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How To Use AI To Disrupt Traditional Markets
with Raz Golan - CoFounder & CEO of Shopic
Amardeep Parmar
August 27, 2023
Hello hello, it’s Amar here, the host of EH podcast and Season 2 is officially underway!
Today we have Raz Golan, CEO and Co-Founder of Shopic, which is "Intelligent Retail with the World's Smartest Shopping Cart".
They use innovative AI computer vision to tell what a customer puts in their cart without there ever being a need to scan and much more.
They've raised over $50m and are used in supermarkets across the world.
We’re covering How To Use AI To Disrupt Traditional Markets. Everyone is obsessed with generative AI but there are so many other ways AI can be used to build companies.
How To Use AI To Disrupt Traditional Markets
Here are some of the key takeaways from the episode if you’re in a rush!
Don’t chase the fad
We didn’t look for something cool
What Shopic does is “cool” and it would blow the minds of many people 10 years ago that it’s even possible. Yet they didn’t think of a solution and then work out if there was a market for it.
You can’t forget the basics of business with AI. There was a real pain many shoppers felt waiting in queues to pay for their goods and stores were often working with thin margins and resources. This is what drove Raz and that’s why Shopic is worth so much.
At all levels
We invested a lot in understanding the markets. Where are the problems? From all the executives at HQ to all of the store managers working on the shop floor.
Just because Shopic could develop cutting-edge AI technology, it doesn’t mean they arrogantly assumed they knew what was best.
They interviewed people at all levels of the grocery industry to gain a deep understanding of exactly what the issues were. They mapped out what were the “must-haves”.
They knew they had to be lean and reduce the burden on store employees.
If you’re building a company based on AI, don’t forget to engage all the stakeholders in the process not just the decision maker for sales. You’ll be able to craft a much more compelling argument and product this way!
Team is everything
The sauce was getting the right people with the right potential.
Today AI prompt engineers can command gigantic salaries with little real experience as there is a race for AI talent.
Be careful.
Raz puts a lot of the success of Shopic down to the people. You of course want the technical skills but you need to hire people who understand and are excited by the problem you’re trying to solve.
Don’t stop experimenting
We see our whole team engaged and thinking of new ideas. We don’t filter anything.
The pace of technology innovation is relentless. Especially in AI.
When I asked Raz how he keeps up, he pointed to innovation competitions run internally. There’s no fancy prize. The prize is seeing your idea being used by customers and making their lives better.
Shopic’s competitions are run without filters and all ideas are discussed without being shut down. This way everyone benefits from fresh ideas. Sometimes the random ideas could turn out to have substance when the team talks them through!
Want to appear on the podcast?
Our bar is high because we want our audience to get their advice from the best.
Meet one of these criteria? Reply this email and tell us!
For venture-backed businesses, we want valuations of $100m+.
For LinkedIn/X creators, we want 100k+ followers.
For VCs, we want partners with $1bn AUM.
For bootstrapped founders, we want $1m MRR.
If you want us to get someone else on, tell us and we’ll try our best!
Next 3 weeks:
Tyler Denk (Founder of Beehiiv) - How To Grow Your Newsletter
Sandhya Hegde (Partner at Unusual Ventures) How Generative AI Is Shaping SaaS
Sabrina Castiglione (COO at Pento) - How To Use Automation As A Product Differentiator