Ever see an inefficient process and think, “There has to be a better way”? You’re in good company — so do lots of entrepreneurs, including Dr. Russell Baker. A counterterrorism expert for the Department of Defense, Dr. Baker began automating time-consuming military processes. People encouraged him to turn it into a business, and Psynetix was born: a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that helps prevent school shootings, drug trafficking, and terrorism.
Dr. Baker is a renowned expert in intelligence and profiling, but he was new to startup life. “I needed to understand the process [of writing a business plan],” he says, so he dove into research. “I spent three weeks doing nothing but interviewing business plan companies. I spoke with every business plan company that I could find on the internet.” He found that many companies with the depth of research he needed lacked the patience and insight to work with a startup--but not Masterplans.
“The Masterplans process was everything I hoped for and then some,” Dr. Baker says. “You asked questions I never would have thought to ask. I was very scattered and lost, and [project manager] Austen helped organize everything. There’s not a thing I’d do differently in the process.”
And the response to his business plan has been overwhelmingly positive. “I was ecstatic when I saw it,” Dr. Baker says. “I was able to go out and pitch more investors, and we really took off. All these venture capitalists said, ‘This is the best business plan I’ve ever seen.’ I can safely say it brought in eight new investors, and our investment went from $40,000 to $1.3 million. I even gave it to an incubator that uses it as an example,” Dr. Baker says. (Aww! We’re blushing!)
Now Psynetix is going to market and about to make its first sale. Congrats, Dr. Baker, and best wishes for Psynetix’s continued success!
