Today Uriel Peled discusses the company he co-founded, Visualead.com, his passion to create that led him there, the importance of knowing what you don’t know, and his belief that you should seize the opportunities in front of you instead of holding out for imagined opportunities down the road.
Please tell us a little bit about what your company does and how it all started?
Uriel: Visualead enables businesses and advertisers to lead people from the offline world to the online world in the most effective way, using image processing and computer vision technologies. We were three friends with a passion to create and built things. We always knew this is something we wanted to do, and the only question was when. We started from thinking about a problem/solution, the required market/product fit and if we can bring added value via unique technology to this field, and we got to Visualead.
What is one thing that you do on a daily basis that helps you grow as an entrepreneur?
Uriel: I always remind myself that I know that I don’t know. Knowing you don’t know keeps you searching for more ideas, more information, more leads, whether it’s from reading online or meeting people. Sometimes the smallest idea or lead can result in a major opportunity for the company.
How many people are currently using this platform and how do you plan to keep growing?
Uriel: From the launch of our service last November, over 25,000 businesses have been using our service from SMBs to the leading brands and agencies in the world, and we see a 100% month to month growth rate. In order to keep growing the first thing we do is set ourselves very aggressive Goals. While it may sound basic, goals such as 100,000 users/month or 1,000,000 users/month, or get to 100,000 users in a month or get to 100,000 users in half a year, can completely change your perspective and strategy on how to reach the goal.
And sometimes, the goal seems to be unreachable, this is when you remember to know that you don’t know and find a way to make it happen anyway.
Other than that we also identify channels which can bring linear growth and exponential growth. A Bizdev with one major company can be more effective than a year of online marketing and increasing organic traffic.
Please share a few business tips and advice for first-time entrepreneurs.
Uriel: I always say that 30% from zero is zero, however, 10% from $100M is a good start J. In other words, when there’s a good opportunity for the company, take it, if you will always try to find an even better opportunity you might end up with holding 30% of nothing.
Starting out what the worst mistake you made as an entrepreneur, and what did you learn from it?
Uriel: When we started we progressed a lot with a group of investors who wanted to invest in the company. Everything was great and we reached a stage where we demoed the first prototype of our technology. Which didn’t work (good)… I fact it didn’t work, is less important I think, cause we got it to work perfectly later on. What we did learn from it is, it turns out once in a while a “game-changing” opportunity might pop up. When it comes, success or failure in getting it might mean success or failure for the company. I’m saying each company might get 1 opportunity in life, but it’s also not 20, so when one comes it should be treated with the utmost respect J.
How do you go about marketing your business, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
Uriel: We do many forms of marketing including Social, SEO, PPC, Affiliates, media buying, partnerships, PR, and more. I think for each it is very important to, understand what can be achieved (sometimes its traffic, sometimes its brand), how long it might take, how we can measure the ROI of it, and most importantly would it achieve the company goals. For example, if the potential organic traffic of a certain product is 5,000 monthly visitors and we want to reach 100,000, SEO is probably not the marketing tool we want to go for.
Who are the top 3 people our community should follow on Twitter and Why?
Uriel: That really depends. I would say that each field, market, business should have its 3 top people or communities to follow on Twitter. Every startup should know the leading influencers and content hubs for its field to constantly be updated and understand its market and people.
What would you say was the tipping point for your company?
Uriel: To be able to wake up in the morning, and go to sleep in the evening, and between the two, do whatever I want.
Can you recommend a good book for new entrepreneurs
Uriel: Any book with a Hero that doesn’t give up.
What is your favorite success quotes?
Uriel: Money is not the most important thing in life unless it is a lot of money.
How can our community get in touch with you?
Uriel: You can find me on Twitter @urielpeled and on LinkedIn UrielPeled. Feel free to contact me about anything J.
