“You have to meet all challenges and view everything from the customer's perspective”
“You have to meet all challenges and view everything from the customer's perspective”
As part of the Calcalist and Poalim Tech mentoring project Growth+, Guy Bloch from Bringg and Eyal Ben Shalom from Adge.ai met to discuss overcoming crises with a strong emphasis on the customer's perspective.
Guy Bloch, CEO of Bringg, and Eyal Ben Shalom, CEO of Adge.ai, recently joined forces in a dynamic conversation about navigating crises and leveraging technology, as part of the Growth+ project by Calcalist and Poalim Tech. This initiative involves a series of 1:1 meetings between experienced entrepreneurs and early-stage start-up companies, with the goal of providing advice, support, and knowledge on entrepreneurship, creativity, managing start-ups, and building companies for growth.
Guy, tell us about a crisis you encountered at the beginning and what you learned from it that can help young entrepreneurs.
"I joined an existing company and put everything aside. After 20 years in the U.S, I returned to Israel because I believe in it. There were crises like the Corona pandemic that we had to navigate, and the global slowdown that affected the entire retail market. I always categorize tasks into urgent-important, important-not urgent, and not important at all - all from the customer's perspective. As a customer, you want to be urgent-important. If the customer is in crisis, it affects the entire industry that serves them. Everyone goes through a crisis. The consumption is mainly of perishable products, which means lower profit margins, affecting both profit and expenses. Today, the market demands projects of 3-4 months with immediate profit. As CEO, you must adjust yourself and avoid illusions about reality."
Eyal, what is the biggest difficulty you have encountered in the last year?
"We went through a family tragedy. My brother and I, who co-founded the company, both experienced the same loss. We lost our father in November, right after the war broke out. Losing him at 69, after he went through all the stages of dementia within six months, made us question everything. We had to get up, change direction, and find customers who believed in us, leading us to where we are today after 4-5 super-intense months, reaching crazy metrics."
Guy, what would you advise on this matter?
"You need a lot of determination and resilience to not break. You have to meet all challenges and view everything from the customer's perspective. Tell the story from the angle of what the customer gets out of it."
What did you learn from each other? Is there anything you will take with you further?
Eyal: "Guy brought a perspective often talked about in books but actually explained how it is done. He surrounds himself with the right people and advisors, finds the right people to support him, and gives them the incentive to help him win. I learned how he harnesses stakeholders to get the work done."
Guy: "I learned that Eyal starts from scratch, and when you start from scratch, you don't know where it will take you. So I got a lot of energy from the conversation. It’s amazing to see where our world is going in terms of technology. I engage with the retail world downstream, at the purchase stage, to create the best customer experience - and he ensures that the product gets sold."
Tell us about something interesting or surprising you found out about each other today.
Eyal: "My brother and I have been gamers all our lives, and with Guy, I found a bonding that only happens between gamers. Gaming has many advantages, such as quick decision-making, which is critical for entrepreneurship, and a place to vent aggression. It has helped me in life in ways I can’t even describe."
Guy: "The click between us around gaming was exciting. It’s such an important area of shared interest."
Michal Kissos Hertzog, CEO of Poalim Tech, concluded:
"As an entrepreneur, you often think you know the challenge you're facing, but many times the real challenge is hidden behind the scenes. Every company faces common and unique challenges. One way to identify a company's unique challenge is to hear as many stories as possible from other companies and how they faced challenges. That’s why we created this project. The goal is to inspire, stimulate thinking, and perhaps most importantly, to trigger the magical element that every entrepreneur wishes for: intuition. Intuition comes after we have heard, processed, and digested countless stories and experiences, both our own and others’."
