Marcus Perez
Building something from nothing is never easy. Unfortunately, that's the only choice for many new businesses. And it was the case for the team behind MSquared.
The 1-year-old startup specializes in finding the best backend business tools for small companies. Think software to help them balance their books and the other basic necessities of running the day-to-day of a business. MSquared's team and its technology specializes in making sure their clients know the importance of real revenues, expenses, comprehensive financial analysis, and accurate accounting.
Marcus Perez and Maxim Ermakov launched
MSquared not long after graduating from Wayne State University and Notre Dame. Their first job out of college was working as consultants, which inspired them to turn that job into becoming their own boss.
"We had done prior consulting so we rolled that into the business," says Perez, co-founder & managing partner of MSquared. "Plus there isn’t a lot of capital outlay because our real value is in our time and expertise."
The partners leveraged some local entrepreneurial education resources to get started. They took part in the
Blackstone LaunchPad program at Wayne State University, which helps teach the basics about launching a business to non-business school students with entrepreneurial ambitions. MSquared also received a grant from the
Warrior Fund (Blackstone LaunchPad’s seed capital fund) that helped them build out the software for their company.
"Staying connected to the entrepreneurial landscape opens up a lot of opportunities for seed capital and grants from across Metro Detroit," Perez says.
The software platform helps MSquared recommend and implement the suggestions for the clients, which helps them improve their business. The software platform is still being added to, but it is enough to get MSquared started.
"Our business model is our time," Perez says. "Being profitable isn't very difficult because we don’t have a lot of overhead. It’s more about finding the right, effective billing rate."
- Written by Jon Zemke