Interview Questionnaire
Name:Dr. Lucas Piccinin
Designation:Founding Partner
Company:NetConv Shop
1. You have built an impressive journey as an entrepreneur and founder of NetConv Shop. What inspired you to step into the world of entrepreneurship, and how did your early experiences shape your business mindset?
I always wanted to sell groceries online , and in 2015 I started doing it in the city of Cuiabá, Brazil , and in 2016 we have noticed the lack of transparency on freshness to Ecommerce operations , and then , me and Fabian, my partner at NetConv, and the lead software engineer, have decided to solve that problem , inspiring us to create a pricing tool to reduce the price of products as they were closer to expire , marking the beginning of NetConv Shop.
2. With a background in law, economics, and finance, how has this diverse academic foundation influenced your approach to business strategy and decision-making?
Right , it is only possible to see what you can perceive, so this diverse academic foundation helped me to forge my capabilities on perception of reality. The diverse academic foundation can stimulate a different approach to common and existing problems, driving the business strategy and decision making process with increased spectrum.
3. Since founding NetConv Shop in 2015, what have been some of the key milestones and defining moments in your entrepreneurial journey?
When we have started NetConv Delivery in 2015 , we had no idea of the freshness transparency problem . It was only possible to noticed when we had a problem with 8 sausage can that would expire in 15 days , and we've dropped the price , and costumer bought all of them , and next day this costumer sent us an email complaining .I was so badly offended by the sausage can costumer that this problem captured my attention, and I started wondering that is not possible to inform the value on freshness , without informing expiration date and price on the offering of the goods , because depending on the products , the same shelf life may have different meanings, making it hard to deal with costumers expectations. After me and Fabian, my partner and the Lead Software Engineer, aligned how we would solve the transparency issue, we have created a clear commitment on doing it. At the time, I told Fabian that I would do the stock counting and leave my hair grow until he got the coding done, having my hair cut 3 years later , deeply testing values of boldness, humility, resilience, reacting in a good way , ambidextery , trust and research. If you really care about the problem you can create commitment to pass through the hardships. Also , when we had just solved the transparency problem to the direct retail dark store , we figured out that a startup should grow Revenue, without growing costs proportionally, making impossible for us to fit new stores into this math. We knew that we had to transform the startup model, so we identified the main problems that we were solving , and offered the solution as a SaaS with modular architecture, which could be easily connected to Supermarkets’ ERP.
4. As a business leader, you have been recognized in several global leadership platforms. How have these recognitions impacted your vision and growth as an entrepreneur?
Recognition is an important ingredient on the Go to Market strategy for helping overcome the inertia resistance to change for the new. On the personal side, the recognition, when is deserved, enhances gratitude.
5. Building and scaling a business comes with challenges. What were some of the major obstacles you faced in the early stages, and how did you overcome them?
Right, on building NetConv Shop, we faced a manually stock counting at the first 3 years, because it was needed to write the code to provide transparency in real time to Ecommerce. At this period, the values of boldness, humility and resilience were very well tested. Another obstacle was just after that, when we faced a Pivot to convert a Darkstore into a platform to serve others, which forced us to use intense creativity and strategic thinking. On scaling, we are in a Go to Market step and there is an inertia resistance to adopt new softwares, so we started associating with those that could accelerate the educating process, and became a GS1 Solution Partner , a Global Standard organization with the goal to update the new generation of barcodes until 2027 , which will bring expiration date embedded into QR Codes, giving extraordinary levels of accuracy and transparency.
6. Your expertise in business strategy and valuation plays a crucial role in your leadership. How do you approach strategic planning in a fast-changing business environment?
NetConv Shop has a mission to explore the connection between supply and demand to reduce waste and to combat hunger, so we just focus on that, and listen to customers’ complaints to refine the solutions. The process of improving is never ending, when developing AI-powered, we started with static algorithms, then we refined with ML to recognize patterns on sales preferences at certain times of the year, and then we incremented with AI to access information beyond retail itself, like distant informations and analytical search.
7. In today’s digital and competitive market, how does NetConv Shop differentiate itself and create value for its customers?
What differentiate NetConv Shop is the transparency on freshness to Ecommerce operations and all the benefits that comes with it , such as freshness marketability ; pricing anti-waste, and ; AI goals booster, which adjusts pricing and products offerings to meet goals on market share, on competitive environment or in a more profitable landscape. Also it allows higher efficiency on working capital , notificates to remove expired products , allows reduction on reverse logistics and assertive replenishment list ,by detecting sales trends autonomously, informing the amount that each product should have in stock, not for loosing sales , nor turn into waste. We make it available for the Darkstore to integrate with Marketplaces chosen by the Supermarket, for attracting new costumers. Also, the software organizes the orders into a flux and keeps the final client informed. It is a process. On the way, we have made available the acquisition services only in some countries for now , to conciliate orders’ payment, so it was easier for doing this control.
8. As a founder, how do you balance innovation with sustainable growth while ensuring long-term business success?
NetConv Shop has a mission to explore the connection between supply and demand to reduce waste and to combat hunger, so we just focus on that and use creativity and costumers feedbacks for guiding us with evolving needs and expectations.
9. You have experience working across different markets and cultures. How has this global exposure shaped your leadership style?
Each country have a different adoption pace, caused mainly for politics and meritocracy handling. The countries that move faster are those that considers meritocracy over politics, in that sense, my leadership style have prioritized those meritocratic environments.
10. What role does technology and digital transformation play in your business strategy today?
We are a deeptech company playing a transformative role on transparency to Ecommerce, so technology and digital transformation play a core function to the business strategy.
11. As a leader, how do you build and motivate high-performing teams within your organization?
We empower collaborators and listen to them on building new concepts, but when things go wrong we do not blame them, we adjust and keep the moral high for our long run goal.
12. With your strong background in finance and economics, how do you evaluate new opportunities and manage business risks?
We usually do a lot of testing for trying new ways of doing more with less, using the costumers complaints to refine the process into a better way of doing . In spite of the many failures on this process , this strategy have been very effective in driving growth.
13. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to build successful ventures in today’s competitive landscape?
One advice that I would share is to identify the problem you want to solve and use creativity to develop a solution , but if you don't know the problem yet just start doing it and keep your eyes and ears widely open to perceive when you face an opportunity disguised as a problem.
14. Looking ahead, what is your vision for NetConv Shop, and what impact do you aim to create in the industry?
The vision for NetConv Shop is to keep exploring the connection between supply and demand to combat waste and hunger. The impact we aim to create is to live in a world more transparent and efficient for perishables goods traded online, with higher efficiency on waste reduction, and smarter and cheaper ways to reduce hunger around the globe.