CASE STUDY

Burrow

Have you ever tried to wrestle a sectional couch into the back of a cab? Gotten frustrated when an Allen wrench doesn’t seem to want to Allen? Dreaded moving because you had no idea how you were going to handle all of your bulky-but-valuable furniture?

Stephen Kuhl and Kabeer Chopra understand that pain, and at an entrepreneurship class at Wharton, set out to alleviate it for as many people as they could.

The result was Burrow. By using modular design, they made their furniture easy to assemble and disassemble. By shipping directly, they made those designs affordable. And by considering the details—things like adding USB ports directly into their couches—they made pieces that fit into customer’s lives as readily as they fit into their living rooms.

Stephen and Kabeer came up with a more modern way to handle furniture. It’s no surprise, then, that they would be drawn to a more modern way to handle equity.

I really feel like I got hands-on, direct knowledge from working with Shoobx. There’s nothing I need that Shoobx doesn’t have.

-Kelley Hicks, Chief Financial Officer

Testing Out Other Options

When Chief Financial Officer Kelley Hicks joined the Burrow team in December of 2019, it was her third startup, so she was well-attenuated to how to handle their needs. Burrow had raised over $30 million, making it clear to Kelley that it was time for specialized software to manage equity.

The first platform that Burrow used was essentially just a cap table. While it was able to handle surface-level equity responsibilities, the usefulness ended there; with little in-platform guidance and a lack of deeper functionality, it failed to provide the value that Burrow was looking for.

It was time to make a change. Kelley was looking for a platform that would provide real value, reduce the company’s risk, and increase Burrow’s attractiveness to investors. On the suggestion of a colleague, she started looking into Shoobx, and felt like it would provide what she needed: more than just a cap table. During the diligence for Burrow’s Series B, she was pulling late nights pulling together documents, organizing a data room, and trying to hunt down signatures. Shoobx would provide an opportunity to use an equity management platform that did all of that work automatically, so she could actually focus on value-creating work.

Upgrading to Shoobx

As soon as she began the process of transferring all of the information from the old platform onto Shoobx, Kelley knew that she was in good hands. The Shoobx platform collected and automatically collated key documents, while the hand-on support team made sure everything went smoothly. The combination meant that switching over to Shoobx took less than a week and couldn’t have been easier:

“I had to move over 32 employees, 163 cap table entries, and about 900 documents, but because of the attentiveness of the Shoobx team, everything was as smooth as it could possibly be. I was up and running within a couple of days.”

The Shoobx Difference

Burrow started its Series B extension just before joining Shoobx, and used Shoobx to finish it. The difference between the two experiences couldn’t have been more stark—while the beginning of the process was bogged down by tracking down signatures, marshalling documents and general inefficiency, everything got significantly better upon making the switch. Thanks to Shoobx workflows, it was easy to contact key stakeholders, grant shares, and see all of that data automatically collected and updated. Regarding the process, Kelley has just one lament: “I wish I had done it all on Shoobx.”

While the strong equity management capabilities drew Burrow to Shoobx, Kelley soon realized that it was the breadth of the platform that made those capabilities possible. In addition to granting shares and keeping the cap table updated, Burrow has also transferred stock, issued board consents, converted stock certificates, closed additional financing, kept track of board meeting minutes, and collated everything automatically in the data room. With all of these capabilities—and more—integrated into the equity workflows, Kelley knows that whatever Burrow needs, Shoobx is ready:

“I really feel like I got hands-on, direct knowledge from working with Shoobx. There’s nothing I need that Shoobx doesn’t have.”

Going Into the Diligence Process with Confidence

As Burrow continues its mission of making furniture make sense, Shoobx will be there to support the team. Even after doing so much equity management on the platform, Kelley knows that there’s a lot more value to come:

“We’ve gotten so much out of Shoobx, and I know we’re just scratching the surface. I’m excited to see what else we’re able to do on the platform.”