Approyo LLC
Chris Carter, chief executive officer
Brookfield
approyo.com
Brookfield-based Approyo LLC, an SAP software hosting and support company, has posted impressive growth since its launch in 2013. The company made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing American companies in 2017 and 2018.
Approyo had $2.3 million in revenue in 2019. Despite the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company expects revenue to grow this year to $3.5 million to $4 million, said founder and chief executive officer Chris Carter.
In response to this year’s economic downturn, Carter decided to offer new clients a “zero cashflow opportunity,” in which they pay nothing for Approyo’s services until the end of the year, as long as they lock into a 3-year contract with the company. Approyo is in various stages of negotiations with five new clients taking advantage of that offer, Carter said.
Carter launched Approyo after the failure of his previous SAP software company, CCI. That company also grew rapidly but lost a major contract and went into bankruptcy.
“I learned several things,” Carter said last year about his CCI experience. “First of all, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Second thing I learned is I never want to go through that again…so I work 10 times harder, 20 times harder every day. The third thing I learned is you’ve got to always be selling.”
How hard does Carter work? Two years ago he suffered a broken neck, but kept working while he recovered.
“Laid up in a hospital bed the only thing he asked for was his cell phone so he could keep working,” said Approyo marketing coordinator Alex Goudy. “He was constantly yelled at by doctors and nurses. (But) anyone that knew Chris knew that he would be online to help if he could. That’s the type of drive he has.”