MarketTime, a provider of B2B "software as a service" (SaaS) solutions, has announced that e-commerce pioneer Chris Happ has joined the company in a newly created position as CEO. Happ brings decades of experience as an entrepreneur and B2B marketplace leader. Happ is responsible for all aspects of sales, marketing and executive leadership for MarketTime and its industry-leading software solutions uniting manufacturers, sales teams and retailers in the gift, home, toy, apparel and accessories, housewares and outdoor living industries.
Happ joins MarketTime with a successful track record of building innovative technology companies from the ground up. He is a proven entrepreneur having built two highly successful startups, raising venture funding and formulating an exit to a public global B2B marketplace, according to the company. Along the way, he has cultivated deep experience developing SaaS platforms and building large-scale B2B networks that will be invaluable to his role guiding MarketTime.
“Chris is not just a digital innovator and visionary entrepreneur, he is a team leader able to grow companies quickly and to create tremendous value for customers,” said Michael Levy, CEO of Dallas-based Crow Holdings, which is an equity partner with MarketTime. “His mind-set and experience are well-calibrated with MarketTime’s foundation and its momentum. Adding to the leadership of this company is a natural extension of our investments in marketplaces worldwide and this role will help bridge the physical and online marketplaces.”
Happ has previously served as co-founder and investor in Goby, a disrupter in the ESG and FinTech industries, where he built the first cloud-based SaaS platform as a service model in its space, raised multiple rounds of financing, and built a customer base to include Fortune 500 companies. As co-founder of blueSolutions, which was acquired by Hubwoo in 2008, he acted as CEO and CRO, growing the business while eventually exiting to the leading public global petrochemical marketplace. At Ariba (ARBA), he worked closely with Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi in building the world's largest B2B network, Ariba Network, with 195M items and a $50B annual spend. While in leadership at Empirian he built a SaaS offering connecting pharmacies with patients to lower prescription drug costs. And while serving at PwC he built the world's largest B2B vertical, Covisint, with 85,000 companies and 500,000 users.
“MarketTime’s solution, timing and momentum are excellent, and I’m thrilled to join the company,” said Happ. “There are three elements that set MarketTime apart: its solution, global marketplace and team. I have evaluated MarketTime’s solution including architecture, capabilities and scalability. As well, I have reviewed and evaluated competitive options and visited with several existing customers of MarketTime. It’s clearly the most robust and respected digital platform serving the wholesale industry. The marketplace is equally compelling: the existing international network of physical marketplaces owned and managed by Crow Holdings will quickly enable a virtual connection and exchange of goods across continents, which is extraordinary. Finally, in addition to the experienced team in Dallas we are fortunate to have 35 senior software analysts, fully dedicated to growing the platform inside our MarketTime operating center in India, who provide real-time support and changes at the speed of need.”
The MarketTime platform has been adopted by both Dallas Market Center and the Brussels Trade Mart as proprietary international platforms for linking buyers and sellers together in virtual marketplaces. Brussels Trade Mart and Dallas Market Center share common ownership via Dallas-based Crow Holdings and have collaborated over the years exchanging ideas, operating philosophies and best practices. Additional global marketplaces and omnichannel partners for MarketTime will be announced at a later date.
Happ will work closely with MarketTime founder and president Hemal Patel, who added: “I’m pleased to welcome Chris to the team. His experience is exactly what we need. I’ve built a loyal customer community of more than 80,000 users across many industries by creating solutions that are intuitive, powerful, flexible and scalable. Chris will elevate our strategy to scale up and reach wide in order to deliver the best technology built by the industry for the industry.”
MarketTime’s omnichannel solutions are fully integrated cloud-based applications available to customers anywhere, anytime and are designed to fulfill three key needs: making product discovery and ordering easier, making organizing and sharing information intuitive and secure, and saving time and money.
The MarketTime advantages are threaded throughout its platform for manufacturers, sales teams and retailers. First and foremost, the solution is easy to set up and get started. Anyone transitioning from an existing platform will be able to do so with a simple data exchange. The company has also efficiently solved for a number of challenges including management and security of data, order transmission and tracking, expanding sales territories, customer service, and commission processing.
- For manufacturers, this includes managing sales orders and product data, promotions, shipping information, and useful documents for approved sales agencies and their salespeople.
- For sales teams including agencies and sales representatives this includes tools for shared data to generate sales orders, track invoicing and commissions and managing back office tasks.
- For retailers this includes sales tracking, new resource discovery and review, and placing orders through a B2B e-commerce marketplace with thousands of products from leading brands across a wide range product categories.
For more information on MarketTime, visit www.markettime.com.
