How two women from Almaty created an AI platform for marketing analytics used in multiple countries

Tanya Plotnikova, city — Almaty, CEO, Founder, Instagram, LinkedIn

How it all began

I am a marketing strategist specializing in the creation and promotion of technology products. By my first education, I was an electronic systems engineer, but in my final year I started working in the commercial department of a telecommunications company and fell in love with technology marketing. For over ten years I managed the development of B2B segments in large telecommunications companies across several countries — I launched new services and streams, sought growth opportunities, and tested new approaches. I have cases of multiple product growth successes, as well as situations where a service had to be shut down. Naturally, daily decisions required data — both internal and external. There were cases when critical information was missing, and this became a cause of mistakes — entering the market too late.

Part of the journey we went through together with my co-founder Natalia Demchenko. Unlike me, she is a marketer not only by vocation but also by education. Her main strength is the ability to manage a customer base — from the moment of building knowledge until the client, for various reasons, stopped using the product. Natasha launched and developed large loyalty programs that brought companies millions of dollars in additional revenue.

At some point, we both "outgrew" corporations — which were a great school, with a familiar scale and flawlessly organized processes, but large companies have their own limitations — cultural, strategic, and financial. A startup also has many limitations, of course, but you feel that everything depends only on you and the market. No intermediaries.

The idea was born from experience — an AI platform for marketing analytics is exactly what we always lacked! Thousands of hours spent searching, comparing, verifying, and interpreting information is madness. Even when those hours were spent by junior employees, not managers. We would be happy to use a platform that has already gathered and visualized the necessary information about trends and competitors, or better yet — made several forecasts on market developments and suggested strategic options.

However, we did not come to this idea immediately.

The team

I started with my long-standing dream — a consulting marketplace, poweron.space. The demand for consulting and strategic projects was high. However, as I delved deeper into this area, as my entrepreneurial horizon and network expanded, I increasingly realized that scaling such a project would be difficult and that it was definitely not about exponential growth.

At that time Natalia joined me. We had many discussions, spoke with mentors and advisors, and became convinced that the model needed to change. Why not create a researcher and strategist based on artificial intelligence? We ourselves have conducted research and written strategies for many years. We know how difficult, time-consuming, and expensive this is, and we understand how to help businesses go through these processes more efficiently.

Incubation programs

The idea inspired not only us but also attracted the attention of accelerators, clients, and investors. Within a few months, we were accepted into seven programs; at first, we participated in all, then began to choose and sometimes declined.

In the end, we completed four programs — one offline in the United States, Hero Training by Draper University, and three online — from Silkroad Innovation Hub, IT Park Uzbekistan, and MOST. The last was an AI startup program from the venture fund Domino Ventures.

We also represented our country at the largest startup industry event — TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, and participated in the first Central Eurasian Summit in Silicon Valley — Central Eurasia @ Silicon Valley.

Regarding financial resources for the project start, we were somewhat fortunate — at the idea stage, we were supported by an angel check from Evgeny Matveev, co-founder of Aviata. We also invested over thirty thousand dollars of our own money — both savings and income from consulting projects. Throughout this time, we did not pay ourselves anything, which was difficult. However, we were able to attract experienced experts to test hypotheses and build an MVP. Part of this amount was used for a trip to the United States to participate in Hero Training and TechCrunch Disrupt.

I smile when people ask me: "Did someone pay for this trip?" because everything has a price — the price of our trip and MVP was empty personal accounts and life-level savings. We put everything on our idea; as they say in English, we went all-in — but it was worth it.

Target audience

We were lucky a second time when a major client became interested in a product that did not yet exist. The interest was so strong that the client allocated employee time for us to jointly work out functionality. Because this is a huge company present in multiple countries, for us this meant scale and global development almost from day one. As soon as we created the MVP, we signed the first contracts and started receiving payments. To date, we sign three new contracts regularly, which already generates revenue that allows us to cover the team’s costs and provide detailed forecasts to potential investors.

Today, we work with two industries — construction and development, and financial institutions. Requests often come from other industries, but we believe that our key competitive advantage and point of difference from existing neural networks is well-developed methodologies for specific verticals. It is better to be a perfect solution for three or four selected industries — those to which we can provide the greatest value and where we see significant potential — than a mediocre product for everyone.

Challenges

The hardest part is probably finding the first employees for the team. You have nothing but an idea, faith, and burning eyes, but you need not just people, but the best people in the world. It is easy to push a cart once it is built and already moving, but to build a spaceship on the fly and then jump into it is something few can do. The first people must be exactly those. They are difficult to find. There is no schedule, no processes, no guarantees, but you must find strength and run.

The founder must be a source of strength and calmness for the team. He or she risks reputation and money but must radiate confidence and care.

This is not easy: a founder must have a support base — internal and external. A financial cushion is a good option. Family support is even better. And do not forget about the body: physical resources must withstand a busy schedule, flights, and stress management.

Advice number one: assess your resources in advance and prepare for the workload.

Our established network and good reputation helped us find the first clients. Therefore, advice number two: work on your reputation and expand your circle of useful contacts every day. Keep promises, build relationships, and strive for quality communication.

If this is difficult for you, consider a co-founder with strong communication skills. However, completely avoiding interaction is impossible, so develop your communication skills — they will definitely come in handy.

Achievements

We are proud of two achievements:

One, it took only one month to move from MVP to revenue of several thousand dollars. Moreover, our first paid order from a client was made long before the prototype appeared. We fulfilled it manually as market experts, and this experience became part of testing our hypothesis.

Two, we are ready to work with incredibly talented people, international-level professionals whom we deeply respect. This applies both to our team and to clients.

Plans

We found ourselves in a situation that many startups dream of: demand for our product already exceeds our current resources, and this is without any advertising. Currently, our main task is to expand the team and accelerate development to deliver the product as soon as possible to clients on the waiting list.

Next, we plan to test hypotheses for scaling — both geographically and by industry. For this purpose, we have opened a pre-seed round, which will allow us to move the product from the MVP stage to a full business solution ready for scaling and active growth.