Pickaw tells about his financing with Karmen

Can you introduce yourself in a few words? And what does Pickaw do?

Thomas Reichling, I am in Marseille, President of Pickaw. Pickaw is a platform that allows you to organize contests on social networks (Fb, Twitter, Yt, Instagram) with complete transparency. The idea is to help creators to automate the creation of contests and the different actions to be done for the contest in all transparency.

In what context did you need funding for Pickaw?

I needed financing for the acquisition of a competing company (Like a Bird): Pickaw was very young (just 3 years old when we came knocking on Karmen's door), and I needed cash flow to continue to grow the business in conjunction with this buyout. With only 3 years of experience, which is still very young, we didn't necessarily have enough money to buy a company and continue to evolve and recruit. 

What was the problem with the other funding options you had available?

I first turned to my bank, I had a first oral agreement, then, a few weeks later, the speech turns into a nightmare, they do not position themselves anymore. From that moment on, I had no more support or interest in my project, the bank answered my emails and calls after 3-4 days. It was a really unpleasant experience.

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I then approached other banks who were quite reactive at first, but disappointing later. After about 2 weeks of study and email exchanges, they told me that "banks do not finance this type of activity", so I was very disappointed and frustrated. Time was against us: I had a few weeks left to make a final decision on the buyout. 

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Then I found Karmen, and then the funding experience got much better. That was really the last attempt for me before I let go, I looked for an alternative funding solution hoping to find something, everyone would have thought I was crazy for looking for that, but I did. 

Can you tell us about setting up the funding with Karmen? 

I remember it very well and I think I will always remember it. It was fast! I filled out the Karmen form, and was called back immediately.

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I was asked for the necessary connections and documents, the whole team understood my project, that I was in a hurry, and did their utmost to make the file a priority, we followed up with emails and calls, and within a few days I had a financing offer, and that was truly incredible. 

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In a traditional bank, it seems to me that it is impossible to respond so quickly to such a large demand.

How did Karmen make the acquisition of Pickaw possible? 

In fact, no bank would have been able to position itself on such an amount in such a short time. With the current system, they are too procedural, in the old days, so it was just unimaginable. 

How do you see the continuation of the collaboration with Karmen ?

It would be a great pleasure to trust Karmen again for my funding topics, it went very well, and I really like the way it works.

What would you say to a start-up looking for a quick financing solution for its growth? 

I would say that it is not a financing for everyone, it is rather for startups that generate a rather important MRR, however for those, I recommend Karmen without any hesitation: it is a very good team, reactive and understanding!

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