A Kansas City startup is aiming to make the request for proposal process, often used by government organizations and businesses looking for vendors via bidding, easier on both ends of the transaction.
The idea for the company, RFP365, came to former college roommates Dave Hulsen and Stuart Ludlow in their work in IT consulting.
“We’ve worked on RFPs on both sides – issuing and responding to them,” Hulsen said in a phone interview. “It’s always been a kind of frustrating thing.”
Last January, after sitting on the idea for years, Hulsen (right) and Ludlow decided to create RFP365, which would make issuing, responding and wading through RFPs a simpler process for all parties involved.
Here’s how it works:
A city government — Hulsen said RFPs are most often used by city, state and federal governments but that private companies use them as well — creates an RFP for new sidewalks in a certain part of the city. The city would distribute this via RFP365, and 10 companies would pick it up and fill out all of the necessary questions, like an estimate on cost, how many people work for the company, whether or not the company is a diverse employer, and so on.
RFP365 allows responding companies to assign the questions to various employees. The software also stores past information that has been entered into the system, which saves time when companies are commonly answering the same questions. And instead of sending the completed form to the issuer via fax or mail, the companies can submit it via RFP365.
“We’re trying to give the right information to the right people, but at the same time provide transparency so that organizations can know their decision-makers are making fact-based decisions,” Hulsen said.
Hulsen said he and Ludlow developed the software with the help of several companies in the area that deal with RFPs on a regular basis.
Many small businesses are scared away by the complicated process of RFPs, Hulsen said, but RFP365 can help small businesses compete for government contracts.
“It’s a great platform to enable small businesses to work with these hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts,” he said.
RFP365 charges anywhere from $50 to $80 per RFP and also charges a hosting fee, which is dependent on the amount of data a company needs to store.
Hulsen said the company may be looking for funding in the coming months but will focus on growing a customer base first.
“We want a small customer base that this works for,” he said. “That’s our first goal.”
For more on RFP365, see the short promotional video below.
Credits: Photo of Hulsen from linkedin.com. Photo of Ludlow from linkedin.com. Video from RFP365 on YouTube.
