent-pending ML insight engine. We first filed a provisional patent in March of 2023, followed by the non-provisional conversion in March of 2024. The patent ensures that MRGN is the only platform that can rightfully inform your operating plan with third party market data, so that you can be confident in preparing for the future of your business. 

Our stack is React, Node, Python, GCP and Mongo.

We've validated the operating plan creation and simulation features by means of two substantial beta testing programs. Our ML engine is currently being built, and we would love the opportunity to have the Solve team help us get there.

The following is a link to a couple of success stories from our beta program:

https://mrgn.ai/use-cases/

Full Time Staff - 3

Part Time Contractors - 9

Four years. We began MVP development in early 2020, while we were still employed elsewhere on a full time basis. Some of us moved over to full time with MRGN about two years ago. 

We also fell victim to an offshore engineering shop, before bringing on a new in-house CTO and building a team around him. Bringing on board a complete product management team has also been a key factor to our recent success.

Creating a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming team is a priority for MRGN, encompassing comprehensive strategies across recruitment, training, policies, culture, and feedback mechanisms. Utilizing inclusive language in job descriptions, leveraging diverse recruitment channels, and implementing blind resume screening techniques are essential for attracting a broad range of candidates to MRGN. Providing diversity training, professional development opportunities, and flexible work arrangements supports the career advancement and work-life balance of all employees at MRGN. Additionally, MRGN establishes zero-tolerance policies for discrimination and harassment and fosters open communication and cross-cultural collaboration to promote a supportive and respectful workplace culture. Continuous feedback mechanisms, such as employee surveys and focus groups, ensure ongoing assessment and adjustment to create an environment where all team members at MRGN feel valued and empowered to succeed. With a leadership team predominantly female and employees of diverse nationalities and races, MRGN demonstrates its commitment to diversity and inclusion in all aspects of its operations. By prioritizing these initiatives, MRGN fosters innovation, collaboration, and overall success.

We are currently focused on our SaaS revenue channel, which supports a free trial and three tiers of pricing; $29, $89 and $129 per month. Phase 2 of monetization involves the launch of our partner program, and phase 3 includes marketing the aggregated and anonymized data of our end users.

Once we launch to the public on April 15th, we'll be onboarding two substantial clients to the platform that will account for $288k in ARR. Separately, our direct approach to small businesses has yielded a 34% conversion rate using traditional digital acquisition platforms, like Google Ads. Healthy conversion rates usually sit in the 1.5-2% range, as you know.

We very quickly surpassed our forecast of freemium users, and most have indicated their intention to continue on a paid plan. 

We just kicked off our pre-seed raise a week ago, which will carry us out to the end of 2025, though we intend on breaking even in Q2 '25.

With all that said, we intend to