A Louisiana tech startup is aiming to simplify the compliance process for tax-exempt entities. ExemptMeNow was launched online this morning in beta, one day ahead of its official public beta launch, and will be completely available on Sept. 1.
Founder and CEO Sevetri Wilson says the online platform provides an easy, automated process for startup nonprofits to incorporate, file for tax-exempt status and monitor their compliance status without being bogged down by manual paperwork.
The service also is being marketed to existing tax-exempt entities. Organizations can pay to create a nonprofit. Subscriptions are offered for entities to monitor, via a dashboard, their compliance status, receive alerts about changes to state and federal laws and regulations, and get notifications about when to file annual reports and tax returns.
“Compliance is the number one thing that a nonprofit should be worried about,” Wilson says. “If they’re not compliant they can’t really survive.”
ExemptMeNow also will expand to include a component for private foundations that will monitor the health of their grantees.
The second phase of ExemptMeNow’s launch in early 2017 will target attorneys and accountants. Wilson says the model will eventually evolve late next year to include corporations and businesses.
“Technology is always looking to disrupt something, and I’m hoping the product itself will be disruptive,” Wilson says.
ExemptMeNow is a spinoff company of an older service that was once under the umbrella of Solid Ground Innovations, Wilson’s strategic communication and management firm.
When SGI was launched in 2009, the company provided compliance services for tax-exempt entities, Wilson says. SGI helped charter schools, clinics, daycare centers and other organizations to incorporate as nonprofits and to acquire their tax-exempt status.
SGI provided a fluid process that made the tedious nonprofit creation and compliance process easy for entities around the country, Wilson says.
“As SGI began to grow and evolve, we weren’t really focusing in and honing on startup nonprofits anymore,” she says. However, the referrals and inquiries for compliance services did not stop. Instead of getting rid of the service, Wilson says she decided to push it into its own phase as a separate company with its own team in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
ExemptMeNow Chief Operating Officer Demond Lang will handle the company’s day-to-day functions.
Wilson has raised the initially projected $200,000 in seed money and anticipates raising a total of $500,000 by Aug. 31. The company has already raised $400,000. Another fundraising round will open on Oct. 7 to pull in an additional $2 million to $3 million, she says.
—Alexandria Burris
