Charleston tech startup raises funding for canceling subscriptions

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 Charleston startup that wants to ease the experience of canceling subscription services has raised $220,000 from an accelerator program.

Churnkey, which was accepted into the TinySeed accelerator’s fall 2021 cohort, saw a need for helping people who want to cancel a subscription without going through the call-center experience. TinySeed is a remote accelerator and investment fund.

With the proliferation of online subscription services, many allow you to sign up with the click of a mouse, but then require a phone call and going through a laborious script that often involves discussing other products before you can actually leave the service and the monthly charge.

“With Churnkey, we’re bringing craftsmanship and humanity into an area that’s typically been rife with dark patterns, annoying call centers, and upsells that leave you feeling dirty,” Churnkey co-founder Scott Hurff said in a news release. “TinySeed’s investment was a declaration of faith — but the knowledge their mentorship continuously unlocks is what has us excited for the future.”

The company said the mission of Churnkey is to help businesses grow and explore why customers leave subscription services to begin with. That’s their target audience, businesses that use a subscription, software-as-a-service model.

By easing the “offboarding experiences” for customers, Churnkey said it can discover why customers leave, and that’s valuable intel for a company.

Hurff said the investment, along with access to TinySeed’s list of collaborators, will help the company help more businesses retain more customers.

“It’s only been a month, and our approach to running Churnkey has been fundamentally rethought because of TinySeed’s advice,” Hurff said.

The company said it can customize cancellations that change based on a number of data points associated with the customer, including their buying history.

“The Churnkey team is solving a deep pain point for subscription businesses, and their focus on solving this problem the right way is an advantage that will continue to fuel their growth,” said Rob Walling, general partner at TinySeed.

The company’s data show the rate of voluntary cancellations, when a customer reaches out to cancel, drops by 32% using Churnkey.

Hurff, along with Nick Fogle, Rob Moore and Baird Hall, started Churnkey as a product for a software company that was losing too many customers every month.