Author: Emilio Rodriguez, Gremyo Co-founder

What’s Gremyo?

Gremyo is an online platform that connects the audiences of online publishers, content platforms and online communities, with brands and innovative product suppliers.

Our company provides a more effective online monetization channel focused on the final consumer, through the natural fusion of content and trending products.

We revolutionize the way online publishers monetize their audiences by powering Content +Commerce.

Tell us how you identified the necessity of offering this service to the online publishers and the reasons that lead you to launch the company.

Almost a year ago, in June 2014, we started collaborating with some online publishers and blogs, and talking with them we realized that despite of having large and loyal audiences they were struggling to convert those users into scalable and profitable businesses. They were looking for new and alternative ways of monetization since their current strategies, monetization tools and channels wouldn’t let them survive in the mid-long term. We identified that there was a clear inefficiency in both the digital content and ecommerce businesses.
We realized there was a bigger and even more passionate problem than the one we were trying to solve, so we then decided to do some research about what was being done in and out our frontiers and we discovered the solution: Native Commerce [the organic integration of relevant product recommendations into the content experience].
We completely pivoted our business model in September, started working very close with some online publishers and we focused on building a Native Commerce platform in order to solve two major problems:

• Online Publishers need/ed new and alternative ways of monetizing their large audiences and contents.

• Brands and vendors need/ed to increase their reach and visibility to get more potential customers.

Is Gremyo an alternative to the traditional revenue streams for online publishers?

Definitely. We offer them a full-service, customized and branded online commerce store integrated on their own website that let them create a new source of income by promoting and selling trendy products tailored to their audiences.

On the other hand, for the ones that are not ready yet to integrate an online store, we offer them our affiliate program so that they can earn great commissions by promoting and selling our products. This is a perfect and lightweight solution if you have a web/blog, an online community or many followers/subscribers.

What’s your value proposition and differentiation from your competitors?

Our added value mainly resides in 5 aspects:

1) The previous analysis we carry out to the audience and content of the online publisher and select the products that best fit them.

2) The continuous consultancy and advice to get the maximum performance. They turn their readers and users into customers and fans.

3) The complete management of a zero cost solution and its ease of use.

4) Brands/vendors: put their products in front of large audiences without incurring in marketing costs (they just pay if there are sales).

5) Better conversions than online advertising (CTR x 3).

What kind of products/services do you offer in your store and to whom are they targeted?

For the time being, we offer a selection of trendy products and deals in the areas of technology, entrepreneurship, e-learning and lifestyle, under exclusive conditions. From innovative products (gadgets, electronic devices, kits, etc) to Digital (Software-as-a-Service, apps, SW, online courses, guides, resources, etc). Our cool hunters are constantly searching for the best and most innovative products and services, closing agreements with brands/vendors so that we can offer them to our online publishers network.

What feedback are you getting from the online publishers so far? Are there any entry barriers in order to integrate your platform?

Generally, the first feedback we receive from an online publisher is very positive since we are offering them a zero cost solution that let them get an alternative source of income through the selection of products tailored to its audience and contents, and that’s something that catch their attention from the very beginning.

It’s important to clearly explain the advantages of our «turnkey» solution. They don’t have to do any extra work or upfront investment (no entry barriers). We are in charge of everything, from the development, maintenance and integration of the online platform until the negotiation with vendors/brands, product sourcing, client support, conversion funnel optimization, analytics, after sales service, logistics, security, online payments, etc. They only have to keep on creating great content so that they can seamlessly integrate and promote their products in them.

Once they agree on start working with us, it’s very important to carry out a deep analysis of the traffic, type of audience and contents of the online publisher so that we can select the product that best fit them. Once we sign the agreement and deploy the solution (in less than 48h), we then constantly give them advice and work really close with them in order get the best out of the solution and maximize the profits.

We like to have an iterative focus in everything we do, polishing and introducing new processes, features and improvements to our solution.

Tell us a bit more about the agreements you have already reached with online publishers:

Currently we have more than 15 agreements with important online publishers, blogs and online communities such as: Muy Interesante (G+J Group), Agencia EFE, The Huffington Post (Prisa Group), Ticbeat, Sabemos Digital, Eureka Startups, Hoja de Router, JotaBlogs, iLeon.com, StartUC3M, StartupXplore, TerritorioPyme (Cinco Días), El Club del Emprendimiento, etc.

We are dealing with many more and they will soon start using our Native Commerce solution. Hopefully it will be unstoppable and by the end of the year we plan to have around 30 online publishers and professional blogs happily using it.

What are the monthly economic benefits for an online publisher once they start using your solution?

It’s not easy to give exact figures although we can give an approximate forecast based on several parameters. It’s not the same having 50,000 or a million unique monthly visits, having 5 million twitter followers or just 12 thousand, having 140 thousand subscribers or none. But on the other hand it also depends on their activity promoting the products on every channel (editorial articles, social media, emailing, etc).

What we can assure them is that they are going to earn more money than they’ve made so far and without any extra work or upfront costs. This is a complementary monetization solution which let them keep on using others like traditional display advertising, events or sponsorships. They just choose one or another depending on their strategy, value proposition and results.

Some tech online publishers like Cult of Mac or The Next Web are generating 6 figures in annual gross sales using a Native Commerce solution and consistently improving month by month. In fact, they already have a fully dedicated team to create content to promote deals and products and get the highest traffic to their online store. They have been using it for more than 2 years and already perfectly know the processes, conversion rates and that having a dedicated team let them increase sales and revenue by 3 or even more.

How do you integrate your solution on their websites?

The process is very fast and simple. As mentioned, it’s a full-service, customized and branded online commerce store ‘powered by Gremyo’. It just takes us less 48h to have their store up and running once we reach an agreement and sign the contract. It has everything an online store needs and even more: payment gateways, order fulfillment, analytics, email marketing, sales and performance reports, customer support, shipping, logistics, security, etc. It’s very important to say that we can add new products and categories to each store with just one click from our administration panel.

They just have to create a subdomain (store.publisherweb.com) and redirect it to our domain (publisherweb.gremyo.com), which takes their IT team less than a minute to do.

What are your future plans for 2015?

We firmly believe that we have a consistent, scalable and profitable business model in our hands. Our plans for the next 12 months are driven to carry out our commercial plans to further expand the online publisher’s network, closing big deals with big online media groups and professional blogs, recruit new people for the team and evolve the product in order to consolidate the company in Spain. To achieve this, we are currently seeking for a capital investment of 200k €.

If you are a potential investor, just contact us (hi@gremyo.com) and we’ll be glad to give you further info.

If you love startups, internet, technology and you have experience in either the digital content or the ecommerce business, just contact us and we’ll be glad to have a coffee with you. We are looking for top talent to join our team!!

About us:

Founders: Emilio Rodríguez, Mauro Fernández and Sonar Ventures (company builder).

Founded: March 2014.

Headquarters: Madrid, Spain.

Team: 6-person-strong team plus Sonar Ventures team that helps us in every area.

Contact: hi@gremyo.com