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How to Find Your Startup's Niche

4/25/2022

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By Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder & Tech Evangelist, ODAIA.ai
First published in Entrepreneur

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/424748 

When you’re a young startup with promising technology, capturing the interest of a lot of different industries is a great boost. However, it brings a new set of problems. There’s no surer way to dilute your brand and burn through your capital than to spread yourself too thin across multiple sectors. It pushes your customer acquisition costs through the roof and almost guarantees that you’ll be a second-tier alternative in several industries but a market-leader in none.

You can’t be all things to all people. But choosing which sector to focus on can be a real challenge — particularly if you’re working with a technology, like AI, that has countless potential applications. As a tech entrepreneur with a background in online retail, I naturally gravitated toward ecommerce firms when seeking clients for my company’s customer analytics platform. I could see it would be a good fit, and it was. However, it was also a surprising hit among sales teams in pharmaceuticals — an industry I knew far less about but which is on track to be a $16-billion market for tech like ours.

So, how do you choose a market to go after? And when? Here’s what I learned from my heart vs. head struggle to pick a lane:

Avoid pilot project purgatoryOne of the hardest things to know is at what point you should start focusing in on a particular market. There’s a natural tendency to avoid closing doors, but that creates a risk of getting stuck in endless market research, due diligence and test projects. Their returns diminish quickly. 

In 2018, my partner and I incorporated our company around a technology that applies AI to data-driven analytics to understand and influence the customer journey. We took countless meetings and talked to people in at least 10 different industries — including supply chain, lighting factories, IoT devices, pharmaceuticals, ecommerce, advertising and cybersecurity. We had multiple offers to work on paid pilot projects, and we took on several, which helped us refine our product. But after around two years of projects and meetings, it became apparent that we were gaining less and less from each one. When COVID hit and threw everything into flux, we’d already decided the time had come to focus, but it forced us to quickly choose between ecommerce and pharma, our two highest-potential markets. When an opportunity presents itself, you can’t hesitate.

If a sector is hyped, it’s saturatedOne of the biggest mistakes is going for what’s sexy now, because at that point, you’re already too late to enter the market. Hype is not a useful metric, and you can’t stick with something just because it’s cool. If you’re not seeing good usage stats for your product within three to four months, then you’ve got to stop and move on.
In our case, there were lots of voices, including investors, nudging us toward ecommerce. It’s certainly a buzzier sector than pharma, but the market is so saturated, so we had to consider how we could compete. We wouldn’t be that special. We’d be going up against behemoths like Google Analytics, and that’s tough.
For any machine-learning company, data is everything. As soon as we had a contract with a pharma organization, we had access to their data, so we could really work on building a specialized product with it. That was a big indicator that we were going in the right direction.

Listen to the market’s signalsThe biggest thing to consider is whether you are pushing your idea too hard on a market or whether it is genuinely pulling your technology toward it because there is a need.  

I once had a meeting with a very smart investor who told me everybody tries to sell their technology on the basis that it will cut their client’s costs. But enterprise customers get more excited about products that will make them money. The ROI is clearer.

During the pandemic, the ROI on our product came into sharp focus in the pharma industry as its sales reps couldn’t get in front of their customers. We started getting lots of people popping up on LinkedIn asking if they could try out the tech. That’s when we realized we were on to something with pharma. That type of traction gets us excited. And if you don’t get excited about your user, then there’s something wrong.

You need to have a few indications that you’ve got a viable product: It has to make business sense, it has to make tech sense and it has to make design sense, meaning it’s user-friendly. And, especially when we’re talking about AI, it has to make ethical sense. For pharma, we ticked all the boxes.

The next question for us was, how fast can we do this? Can we get it in front of enough users quickly? We could do that in ecommerce. Pharma was slower, but there was a bigger long-term opportunity as we would be one of the first players in the market. We opted to go with the harder and riskier option but for a bigger win in the end. If it’s a bit more niche, you’re likelier to have a larger impact.


If it comes to head vs. heart, head wins.Frankly, I was more attracted to ecommerce. I have worked with multiple merchants over the years, the content is fun and data is accessible. I felt pulled emotionally in one direction, but the business and technology opportunity was pulling me in the other. Also, it was a bit sexier than pharma. Again, I felt pulled emotionally in one direction, but the business was pulling me in the other. We were hitting our milestones continuously in pharma. And the reality is, entrepreneurs must be responsible to their investors and employees. So, for the past two years, I’ve swapped art for science and have been talking to people in pharma every week to learn about their industry, their challenges or even just what their workday looks like.

If you can go big in one industry that needs you, go for it. It might not be the sexiest one, but it’s the one that will make a good business.

Helen Kontozopoulos is the co-founder and chief tech evangelist of ODAIA, which helps predict customer activity and redefine the workflow for pharma and life science commercial teams.
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Women in AI and data science at the 5th Annual Toronto Women in Data Science Conference and Awards

3/30/2022

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Check out the #AI panel I will be moderating:​

Thursday, April 28, 2022 @ 14:40 - 15:55 EST
Helen Kontozopoulos (moderator) - Co-founder at ODAIA Intelligence
Patricia Thaine - Co-Founder & CEO at Private AI
Azin Asgarian - Applied Research Scientist at Georgian
Eyra Abraham - Founder of Lisnen

Link to sign up to the conference and awards, check out the whole agenda too: 
https://www.womxndsto.com/schedule/5th-annual-toronto-womxn-in-data-science-annual-conference-and-awards​

​
#womenindata
#womenfounders
#datascience
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Toronto Womxn in Data Science 5th Annual Conference Awards April 2022

3/20/2022

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The conference talks, panels and workshops on April 27th and 28th will be hosted on a virtual platform called Venue. The Award Ceremony on the evening of April 28th will be held at The Drake Hotel with recordings available to anyone who cannot make it in person. We will also be sending out recordings of all sessions subject to speaker approval post conference. 

Link: 
https://www.womxndsto.com/5th-annual-conference-awards​ 
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Women in AI Week 2022

3/13/2022

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Join me on Monday, Mar 14th at 6:30pm ET to hear from 4 awesome women + all the partner organizations speak at the Kickoff Event

Register Here: https://ai.science/winai

Serena McDonnell Somaieh Nikpoor, PhD. Kaaren Whitney-Vernon safa Ben Guirat Elora Riganelli Muluwork Shegaw Alice Rueda Ellie D. Norris Melissa Barr Sam Ghasan Ali El-Sharif, Ph.D. Frincy Clement Kishawna Peck

Speakers:
-Margaret Mitchell
-Mehrnaz Shokrollahi - PhD
-Helen Kontozopoulos
-Eva Sachar

Organizations:
-aggregate intellect {FUNDRAISING}
-New York Artificial Intelligence (NYAI)
-Spotify
-Google Developers Group Windsor
-Women in AI
-(WiMLDS) Women in Machine Learning & Data Science NYC
-LA Tech4Good
-Happy Hive (happyhive.work)
-PureFacts Financial Solutions
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Launch my digital art into the world! #helenkontozopoulos #AIart

1/20/2022

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Finally launched my artwork out in the world. I have been creating artwork for over 20 years and in 2018 I took a course on creating art with artificial intelligence!

Check it out! ​https://helenkontozopoulos.art
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Amazing to be part of the @StandUpVentures portfolio - @odaiaAI #womenfounders #CanadianStartup

12/9/2021

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Thank you to the whole StandUp Ventures team and Michelle McBane for all the support they have given us at ODAIA and me. As an early stage startup, community means everything! #Canada #startups 
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List of startup portfolio:  standupvc.com/portfolio
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Speaking at #CAiSummit

11/7/2021

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​Looking forward to speaking at this week's #CAiSummit
https://theaisummit.ca/agenda/​

It's a great lineup!
Raquel Urtasun, Dr. Tom Corr, DBA, Kathryn Hume, Katia Saenko, Chris Chen, Shelby Austin, Thomas Park Jorge Escobedo, Amir Feizpour, Michelle Scarborough, Gary Saarenvirta
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About CAiS

There are moments that define working generations: Ai is creating one of those moments now. Ai has the power to positively enhance human ability and we will explore this technology's potential to transform specific industries.

Our focus on vertical Ai will enable participants to learn, explore and connect with those who are revolutionizing retail, banking, insurance and many other industries. 

The Canadian Ai Summit will bring our community together to learn from world-class speakers, discover how top companies are harnessing the power of Ai and connect with powerful industry players.

Learn, Connect and Transform!

Location: 
MaRS Discovery District
101 College Street
Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7

Date: November 9, 2021
Time: 9-4pm

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Cooperathon 2021! Launches September 28, 2021

9/23/2021

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Can't wait to be speaking at Open Innovation day organized by MTLNewTech 
and 
Coopérathon, on September 28th at 12:30pm EST (Online)

REGISTER HERE: https://go.mtlnewtech.com/28sept-OID 

I will be joined by some amazing experts to discuss how collaboration and innovation will change society for the better. 

Don't miss the launch of the 2021 edition of Cooperathon, exchange solutions, and discover this year’s challenges.

I can’t wait to share this experience and exchange ideas with you! 
​

#cooperathon #mtlnewtech
#innovation #entrepreneurship
#montreal #technology
#startup #tech #newtech #techstartup
#techresearch #techindustry

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Fireside Chat: Let the Data Tell the Story: Can AI bring you closer to the customer?

9/22/2021

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NEXT Normal Summit 2021
​
“Fireside Chat: Let the Data Tell the Story: Can AI bring you closer to the customer?”


On the panel:
Jérôme de Larosière, Head of Marketing Rare Disease, Ipsen
Orchid Jahanshahi, MBA, VP, Life Sciences at ODAIA  
Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder at ODAIA

NEXT Pharma Summit #NextNormal2021
#pharmasummit
#digitalinnovation
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End of year Machine Learning and Data Science Events you don't want to miss!

9/6/2021

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The Miami Machine Learning & AI Week
Data science / ML meetup in Miami
Sep 13-17 2021


https://www.datascience.salon/miami-ml-meetup-week/ 

Vector Institute AI Summit and Career Fair 2021
September 23 @ 9:30 am - 1:30 pm

https://vectorinstitute.ai/event/ai-summit-and-career-fair-2021/​
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AI DevWorld
Online Data science / ML conference
Oct 26-28 2021

https://dev.events/conferences/ai-dev-world-online-2021​

ML Conference Singapore 2021
Online conference
Nov 23-25 2021


https://mlconference.ai/singapore​
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ML Conference Berlin
​Berlin, Germany - Hybrid
Dec 6-8 2021


https://mlconference.ai/berlin

NeurIPS | 2021 - Online
Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems

https://nips.cc/

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    Helen Kontozopoulos

    Co-Founder and Chief Tech Evangelist at ODAIA.ai 
    Adjunct Professor, at the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada

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