At a Glance

• Arbol joined the Growth Studio in 2025 to strengthen distribution and business strategy.
• Brass Ring Ventures brought experience in technology and higher education sales.
• The teams collaborated to build a strong sales engine, scale outbound, and accelerate to the Seed raise.
• Qualified pipeline grew from about $350K to more than $1M. 

Overview

ARBOL

Arbol is the Student Financial Success Platform built to help institutions improve enrollment, retention, and completion by guiding students through critical financial decisions. Its mission is to ensure no student stops out due to financial hardship.

THE GROWTH STUDIO

Brass Ring Ventures' Growth Studio pairs founders with experienced operators who work alongside leadership teams to solve practical growth challenges. Rather than serving as advisors from a distance, operators become active partners in execution across sales, fundraising, strategy, and company building.

Why Arbol Joined the Growth Studio

When Arbol completed the Techstars accelerator program in 2025, the team came away with its initial product and early customer proof points. The company had reached eight customers. Arbol’s next priority was distribution.

David Gonzalez, Arbol’s Co-Founder and CEO, understood Brass Ring’s clear value proposition through his first conversations with the team. Miriam Altman-Reyes, Managing Partner and Founding CEO at Brass Ring, brought experience in education, as well as founding, leading, and exiting a business. John Boyle, Operating Partner at Brass Ring, had experience selling into and scaling within higher education. David pointed to that experience, along with the timing, as the reason Arbol chose to participate in the Growth Studio.

“We were excited about Arbol from the start. The financial and impact ROI was clear, and the founder had the right combination of lived experience, as a former student and fintech startup leader in finance, operations, and sales. We knew we could add immediate value that would yield results.”

–Miriam Altman-Reyes, CEO & Managing Partner at Brass Ring Ventures

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A Clear Place to Start

David was direct about where Arbol needed help, and Brass Ring was equally clear about where it could provide support. The first priority was sales.

John helped Arbol source and onboard a fractional SDR partner that now produces eight to twelve meetings each month. Two of the company's four new institutional customers came through that channel. David said Brass Ring “really scaled the outbound channel, and proved that it could work for us.”

The Growth Studio’s support propelled all parts of Arbol’s sales process. John helped the team fine-tune pricing and establish better deal control, and Arbol became more meticulous about notes and next steps to move opportunities to close. Throughout the engagement, Brass Ring embedded itself within the Arbol team, creating a true partnership between the organizations.

“Working with Arbol has been great. Any coach will acknowledge that a good working relationship starts with someone that is coachable, and David is very coachable. My work with Arbol focused on all the little tactical details that result in deal control. Today, Arbol has one of the cleanest pipelines I've seen.”

–John Boyle, Operating Partner at Brass Ring Ventures

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More Than an Introduction

Brass Ring's role did not end when it helped scale the outbound effort; John stayed close to the work as Arbol built the process around it. David credited Brass Ring as a partner in building the pipeline from scratch, sharing that the team deserved “full credit for helping to build and scale the pipeline.”

That support gave Arbol more than a source of meetings. It created pipeline depth, which David described as especially important in higher education. It also gave the company a better way to model what could come next.

“Pipeline is the lifeblood of the organization. Arbol understands this now, because they are seeing the snowball effect from the top of the funnel. The sense of urgency and pressure has definitely changed with Arbol through this process.”

–John Boyle, Operating Partner at Brass Ring Ventures

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The Outcomes

During the Growth Studio engagement, Arbol more than doubled ARR. Qualified pipeline increased from approximately $350K to more than $1M.

The company expanded its pipeline by 246% and reported net new bookings of 62%, with signs of the overall GTM velocity increasing. David said the repeatable outbound motion strengthened Arbol's ability to generate opportunities and move them forward.

Brass Ring and Arbol also worked together to improve its operating capabilities. Arbol improved its approach to pricing and deal management. The team also became more disciplined about advancing opportunities. Every deal now has a visible next step documented in HubSpot, and the team consistently discusses what must happen next to win, regardless of stage. For high-priority accounts, the team develops a tailored account strategy that maps the stakeholders, actions, and path required to close.

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Support Beyond Sales

Miriam has also worked with David as a thought partner on decisions at the CEO level. Together, they created a disciplined process for translating customer feedback into product opportunities and validating willingness to pay before investing in development. That work shaped two new modules now on Arbol’s roadmap, both designed to expand customer value and increase annual contract value.

David described Miriam as a company advocate whose introductions helped Arbol build relationships with investors in its sector. 

“As an exited founder, I often serve as a bit of a generalist coach to CEOs. In David's case, that has meant providing feedback on sales and fundraising narratives, strategies, and operations, making introductions in my network, fielding tactical questions on go-to-market, and more.”

–Miriam Altman-Reyes, Managing Partner at Brass Ring Ventures

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What's Next

Arbol is raising bridge financing intended to carry the company toward a Seed round. The goal is to invest more in go-to-market to accelerate Annual Recurring Revenue beyond six figures.

Brass Ring will continue to support the company as it works toward those milestones required to achieve a successful Seed raise. The next phase will follow the same model: Brass Ring will stay close to the work, providing tactical guidance, while continuing to serve as a sounding board for David and the executive team.

“The Growth Studio helped us turn early traction into a business that is ready to scale. We now have stronger proof of the value we create, a repeatable sales motion, better operating discipline, and a product roadmap grounded in what customers are willing to pay for. Arbol’s next phase is about building on what is already working: reaching more institutions through our strongest channels, converting more of our pipeline, and expanding the value we deliver to each customer.”

–David Gonzalez, Co-Founder and CEO of Arbol