GroupUps

The GroupUps team is here in San Francisco for #TechCrunchDisrupt2024! As one of only 200 startups selected for #StartupBattlefield, we're so excited to be part of this event. If you're here too, we'd love to see you at booth G2 to share how our AI-led B2B equipment marketplace is saving businesses time and money when buying complex equipment.

We have big news to share: TechCrunch selected GroupUps for #StartupBattlefield meaning we’ll be one of only 200 startups exhibiting at #TechCrunchDisrupt2024! We’re so psyched to receive this recognition, and to have been chosen from the thousands of startup applicants. It’s the latest recognition for the incredible savings we’ve been negotiating on behalf of our customers, and the way we’re helping to putting the power back into the hands of small business buyers. We look forward to #Technology #Startups and #VentureCapitalists celebrating with us Oct 28-30 in San Francisco. ?? Join us and get 25% off with this link: ?? https://bit.ly/4g43wVk

Dr. Maggie Augustyn, DDS, FAAIP, FICOI got to know me and GroupUps after her experience as a customer. I’m honored she was happy with the experience, and chose to highlight us alongside her own journey of entrepreneurship. Read her story here.

???? ???????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???????????? ??????, ?????? ???????????????????? ?????????? ???????????????????? ???? ?????? ??????. Yesterday I had a conversation about the widening wealth gap. I realized that despite feeling like I live and breathe solving this problem, I went straight to executing on my business to solve it. I never actually took the time to write out why I care about this. So I got up early, went to my locally owned gym (Oak and Iron), then headed over to my local coffee shop (Beow's Books and Brews), texted my dad for a gut check (small business owner for decades, and my hero) and got to writing. ??????????, ?????? ????????. Areas with higher percentages of small, locally based businesses experience stronger economic performance: higher per-capita income growth, higher employment rates, and lower poverty rates. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that local businesses contribute to lower levels of poverty and higher income growth, particularly for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Local businesses create more equitable economic opportunities and financial independence, and reinvest more of their earnings into the community, rather than siphoning money out of it like their large corporate counterparts often do. ????, ???? ???????? ?????? ????????. ???????? ???? ???? ???? ????????? Before the "capitalism and big business are bad" chanters come out, you should know I'm a capitalist. It might seem odd that capitalism could fix the problems it has created, but that's exactly what I propose. We need to level the playing field, and the principles of capitalism can do this. We're doing it at GroupUps. We use technology to organize the demand side of the supply chain, which keeps money in business owners' hands, amplifying their positive effects on their local economies. We can't fix the wealth gap alone, though. We need more capitalistic, for-profit enterprises that support and enable local businesses. Entrepreneurs and the venture capital ecosystem should put time, effort, and money into solving this problem, and not just because it's a feel-good effort (it is); it's a massive opportunity. SMBs account for 44% of the US GDP and nearly half of the workforce. There are massive problems to be fixed, like the structural barriers that minority-owned businesses face, including limited access to capital. Solutions to these problems can result in incredible financial gains and returns for both technologists and their investors. Let's put money, time, and effort to work for this otherwise overlooked and underserved demographic, enabling more local entrepreneurs too. If we don't, the wealth gap will grow as we watch money continue to be taken out of our vibrant, diverse communities, tranforming them into cookie-cutter Starbucks-ified and Walmart-ized landscapes. For more information, check out these key studies on why local businesses matter from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance: