On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we catch up with Cooper Harris, the founder, and CEO of Klickly, an A.I. impulse-payments platform. Cooper invented a payment layer that leverages machine-learning to make purchasing directly within digital UIs possible. This significant innovation creates a huge efficiency in the market – the platform's machine-learning identifies payment situations and uses sophisticated cross-origin calls to facilitate the transaction.
If you guessed that ecommerce and payments companies might experience growth during a pandemic, you guessed correctly. Constrained to their homes, more consumers have found themselves browsing the internet for the purchases that will enrich their lives.
Klickly powers user acquisition for hundreds of the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands by using machine learning to find the right buyer at the right time and allowing purchases directly from these customized ads! Whew, that's powerful!
"Why are we still in an age where ads show static images and offer so much friction for purchases?" was the premise of Cooper's challenge to her engineering team when she got the idea for Klickly.
Four years after setting out to create Klickly, Cooper reflects on her approach for developing early customers, reaching out to investors, and cultivating relationships with major advisors.
"Raising money should be the outcome of actual hard, heads-down work and building relationships for your company. The reality is that if you don't have something that's working, you can't show your CAC, your burn rate, certain metrics around your company."
Cooper adds that she has FIVE STEPS to really simplify how to build a company and go get money! Listen as she explains her process for gathering data, iterating on a super hacky prototype, and getting interest from potential customers.
Subscribe:
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | YouTube | Deezer | RSS
Techstars 2021 Application: https://www.techstars.com/
SEED SPOT Impact Accelerator: https://seedspot.org/
AFWERX SBIR Program: http://afwerxlearning.com/
Become an Established Startup or Investment Community Partner at: https://est.us/cp
Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.