This Columbus Startup Aims to be ‘One of the Biggest Companies in the World

How Triple Whale is boosting e-commerce companies by mastering Shopify

As more and more of our economy moves toward online shopping, e-commerce is bigger than ever before. That especially applies to companies operating on Shopify, one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms with millions of users. While the business world continues its move toward online platforms comes a change in the way companies need to run their businesses, and that’s where Columbus startup Triple Whale enters the picture.

“At our heart, Triple Whale is a data automation company,” said co-founder Maxx Blank. “We provide real-time analytics and operational efficiency software for Shopify and e-commerce businesses. We bring profit, advertising, orders, and inventory under one roof of an application. For the owner-operator of a Shopify store, it almost serves as a 50,000-foot check-up on their business. And we also go deeper to help the team and the operator for reporting, advertisements, inventory management and more. We put a lot of the jobs that an online merchant needs to do every day into one house.”

It’s an understatement to say that Triple Whale’s product is working. Since launching last May, a month where they had 17 customers, the company has “caught fire,” in the words of Blank. They rode a wave of interest after creating a solution that helped companies adjust to advertising changes in an update to Apple’s iOS, and now have more than 3,400 merchants on their platform. They raised a whopping $27.7 million funding round, and Blank said the company’s sights are set high.

“From an economic perspective, we want to be one of the biggest companies in the world,” he said. “We want to go all the way. And I want to show people that you don’t have to sacrifice your life to have a good job, which is an important message that makes people feel like they have meaning in their lives. The vision is to keep this going and to build one of the biggest companies in the world. We want to do that in Columbus.”

Triple Whale launched as a collaboration between e-commerce veterans Blank, CEO AJ Orbach and CTO Ivan Chernykh. The trio had plenty of experience of their own, including Shopify stores, and didn’t like the existing software options. Blank said all three knew that they could improve both the experience for entrepreneurs and their ability to make more profit, which led to the company’s name.

“In investment, a whale is a big mover of public markets, and we wanted to make people money,” he said with a laugh. “So we thought, ‘let’s triple the whale.’ We offer three layers of data: aggregation, centralization and automation. So it just kind of came together from there.”

But for Blank, the company isn’t just about money. He emphasized the importance of company culture and helping Triple Whale’s employees progress in their lives and careers, and said he sees the venture as a way to help the people around him, from customers to coworkers.

“I’m an entrepreneur at heart; I love creating value, helping people actualize their abilities,” he said. “I love the ability to help our customers save time, be more productive and therefore have more freedom to spend time the way they want. But it’s also about the people who work here and helping them grow as employees and individuals. Growing those relationships is amazing and empowering, and we’re in a very exciting space to do it.”

Part of that excitement comes from the company’s Columbus headquarters, where Blank and Triple Whale are working toward restoring the office buzz they remember from before the pandemic. But whether employees are remote or in the office, he said Triple Whale’s central Ohio home has been a benefit for the company and especially for him and his family, as well as those of his employees.

“We don’t have crazy traffic like other cities, rent is more affordable and there are great people in the workforce,” he said. “The pandemic taught us that you can definitely build big companies outside of the major coastal hotspots, and Ohio is a perfect place to build a business. Columbus is a beautiful city with people who are super supportive to local startups, which is great. We have a Midwest flavor to the people here, and it’s a great home for us.”