DentBetty
Car Repair Estimates by Photo
Why drive around town for repair estimates? Now you can upload photos of your car's cosmetic damage and make the autobody shops near and far compete for your business.
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News, news, news from DentBetty! Our Winter Update is bursting with Betty goodness...<ding!> :P~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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Wow - DentBetty has been busy since our fall newsletter! We have so much to report, but will do our best to keep it brief. Of course, if you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to call. |
| IN THIS ISSUE |
| Funding: Seed Round Closes |
| More Media Attention |
| New Features |
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The Financial Community is Beginning to Take Notice
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To date, this company has been funded on love, sweat, and generous support from friends and family that share our vision. It gives us enormous pleasure to announce that on December 30, 2009 we welcomed the first investment from an  institutional investor. After performing their own extensive due diligence over a period of 6 months, Rose Asset Management had one final question for us: "What is the maximum amount we can invest?" The fund purchased the entire remaining Seed Bridge authorization (with the exception of stock which management bought). This funding event ensures that we will be able to continue aggressive development and commence marketing trials soon. BettyNetters - get ready, we're gonna start to turn up the volume.DentBetty is like a coiled spring - we have a scalable working platform, actual consumer use, and national media recognition of our market leadership. A new DentBetty Pro version "Overdrive" is just around the corner. We think the prospects are quite compelling. Closing of a Series A Round is the next financing milestone on our road ahead. |
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Hot of the Presses! The Betty is Turning Heads Nationwide Our Boston launch proved to be a big success. What started as just 4 shops signed up as an experiment by Board member Alec Murray has turned into a tornado of enthusiasm - dozens of shops already participating there now, new ones signing up every day, and excellent coverage in both The Boston Herald and The Boston Globe. The earliest consumer reviews have been extremely positive. Congratulations to Cy of Dorchester, the first consumer on the East Coast to get his car repaired via DentBetty!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ But what really got heads turning the last couple months was when autobody industry expert Char  lie Barone broke the news about DentBetty for Body Shop Business. Body Shop Business is hands down the most important trade journal for our segment, actively read by over 50,000 body shop owners and industry thought-leaders. When Mr. Barone called to say he was interested in writing a story on DentBetty, for us it was like being called up by the Pope. What an honor. And the results have been immediate: Our national participating store count has quadrupled in the last two months alone. There are many shops still waiting in the approval queue, and more are signing up every day. (If you are with one of the shops who responded, and we haven't yet spoken with you, our apologies. We are overwhelmed with interest. Please help us coordinate with your busy schedule by emailing us a time that is convenient for us to call you - we'll be glad to get you up and running on DentBetty right away, it takes about 15 minutes.)Our very first banner campaign currently running in BSB's weekly emailer is getting exciting results too! |
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More Features & Service Enhancements
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Lots of changes since we last wrote and many more on the way! Please keep your suggestions coming, there is plenty of room for improvement.
Our biggest revision since the last newsletter is a modification of the consumer proposition. Now we call our offering The DentBetty 7 in 7 (tm) - Get up to 7 estimates in 7 days or sooner!
 We created this 7 estimate maximum limit to make certain that as we scale up, DentBetty is a great solution - not just for consumers, but shops too. Seven estimates are more than enough for most consumers. Meanwhile, with the 7 in 7, shops can know that when they make an estimate on DentBetty, their estimate won't get overlooked in a crowd of hundreds. Each shop can expect to win its fair share.We now sequence notifications to shops through a complex method and algorithm we call Cascading Waterfall Technology(tm). It is designed to minimize the estimation burden on shops while simultaneously optimizing the results that a consumer can expect across a variety of variables. Too complicated to explain here but we will put more information about CWT on the website soon. We have implemented a whole host of other enhancements that shops have suggested to us, such as integrated video for shops to promote themselves to consumers and improve close rates, and a new "DENY" button that makes it easier for estimators to remove any inappropriate job requests from their queue. More improvements coming, especially a superior presentation of estimates to articulate more clearly to consumers what quality and scope of repair is being proposed. We are assembling a group of industry experts to weigh in on our next design revision - if you would like to participate in this effort please let us know. We certainly welcome any feedback and suggestions that occur to you. |
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A sad note
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DentBetty wishes to observe the recent passing of the very first developer to work on this project in 2008, Randall Isaac. Randall was an exceptionally thoughtful person with a tireless passion for learning new things and helping others. He was so generous and creative. Without his enthusiasm and courage to experiment, this company would not have been possible. Rest in peace dear friend. |
