Brianna Blaney & Dr. Aria Hahn

Pocketed

Von Kalt-E-Mails zu $2M+ Finanzierung für unser Startup

(price undisclosed)

Sold to Deloitte Canada

Source

0 days

Erster Kunde

Sonstiges

Growth Channel

Co-Gründer

Founder

Brianna Blaney & Dr. Aria Hahn

Co-Gründer•Technical•Vancouver, BC, Canada

Commitment

Full-time

Experience

Experienced

Product

Pocketed

Grant- und Finanzierungsfindungsplattform für Startups und kleine Unternehmen.

Type

SaaS

Industry

Finanzen

Model

Abonnement

Marketing Strategy

How Brianna acquired customers

Growth Channel

Sonstiges

Also Used

CommunitiesTwitter / X

Tech Stack

Tools used to build Pocketed

ReactNode.jsPostgreSQL

The Full Story

Wir gründeten Pocketed während der Pandemie, um Startups dabei zu helfen, Zuschüsse und Finanzierungen zu finden, von denen sie nichts wussten.

Die Idee

Während COVID gab es plötzlich eine Menge Regierungsgeld für Unternehmen, aber es war über Hunderte von Programmen verteilt. Wir bauten eine Datenbank, um alles zusammenzutragen.

Erste Kunden

Wir bekamen unsere ersten zahlenden Kunden innerhalb von 2 Wochen durch Kalt-Outreach - E-Mails an Gründer und Buchhalter, die diesen Service brauchten.

Wachstum

Die Nachricht verbreitete sich schnell von Mund zu Mund. Gründer erzählten anderen Gründern von uns. Wir sammelten Finanzierung ein und vergrößerten das Team, um die Nachfrage zu bewältigen.

Erster Kunde: 2 Wochen
Finanzierung: $2M+
Hilft Tausenden von Unternehmen, Finanzierung zu finden

Key Takeaways

Timing ist wichtig - wir starteten zum perfekten Moment

Kalt-Outreach funktioniert, wenn man eine echte Lösung hat

B2B Mundpropaganda ist mächtig

Verstreute Informationen zusammentragen = Wert

Originally published onIndie Hackers

Founder proof brief

A one-page proof brief turns Brianna's Pocketed playbook into your next test.

See what it covers before you sign up: the pattern worth copying, the channel to test, and the risk to avoid when you adapt this story.

Pattern

Erster Kunde

Channel

Sonstiges

Output

Action checklist

What a proof brief covers

A one-page brief that turns Brianna's pattern into a testable plan
Channel bet: start from Sonstiges
A risk check before copying the Pocketed playbook

See what a proof brief covers

See what it covers first. Create an account only if you choose to unlock.

Inspired by Brianna's journey? Generate a business idea in the Finanzen space using AI and real founder data.

Against every documented journey

The median of the 364 documented journeys with this milestone is 30 days; this one took 0 days.

This journey

0 days

Median of 364

30 days

Benchmark yourself against the dataset

Brianna's Path to Erster KundePremium

The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone

How Brianna actually did it

6/7 funnel stages sourced

Reconstructed from Brianna's own published sources. Quoted claims are the founder's words, verified verbatim; anything marked as our analysis is exactly that.

Where the idea came from

Pivot from prior productPivot from DeepND, a predictive hiring and retention platform for restaurants and retailers

Co-founders Brianna Blaney and Aria Hahn were already running a startup called DeepND, a predictive hiring and retention platform for restaurants and retailers, when COVID-19 devastated their customer base and forced a pivot. Building that business had shown them how painful it was to find and access grant funding, and conversations with other founders confirmed the frustration was widely shared, which is what became the idea for Pocketed.

“COVID-19 forced a major pivot”

Authority Magazine (Medium): Female Founders - Brianna Blaney & Aria Hahn of Pocketed

Validation

Validated before building

Talking to usersValidated

After the pivot decision, the founders had many conversations with other founders across North America, which confirmed the grant-funding pain point was not unique to them.

Hundreds of conversations with founders validated that Blaney and Hahn were not alone in their frustration with how hard grant funding was to find and access.

“Hundreds of conversations with founders across North America validated that we weren't alone in our frustrations”

Authority Magazine (Medium): Female Founders - Brianna Blaney & Aria Hahn of Pocketed

MvpValidated

The team built and shipped an alpha version of Pocketed, going from idea to a validated, market-ready product in about 14 to 16 weeks.

Brianna Blaney's own account puts idea-to-launch at 14 weeks; a later UBC Sauder profile says 16 weeks. Both describe the same alpha launch.

“From idea to validation and product launch in 14 weeks”

Authority Magazine (Medium): Female Founders - Brianna Blaney & Aria Hahn of Pocketed

First test users

WaitlistFree testers

The alpha launch was oversubscribed by more than 500% within 48 hours, with hundreds of businesses signing up overnight once it opened.

“we oversubscribed Pocketed's alpha launch by 500% in 48 hours”

Brianna Blaney LinkedIn post (Pocketed acquired by Deloitte)

Acquisition channels, and whether they worked

CommunitiesPre-launchWorked

Early product direction came from a live "Ask Me Anything" session with the alpha users, where the founders solicited direct feedback rather than guessing at a feature roadmap.

“our first "Ask Me Anything" session with our Alpha users”

Authority Magazine (Medium): Female Founders - Brianna Blaney & Aria Hahn of Pocketed

Listening directly to alpha users saved the team from building complex features nobody actually wanted, redirecting effort to smaller, higher-value tweaks.

“our users saved us from months of building features that it turned out nobody really cared about”

Authority Magazine (Medium): Female Founders - Brianna Blaney & Aria Hahn of Pocketed

What didn't work

Product scopePre-launchCost: time

Before talking to alpha users, the team had mapped out a large, complex feature roadmap they assumed users would want.

“we had developed a big, complex roadmap of features that we thought our users would want in the platform”

Authority Magazine (Medium): Female Founders - Brianna Blaney & Aria Hahn of Pocketed

Alpha user feedback showed the flashy planned features weren't what users actually cared about; they wanted a few simpler tweaks instead.

“our users saved us from months of building features that it turned out nobody really cared about”

Authority Magazine (Medium): Female Founders - Brianna Blaney & Aria Hahn of Pocketed

What they did instead: Prioritized a few simpler tweaks and small features the alpha users actually asked for, and made regular user feedback part of the process going forward.

Product scopePre-launchCost: both

The prior business, DeepND, a predictive hiring and retention platform for restaurants and retailers, lost its customer base when COVID-19 hit the restaurant industry.

“It was like dominoes with customers going out of business”

BCBusiness: Going On 30 - Brianna Blaney's newest company pockets big deal

Blaney's own assessment is that the timing and product-market fit for DeepND were wrong once the pandemic hit.

“The timing and product market fit just wasn't right”

BCBusiness: Going On 30 - Brianna Blaney's newest company pockets big deal

What they did instead: Pivoted into Pocketed, applying what they had learned about how painful grant funding was to access.

How it changed as they grew

At launch: 2 people (2 co-founders, Brianna Blaney (CEO) and Dr. Aria Hahn (CTO))

Accelerator

Seed · 2021-10

Accelerator

What broke as they grew

Blaney has described early Pocketed as making frequent mistakes while scaling fast, and credits staying close to users and being willing to keep pivoting as what let the team keep up.

Per UBC Sauder: From UBC Sauder to startup success - Brianna Blaney's journey to a Big Four acquisition

Sources (1 in the founder's own words)

Brianna Blaney LinkedIn post (Pocketed acquired by Deloitte) · founder-authored
Authority Magazine (Medium): Female Founders - Brianna Blaney & Aria Hahn of Pocketed · third party · 2021-09
BCBusiness: Going On 30 - Brianna Blaney's newest company pockets big deal · third party · 2021-10
Daily Hive: Vancouver tech founders help entrepreneurs get the grants they need · third party · 2022-05
UBC Sauder: From UBC Sauder to startup success - Brianna Blaney's journey to a Big Four acquisition · third party · 2026-03
The Forum: Funding the Future - How The Forum Helped Pocketed · third party · 2025-05

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Frequently asked questions

Who acquired Pocketed?

Pocketed was acquired by Deloitte Canada for an undisclosed price on March 2025. Team including co-founders joined Deloitte Canada. Now 'Pocketed, a Deloitte business' within Gi3 practice.

What is Pocketed?

Grant- und Finanzierungsfindungsplattform für Startups und kleine Unternehmen. It operates in Finanzen.

How long did it take Pocketed to reach erster kunde?

Brianna Blaney & Dr. Aria Hahn took 0 days to reach erster kunde with Pocketed.

Was Brianna Blaney & Dr. Aria Hahn a solo founder?

No. Brianna Blaney & Dr. Aria Hahn built Pocketed with co-founders.

What marketing channel did Pocketed use to grow?

Pocketed grew primarily through Sonstiges.

What industry is Pocketed in?

Pocketed operates in Finanzen.

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Erster Kunde Sonstiges Finanzen Co-Gründer

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