By Reginald Tucker and Jacqueline Hinchcliffe—Broadlume utilized its first-ever Virtual Town Hall meeting, held on March 23, as the platform to make several major announcements. The first of which entailed its strategic acquisition of BanaBoom, a web-based platform providing floor covering retailers with integrated solutions from the front office to the back end. The purchase comes on the heels of Broadlume’s purchase of RollMaster last fall.
“One of the reasons we made the purchase is we believe the flooring industry deserves better,” said Todd Saunders, CEO, Broadlume. “We believe [retailers] deserve a simpler platform and better interface with better tools. We’re going to take the best parts of RollMaster and the best parts of BanaBoom to give retailers the best flooring software out there.”
Another reason Broadlume acquired BanaBoom, which specializes in enterprise resource planning, is the company’s presence in the cloud. “Retailers deserve to be able to access every single feature and every single piece of their flooring software from anywhere on any device, and that starts with the cloud,” Saunders said. “No more broken promises, no more server rooms that you have to rely on in the back of your showrooms. The cloud gives you the freedom that every retailer deserves, and at Broadlume we are committed to being the industry leader in cloud technology.”
The acquisition of BanaBoom also reflects Broadlume’s emphasis on system security. “You have poured your blood, sweat and tears and countless years in your business, and with a single cyber attack on your software, you can lose everything,” Saunders told the retailers who participated in the Virtual Town Hall. “That’s all of your records, your credit card statements and your customers’ personal information. We are committed to doubling down on security and making sure your data is safe.”
To demonstrate its commitment to the success of retailers and elevating their digital capabilities, Broadlume is putting its money where its mouth is. “We have allocated $22 million to bring in the best engineers, the best data scientists and the best security experts to bring you fully integrated flooring software, CRM and website platform,” Saunders told attendees.
As a result of the acquisition, Josh Pendergrass, CTO and founder of BanaBoom, is joining Broadlume. Prior to starting BanaBoom, Pendergrass ran seven Carpet One stores that his family owned, and he has held every single job in a carpet store. What’s more, he built his own flooring accounting software. “We are excited to welcome Josh to the Broadlume family,” Saunders said.
Pendergrass said he looks forward to the next phase. “BanaBoom was built with the security of Fortune 500 companies. We are a cloud-based technology, so we have heightened capabilities, which is really important in this space. Data integrity is important to me, so we wanted to put together a data structure that actually made sense. I am very excited to join the Broadlume team and joining the BanaBoom and RollMaster products together. The flooring industry can really use some new technology, and I love what Broadlume is doing. They are here to help the dealer. It’s going to improve everything about your store.”
The next announcement at the company’s first-ever Town Hall event was regarding FloorCon 2022. After the company’s successful and sold out FloorCon 2021, it was decided to not only upgrade to a larger venue but to add another day to the event so retailers can have the opportunity to learn more and engage with fellow industry professionals. “If you were at FloorCon 2021, that was not just another flooring show—the networking, the energy,” said John Weller, CIO, Broadlume. “We were there for one reason—to help you sell more floor covering. But we sold out almost immediately, and we had to turn people away. This year, we are tripling down; we’re going from two days to three days and we’re tripling the size of the venue in Tucson, Ariz.”
Along with the larger venue and extra day, Broadlume is offering “early bird” 2022 FloorCon tickets at a discount.
The third and final announcement revealed a two-day, hands-on boot camp with America’s Floor Source’s CEO, Jason Goldberg. “Jason is going to take every dealer through his eight-step process on how he built one of the most profitable $175 million flooring stores,” Saunders said. “If you come to this event, and follow his eight-step process, you will have the opportunity to build the biggest and most profitable store in your market. Jason has been an incredible advisor to the Broadlume team, and he’s one of the best business people I know. His operation, his process and his training materials are similar to what I’ve seen at Google, Salesforce and Facebook. This is going to be a really exciting event.”
According to Goldberg, a select few people will be invited to Columbus, Ohio, to see the inner workings of a $175 million flooring store. He’ll be answering questions from those that attend while working together to both come up with ideas on how to improve their business and show them how to run a successful flooring store.
Saunders said when it comes to technology companies, a lot of the time they are labeled as disrupters. “I don’t look at Broadlume as a disrupter; I look at what we’re doing and the community we’re building as an integrator and an organization that’s bringing the industry together from all three pillars—the manufacturers and their brands to the retailers and the consumers—to build a much better experience and help everyone in this industry sell more flooring and make more money,” Saunders said. “We want to bring transparency, honesty and a breath of fresh air to this industry. Moving forward, we’re going to be doing more of these Town Hall meetings and continue to do whatever it takes to bring this industry together.”