Everything you need to know about DecisionHub
Origin Story of DecisionHub
In September 2019, the now co-founders of DecisionHub were approached with an exciting problem an NPO was facing in our local community. The problem was several inefficiencies and biases in their grant funding decision process. We ended up creating an online web application solution for them where they could carry out their decision-making process. Little did we know that this online way of making decisions would become more critical with the pandemic looming around the corner.
The solution involved working with multiple stakeholders, including the admins, reviewers, and applicants. We wanted to create a seamless solution that allowed all three key stakeholders to use the application and fulfil their duty in the grant funding process. Over one and half years later, in April 2021, the fantastic product we built and continuously improved turned into DecisionHub as we officially incorporated.
Fun fact: did you know the original idea for the company name was decisionUP, allowing us to brand our sub-products with a similar naming convention (ie. formsUP, reviewUP, etc). However, when Ahmed (one of the co-founders) mentioned the name idea to his sister, she misheard it as "Decision Hub" and mentioned she liked the name since it implied a hub to make decisions. After further discussion between Ahmed and Greg, the two co-founders, we decided to go with the name DecisionHub instead of decisionUP. Crazy how these things happen sometimes.
The motivation behind the company
Both the co-founders, Ahmed and Greg, are passionate about the non-profit sector and have always desired to help out these organizations. After realizing that the DecisionHub product solved a legitimate problem for not just one but multiple organizations, we decided this needed to be in the hands of as many people as possible.
The product saved these organizations hundreds of hours per review cycle which allowed the organizations to operate smoothly online, as enforced by the pandemic. Additionally, it allowed organizations to make decisions without bias due to the many features we've implemented (which will be discussed in a future article).
Growth of the company
Another thing that indicated to us that this was a good idea was the company's natural growth. We built the product with a singular organization, so we didn't do any marketing or outreach. However, through word of mouth, we acquired our second customer, and it made it clear to us that we had something special here.
After spending some effort into building a company profile, what our selling features are, our goals with this product, and after winning two pitch competitions — we finally incorporated it as DecisionHub.
Pitch Competitions
We pitched at three competitions and received either funding or mentorship from each. The three competitions were (in no particular order):
- Velocity 5k
- CS eCapstone
- MAX Tank
At the Velocity 5k competition, we were one of the four winners of the $5,000 funding in the Winter 2021 term of companies. At the time, we went by the name of Arbitrium. Velocity wrote an article about the winners of the Winter 2021 term. Our pitch video can be found here, on YouTube! We also partook in the Velocity Cornerstone program and can find an article about us here.
For the CS eCapstone competition, we ended up as the 2nd place winner, taking home $1,500 in funding. We also participated in MAX Tank, in which we didn't secure any funding, but one of the judges offered to be a mentor, and we've had multiple calls with him since then.
Traction
To date, we've had some excellent traction. Over the last two years, we have helped distribute over $5 million in funding through decisions made on our platform. We have also branched out into bursary funding decisions at a university in Ontario and are continuously looking to expand our functional industries. We believe that DecisionHub can be at the heart of all decision-making matters, regardless of industry. Recruitment and venture capital firms are some of our next target markets!
The team behind DecisionHub
We have name-dropped ourselves a few times in the article, but let's officially meet the co-founders!
Let's meet Ahmed.
Hello, my name is Ahmed and I’m one of the co-founders at DecisionHub! I work primarily on the frontend, being a CSS wizard and using my product management and design principles to make the best interface for our clients. I also work on marketing, outreach, payroll, and other business aspects to DecisionHub. Fun fact: I love basketball, and play it whenever I get the chance!
And let's meet Greg.
Hello, my name is Greg and I am the other co-founder at DecisionHub. I work on both the frontend and backend of our product and ensure that everything is online and running smoothly. I also provide excellent customer service to our existing clients by prioritizing fast response times and bug fixes. Fun Fact: I walk over 5 million steps every year!
Learn more
If you want to learn more about DecisionHub, some helpful next steps are below.
First, watch a quick 45-second introduction video about the product.
Next, here are some links that you may find helpful.
- Link to our website: https://decisionhub.org/
- Link to our signup page: https://app.decisionhub.org/signup
- Link to book a meeting with Ahmed from DecisionHub: https://calendly.com/decisionhub
And that is all! Thanks for reading. :)