From Boulder to Buffalo and beyond, Kickfurther is proving that big milestones and bigger dreams are possible right here in the Queen City.
As a proud 43North Finals winner, they’ve grown from a team of six to over 50, facilitating over $300 million in deal flow and calling Buffalo home for the long haul.
Their story shows what happens when innovation meets community—a growing team, thriving businesses, and a city that invests in its people.
Inventory funding platform Kickfurther hits $300M milestone
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Kickfurther has facilitated over $300 million in deal flow.
- The company transitioned to a subscription model in 2021.
- Kickfurther plans to double its headcount in a few years.
When Sean De Clercq and his company won a 43North Finals prize in 2018 and moved to Buffalo, the business had six team members.
Today, Kickfurther, an inventory funding platform for consumer-packaged goods companies, has grown to a team of just over 50, half of whom are based in Western New York. This year, the business hit its 10-year anniversary and reached over $300 million in facilitated deal flow from connecting consumer-packaged goods companies and buyers.
More than half of the $300 million deal flow came from the last two years.
“We have this opportunity to both be a cure for a very large market that currently has few other (financial) options and at the same time create this new and investable asset class in inventory,” he said.
Why it matters: The Buffalo startup ecosystem needs more companies like Kickfurther that come, stay and build in the Queen City. This leads to more jobs and spending power and helps illustrate the story that it can be done here in Buffalo.
De Clercq largely attributes the growth to three factors.
One, Kickfurther — which is based at Seneca One Tower — transitioned at year-end 2021 to a subscription model. That way, instead of clients paying a heftier fee because of larger totals being raised on the platform, they pay a flat subscription fee, which provides motivation to raise as much as possible using Kickfurther.
Prior to that change, the company’s bread and butter was businesses under $1 million of revenue a year. The new model has led to larger customers, and now Kickfurther gets most of its deal flow from customers with $2 million to $5 million in trailing 12 month revenue and has companies that bring in as much as $40 million in revenue.
Second, the company has a differentiated financial solution compared to merchant cash advance and daily debit, which De Clercq considers “toxic financial products.”
Third, the United States has about $2 trillion of inventory assets a year, which means Kickfurther has a massive market to grow into.
“We’ve only barely scratched the surface of how deep this market goes and how big the need is here,” he said.
De Clercq said the business could double headcount in a few years from now, reaching close to 100 employees.
Buffalo is also a big part of Kickfurther’s growth story. As a 43North Finals prize winner, the company had to move from Boulder, Colorado, to Buffalo for a year, but it had no obligation to stay beyond that.
De Clercq said Buffalo’s been a great fit for the company and for him personally, from the connections he’s made to the talent pool here to the local dining and theater scenes.
Unlike large, expensive tech markets like New York or San Francisco, Kickfurther can build its business here and see its team members buying houses, starting families and putting down roots.
“I feel very lucky to have found Buffalo,” he said. “It’s a place where you can invest in people, and I think it’s also a place where people can invest in their jobs.”
After running his business for a decade, De Clercq said he considers it an “entrepreneurial superpower” to listen carefully to feedback without getting defensive and then act quickly on that feedback.
The idea for Kickfurther’s switch to the subscription model came from a customer who said the previous percentage of deal flow model didn’t work for him, but Kickfurther wanted to do more with the business
Within one month of that conversation, the Buffalo firm was testing out the subscription model. Within four months had completely adopted the new model.
Kickfurther is working on another product update based on customer feedback, which De Clercq expects to deploy in Q1 2025.
“I still take intro calls with customers,” he said. “If somebody is telling you something, listen. Do it without ego, without pride. Actually try and get value out of what they’re telling you, even if the feedback is painful.”
