The decision to start a business requires a leap of faith in the best of times, however doing so during the middle of a global pandemic seemed like an even higher gamble than usual. Yet for entrepreneurs who did just that, it seems the chips are finally in.
The New York Times recently reported that startups founded during the pandemic are now thriving, and helping to drive job growth. While large multinationals often grab the headlines, this news highlighted the vital role that startups play within the fabric of any economy.
Still, whether the founders of these startups are doing so for the first time or are serial entrepreneurs, small businesses often rely on a network of trusted business partners that provide specific products and services as they grow.
This week Inc. Magazine Editor-in-Chief Mike Hofman selected 359 vendors and suppliers that have demonstrated excellence in serving small and midsize customers, in the organization’s 2024 List of Power Partners.
The Power Partner awards recognize that word-of-mouth referrals remain as one of the most established ways for business owners to navigate the endless product and service offerings on the market to find the best fit for their operational needs.
For the Founder of Prezent Rajat Mishra, an AI-powered communications platform included in the 2024 cohort, launching a business during the pandemic is something he has first-hand experience with.
After seeing how many executives during his career at some of the top Fortune 500 companies continued to fall short with effective communication, he was driven to invest his own money to build a tech-driven solution that could truly address this widespread challenge.
Still, the decision to quit a senior executive role at Cisco depended on Mishra’s commitment to the mission of his company: democratizing great business communication.
Prezent officially launched in March 2021, and the company has gone from strength to strength since then, helping business leaders to grow their own ventures thanks to the range of intelligent communication tools on the platform.
A new way to find word-of-mouth referrals
Inc. Magazine is one of the most important sources for entrepreneurship advice and counsel. In this spirit, the team at Inc. recognizes the importance of community support and mutually beneficial partnerships that support business growth and help leaders to tackle challenges head-on.
When it comes to the Power Partner Awards, the team places a huge emphasis on the vetting process.
Here, a team of editors, researchers, and reporters gathered information on companies’ products and services, assessed their reputations as captured in online comments and forums, and collected customer testimonials to ensure that the sales pitch matches the actual client experience.
By highlighting the companies that are going above and beyond in their role as B2B partners for small and midsize customers across everything from across various facets of the business, including hiring, compliance, infrastructure development, cloud migration to fundraising, the list acts as an important source of trustworthy, reliable recommendations.
Inc. Magazine’s Mike Hofman explained further, “This is our definitive listing of vendors and suppliers who have demonstrated excellence in serving small- and midsize customers.”
“In every case, we spoke to founders who were happy to attest to a vendor’s genuine commitment to a mutually beneficial business partnership. We’re happy to be the conduit for that positive word of mouth,” he added.
Prezent’s inclusion on the 2024 list is a testament to the value that the communication platform from this fast-growing company can offer others in the community.
Helping founders to grow with communication excellence
The team at Prezent believes that every business owner deserves to have access to the tools and techniques that let their ideas come to life thanks to sophisticated business storytelling capabilities driven by an AI co-pilot called ASTRID.
This means Prezent’s service offering goes much deeper than other solutions in the market. The AI-driven tools go one step further, building audience empathy, structured storylines, high-end designed templates, expert guides, and contextual learning modules.
The company offers a range of solutions to meet the communication needs of its customers, including small and midsize companies. For one, its platform offers a one-stop-shop that helps other entrepreneurs to manage all of their communication materials in one place, to ensure that brand consistency is maintained.
Prezent has the ability to shave an average of 70% off of the time needed to create a presentation, while also ensuring that the content is clear and engaging thanks to its AI-powered features.
In addition, the platform’s features take the benefits of Prezent even further. For instance, Fingerprint 2.0 is designed to help founders become self-aware communicators by assigning audiences with one of eight ‘fingerprint archetypes.’
The process helps founders understand that audience is always the first priority when it comes to communication materials. This allows everything from the way that data points are visualized to the order in which information is presented, in order to build the story in a way that resonates with a specific audience.
For entrepreneurs, effective communication can help out with everything from sales pitches to employee engagement. With Prezent, the tools needed to make this happen can be accessed by everyone.
