Care-management software firm Tendly launches rebranding effort

A Carmel-based software firm has tuned up its marketing strategy and is doing business under a new name after securing $1 million in growth capital earlier this year.

Tendly LLC, a 4-year-old software platform for child care and senior care providers that previously operated as Tend.ly, this week announced it was now doing business as MomentPath.

“This change was not entered into lightly,” Caitlin Coffman, co-founder and CEO, told IBJ. “We determined that it more clearly represents where we are now and where we want to be in the future. The new name helps people understand who we are and what we do.”

The moniker of any startup can be critical to its success, and this is especially so in the tech sector, where company officials are keen to have a business name that reflects what a firm does. It’s not uncommon for young tech firms to rebrand as they seek to raise capital or as they begin a growth spurt. Often, it’s venture capitalists who push for the change.

As Tendly’s seven-person staff worked through the rebranding process, they settled on a theme of “building a path through care moments,” Coffman explained. She gave the firm’s chief marketing officer, Byron Hardie, credit for leading the rebranding effort.

Coffman said her company has heard "countless stories" from preschool and child-care clients who use the firm's management software about the impact it had on parents, teachers and directors.

"There was a profound emotional response that we weren’t expecting,” Coffman said in written comments. “We realized that our core purpose goes beyond automatic reporting, billing, tracking and an easy-to-use system. These moments matter and we needed a name that reflects that commitment to improving and enriching the lives of all those that use our software. This is our path and we look forward to sharing in the many incredible moments to come.”  

The rebranding coincides with an increase in marketing outreach by the company that is being fueled by the $1 million in funding it received this spring. The funding round included investments from Mike Simmons, founder of T2 Systems; Scott McCorkle, former CEO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud; Eric Tobias, partner in High Alpha; Michael Browning, founder and chairman of Browning Investments; and Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures.  

“We are using the funding we secured in three areas: marketing, product growth and sales,” Coffman explained.  

The company’s primary target now is child care businesses, but MomentPath also intends to target senior care facilities. 

Parents and caregivers are not charged to use the platform. The company’s revenue comes from the child care centers, schools and senior care centers that subscribe to the product, which is designed to replace many of the pen-and-paper reports used by these businesses. The pricing is done on a per-child basis, Coffman said.

Parents of children for instance often get reports on their child's daily activities, including what and how much they ate, the amount of time they slept—and, for younger children, what Coffman calls “diaper activity.”

Coffman, a former application development manager for T2 Systems and chief financial officer for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, founded Tendly—with her husband, Matt Coffman, and Tobias—as a communications platform that helps care providers share meaningful moments with family members.

The company is aiming to hit $1 million in annual revenue by the end of 2019, at which time it expects to be “cash flow positive,” Coffman said. 

To boost growth, Coffman said, the software firm is aiming to begin work to secure another round of funding in February or March. 

“There are some competitors, but this industry is highly fractured,” Coffman said. “It’s really wide open.”