Serge Kadjo With PERSA

Intro: [00:00:05] We’ll come back to the Startup Showdown podcast, where we discuss pitching, funding and scaling startups. Join us as we interview winners, mentors and judges of the monthly 120,000 pitch competition powered by Panoramic Ventures. We also discuss the latest updates in software web3, health care, tech, fintech and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:40] Lee Kantor here another episode of Startup Shutdown podcast, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor Panoramic Ventures. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Startup Showdown, we have Serge Kadjo with Persa. Welcome.

Serge Kadjo: [00:01:00] Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:02] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Persa, how you serving folks?

Serge Kadjo: [00:01:07] So first item, it’s a engagement tools that we built for e-commerce website and project based websites. So yeah, we started back in France back in 28, 21 during the COVID, during COVID 19, we started the services in order to help like what stores do to sell online because due to COVID, the one that they were there was not able to sell a physical store. So we tried to recreate this experience of being in the physical store directly for them. So that’s where the idea came from, actually.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:40] Well, how do you see kind of ecommerce evolving as we enter kind of this Web 3.0? Can you first explain to the listeners who aren’t that familiar how creator economy is behaving on in the Web 3.0 environment and how your service can help them get to a new level?

Serge Kadjo: [00:01:57] Oh, that’s that’s actually the that’s definitely the new trend right now. So I would just start with some data in order to but what I want to say, you know, back in 2020, back in 2019, there was no not COVID yet. China made actually 1.2 billion in sales just in one day during Chinese New Year, just in one day. And then those sales have been made only through livestreaming. So China is actually leading the the influencer market with with people that actually doing the ecommerce stores or just buying things online through the mobile phone. And this trend is actually growing. So China started back in 2018, 2019. They made, as I said, 1.2 billion. 2021 was booming due to COVID everybody trends moved from source of from physical store to online store. And you can see it again. You can see that trend with with all of these with all of these countries. But selling online, it’s not that easy. So we saw when we saw that medical stores try to open the the online store with Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. but it’s boring. Like when you land on a website, you have text images, videos, but you don’t have the sense of being home. And how am I able to experience in terms of being engaged with sense of being, of feeling the presence of somebody that we can help you? So with with an influencer, you can actually see that trend because an influencer or even somebody online that that can be there to actually extend to you or even show how to use the device or even showcase how to how to behave or how to how to I don’t know how to style yourself so these things can actually help.

Serge Kadjo: [00:03:53] You can have had the store owner boost themselves. I can also I can help the the customers feel the trend. So that’s that’s how this this thing is kind of coming step by step and with the with the creator economy. We saw that right now, all of these new generation, the Gen Z, the Gen Y, it’s kind of being everybody wants to be a YouTuber who then. Good. So that was the last trend. Everybody wants to be a YouTuber now. Everybody wants to be an Instagram influencers. So we saw that thing coming. The last job. The last job was YouTuber. Now it’s Instagram influencer. And then again after Instagram influencer, we see TikTok influencer. So we saw that trend coming to the influencer market. So the goal is to try to merge the need of the businesses with the growing job that’s coming right now with the social network and TikTok, Instagram, those influencers and then merge those two things to create a better experience online for for, for, for, for customers. So that’s the idea behind it.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:00] Now at the heart of it is there’s an evolution happening in ecommerce and the way that people buy and sell things online, especially for younger folks and then especially internationally. And it’s not the way that things had been done. So you need a tool like yours to kind of be the bridge that helps people sell more effectively in today’s world. This is a leap that’s happening, this Web 3.0, right? This is a different paradigm when it comes to it may be the same activity, but it’s a different ecosystem.

Serge Kadjo: [00:05:32] Correct. You said it’s right. It’s it’s actually the same we the goal with web theory right now. To bring as much as possible person on on this and this new evolution. So it’s kind of difficult right now because it’s a it’s a new tech. There is some new world, some new way to to take it out, to consider it. And people are kind of one way. They know what it is and and they are not skeptical. And the other way they see that has a bubble. And I think that that will dissipate. What we saw with with Web two or with Internet at the beginning. So we see the same thing right now with Web three. So the idea with before to right now is to try to bring as much as as much as possible new person onward train how to do that is how has you said right now you need to make it as easy years as possible and we first we try to break that to break that that race. And we want to make it, as I said, as easy as possible for for customers, for creators, economies, and then finally for businesses. So we we are developing a tools that is first thing, first customer centric, which means that we will have no big words, no big difficult for no difficulties for people to understand how it works. And second thing, we make it also plug and play. So which means that businesses won’t have to set up the whole like secret key or just get to go get the crazy wallet or crazy I don’t know, architecture to set up the web tree. It will be just a simple link that that they can plug in, that they can add to the website that will do the whole trick for them. So that’s how we plan to do that.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:22] Well, what’s your back story? How did you get involved with this technology and this and founding this company? Can you tell us a little bit about your history?

Serge Kadjo: [00:07:31] Sure, sure. So I started like this startup journey back in 2015, and I started with the auto development. So I started doing in renewable energy. I moved from renewable energy to BCI and brain connectivity wise and then from brain connectivity device. I went to sleep tech and hence like brain activities. So that was back in 2019. I was in China etc. And then I sold the trend of of digital economy back in China. Everything is you can do literally everything with just your just your smartphone. You don’t need any paper, you don’t need any touch money. And I saw that trend with combined with the trend with with with the creative economy. And when I saw that trend out, I was like, huh, it might be good for me to to switch from my background to a software background. So I started digging into crypto and then I started working like with a fast payment system that was changed, but that was based on a blockchain architecture which was iota back then and untangle. And then I said that that was the thing with, with the whole blockchain architecture set up the whole fees list system with iota and tangle and then 2021 after COVID, I said, hey, why not merge all of this training that I got in China from digital payment from the crypto and then finally from the from the crypto market and the idea came from person.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:08] Now, can you share a little advice for folks that are getting into a new area like you are with Web three? Sometimes it’s hard to explain it because people can’t even imagine it. And it’s so new. People are kind of hesitant to get involved. But, you know, just like it was when Web two came on board, if you weren’t in it, it was hard to be good at it after a while. So you got to dabble in it a little unless you think it’s not going to do anything, which is, I think, doubtful at this point. But so how do you kind of make it comfortable for folks to take the leap and to kind of go with you on this journey to when you’re trying to have a startup, you know what I mean? Where it’s like you have this idea, you could see it clearly to you. It’s probably crystal clear. Right. And but for new people, this is a big leap. So how do you kind of go through explaining it and making it approachable for new investors or new customers?

Serge Kadjo: [00:10:05] So it depends depend on the person that I’m talking with. If I’m talking to an investor, of course I will show them the big market, live, the opportunities and where where we are going and the vision. Because most of the time when you when you when you want to start an idea or when you want to start a startup, investors are not investing in in this crazy like a market. They’re investing you because you are the startup at the beginning. So most of the time is what I would do. I would I would give my background. Forgive my ideas and then give the long term vision for investors. But for customers it’s the game is to try to explain it. As a kid, it’s like, imagine that you have a kid in front of you. The most important thing is to just to light the bulb inside of their head. That’s it. Don’t try to oversell it. Don’t try to build it to do it. Complicated. Just try to light up the bulb in the head in that case and follow it. Touch it. So take it as they get Web3 for me, the way that I explain web3 to to newbies or to people that don’t understand it, it’s like. Bogdan People don’t know Internet. Bogdan People don’t people don’t understand what is what was Internet, how it will go. But if you can just imagine that right now everybody is on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and and we cannot live without that if you are able to explain that idea. But in 1929, 19 or, I don’t know, 1999 or 2000 at that time, people will follow you and you will be able to light the bulb in the head. That’s it. So you so you need to think you need to find the same analogy for for free and give it and give that to new customers.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:58] Now, how did you hear about Startup Showdown in Panoramic?

Serge Kadjo: [00:12:03] Oh, when I arrived in Atlanta, I was looking for four for a nice place to work or not above working other to work for a nice community to dip my toes in the ground and see how it goes. So I landed in Atlanta Village. Then from Atlanta to village and the network of mentors, I heard about panoramic ventures and and the competition. I was like, okay, that’s that’s a that’s an interesting thing. That’s an interesting challenge. Let’s see let’s see how it goes and that that’s how we end up there.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:35] And then what did you find most beneficial going through the start of showdown process?

Serge Kadjo: [00:12:40] Oh, definitely. The the the whole mentoring process, the the idea of spending time with other folks, the fact that you you you have access to those videos, those trainings, the networking. The networking was really crucial for us because, as I said, I was a French company when we decided to move to the US when during networking and this competition and the part of and part of being members of this panoramic venture is actually boom, boom, our network. And they got like really, really good coverage.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:20] And that’s important at an early stage to be part of a really good and really strong ecosystem and community that can help lift everybody up.

Serge Kadjo: [00:13:29] Definitely. That’s a that’s one of the key. If you want to grow, if you want to grow fast and file and also go far away. So the community focus on that, focus on your customers and and finally, focus on your mentor. So that’s the three that’s the three things that I would say.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:47] Now for you personally in your journey and your career thus far, has there been any mentor or somebody that is an inspiration or somebody that’s kind of who you look up to in this?

Serge Kadjo: [00:14:00] So I would say that I have to, to, to, to, to person that that I follow most of the time or that the mentoring for first person is my mum. Of course she, she, she taught me everything that I know about business. So she started from scratch back in Africa and then she, she’d grown up step by step. So she’s my first like go to if I need advice in terms of businesses also in life. And then after her I do have other mentors in the US, in France, in Africa, in China. I have also my big community of of, of our entrepreneurs back attacks in Shenzhen actually said like number one actually how do entrepreneurs startup in the world so those big communities help me like go faster like challenged my ideas and then also gave me like a wide view of, of when I have an idea or want to have a challenge. So, yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:00] So what’s next for pizza? What do you need? How can we help?

Serge Kadjo: [00:15:04] Oh, definitely. I think for person right now we are focusing on the this new platform that we call the challenge, which is the creator version of process. So process has two to vertical. We have high first, which is dedicated for businesses and then we have porcelain which is dedicated for for creator economy and web three. So we are we release our our testnet I think last week we released our testnet last week and we we are actually open. We let people at Cayman Islands create their own account connected with a social media network, bring their own token, and then have a relationship or relation and business with with, with businesses or relation in agreement with businesses, they can start selling, selling the token and then give access to their network and to their customers and followers. So we we are actually highly open. We want people to come try our business, see how it goes, give us feedback, and then start giving the tools in the web.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:12] Three and one one more time. If people want to connect with you or somebody on your team or experience person, what are the website coordinates for each of those?

Serge Kadjo: [00:16:22] Definitely. So we our our email and tag online. It’s hard for us to just go everywhere, whatever. It’s a Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, go everywhere. Just like higher higher person and our website is higher presseye.com. That’s it.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:39] And it’s very PRSA.

Serge Kadjo: [00:16:43] Correct? Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:45] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Serge Kadjo: [00:16:50] Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:52] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Startup Showdown.

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