2019 was a BIG year for the Axial platform! So before we get too far into 2020, let’s pause and celebrate how far the product has come.

Last January, I wrote a similar note, which ended like this:

“Looking ahead to 2019: we’ll continue to strengthen our matching and process tools until we become the best place for you to send and source deals.”

With 2019 behind us, I’m proud to look back at a few of our key projects from the year and see just how well they aligned to that promise. Here’s how we tackled the challenge.

Continued Investment in Matching Intelligence

Industries:

Our industry taxonomy is at the heart of our match engine. It also happens to be sprawling and complex, as well as ever-evolving by nature. Your ability to find what you’re looking for is critical to your success on Axial. We made these changes to further improve our taxonomy:

• • Updated 1,916 industries (adding, removing, renaming, relocating)
  • Enhanced keyword search to surface related results

Extended Financial Match:

• Investment criteria aren’t always black and white, so we wove new flexibility into our algorithm. This new element of the algorithm allows buyers and investors to be recommended for a relevant deal even when the company is just outside their financial parameters.

Faster, Smarter Project Setup for Buyers and Investors

• A little feedback can go a long way! The Project Breadth Indicator reduces the guesswork around deal sourcing by revealing exactly how many deals shared on Axial in the last twelve months match your project’s current criteria.

Manage Outreach to All Your Buyers through Axial

Research, Marketing, and Outreach tools for Selling a Business and Raising Capital:

• You can now run your entire outreach process on Axial. Simply add your own contacts to the platform, connect your own email address, CC your teammates on the initial outreach, and use your own customizable template.

Streamlined Process Tools

Mobile-Friendly Deal Management:

• With our new mobile-friendly Action Manager, investors can review and respond to opportunities, e-Sign NDAs, and keep their pipeline up-to-date. We also now serve Reminders for sellers to send the CIM once the NDA has been executed.

Deal Management Process Improvements:

• Standardizing the NDA: Members love the Axial Standard NDA for its unmatched efficiency. We built messaging into the product along those lines, which led to sellers and advisors choosing the Axial Standard NDA twice as often as before.
• Report a Concern: As a membership network, the quality of interaction is one of our highest priorities. If your interactions with any member seem off in any way, you can now Report a Concern and our team will hop right on it.
• Leave Comments for Teammates: You can now leave private Comments for your team on recommended investors and contacted targets.
• Track your Deal Funnel: And for better tracking, we released a slew of new Deal Statuses! These include: On Hold, Term Sheet Submitted / Accepted, Management Mtg Scheduled / Held, IOI Received, and LOI Executed.

We also crushed 99 bugs, to keep your experience as smooth as possible. 🐞☠️

On behalf of all of us at Axial, I’m looking forward to what the next year has in store. Thanks for being part of the journey.