Front Desk Raises $3.2 Million To Help Businesses Manage Payments And Scheduling

Business management startup Front Desk has raised $3.2 million in seed funding, led by Second Avenue Partners and joined by Venture One Ventures, Rich Barton, Lloyd Frink and J.D. Delafield. Front Desk provides businesses with software to organize payments, scheduling and other documents, mainly from mobile devices.

Co-founder and CEO Jon Zimmerman tells me the funding will go toward adding functionality to the platform, as well as scaling the Front Desk team internationally.

Front Desk mainly targets businesses like yoga studios and physical therapists, with recurring client relationships through classes, courses and appointments. Customers can make payments and manage appointments on the go, while business owners can stay connected from mobile devices.

Zimmerman says about 80 percent of businesses signing up are coming from paper and pencil management methods, and 20 percent were using old desktop solutions. Square, PayPal and Google Calendar are already tackling these problems for payment and scheduling. Zimmerman says he is trying to combine all these services into one package through Front Desk.

“We’ve first and foremost taken all of this and been able to create a great experience on a mobile device,” Zimmerman says. “Secondly, we’ve been able to integrate all of these components into running a personal service business.”

Front Desk is a SaaS platform, with monthly fees starting at $45 per month. Zimmerman tells me about 75 percent of the company’s clients are small independent businesses, while the rest are larger franchises or enterprises. The company launched in public beta in March and has accumulated several hundred users.