Company: nudgem

Founder: Stelios Kapandais

“Amassing more zero-party data is going to be critical as targeting abilities are constrained by iOS 14 changes and the upcoming removal of cookies. Stelios has a compelling vision for nudgem that allows ecommerce merchants to gather data across the entire user journey and unify those data points to build enriched customer profiles for robust personalization.”

– Melody Koh

 

Get to know the business

Rachel Hodes (RH): What problem exists in the market that your business is trying to solve? 

Stelios Kapandais (SK): eCommerce retailers have historically leaned on paid digital marketing channels to acquire new customers. On average, an eCommerce retailer spends 15-30% of their revenue on paid marketing channels, but in recent months, new privacy regulations, iOS 14 tracking changes and the phase out of 3rd-party cookies, have increased the cost to acquire a new customer by 155%, a trend that is expected to continue in the coming years.

 

RH: How is your company planning to solve this problem? 

SK: nudgem helps eCommerce retailers grow their businesses more profitably, by combating rising advertising costs and increasing revenue through personalization. 

We are providing retailers of all sizes with the tools they need to capture data directly from their customers (zero-party data) and then use this data to personalize the entire buying journey, from the onsite experience to the email and SMS marketing campaigns.

 

RH: Who are your customers?

SK: eCommerce retailers of all sizes that are looking for ways to run their businesses more efficiently and provide a great customer experience.

 

RH: And last but not least, why should the world care about this problem and how you’re solving it? Feel free to speak to the potential economic impacts, environmental impacts, social/political impacts, etc. 

SK: Helping eCommerce retailers to run their businesses more efficiently and reduce marketing budget waste will unlock resources that can be used more productively to grow their teams, launch new products and get into new markets. 

We like to think of it as transferring wealth from the pockets of big tech companies to those of the retailers and brands we are working with.

 

Get to know the founders

RH: Hello founder! Please introduce yourself.

SK: I was born and raised in Athens, Greece and moved to Florida to pursue a Master’s degree in 2014. After graduating from UF, I moved to NYC, where I worked for various startups, fell in love with the city, and have stayed close to it ever since (recently moved to NJ).

 

RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? And your least?

SK: I love the fact that every day is different and you get to work on all parts of the business, from Product to Sales and everything in between. 

Sometimes the amount of work and things that need to be done are overwhelming and prioritizing them is always challenging.

 

RH: What show are you watching right now/what book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it? 

SK: Recently started watching “WeCrashed” and would definitely recommend it to everyone that is into startups and building businesses.

Right now I’m in between 3 different books (depending on my mood, I will just read a different one every night). Deep Work, Mindsight and Sapiens. 

From all three, the one I would recommend to everyone is Deep Work. We all need some guidance and specific tactics on how to minimize the distracted time in our days and become more focused and productive.

 

Looking Ahead

RH: What are you hoping to learn/get out of your time in the NextView Everyday Economy Accelerator? 

SK: In the early stages of a company’s life, there are two things that really matter and that you have to get right. The first one is the product and finding product-market fit early enough so that you don’t end up wasting resources and building something people won’t use. The second is building the best team possible for the problem you are solving, so that you can iterate fast enough to get to product-market fit and scale from there. The NV Accelerator and the Partners have been really hands-on and helped us with guidance on both of these topics, which is exactly what we need at that stage. Also, connecting with other accelerator companies and talking through the challenges that we all go through has been really helpful.

 

RH: Close your eyes and imagine where your business will be in five years. What’s the same and what’s different?

SK: What’s the same: our vision of personalizing the entire customer journey based on zero-party data

What’s different: our vision has become a reality!

For more on nudgem, be sure to follow them on LinkedIn and connect with Stelios, as well.