The third key note speaker at Finance Board was the founder of Supermetrics Mikael Thuneberg who presented the company’s story and gave four tips to new startups.
Back in the day, Thuneberg worked as a web analyst and got frustrated with constantly having to import files and manually copying data into excel. He quickly realized he was not alone and recognized that this was a shared pain for millions of analysts and marketers. With no programming experience he decided to solve the problem and founded Supermetrics in 2013 (initially Mikael started creating reporting tools as a side project in 2010). Now they are the number one automated reporting tool for marketing metrics.
1. Solve a clear, already existing problem
First to get the business started, solve a clear and already existing problem. “We did not have to sell it, people were immediately interested. We still do not have to sell the solution to anyone. The most boring part of a marketer’s job was gathering all the data from different services to be able to analyze it. Supermetrics does this for you.”
2. Find a unique position
“Find a unique market position with little competition. The whole ad tech scene is pretty crowded. But for example, if the existing tools are not flexible, the marketer will probably want to calculate something that’s not possible in that tool and end up creating a spreadsheet.” Here in lies your opportunity.
3. Focus all efforts on the product
“Focus all your efforts on making a great product. I was fully focused on the product and didn’t do many of the other tasks a founder might be expected to do. I did not even get the idea of raising funding. It was only later on I found out that most startups operate on losses.”
4. Align yourself with a big player
“Align yourself with a big player to be the first mover in a new ecosystem. It was not easy, but creating a relationship with Google really helped us being the first in the new marketplace. The initial traction turned out to be crucial. Now it is difficult to enter the market as there are hundreds of add-ons.”
Written by Annika Sipilä, Boardman Oy
