caret and stick appreciates that the reins need to be held close during the first months of business, and as most entrepreneurs know, it only gets worse as the business grows. Investors, angel funding and equity partners further complicate the funding structure and can significantly impact the ability to successfully ‘exit’ the business.

With this in mind, caret and stick don’t want part of your business. We’re not interested in an equity stake; we don’t want to get in the way when it comes time to realise your success. Instead we operate on a simple structure we call cost+.

cost+ reflects the actual cost to caret and stick for the service provided, plus a percentage which we identify up front. You benefit from the buying power of caret and stick without having to build relationships with vendors, distributors and resellers.

Take the example where you want to purchase a high spec server for your development platform. After assessing whether a virtual server would satisfy your requirements, caret and stick would specify and quote on a suitable server to meet your requirements. If the reseller cost of that server is $4500, caret and stick would quote the reseller cost plus 7%.

Or perhaps you want to connect your developers in Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns to the Internet on a private secure Virtual Private Network. Your company would be invoiced the wholesale cost for those connections + an agreed margin, plus a time and materials rate for the setup and testing. All delivered on the one invoice.

cost+ also includes a loyalty bonus which your business achieves by using caret and stick. As a returning business, regardless of the services you request from caret and stick, the cost+ margin reduces. For new customers the margin may be 17% on some services or products, and for businesses with ongoing needs the margin may be as low as 3%.

We’re keen for you to succeed, and a supplier charging model shouldn’t penalise you for success.