Bob Sabra, CEO Hovi Digital Lab on How Putting Employees First Helps in Success

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I’m a DMI Certified Digital Marketing Trainer, SaaS expert & ice cream junkie. I have a huge passion for technology & tools. I co-founded Hovi Marketing Platform, with a mission to change the way digital sales and marketing operations.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Hovi Digital Lab provides a transformative marketing framework that helps businesses grow and scale.

What is the origin story?

Started from the bottom now we’re here. In other words, we started with an idea of a digital platform that commensurates the entire digital marketing process. We designed the framework encompassing the various tools and processes then pitched it to our first client. We were 2 people in January 2020. We signed our first client, expanded our implementation team, and 2 years into the venture, we are 32 employees with an entity in Ireland and a plan to conquer the entire world of Digital Marketing and selling.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

We are a people-driven company. The first of our kind in the region. We offer 4-day working weeks, therapy, and coaching in addition to many other perks such as weekly lunches and monthly outings. Our team is very solution-driven and operates based on values that are used as the foundation for their career path and promotion.

I have a great enthusiastic technically savvy team, and I’m proud of them.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

Partying in Miami.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

We look at COCA, MRR, ARR, Marketing Source attribution, Cost per Lead, Cost of Delivery, CLTV, CAC Payback Period.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

We are the fastest-growing start-up in the country. We started in January 2020 and we are right now at $1.2M ARR which normally takes companies that are subscription-based up to 6 years to reach. Our team consists of 32 people. We started at 2. We had no initial investment until we reach $500K ARR.

We are also developing our own Thought Leadership platform called “The Hovi TV” which will kick off on August 12 with a 3 series webinar. This initiative will further carve our presence in the Digital World as thought leaders.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

The technology that I am most excited about right now to integrate with our product is Machine Learning driven AI and Virtual Reality shopping experiences.

I long for a day where people can walk virtually in malls and start getting suggestions based on historical purchases, skin fits, color preferences that are all baked in based on their progression in the shopping experience. I also long for a day where B2B businesses have a control panel that tells them exactly the kind of campaigns, content, and channels they need to use to drive higher conversions. That is the platform we are baking. And it’s smelling pretty sweet!

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

Your email invitation was well carved and it propelled us to participate. If the contest is really fair, then there is no way for us not to win. We are the fastest growing start-up in the country if not in the region. I have taken a look at all the other startups and none of them has the Top Line Revenue we do, noting that they have had LOTS of funding behind them and very little revenue to back it up.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Be yourself. You’re going to get there. Patience is key. Avoid naysayers.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

I learned that a lot of people tend to overlook their inner dialogues and once Covid forced all of us to look inside, it has caused a lot of us some additional anxiety and stress. Mental health is key and that’s why we focus a lot on that in our company.