36 min
Try Before You Buy: The Story of experify.io — René Pfitzner SphereCast
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- Technology
This week, the SphereCast team interviews René Pfitzner, Co-Founder and CEO at experify.io. Pfitzner’s company fills a market gap for direct-to-consumer brands, connecting product shoppers with real product owners to get a hands-on trial before purchase. Experify boasts a “new way of authentic consumerism” and allows shoppers to cut through unreliable online reviews to more informed decision-making. The company is based in Zurich, Switzerland and is backed by various international think tanks. Pfitzner himself, prior to founding experify.io, worked as a data scientist in one of Switzerland’s most renowned news publications.
On the podcast, Pfitzner lays out the journey of experify.io thus far, including the process of identifying and meeting a market need. René spares no details in retelling his company’s story and even briefly highlights his platform’s infrastructure, which is built for speed and on-demand scale. Though only a business for 18 months, Pfitzner can attest to the ups and downs of startup life but shares how, even in the hardship, the proverbial “grind” is worth it to work alongside people you trust in building something that you truly believe in.
Noteworthy Quotes:
“There’s this saying: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go as a team.’ And, as a team, that is something that we truly believe in… We founders have three completely different personalities, but we have common ground. And the common ground is important."
“Our story is really not a typical ‘founder's story' where you start building something, then you try to sell it. It was really the other way around. We were first trying to see if there was a business and if people would actually use it.”
“As a startup, moving forward is success. If you feel like you’re moving forward and growing more comfortable with what you’re doing and gaining more clarity on the vision, that is success… At the moment, success is very much still being here."
“The most rewarding thing for me personally is to get up in the morning and know that you are actually moving forward with a team of people that you really like and trust on a project that you truly believe in."
“In terms of our technical strategy, the focus is on speed. Lightweight and organically scalable. Which is why I wanted a ‘backend-as-a-service’ approach where, at the end, I’d only feel the cost impact if things pick up and I’d have to scale, but I wouldn’t have to worry about picking up five more servers or something."
“Progress at the beginning of a startup is very slow. You develop skin as thick as an elephant because, at the beginning, getting buy-in is difficult — especially in Switzerland."
“The emotional support of others in a startup is super important. If you go on this journey, it’s full of ups and downs. You sometimes think, ‘Why am I actually doing this?’ You have to believe what you’re doing can really make an impact and is really worthwhile."
“To me, technology is a tool to achieve something. It’s not an end in itself. So I always prioritize the business side of things.”
Bullet List of Resources –
René Pfitzner
LinkedIn
experify.io/
This week, the SphereCast team interviews René Pfitzner, Co-Founder and CEO at experify.io. Pfitzner’s company fills a market gap for direct-to-consumer brands, connecting product shoppers with real product owners to get a hands-on trial before purchase. Experify boasts a “new way of authentic consumerism” and allows shoppers to cut through unreliable online reviews to more informed decision-making. The company is based in Zurich, Switzerland and is backed by various international think tanks. Pfitzner himself, prior to founding experify.io, worked as a data scientist in one of Switzerland’s most renowned news publications.
On the podcast, Pfitzner lays out the journey of experify.io thus far, including the process of identifying and meeting a market need. René spares no details in retelling his company’s story and even briefly highlights his platform’s infrastructure, which is built for speed and on-demand scale. Though only a business for 18 months, Pfitzner can attest to the ups and downs of startup life but shares how, even in the hardship, the proverbial “grind” is worth it to work alongside people you trust in building something that you truly believe in.
Noteworthy Quotes:
“There’s this saying: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go as a team.’ And, as a team, that is something that we truly believe in… We founders have three completely different personalities, but we have common ground. And the common ground is important."
“Our story is really not a typical ‘founder's story' where you start building something, then you try to sell it. It was really the other way around. We were first trying to see if there was a business and if people would actually use it.”
“As a startup, moving forward is success. If you feel like you’re moving forward and growing more comfortable with what you’re doing and gaining more clarity on the vision, that is success… At the moment, success is very much still being here."
“The most rewarding thing for me personally is to get up in the morning and know that you are actually moving forward with a team of people that you really like and trust on a project that you truly believe in."
“In terms of our technical strategy, the focus is on speed. Lightweight and organically scalable. Which is why I wanted a ‘backend-as-a-service’ approach where, at the end, I’d only feel the cost impact if things pick up and I’d have to scale, but I wouldn’t have to worry about picking up five more servers or something."
“Progress at the beginning of a startup is very slow. You develop skin as thick as an elephant because, at the beginning, getting buy-in is difficult — especially in Switzerland."
“The emotional support of others in a startup is super important. If you go on this journey, it’s full of ups and downs. You sometimes think, ‘Why am I actually doing this?’ You have to believe what you’re doing can really make an impact and is really worthwhile."
“To me, technology is a tool to achieve something. It’s not an end in itself. So I always prioritize the business side of things.”
Bullet List of Resources –
René Pfitzner
LinkedIn
experify.io/
36 min