TernPro, the Detroit-based startup developing collaboration software called Slope, announced this week that it has closed on a round of seed funding worth $395,000. Slope’s investors include Bizdom, Venture for America, and angels based in Michigan, New York, and Ohio.
The team behind Slope, which allows marketing and creative teams to store, organize, and collaborate on media content, is currently wrapping up a stint in the Microsoft Ventures accelerator in Seattle, and TernPro CEO Brian Bosche, a former Venture for America fellow, said the experience has proved to be invaluable.
“It’s been an incredible experience,” Bosche said. “We’ve been introduced to amazing partner companies and talent. Microsoft’s Azure Media Services is a really good ecosystem for companies working in media, and their developers helped us refine our infrastructure.”
TernPro was originally conceived in 2014 to help businesses create and manage video content, and the company was first incubated soon after its inception at the Bizdom accelerator in Detroit. Slope came into being after the company realized how difficult it was to collaborate with clients during the editing process.
“It was a nightmare to do revisions, collaborate, or share notes,” Bosche told Xconomy in an interview earlier this year. “It was a really difficult process with a lot of moving parts. We wanted to create a single platform to make it easier.”
Slope will launch a private beta test later this summer, and Bosche said the company already has 700 companies and agencies signed up to participate. The TernPro team members already in Seattle will stay there after the accelerator program ends on July 10, though Bosche said the company’s headquarters will remain in Detroit. This is a slight departure from TernPro’s original plan, which was to hire developers in Seattle and bring them back to Detroit.
“Companies able to stay longer after the accelerator program is over can take advantage of so many more resources,” Bosche said. “The marketing and creative teams will stay in Detroit—we’ve gotten so much support from the creative community there. [Co-founder Dan Bloom] and I, and most likely our developers, will work out of Seattle.”
Bosche said TernPro will use its newly raised capital to build its software development team in order to get Slope ready for beta testing and market adoption. TernPro is targeting small-to-medium digital media agencies, as well as medium-to-large companies with an internal media division, he added. Bosche said those interested in getting in on the beta test can sign up here.
