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Leadin Solutions answers phone calls and collects data for business owners.
Fernando Gouvea knows what it takes to run a small business. An entrepreneur at heart, he has dabbled in everything from cake design and beer brewing to a 2010s wedding app.
“I say that I have the entrepreneurial bug,” he said. “I’ve been trying that since I was 15.”
For 28 years, Gouvea has also been an engineer, working to improve the experience of “some of the most demanding customers in the world.” A job at Microsoft brought him to Washington from Brazil, and he and his family fell in love with the area, settling in North Bend.
Now, Gouvea has combined his passion and his skill into his newest entrepreneurial endeavor: a startup that can aid the small, family business owners he has come to know as neighbors.
Leadin Solutions, launched in May, is a digital platform that captures customer calls after hours or when a business is unable to answer the phone. Gouvea built the product for local businesses who are “excellent at their trade but stretched thin as they grow.”
“I built this to help them compete and take better care of their neighbors, while keeping them in control of how they run their business,” he said.
When a call goes unanswered, Leadin answers it and switches the customer over to a text conversation. There, the customer chats with AI, answering questions about the service they need, including what the project is, the timeline and a photo if they have one.
A “job card” is created for the business owner. Then, Gouvea says, all the owner has to do is call back to schedule the appointment.
“We do not schedule because we believe that the company is the best one to manage their resources and their routes and their time,” Gouvea said.
Leadin is currently catered toward the trades, like plumbing, electrical or roofing, but Gouvea is working to add a service for restaurants that can answer common customer questions.
Gouvea’s philosophy is that each phone call is potential revenue. Leadin also provides each company with a monthly report to show how many calls were missed, how that equates to missed revenue, a breakdown of what the calls were about and more.
“When you’re small and you’re bootstrapping … you are limited on resources, either time or money,” Gouvea said. “And that’s when I say my knowledge can add value … bridging this gap where they are losing money.”
If Leadin Solutions is successful, Gouvea hopes to expand the business outside of Washington. He is already registered in every state except California, Texas and Florida, and he is working on those as well.
Gouvea said he will then also hire more people. His wife, a data analyst, is currently helping him with customer reports and other post-sale tasks. He has spent most of his time focused on the engineering side of things, but is now moving into marketing and sales as the product becomes automated.
As he moves forward, Gouvea wants to hear directly from clients about the pain points of their businesses and how Leadin Solutions can help. He has joined Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of Washington to go directly to the source.
But for now, Gouvea is focused on how he can help the Snoqualmie Valley.
The goal, he says, is not to alter small business models. Rather, he wants to integrate with those models, using his experience to provide a sophisticated service the businesses may not otherwise have access to.
“I’ve always been in the corporate world, and these enterprises have solutions that do not reach the smaller businesses,” he said. “I felt that I could bring that enterprise-level solution to them.”
