Where they were
The client's resource hub was strong, but it had stopped moving. It was a good page people read once, not a place they came back to.
The team wanted tools founders, operators, and investors would actually return to. The catch is familiar to anyone running a growing business: making the hub do more usually looks like a months-long software build, so the good ideas sit on a list instead of going live.
What we did
So we did not propose a big new system to build. We agreed on one rule and kept to it: every tool had to be genuinely useful to the client's audience, small enough to ship quickly, and something the team could keep alive without an engineer. Then we shipped them one at a time.
Started small with an events directory
The first tool was deliberately low-risk: an events directory of curated global events that people could filter by date, country, and industry, each listing linking straight to the source. It did the quiet but important job of giving founders and investors a reason to come back, and the team could add events and tune it themselves, no engineer required.
Followed with a software directory
The same curation play answered a question founders ask constantly: which software to use. A software directory lets them browse commonly used business tools by category, from accounting to marketing, and reach a shortlist quickly instead of hunting across the web.
Moved from curation into interaction with a valuation calculator
This was the real shift. Instead of pointing founders at information, a valuation calculator gave them a number about their own business: an EBITDA and revenue multiple valuation across multiple countries and currencies, with an instant range they could export to PDF. It put a genuinely useful answer in a founder's hands without needing to book a call first.
Answered the next question with a borrowing-capacity calculator
Knowing what a business is worth leads straight to a second question: how much it can borrow. A borrowing-capacity calculator gave founders a read on how much they could raise and their covenant headroom, using both EBITDA-based and asset-based methods. Valuation told them what the business was worth; this told them what they could raise against it.
Closed the loop with a lender directory
The last tool connected the dots. A lender directory, a searchable database of bank and non-bank financing that started with two priority markets, lets founders filter by lender type, financing type, and loan size. It links back to the valuation calculator, so a founder can understand what their business is worth before ever approaching a lender.
Where they are now
What was a static page is now a working toolkit. A founder can find an event, shortlist the software to run their company, estimate what the business is worth, check how much they can borrow against it, and start looking for lenders, all in one place, with each tool leading naturally to the next.
None of it required a big rebuild. Because every tool shipped small and was built for the team to maintain, the suite kept growing without anyone rearchitecting what came before, which is exactly why it is still growing.
What used to be a page people read once is now a set of tools they come back to.