HackerNoon: Please tell us briefly about your background. Hello! My name is Asaf Nevo, I’m the CEO and one of three co-founders at Pico - Get Personal. Native to the city of Haifa, father of two, with the belief that there is no such thing as an unsolved problem. It’s safe to say I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and now background. From my required military service to my studies at University to now my tech-business venture, and even the treehouse I built for my kids, I’ve always tried to find ways to innovate general, day-to-day situations and circumstances. What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do? Our startup is Pico - Get Personal, and we are a data-driven marketing platform. We help sports teams, brands, and any organization that has a digital following capture and own first-party data on their audience so that they can market to them accordingly. Our digital activations, which consist of games like Memory Match, Spin the Wheel, Trivia, Find the Difference, and more, help our clients turn digital engagement into valuable first-party data, thus creating the opportunity for highly targeted and personalized marketing campaigns that drive an added layer of fan interest and conversions. What is the origin story? The OG version of Pico initially started as Pico.buzz. It was a photo-sharing platform that stemmed after my wedding when I, and one of Pico’s co-founders, Roi Mozer, saw hundreds of people taking pictures but not having a way of sharing them in one place. Mind you, this was in 2014, before Instagram, Snapchat, etc. The idea was to create a way for people and brands to have one designated place to share photos quickly and easily. In 2016, we pivoted to where we are now, a data-driven fan marketing platform, as we saw a real need for sports teams to know and understand who their digital fans are. Who are the fans constantly engaging with their content? Who is behind the daily likes, comments, and shares? We’re solving a specific problem that most teams and organizations aren’t even aware of- that over 90% of their following is actually anonymous. In this day in age, sports teams and brands have millions of followers across their social pages that they’re engaging with daily. They’re anonymous to the organization because the social networks own the data and monetize it for themselves and aren’t the most eager to share much. So what Pico enables, through fun interactive experiences that run natively on an organization's digital channels, is the ability to identify who those fans are organically and pick up more information and data throughout each activation and conversation. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? I love the people of Pico. At the end of the day, we all work hard to create value, and I’m fortunate enough to have driven people surrounding me all day. We’re the ones to solve the problem because we’re all bringing with us experience in the digital and sports space, as well as a true passion for what we’re doing. We follow sports religiously, we stay in the know when it comes to tech in the digital and marketing space, and our solution has already been proven beyond valuable to our clients. It has directly impacted their marketing approach and overall strategy. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? If we weren’t building Pico, I would like to help small to medium-sized business owners. A majority of businesses worldwide are of the small to medium size and often need guidance in what next step they should take. I want to help them when they’re at that point- they’ve built a successful and proven business, but they’ve reached a limit, a glass ceiling, and they aren’t sure what else they could be doing to grow or where they should begin focusing their efforts. They’re making money but not enough yet to feel comfortable. It’s my dream to build a fund that would allow me to be an angel investor and help them grow and truly enjoy the fruits of their labor. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? We measure success directly through the value that we provide to our customers. How many new profiles were they able to add to their internal CRM and database? What marketing goals were they able to achieve through our technology? Were tickets, memberships, or newsletter signups created from our insights? In this case, we let the numbers speak for themselves, with Click-Through Rates 4x higher than the industry average following Conversion Rates that are 2.5x higher than the industry average. We’re confident in what we do and what we can provide to organizations of any scale. What’s most exciting about your traction to date? One of the most exciting things about our traction to date is the immense growth we’ve seen over the last quarter. We’re now working with 70+ sports teams and brands who understand the importance of first-party data regarding content and marketing strategies and how it can help them achieve their business goals. In addition, the growth of our team has been extremely rewarding across all ends. Working with smart people who know how to execute the vision and meet goals has been a gift. What technologies are you currently most excited about and most worried about? And why? I’m a big fan of data decision-making based on data, so obviously, I'm excited about the advancements in machine learning and AI algorithms that are changing the landscape of fan marketing and marketing in general. What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform? Do we have to say anything else other than ‘HackerNoon’? No, but in all seriousness, HackerNoon is a publication that serves as a communal space for industry and thought leaders to share their predictions and insights in an extremely helpful way. The best part about the platform is the true aspect of community and accessibility to everyone who wants to learn. What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself? Keep going! At 21, I was still serving in the Israeli Defence Forces in one of my final years. I always had a vision and dream to work in tech and to lead my own company. Here we are 15 leaders, totally disrupting entire industries in the best way possible. What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing? Don’t always focus on selling to the market; sometimes, you need to be the one educating. And in turn, everything will come organically. Vote for Pico today! https://startups.hackernoon.com/MIDDLE_EAST/haifa-israel
