Tonya Turrell’s perspective on technology allows her to identify and capitalize on opportunities that can slip past other entrepreneurs.
Can you imagine applying the mechanics of a dating website to an online portal linking IT buyers and vendors?
Tonya certainly can—and she did.
“In the B2B space, everybody tends to stick to B2B methodology,” she said. “We really looked to the B2C market to drive the design.”
After guiding her vision through the design and testing stages, she is gearing up to unveil The Launchpad Matchmaking Marketplace Portal in Q1 of 2023.
It’s all part of Tonya’s strategy for success, which, she said, is built around “Challenging the status quo. Finding better ways of doing things.”
An entrepreneur who has launched three companies—two of them lead generation endeavors—Tonya’s latest undertaking began with a simple question: “What if?”
“What if we reach out to IT customers and see what they need to achieve their organization’s objectives?” she said. “What if we could then go find partners or technologies that were a precise fit? What if we could nurture that relationship and play tech matchmaker for every IT need throughout their budget cycle, and help them with future budget cycles and initiatives?”
Tonya and her team got to work. The result was The Launchpad Matchmaking Marketplace Portal.
“We started The Launchpad because we believe that there’s a better way to connect IT buyers with the technologies and partners they need,” she said of the world’s first technology matchmaking platform. “It’s really a simple concept.”
Reaching far beyond the outdated approach of cold-calling to generate leads, The Launchpad Matchmaking Marketplace Portal allows vendors to offer multiple services to buyers, rather than restricting either to one topic on a single call. Also, the Portal drastically reduces the number of vendor sales calls that a buyer must sort through to find the right seller, with the right product, that meets their need.
Vendors pay a registration fee to join The Launchpad. But Tonya and her team have shifted the focus of the lead generation dynamic—typically driven by the vendor—to give IT buyers special attention.
Tech vendors register to become members of the Portal and IT buyers conduct the searches. Detailed search criteria—budgets, preference for a local reseller, current install base environment—lead buyer to vendor, with buyer alerting the vendor they would like to connect. But the vendor can’t see who the buyer is until they accept the match.
Once a match is accepted, potential partners—just like on a dating site—can chat. They can also schedule time on each other’s calendars and, ultimately, buy and sell through The Launchpad. There is also an option to leave a review.
“This is really what it’s all been building toward,” Tonya said. “We’re pivoting to where the market is moving, to get in earlier in the sales cycle and nurture relationships. This platform completely changes the way technology is marketed, bought and sold, and it caters to the IT buyer, which has really never been done before,”
Tonya Turrell is the founder and CEO of The Launchpad. To learn more, visit www.launchpad-tech.com.
