Small Business Web lands nonprofit status, names board

By PBN Staff
Twitter: @ProvBusNews

PROVIDENCE – The Small Business Web, a trade association that connects small businesses with cloud services, is now incorporated as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization and has named its inaugural board of directors.

The trade association, which has nearly 200 member companies, named executives from Batchbook, Google, Constant Contact, Intuit, X.Commerce and AppDirect to its board.

“The Small Business Web’s new designation and expanded board will allow it to help more small businesses succeed through the use of cloud services,” said a release.

The new board of The Small Business Web includes:

• Chair, Pamela O’Hara (CEO, Batchbook)

• President, Sunir Shah (CMO, Olark live chat)

• Director and Secretary, Kevin O’Brien (senior director, Constant Contact)

• Director, Chris Generalis (partner development, X.commerce)

• Director, Daniel Saks (Co-CEO, AppDirect)

• Director, Stephen Cho (director of software partner business development, enterprise, Google)

• Director, Alex Barnett (group manager of developer relations, Intuit)

“Business is now done online, and the best business software is also now online,” Shah said in prepared remarks. “We believe if small businesses will grow in today’s economy they need affordable access to the same tools and technology that big companies have. We’ve seen incredible growth in our membership as the small business cloud software market has exploded in recent years, and we look forward to doing more to build this market.”

According to the trade association’s release, the cloud offers “a great opportunity for time-starved small businesses,” allowing them to quickly accomplish day-to-day tasks and simultaneously improve their bottom line

The challenge, according to the group, is in finding the right organizations that will bring real business results. “As the only organization fostering this connection, The Small Business Web fills a void in the market,” said the release.

The Small Business Web fosters the connection between businesses and organizations through a combination of open APIs, secure and reliable cloud services, technical education and a community of organizations ready to innovate and share the ideas.

“For small businesses, it’s all about making things quick and easy so they can get back to running their business,” said O’Brien in a statement. “By taking out the complexity, they can accomplish tasks efficiently and provide more value to their own customers. I’m thrilled to be working with such a dedicated, talented group of people to help bring this concept to an even wider audience of small businesses.”

The Small Business Web, which was founded in 2009, has big plans for 2013. The association plans to create a set of technical standards for distribution partnerships and integration, hold its Annual Summit and host a SXSW event to celebrate the growth of cloud service for small businesses.