Author: Angélica Medina
I had the opportunity to talk with Matthieu Heusch, Co-founder of CamareroApp: a mobile app to order and pay your drinks and food from a restaurant or bar.
Matthieu told me a little bit about his experience as entrepreneur:
Where did you get the idea?
The idea came while working on a consulting project for the restaurant sector. As well, while having lunch, with little time before the next meeting, we were alwaysfrustrated that waiters took so long to order, serve or even bring the bill. At night we were tired of having to look at menus as if they were books, complicated to understand. We believe that you just want to have fun when having lunch or dinner, and the experience within restaurants and bars can be improved for sure.
However, this is not our first experience as entrepreneurs. Previously, we established a startup called Doctor Doctor, a social platform of e-health that allows making appointments and managing relation Doctor-Patient. The project won the Venture Lab 2010 IE Business School and was finalist for best start-up of the year in Madrid by AJE.
How does the business work?
CamareroApp is a mobile application that works as a waiter: taking order and payment.
The customer can order using a simple identification. Once you are in a restaurant or bar, you can order food and drink directly from your mobile phone, without having to wait for a waiter.
The App has a social component that allow you to review the menu in an interactive way (photos, recommendations, promotions) and let you share recommendations and rankings.
It also uses geo-location technology to find restaurants, but the aim of the tool is to improve the experience inside the restaurant (fast food / fast drink) rather than be a search engine tool.
What is the business model?
CamareroApp charges a commission per order.
What kinds of investors does the company have?
After bootstrapping for several months, we got a first round of financing; the usual FFF round you can’t escape from J. A few angels invested as well in this round.
In addition, we won last week the SeedRocket 2013 competition and the Madrid 2020 competition in April.
We always look for new investors, so if you want to invest, we will always make a spot for you 😉
What is the stage of project now?
We have presence in 2 chains (Café&Té and MasQMenos) and are improving the product everyday. Soon more clients to come.
What role do the members play in the company?
Matthieu Heusch is in charge of business matters: Sales, Marketing, Finance and HRR
Jorge Bodas is responsible for Product Design & Technology.
What have you learned from your experience as entrepreneurs?
- Each day is a new adventure and that is incredible and wonderful of starting your own company: be in touch with all aspects of the business, think that you know nothing, innovate or die, especially in technology word, where trends and customer habits and preferences change more quickly than products (almost monthly).
- You have to handle unexpected or not consider topics.
- Innovate, lead and take risk. It is important to fail because it means you have tried enough.
- Member of the team are important.
We look for attitudes and abilities rather than experience.
A perfect match with the company culture is people who have:
- Passion: things that motivate them.
- Ability to learn: ask for the worst mistake that they’ve done in their life.
- Aptitude to assume risk: What are you most proud of accomplishing in your life?
- Capacity of persuasion: ask to sell you what you have on the table to assess this ability.
What are the most excited about the project at the moment?
Making people use the app on a daily basis.
What are the most difficult of entrepreneurship?
Sell your first company, let go of your project and fire employees.
However, then you are stronger than before, acquiring reasonable and objective thinking.
In your opinion, what are the most important personality traits to be a successful entrepreneur?
Passionate, fearless, humility, hardworking and be positive.
Have the ability to learn and endure in the face of adversity to continue.
Is there anything you would go back and do differently if you had the chance?
Be leaner, don’t scale to quick, but be always selling. People will remember why you do it, not what you do.
What new understanding since you started has had the most impact on your original plan?
Everything is temporary, everything change and you have to be flexible and adjust to new circumstances.
As we already mentioned, ability to learn and humility as key factor to success as entrepreneur.
What advice would you like to give to potential entrepreneurs?
It is better to do it than sorry for have not.
The experience is always positive, either if you win or you learn.
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