The Venture Leaders Technology expert jury had their work cut out for them this year: They had to look through 180 applications to choose the 10 members of the Swiss National Startup team that will travel to Silicon Valley in April. Before the 10 entrepreneurs meet with international investors and industry leaders to strengthen their business network and advance their globalization, we want to introduce you to each of the 10 Venture Leaders Technology 2022: Meet Marcos Monteiro, the co-founder and CEO of Veezoo.
Veezoo aims to empower people with data-driven decisions. The startup’s analytics system provides answers from data—by having users ask questions. Veezoo’s advanced AI technology supports the modern data team in understanding and sharing the data within their organization: By asking relevant questions, users can get profitable insights and better analytics to make smarter business decisions.
Name: Marcos Monteiro
Location: Zurich
Nationality: Brazil
Graduated from: ETH MSc. in Statistics (2016)
Job title: Co-founder and CEO of Veezoo
Number of employees: 10
Money raised: CHF 1 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: In January 2016, when we pitched at Venture Kick Stage I
Marcos, could you summarize what Veezoo does?
Veezoo enables people to find actionable insights from data by answering their plain-English questions with data visualizations—literally. Companies suffer from a disconnection, where the people who need information do not have the time or skills to access that information. Veezoo bridges this gap using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP).
How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
In March 2015, we participated in a Hackathon organized by SIX, where they presented one important challenge: How do tourists behave in Switzerland? They had multiple questions about the visitors’ behavior and provided us with one dataset that we could analyze to answer them. Instead of picking a single question and crunching the data to answer it, we thought: Why not create a program where you could simply type a question and immediately get an answer. Within 24 hours, we created a prototype of the idea and won the CHF 1,000 prize in the Hackathon! This became our starting capital.
What do you expect from the Venture Leaders Technology roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
I believe Venture Leaders will be a great bridge for us to enter the United States. Our vision at Veezoo is to empower people with easy access to actionable insights, and America is a great market for us to grow fast. We want to build a network with top-tier American VCs that believe in our vision and want to invest in this opportunity.
What was your dream job when you were a child?
I remember quite clearly a drawing I made in primary school with my dream job. It was me, next to a rocket—not as an astronaut, but rather building it. I wanted to build stuff and later got passionate about robots. First about their mechanics, then their electronics, and ultimately their intelligence.
What is the one talent you wish you had?
I wish I would be better and faster at writing. Great stories are inspiring; they call people for action and change the world. Nowadays, there are plenty of channels to communicate a story, and writing has become a very valuable skill for an entrepreneur. I think I’m bad at this, and I wish I would be much better.
What is your favorite book?
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu is certainly one of my favorite books. The ideas presented there were revolutionary and have inspired many of my beliefs. Concepts such as acting through ‘non-action’ are somewhat difficult to grasp but have powerful interpretations in different areas of life—from self-defense to leadership.
How did you come up with the name of your startup?
Veezoo is a misspelling of the Brazilian slang visu, which comes from the word visual. The slang is commonly used to express an absolutely gorgeous view or landscape: “Que visu, hein!” [What a view, huh!]. Funny enough, it also sounds very similar to the German word wieso [why]. Both interpretations fit very well with our product, which answers questions with data visualizations.
How and where do you clear your mind?
I really like meditating and feel like it’s a great way to get clarity of thought. However, there are times when I also feel like it’s a relatively inefficient use of time, and I’d rather combine it with a sport such as swimming. Swimming pays similar attention to breathing, and I can combine meditation with physical exercise.
Who inspires you?
There are many inspiring people in history. Some of them personify values that we, as a company, admire: Einstein reminds us of the importance of following our curiosity and asking good questions. Gandhi reminds us of the power of staying true to our values. However, I feel particularly inspired by Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian F1 driver: He was always in a constant pursuit for perfection while remaining very humble at the same time.
For more information and updates on Veezoo and the Venture Leaders Technology 2022, follow #VLeadersTech on social media and on www.venture-leaders.ch/technology.
The Venture Leaders Technology 2022 program is organized by Venturelab and supported by dpd Switzerland, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Kellerhals Carrard, Rothschild & Co, and the Canton of Vaud.
We are on a mission to empower individuals to make better decisions based on data.
Our solution, Veezoo, is powered by the world’s most advanced system for automatically answering questions from th… Read more
Credit: Source link
