Tell us about yourself?
Educational and business-wise – I graduated from University with a Computer Science & Economics degree, and after working a for few years I also went on to a second degree (MBA), which I enjoyed. As a software development-oriented person, I tend to dive deep into details, this usually slides into my personal life as well. And as a business-aware entrepreneur, I usually analyse and assess new challenges and opportunities before making a decision, looking for the best value vs cost ratio. I like learning and understanding new technologies, new philosophies, and new trends.
On a more personal level – I value time with my family and friends, I love my hobbies (including surfing, skiing, good movies, and playing musical instruments).
I think that the connection between my business and my personal background was the foundation for contemplating SocialBlink.io – Which brings together value for money with a focus on saving valuable time for businesses, and especially for social media managers and agencies, time you can spend on the things you love to do.
What do you think is the single biggest misconception people have when it comes to startups?
That 90% of the startups are an overnight success. This is far from the truth in my experience. Success follows a lot of dedication, long hours and endless challenges and uncertainty that could extend for a long period of time.
If you could go back in time to any moment from your journey, and give yourself one tip, what would it be?
Wow, there would be many tips! Start sooner than later, get help sooner, be your product’s number one evangelist, and include your personal communication channels – to name a few!
What makes you stand out as an entrepreneur?
I don’t know about standing out as an entrepreneur, but qualities that have helped me move SocialBlink forward are dedication, optimism, and focus. Diving into specifics and tending to small details sometimes makes a difference between entrepreneurs. My background and former experience in development and in business management have also helped me in visualising the product, and in translating business plans and ideas into development, bringing it to market in a way that will appeal to the target audience.
What are some of the best working habits you’ve gained over the past couple of years?
I am well organised, most action items are scheduled, I take timeouts to free tension and collect my thoughts, and I exercise frequently.
Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?
The idea of SocialBlink.io was born out of a mixture of influences and necessities:
The old model where 80% of Social Media services around the world (including Facebook Business Page management, Instagram Business account management, post/story promotion, content creation, social media marketing strategy etc.) was being supplied by 20% of the media services market (the big advertisement and media agencies) has shifted. These large agencies had resources, they had in-house divisions for data analysis and reports.
Now, these services are being distributed and supplied by a growing number of smaller media agencies, and by an even faster-growing number of tiny media agencies and Freelancers/Self-employed professionals.
Many of these smaller agencies and freelancers are mainly content and marketing oriented, they are very excited to create the best content for their clients, but the idea of having to send a monthly content/promotion (analytics) report is a big challenge (this means manually digging into unwelcoming and somewhat sophisticated dashboards and Excel sheets, downloading and understanding the numbers and trying to design a readable report for their client).
Over the past few years, Social Media is getting more important and powerful for businesses on a quarterly basis. Results are becoming more data-driven. Data Analysis demand is rising (both from service suppliers and their clients).
Since I own a Social Media agency, I could feel these trends, and more specifically I could feel the effect this data analysis and reporting demand had on my employees (they would call it “end of month reporting nightmare”). It would take them hours per client to get and verify the data from Facebook, then Instagram, then Youtube…
These influences, along with my understanding of the value of one’s time for this big new industry of small agencies and freelancers (and end clients as well), brought me to search for a solution.
Our mission is to make Social Media Data Analysis accessible to the target market by providing a very Simple and Intuitive platform (SaaS) that will save them valuable time and take away the burden of data mining and analysis and report production. So now they don’t fear the “end of month reporting nightmare” anymore, and their clients appreciate the new professional and readable reports.
Where do you see your business in five years?
In five years, SocialBlink.io will be known and regularly used throughout the social media management community around the world, bringing simplicity, fun, and saving time to many people.
We will equip our subscribers with new and innovative tools that will help them save more time while supplying more value to their customers.
We might also be looking into services for personal/non-commercial audiences (services that adhere to the same values).
What do you think the biggest challenge will be for you in getting there?
While there are many challenges in order to reach our goals and fulfill our mission, I am more focused on two obstacles – Reaching our target audience efficiently, and staying on track and in touch with their needs in order to achieve the best market fit.
Talk to us about your biggest success story so far?
We have overcome many obstacles, but we see our success as the feedback we get from our clients, validating our goal to save them time and to equip them with a product that fits their needs and helps them bring more value to their clients.
How do clients and customers find you? Are you much of a salesperson for yourself?
Well, we are a purely green and digital company, so we put emphasis on SEO and Social Media marketing (since this is where our audience is). We are just starting our journey, so much more to come in terms of digital marketing.
The best way to get to know us is to give us a visit:
https://www.socialblink.io
What one tip would you give to fellow startup founders?
Be flexible but don’t lose focus.
And finally, what do you hope the future brings both you personally, and your business?
Success and fulfillment from supplying great value.
