Venture Kick alumnus Gamaya after the 2015 Swisscom StartUp Challenge: “In Silicon Valley, no stone was left unturned.”

Forbes placed Venture Kick alumnus Gamaya as one of the 4 European AgTech startups with a potential to become a $1 billion dollar company. Enough for them to be among the 5 winners of the 2015 Swisscom StartUp Challenge. Very recently, Gamaya gained further Swiss and international recognition as they were among the winners of the European CloudEO Going Live Award in Berlin and won the Swiss Product Excellence Award in Zurich. Gamaya is also part of the TOP3 newcomers in the 2015 TOP100 Swiss Startups ranking.

We met Gamaya’s CEO and co-founder Yosef Akthman about his experience in Silicon Valley and his plans for the future.  

For those who don't know you already, what is your background and why did you chose to become an entrepreneur?
I am coming from the applied science and engineering background spanning 15 years and several domains including information theory, mobile robotics and remote sensing. The entrepreneurship for me is perhaps the only way to combine what I do best with what I enjoy doing most. And being paid for it as well!
 
What problem(s) are you trying to solve at Gamaya and how was the idea born?
The mission of Gamaya is to leverage our unique technology to empower farmers with better knowledge of their land and crops that would in turn facilitate sustainable industrial farming on a global scale.
 
The core technology behind Gamaya was developed as part of a sequence of ambitious international environmental research projects that involved a number of laboratories at EPFL, as well as research institutes in Russia and France. Together with my co-founder Dragos Constantin, I have spent the last few years developing hyperspectral imaging instruments and analytical software with the aim of enabling better understanding of our environment and the environmental impact of human activities in particular. You may find more information on our research on the following page: http://www.elemo.ch
 
You pitched in front of the Venture Kick jury twice and you have just gotten back from an intense week in Silicon Valley, with the Swisscom StartUp Challenge. Is pitching easy for you?
This year was certainly the year of pitching for me. It gets easier over time as I gain experience and sharpen my message. Sometimes it’s easier than other times – it all depends on the audience. I never feel like I can get it perfect, but I don’t think it’s necessary. It needs to be good enough and you need to strike the right balance between showmanship and substance. Pitching is one of the many tricks you need to learn as an entrepreneur.
 
Tell us more about the Swisscom StartUp Challenge: What is your feedback on the intense mentoring program co-organized by Swisscom and venturelab? How will it help Gamaya?
I think the exposure to the Silicon Valley ecosystem is important for any aspiring entrepreneur. Particularly if they embark on building an international business. Of course, you can just hop on the plane and go exploring. But the remarkable amount of effort, resources and support that you get from the venturelab and Swisscom teams gets you to an entirely different level. With their help, we have been able to meet people and explore opportunities we couldn’t have dreamt of otherwise. We are deeply grateful to Beat Schillig, Penny Schiffer and their respective teams for all the hard work and great support.
 
Additionally, the teamwork between the five startups sets the pace and the creative atmosphere where your learning is multiplied. Ideas are exchanged, feedback is discussed and experiences are shared. You get 5 times of everything. But you need to be prepared to work hard to make the most of the information avalanche. I would like to thank my co-founder Igor Ivanov, as well as the guys from Ava, Crowd, Archilogic and Monetas for the great company!

“It can be a little disheartening how minor a role is played by the novel technology in comparison to the crucial importance of building a reliable product that somebody really wants.” 

What lessons did you learn in particular, for ex. while pitching in front of investors and potential partners, or tech gurus like Robert Scoble? Any promise of investment/partnerships maybe?
The biggest take away for me is the focus on execution and scalability. “Nail it, then scale it” approach. Coming from the scientific background, it can be a little disheartening how minor a role is played by the novel technology in comparison to the crucial importance of building a reliable product that somebody really wants (or ideally needs), and then figuring out a simple, inexpensive method to deploy this product on a massive scale. Of course this is not the only way you can build a business, but this is the Silicon Valley formula.
 
The session with Robert Scoble was fantastic because of how intimate his familiarity with the ecosystem is. In the end he gave us a tiny simple tip which got us an appointment with one of the top VC firms in SV. All in all, we have established many interesting and valuable contacts. Right now, the U.S. are not our primarily target market, but some of these contacts may lead to significant partnerships in due time.
 
During the trip you had the opportunity to give your pitch to Artiman, one of the major investment firms in Silicon Valley. Tell us about this experience and the feedback you received.
Clearly that was one of the highlights of the trip and the most intense pitching experience that I have ever had. It wasn’t a pitch in its usual format. Instead it was a gruelling investigation of our strategy, tactics and assumptions, where no stone was left unturned. At the same time, it was squarely positive and constructive. There wasn’t a single drop of arrogance, or impatience that you may sometimes expect from the VC professionals. I won’t go into the particulars of their feedback, but the bottom line was “Nail it, then scale it”!
 
Would you recommend this program to other entrepreneurs and what are your best souvenirs of the trip? 
I would heartedly recommend the program to others for all the aforementioned reasons. Silicon Valley can be inspiring and disappointing at the same time. In other words, it can help you understand what entrepreneurship is really about. In my opinion, there is nothing particularly special about the quality of people, ideas and innovation there. What is unique is a tried and proven – I would say industrialised – method of turning a raw idea into a global successful business. This crucial expertise is somewhat lacking elsewhere in the world. Just the sheer number of success stories in Silicon Valley is on a different scale.
 
U.S. provides 100x more funding to startups than the rest of the world combined. This also means that 99% of the new and coming technologies will be owned by U.S. companies. I am not an economist, but to me it looks like a major problem for the European community. In this regard, it is unfortunate to see some European VCs trying to minimise their risks by following major U.S. VC firms and funding Silicon Valley-based startups, while further reducing the amount of support available to the local ecosystems.
 
At the same time what works in Silicon Valley might not work in other places. Just the method is not sufficient, you need the entire ecosystem. So if you are not planning to move to Silicon Valley, you should be prepared to listen to the local community, explore alternative sources of funding, and generally improvise. Despite the many challenges, the Swiss startup ecosystem is one of the best there is, and I feel privileged to have the access to the immense pool of resources, advice, services, infrastructure and talent that Switzerland has to offer.
 
Gamaya’s technology is already in use in Europe, Russia and Brazil. Why is the international market so important for a Swiss startup like yours?
Our business is quite particular. Gamaya aims at bringing in-depth situational awareness to the large industrial agricultural businesses. For better or worse there are few such businesses in Switzerland and therefore our market here is quite limited. At the same time, multiple agribusiness multinationals are headquartered in Switzerland. This provides us with great opportunities to find strategic partners and potential major clients.
 
What other markets do you potentially target?
Gamaya aims at becoming a major global player. Already today, we have numerous opportunities and requests to deploy our services around the world. Unfortunately, our current resource are limited and we are not ready to take over the world just yet. We are focusing on a small number of critical projects in order to “nail” our offering.
 
You won 30'000 CHF with Venture Kick. How was your experience with this program? How did it help to develop your company?
Venture Kick played a pivotal role in the development of our startup. I can consider my first pitch to the Venture Kick jury – that I have done with minimum planning and zero entrepreneurial experience – as the birthday of Gamaya. Their astute feedback was the first clear signal that I am on the right track, and has literally kick-started the project. Since the first pitch and through the multiple Kickers Camps, we have benefitted from the continuous support of Jordi Montserrat and his team, and had access to his advice on numerous occasions including some key strategic issues. In addition, the Venture Kick program exposed us to the local startup ecosystem and helped us connect to the prominent Business Angels and advisors including Dave Brown, Colin Turner, Gal Messinger and Francois Stieger, who have provided and continue to provide essential advice and support to our venture.

“We have a great momentum right now, but the real challenge will be to sustain this momentum over time and turn it into value for both our clients and shareholders.” 

This year you entered the TOP100 ranking at 20th place, which is pretty remarkable. Does the TOP100 ranking help Gamaya develop itself? How? 
The TOP100 ranking is a sign of recognition that we are very proud of. It means that we are doing at least some things right. It brings publicity and attention which is certainly important. At the same time we are keeping our feet on the ground. We don’t have a proven business yet in contrast to the great many wonderful teams on and off the TOP100 list. We have a great momentum right now, but the real challenge will be to sustain this momentum over time and turn it into value for both our clients and shareholders.

What are the next steps for Gamaya? Any new deals or investment news on the horizon? Or crunchy news?
We have a very detailed plan of actions for the next few month starting with a comprehensive commercial trials in Brazil in mid-November. In Brazil, we enjoy the support and interest of major industrial growers that we hope will turn into solid contracts within the next six months. We are planning to close an investment deal within the next month. It was a long and gruelling process and I believe we are almost there. Despite all the advice and stories we’ve heard from our fellow entrepreneurs, it is impossible to overestimate how long and challenging fundraising is.
 
In the end, our biggest achievement so far is the remarkable team of cross-disciplinary experts that we have managed to bring together within a relatively short period of time. This is a bunch of dedicated and hardworking people that make me proud and confident that we will be able to achieve our goals.