Mette Kibsgaard, DigiShares's Co-founder & CMO on Gaining Tractions with Customers

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I co-founded DigiShares in 2018 while still in university, and have worked in the company as the CMO since. Between by bachelor and my masters degree i lived and worked for 3 years in Shanghai, which gave me great insight into marketing across cultures. It was an experience I could not be without.

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

Our company is named DigiShares, we are a software provider for tokenization of real estate and other assets. We handle tokenization of shares, ongoing management and subsequent trading. Our software is very user friendly and no blockchain knowledge is required to use the software.

What is the origin story?

Our CEO Claus Skaaning is a serial entrepreneur, coming from AI to blockchain very early on. He has always had a great passion for technology innovation, and is a true innovator. In 2017, he started developing the business plan for what would later become DigiShares, as he saw a market need that was unmet. Within a year we had the software ready to launch, and we have been building strong partnerships and onboarding customers ever since.

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

The team is driven by passion for the technology!

Our software was ready to launch just as the BTC crashed in 2018, which dragged the whole market down with it.

There was no money coming in, and yet still the entire team stayed on, despite having external full-time jobs. Everyone knew that our software was an innovation to be reckoned with, so we held on for dear life, worked the hardest that we could, and pushed the company forward despite all the obstacles.

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

Working on another startup most likely. I am passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship, building something from scratch and seeing your hard work pay off is the greatest feeling in the world.

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

We measure our success by customer onboarding and satisfaction. We are growing steadily and believe that this is a trend that will continue as we continue to improve our software.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

That customers are now finding us!

We have built a great reputation for excellent customer service, fantastic software that integrates seamlessly with our clients existing solutions, and not least a reputation of trust and transparency.

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

Inside my own field of expertise:

I am most excited about the ecosystem of companies and service providers bringing peer-to-peer defi investment technology to the world at large. Investing early in life can really make or break your future and retirement, and the idea that we will enter a future where anyone with an internet connection can invest is really exciting.

Outside my own field of expertise:

I am most excited about MedTech and the development of robotic surgery. In a world where doctors are scarce, and human error can have fatal consequences, robotic surgery technology will have a great impact on human health across the globe.

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

The whimsical nature of the platform, and the information flow. Hackernoon is a great place to come and learn about new technologies and industry developments.

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

Stop caring what others think, and believe in yourself.

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

That the best ideas usually come from the people no one would consider an expert. Specialists often get in their own way, if you need a truly innovative idea for a solution, involve people from different educational backgrounds, who can come up with much more creative solutions.