For over two decades, Nick Chandi has been an entrepreneur. His comfort with taking risks and tackling major challenges has developed over time, but he's had an entrepreneurial spirit since he was a child. In college, Nick had his first experience starting a real business. He was running a small textile factory while attending classes; he spent his free time putting knitted sweaters and cotton garments on the market. This experience allowed Nick to observe some of the most prominent business challenges for small businesses: cash flow, forecasting, accounting, and even securing loans. Since then, he has been on a mission to make being a small business owner easier.
Cash flow is what ends almost 82% of small businesses, and because of his personal experiences with cash flow challenges during his textile days, Nick Chandi built an accounting-specific IT consulting business to help other businesses navigate challenges. Welcome Networks was the name of the firm; it helped accounting firms across North America with IT support and software consulting. As many accounting firms began to transition to digital platforms and utilize tools like automation to optimize efficiencies, Nick and his team at Welcome Networks provided a wide range of support and expertise.
True to his entrepreneurial nature, Nick founded another company while he was still leading Welcome Networks. The new venture, SlickPie, which was born from Welcome Networks, addressed invoicing and billing processes for small businesses. It helped over 40,000 small businesses manage cash flow and get paid faster through online invoicing and billing, automated data entry, and better financial reporting.
The same problems that Nick experienced as a small business owner were the ones he vowed to help address for others. Aiming to make just a few business owners more successful, Nick ended up impacting thousands of them. His work is an example of what happens when thought leaders and go-getters attempt to lift up those around them instead of just themselves.
Today, Nick sits at the helm of ForwardAI, a technology company that combines critical financial and business data to determine the overall health of a business. Serving accounting firms, fintech businesses, and lending organizations, ForwardAI takes a lot of the legwork out of highlighting business issues and rectifying them. An impressive use-case is for lending institutions that, historically, have struggled to lend to small businesses at a high rate. Because of the lack of visibility into the health of a small business, lenders struggle to process and approve loan applications in a timely manner.
ForwardAI makes the process simple, clean, and trustworthy. It connects to a plethora of business systems such as QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, Oracle NetSuite, and more to deliver a real-time snapshot of business health. All major ERP systems are supported in the ForwardAI ecosystem, and the company continues to expand its offerings, adding further value to its clients with each passing year.
ForwardAI's impact does not stop at fintech companies and lending organizations; many small businesses use the platform to manage their business landscape, forecast with ease, and resolve cash flow challenges quickly. Forwardly is a component of ForwardAI that serves small businesses directly. Easy reporting capabilities, interactive dashboards, and customizable metrics help to automate cash flow management.
After growing up in India and learning how to navigate life as a business owner in North America, Nick hopes to serve as an inspiration to other immigrant entrepreneurs to follow their dreams and leave a legacy in this world. When college-aged Nick was struggling to get his textile business to take off, he could have never predicted what the future had in store, but he took his own struggles and turned them into solutions. A true problem solver; the world needs more people like Nick Chandi.
