Bidsketch Gives Agencies the Tools to Create Proposals — Fast [Tech Profile]

Ruben Gamez is the founder Bidsketch.

How you got into this field?

I've been in software development for more than 10 years. About four years ago, I launched my own product and soon grew that product to where I could solely focus on that. There was no easy or clear path into tech and marketing. It resulted from lots of self study, help from great mentors, and plenty of hard work.

What is Bidsketch?

Bidsketch is a web app that helps consultants and agencies create professional looking proposals in minutes instead of hours. The things that customers are most excited about are that they can save hours, easily track their proposals, and get insight into the behavior of their clients that they never had before. For example, we instantly notify people when their proposal has been viewed and tell them how long clients viewed the proposals. We also make it easy for those clients to quickly accept and sign online.

How can the marketing industry use BidSketch to create better results for its agency or clients?

In addition to being able to reuse their content much faster than using traditional Word-style templates, agencies dramatically cut down on mistakes made when creating new proposals because everything gets updated to the new client automatically. Faster approval through the electronic signature feature is also a big win for many people. Another useful thing is the ability to propose optional services. On average we see customers increase earnings on proposals by 32% when they use that feature.

What changes in your industry made you realize that Bidsketch would fill a void?

I saw people moving away from using Excel and Word for invoicing, to using tools like FreshBooks. There were so many benefits for switching to an online service that it was a no-brainer for most people. I saw that proposals were lagging behind but had all the same challenges and opportunities.

How do you see your industry evolving in the next few years?

Over then next few years we're going to have much more people freelancing and starting agencies. Traditional jobs will always be there, but there's definitely a move toward working for yourself. This means more opportunity and competition (on all sides). Ultimately, it's going to be better for everyone, and I'm excited about the things that are coming next.