Fact Sheet
Name of Product (Startup): Flashchat
Founder’s relevant nationality: Greek
Financing method: Venture Capital
Interviewee: Vaios Gkitsas, CEO
Website, Crunchbase link:
https://flashchat.ai
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/flashchat#section-overview
Product
Can you please briefly summarise your solution?
“Flashchat is the easiest way for ecommerce businesses to automate conversations across touchpoints and convert their audience into paying customers.”
More than 20M businesses exchange more than 10BN messages with their audience every month (5x more messages than in 2017) and there is no easy way for businesses to monetize this new normal.
Flashchat is a plug & play Conversational Commerce platform that uses Messenger, requires no coding or technical know-how and automates chats converting social media audience & website visitors into paying customers.
Product-market evolution
What phase are you in currently with your product on the startup lifecycle chart?
When did you found your company?
Flashchat was found in 2016.
How long did it take you to reach your current phase?
From ideation to the first implementation steps it took us 1 month. 3 months from the initial investment to the MVP and 24 months from the initial investment to the current state.
What were the biggest lessons learned moments?
How many times did you change direction (“pivoted”) / how similar is your product currently to the original idea?
Before you actually run your startup, you cannot be fully aware of critical stuff such us, which segment converts easier, which channel is the most effective for your marketing budget or your human capital, which is the uce-case that can help you position your startup comparing to the emerging competition. Having said that, changing direction is an avoidable step and process. As a founder & CEO you have to prepare your team and your investors for couple of direction maneuvers before you scale your business.
I have made 2 maneuvers so far.
Can you mention a memorable customer feedback about your product? It can be positive, negative or just plain funny.
“It’s so effective that I cannot fully adopt it cause it disrupts my existing marketing & sales channels“
What information would have been good to know about your market or product before starting your company?
There are types of customers that although can understand the added value from an innovative product they are not emotionally ready to challenge an existing workflow so you need to plan to disrupt a workflow/habit/industry gradually and in steps.
Founders, team
How many ideas, enterpreneurial attempts did you have before your actual project?
I have found another two technology ventures in the past.
What was your (inner) motivation behind launching your first StartUp?
Independence and passion to work for a new project that could possibly create a global impact.
How many co-founders are in the team and when did each of you join the company?
I am a sole founder from the very beginning.
How has your team changed since the beginning? (Either in terms of people or personal/team development)
It changed almost 100%. Startup life, fast results and change of direction is tough and not for everyone.
How do you govern your startup, what is your approach for decision making?
Team meetings to discuss and filter potential decisions-solutions mostly about product & customer related decisions, board meetings with investors to discuss strategy and new market related decisions.
Did you have any particularly difficult decisions (as a team) - and of course, what and why?
Changing the head of Tech was a difficult decision, also leaving existing customers to churn in order to focus on a specific channel & specific use-case as part of a new strategic direction was a tough one. In both cases, good estimate on where the market is heading and managing investors’ expectations were significant elements to maintain the team’s phycology & overall performance.
StartUp World
Do you expect anything (generally) unexpected in the startup world in the next 3 years?
Startup world and facing unexpected situations go hand by hand. As a founder you always need to be prepared for a disruption in your model and have couple of back up plans that could possibly turn an upcoming change into an opportunity for your organization.
What do you find especially challenging as a Greek startup?
Find specialized resources to compete with world class players in your space.
Do you see any benefits of being a Greek startup?
Young professional with high academic level, eager to learn & innovate.
Do you have a book-, website or any other information source recommendation for other startuppers?
Lean Startup for the beginners and Blitzscalling for the advanced ones.
