Qooqoo Marketing
Changing the Way Healthcare Markets
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Needs:
- Debt consolidation, new location, capital equipment
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Custom Lending Package:
- $100,000 term loan at 16% APR
- $150,000 line of credit at 15.99% APR
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Results:
- Paid off existing high-interest rate loans
- Easy to manage monthly payments
- Expansion capital
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Owner:
Brian Daniells
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Location:
Irvine, CA
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Industry:
Marketing Agency
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Year in Business:
2009
Qooqoo began in 2009 as a start up idea between Brian Daniells and his two partners, veterans of the healthcare marketing industry. They knew how dynamic, technological and social the industry was going to become, and they wanted to be early entrants into the space.
The Qooqoo brand came out of the idea of driving brands crazy (“cookoo”) and developed into an industry conversation. Advertising no longer works—patients want to talk to other patients and doctors want to talk to other doctors.
Qooqoo has developed technologies, concepts and services that allow healthcare companies to achieve this new form of marketing and communications. Along the way, it needed help to fund its growth. As a non-capitalized business, built on the ideas of two creative types, there wasn’t much of a structure or road map.
So, in the early days, there were no fixed expenses—no payroll, simply getting by project to project. As the company grew and began to hire employees, it needed, but did not qualify for, additional capital. The company turned to a high cost, short term lender in 2014 to fund its first significant growth spurt. With that capital, Qooqoo took on permanent space (it maintains offices in Old Town Irvine—an historic landmark and set of converted soy and lima bean warehouses and silos).
In the past year, Qooqoo experienced another growth spurt as new clients and existing clients’ demands for innovative services soared. Growth of this magnitude required conversion from a subcontract/project based business to a large full time employer of permanent resources. Payroll and billings doubled, then tripled and the need for additional capital was clear. Continued reliance on merchant cash advance providers wasn’t sustainable due to extremely high interest rates so Daniells turned to Dealstruck. Since he had done business with the lender in the past and was familiar with the reasonable rates and repayment terms, he was confident this was this was the right path.
Dealstruck put together a combination deal with a long term, $100,000 term loan at a reasonable 16% APR that allowed the company to invest in assets and a $150,000 revolving line of credit at 15.99% APR, enabling the company to borrow against their growing accounts receivables. The two-pronged approach has been beneficial to the company says Daniells. “Both loans are operating successfully, allowing us quicker investment in new business proposals and a speeding up of our invoicing process. This is leading to higher revenues and higher profits—and, we could not have funded this growth without those financings.”
One of Dealstruck’s goals is to help its customers grow their business credit along with their businesses. Success in increasing revenues while showing a history of solid debt management leads to “bankability”, or the increased ability to secure financing through a traditional bank. Qooqoo has grown so much and shown a solid history of on time loan payments, that banks have begun to take notice. “In the meantime, we have had offers to refinance the relationship from our main retail bank—but, we expect to maintain the relationship with Dealstruck, based on how well it performs and supports our business needs,” according to Daniells.
