StartUs Presents: Datawiz

Describe Datawiz.io in 50 words or less.

We, BI Datawiz.io Retail, provide a suite of sales analysis solutions, machine learning models and market bucket analytics that allow to unlock the power of retail transaction data. Our system gives science-based pricing, defines key driven products, products layout and promotion modeling to upgrade retail sales approaches.

Why did you choose retail analytics and what are your plans for the near future?

Actually advanced math was first applied for stock market analytics, and nobody really cared about the retail market. That market stayed underserved for a really long time because there’s not so much money there. Only Walmart, Tesco and other top retailers have begun to play there, and this is probably the reason why they are on TOP. We’re going to deliver the same kind of approach to our clients. Today we continue the development of our Datawiz.io service in Ukraine with national retailers. Our nearest target is localizing our product in the Chinese retail market and making sales.

Why did you decide to pursue your own dreams rather than someone else’s?

It’s rather challenging to build something completely new that can bring really huge value to our clients. It’s not a process of making business or competition, it is a process of creation. It gives you the feeling of pleasure and freedom. Your job no longer feels like hard work. Maybe at first glance our business is not really sexy, but Salesforce was also not quite a sexy company, and now look at them. We are going to be next Salesforce for the retail market.

7 years from now: How did your startup change the world?

Retail is highly connected to us in our daily life. The potential of Big Data for retailers is enormous. Big players in retail market, like Walmart, can easily approach advanced technology, but small and middle-sized retailers are not rich and tech-advanced enough to do so. We want to deploy this technology to help them bring convenience to people’s daily life.
What we are trying to do is to change the total market situation and bring benefits to the whole line: retailers, suppliers, and regular consumers.

In what ways do you measure your success and how do you make sure you don’t lose track?

Our success is not only traction. Our success answers numerous questions like: how much money do our clients get to save? Do our math models succeed or fail? How deeply integrated is our service? How many hours do clients spend there? Was the price driven down? Are retail customers more satisfied or not?

Describe your typical working day from coming to the office to leaving it.

Each working day is different in our office. Cups of coffee are typical.
Each task is different. Good mood is typical.
Each client is different with his own expectations, problems, typical is our approach of giving him the best service.
The atmosphere of co-creation in our office is, I think, typical too.
Every day brings us new challenges, ideas and solutions.
Leaving the office with thoughts like, “Today was interesting, let’s try something new tomorrow,” it’s great!

Already pivoted? Did customers use the analytics platform for retail like you imagined it in the beginning?

We are definitely different from the early beginning. We started by doing consulting, after that we made a few test projects, and we’ve got first real clients now. And our service is beginning to evolve. We did many iterations and are still doing them. It is very important for us to get feedback from clients and react fast. And it is critical for us to localize our product before we enter into a different market like in China.

Bootstrapped or financed: What fuels your startup now and what will in the future?

The energy is fuelling us, our clients’ feedback and understanding that they need our service. Of course also the money that they pay. We have already received $170.000 in funding from investors. Today we are looking for new investments because we want to expand into several new markets.

With ferocious competition and a booming trend to build new companies: How do you make sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle?

We don’t care about ferocious competition. We know that competitors exist but they are not interesting for us. We are doing what feels right to do, and we are iterating really fast, it’s given us a really huge advantage. We care only about providing value to our clients via creating great products and services. We’re developing our service, as well as marketing and sales. It gives us the possibility to meet challenges, to become better, more innovative.

What do you look for in team members?

“Crazy, but not stupid,” Jack Ma said, and we can’t say it better. You need to be one step ahead of the crowd. Also you should be really proactive and ambitious in order to stay there for a long time. Your ideas are crazy today, tomorrow they’ll be common for everybody, the day after tomorrow they are old.

Why would a talent join your team?

You have ideas? We give you the opportunity to try them. We give each team member the freedom to achieve their goals, meet challenging opportunities, and gain new useful skills for personal growth. We will also be very glad if you share your approaches and thoughts, and teach our team something new.

What was your most memorable moment so far?

It was like “Look! It really exists now.” – The moment when we saw the first diagram made by our service. That was the moment of truth for us, the moment when we understood that we made something really effective. The day when our first client increased his retail performance with the help of our service was important for our team too. We understood our personal value of Datawiz.io. It helps us today to transmit and represent it to our clients.

What advice would you give fellow founders for their startup?

If you don’t know where to go or what to do, just make one step forward. There are different situations in the process of starting your own business. Sometimes you might become really confused, doubt your own abilities or the abilities of your team. All you need to do is keep moving, make new steps. You have no time for a pause, you need to be in permanent movement, maybe with iterations or turnouts, but only moving helps you to find your own way to your dream.