Fernando Gouvea, a North Bend entrepreneur, has launched Leadin Solutions, a digital platform designed to help small businesses manage missed customer calls and capture potential revenue. Launched in May, the startup focuses on answering calls when businesses are unavailable, converting them into text conversations, and providing actionable data to business owners.
Gouvea, who moved to North Bend from Brazil almost five years ago for a job at Microsoft, founded Leadin Solutions to assist local small and family-owned businesses. With 28 years of experience as an engineer improving customer experience, Gouvea also possesses a lifelong entrepreneurial spirit, having pursued ventures ranging from cake design and beer brewing to a wedding app. He describes himself as having "the entrepreneurial bug" since age 15.
Leadin Solutions addresses a common challenge for growing small businesses: missed phone calls. When a business cannot answer a customer call, Leadin steps in to respond. The system then transitions the customer to a text message conversation, where an AI-driven chat collects essential information. This includes details about the service needed, project scope, desired timeline, and even allows for photo submissions.
Upon collecting this information, the platform generates a “job card” for the business owner. Gouvea emphasizes that Leadin Solutions does not schedule appointments directly. Instead, it empowers business owners to manage their own resources, routes, and time by simply calling the customer back to schedule. This approach ensures companies retain full control over their operations.
Currently, Leadin Solutions is tailored to trade-based businesses, such as plumbing, electrical, and roofing companies. Gouvea is actively developing new services to extend support to other sectors, including restaurants, by addressing common customer inquiries.
Gouvea's core philosophy is that every phone call represents potential revenue. To underscore this, Leadin Solutions provides each client with a monthly report. These reports detail the number of missed calls, estimate the corresponding lost revenue, and offer a breakdown of the types of inquiries received. This data helps business owners understand where they might be losing money due to uncaptured leads.
For small businesses that are bootstrapping and often limited in time or money, Gouvea believes his expertise can add significant value. He aims to bridge the gap where these businesses might be losing money due to missed customer interactions, providing them with sophisticated tools often only available to larger enterprises.
Looking ahead, Gouvea plans to expand Leadin Solutions beyond Washington State. The company is already registered in every state except California, Texas, and Florida, with efforts underway to secure registration in those as well. Expansion plans also include hiring additional staff. His wife, a data analyst, is currently assisting with customer reports and other post-sale activities. Gouvea himself is shifting his focus from the engineering aspects, which are becoming more automated, to marketing and sales.
To ensure the platform directly addresses the needs of small business owners, Gouvea is actively seeking client feedback on their specific operational “pain points.” He has joined the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of Washington to engage directly with potential clients and gather insights. While his vision includes broader expansion, Gouvea is currently focused on serving businesses within the Snoqualmie Valley. His objective is not to fundamentally alter existing small business models but to integrate seamlessly with them, offering enterprise-level solutions that smaller businesses typically cannot access independently.