- Date published
Meet SYFRR, efactory member company and recent recipient of MTC’s TechLaunch grant.
For Michael Bartlett, some of the best days of his working career have happened around a whiteboard at Missouri State’s efactory.
There were ideas to sketch out, problems to solve, business books to browse, and occasionally, a chess game to help clear his head.
There was also a software company taking shape.
Today, Bartlett is Chief Experience Officer at SYFRR, a company focused on leveraging AI to automate the lending document creation process, so lenders can better focus on their clients. In the past year alone, SYFRR has grown its client base by approximately 600%, added two staff members focused on compliance and customer onboarding, and launched a new e-sign product that integrates with its lending software while also working as a stand-alone platform.
The company has continued building momentum as an incubator company and recently received a TechLaunch grant from the Missouri Technology Corporation to support its next stage of growth and technology development.
It started with a credit union
The original idea for SYFRR came from Scott Schultz, CEO of Riverways Federal Credit Union in Rolla.
Bartlett met with Schultz in Springfield in February 2020, and the two began sketching out a vision for software designed to improve the lending experience through automation of the documentation creation process.
The early days were spent at efactory alongside Tim Seager and Frank Giddens of Redpoint Technology, who both came on as technology partners.
The work was equal parts building a company and learning an entirely new industry.
Neither Bartlett nor his technology partners came from a credit union background, so they were learning industry-specific terminology while simultaneously figuring out how to build the product. The first version of the software was built closely around Riverways’ needs. When SYFRR began talking to other potential customers, those conversations revealed a broader range of needs and features.
“We built the initial iteration too narrow and were then surprised when we’d speak to other potential customers who had different needs,” Bartlett said.
It was a valuable lesson in co-creation: Start with one customer, but don’t stop the conversation there.
Humanizing the digital experience
The company operates in an industry where many legacy providers still rely on business models and software platforms built for a different era. Rigid contracts, additional charges for changes and clunky digital experiences can create friction for customers whose needs are anything but rigid.
SYFRR was created around a philosophy that humanizes the digital experience. By automating the lending document process, lenders can spend more time understanding and creating opportunities to better serve their customers.
Every design decision starts with the customer, Bartlett said, drawing on decades of knowledge within customer experience, behavioral science and digital psychology. As SYFRR’s Chief Experience Officer, he has advised CEOs and senior executives at organizations ranging from growing businesses to billion-dollar global enterprises and has trained more than 2,000 Certified Customer Experience Professionals around the world.
He believes that, “When you treat a customer right, they want to tell everyone about you.”.
As businesses look for ways to reduce costs by automating customer interactions, Bartlett believes there is a risk of automating away the very human experiences that make customers want to stay.
That idea is also the focus of his third book, which explores customer experience as a powerful lever for business growth.
Finding room to build
SYFRR’s philosophy is centered on improving digital experiences and some of its earliest progress toward that philosophy started right here.
“I struggle in noisy open-plan offices and working from home is a challenge,” Bartlett said. “The efactory gave me a creative refuge to build the software without distraction.”
efactory also gave SYFRR a professional setting to welcome Equifax leadership to Springfield as the company developed their client relationships and began to grow.
In addition, it became the backdrop for another important moment in the company’s story: the introduction of Scott Goessling, who joined SYFRR as CEO in December 2022.
Those connections and that environment helped create something much bigger than a place to work. They created room to build.
From startup to big-time growth
Today, SYFRR is continuing to grow, expand its team and improve their product offerings while staying focused on the experience that inspired the company in the first place.
Its new e-sign product is the latest example. Designed to integrate seamlessly with SYFRR’s lending software, it can also be used as a stand-alone platform, which gives customers more flexibility as their needs change.
And with the recent TechLaunch grant from the Missouri Technology Corporation, SYFRR has another resource to help support its continued development.
The company’s growth illustrates something Bartlett learned early: Customers don’t fit neatly into a single box. The same might be said for entrepreneurs.
Sometimes they need a technology partner. Sometimes they need a professional meeting space. Sometimes they need a quiet place with a whiteboard and a good business book.
And sometimes, they just need the right people around them to turn an idea into something real.