Built an app for personal use, this founder ended up making grocery shopping faster and cheaper for everyone
You are doing your weekly grocery shopping at the supermarket. You keep having to walk back and forth trying to find all the items on your grocery list and this makes you extremely annoyed. Not only are you losing valuable time browsing the aisles, queuing to pay but also the amount of money that you then spent at the cashier is ridiculous.
If this sound familiar to you, you’re not alone. Hassene Ben Mansour was frustrated with the same thing. He then tried the supermarket’s own app hoping to save some time only to find out that the app was outdated with a very old interface and user experience. He tried some other solutions but none were any better.
“So, this is where I saw the possibility to make a change. I knew things could be made much simpler and more efficient for all. Therefore, I did what I knew best: I opened my laptop and started coding.”
From one to five
Few weeks after an intense amount of coding, Hassene visited Helsinki NewCo for advice on starting a business where he was suggested to find co-founders. Hassene believed, to most benefit the project, he needed to find people who possessed the opposite skills, especially someone to develop the business side of the project.
Hassene then went on and registered on various platforms and found his first co-founder. Not long after that, an ex-football teammate of his heard about the project and wanted to join and brought with him another valuable member to the team. Since then there have been changes but the team has grown with 4 other co-founders: Sinh Thu (CAO), Tuomas Tikka (CTO), Ron Rubinstein (CFO), and Martti Lahtinen (COO). The app has also reached new levels of progress.
“Failure is always an option and that motivates me to push harder and not give up. If I don’t keep going and see success as my destination every day, then the game is already lost.” — Hassene Ben Mansour
For Smappy team, the greatest challenge besides constantly motivating each other’s, like many other small businesses, is the money. Without funds, everything is executed with a minimal to no budget and a very small team.
It’s hard knowing the possibilities of what we could do with funds and then trying to scale up without them.
What is Smappy
Smappy is a hub for all of the grocery stores in Finland. They help the users create an easy and convenient shopping list with the exact prices and deals from each store. Users are also able to get delivery with the lowest price on the market. Smappy also has smart algorithms that recognize user requirements and modifies the app so everyone sees more of what they actually desire to purchase.
“I’m here to ensure that data is used to provide the best shopping experience to Smappyt users” — Smappy CAO Sinh Thu
Recently got funded, the startup is looking to scaling up the business. The team is planning each aspect of the business like improving the operations, expanding the team and focusing more on the marketing.
Smappy just launched the app in Helsinki for Android users and are looking for beta testers for their in-app delivery feature. Participants get a chance to win a 30e voucher! 10 lucky winners will be announced on the 16th of August. Find more about how to enter here or contact support@smappy.app
How is your experience at Nordic Startup School? / Where do you see yourself in 6 months/2 years?
The experience was great and fruitful. I was able to see the many gaps that we still had in our project and to get help in filling them. The experience definitely helped to improve our weaknesses. It was nice to meet the mentors and to get amazing advice from them. Also, the promotion for our startup was beneficial.
In 2 years, I see Smappy as a big, competitive and successful company that has overcome a lots but hasn’t lost what I set out to do in the beginning. I want Smappy to become a tool easily used by everyone everywhere.
Find out more and apply for Nordic Startup School program for startups and founders on our website. For more updates on our program and mentors follow us on Linkedin.
