In the Clouds: A Chat With Wisy 🌩
Highlights from our conversation with Min Chen, CEO and Co-Founder of the Cloud Wars Startup of the Year 2022 winner, Wisy
More than 3,000 people attended both virtually and in person this year’s Cloud Wars Expo which took place from June 28-30 in San Francisco. From keynotes to Cloud Battlegrounds, the biggest cloud companies in the world gathered together to discuss the biggest innovations in the cloud.
We had the chance to sit down with SAP.iO startup Wisy, who not only pitched in the Innovation Path contest against 14 other startups, but also won the highly coveted first place as the “Startup of the Year.” Wisy’s AI solution, that offers CPG and retailers an on-shelf intelligence platform helping them to minimize out-of-stocks, won over the judges heads and hearts, and their big win landed them a $40,000 marketing package from Cloud Wars.
Before we start, a minute with Min Chen on her first childhood dream job:
“As Chinese immigrants in Panama, my parents had a small business. I knew since very young that having your own company was definitely a lot of responsibility, which is why my dream was to get a normal job at a big multinational company, travel and have stock options so that I wouldn’t need to be a business owner. I achieved my dream when I was 23 years old working for a company based in Silicon Valley and traveling to many countries, but it did not make me happy.”
Get to know Wisy:
“We solve a problem that everybody who has gone into a store has experienced. When you look for your favorite shampoo or cereal and it’s not on the shelf, this is an out-of-stock problem costing 1 trillion dollars annually to this industry. The main reason this happens is because the person who has to restock the shelf or reorder products did not have the right information on time to do so. It is a lack of information and also an action problem that we solve with Artificial Intelligence. CPG sales reps and store associates can use any mobile device to take pictures or videos instead of eyeballing shelves, and then Wisy returns the data immediately back to them, so they know what they have to reorder and restock.”
Min on how she stood out from others at the Innovation Path contest and mastering her pitch:
“I think we won because the judges could relate to the problem, and they understood why Wisy could solve it. The other startups were amazing since each one is solving a different problem. But given that the pitch was only 3 minutes, the key is to be able to connect the problem with the audience at a personal level.
I always imagine my mom when pitching. She doesn’t know much about technology, and she only speaks Chinese, so then I always think — how can I explain this to her in a way that she will understand the problem, what we do, and why we are different. I try to simplify the message, make it shorter to the point, and make it relatable and memorable.”
How Wisy will use the $40,000 Cloud Wars Marketing package in the future:
“The prize is a special package designed by the organizers of Cloud Wars and it includes a podcast and some blogs and other marketing support and services. We are really excited to have won this award because it will allow us to reach more customers organically!”
How Wisy is Making Customers More Sustainable:
“Our customers are from the Consumer Package Goods Industry. This industry touches every person’s life and is present globally. Among manufacturers, CPG companies are the ones that generate the most amount of jobs, but also contaminate more because all that packaging and expired products go into land fills. By helping CPG personnel with smart actionable data to be more efficient, we are helping this industry to be more sustainable while doing financially better as well.”
Being Part of the SAP Family at Cloud Wars:
“I think it goes beyond Cloud Wars — for startups that want to sell to larger corporations that are already SAP customers, the sponsorship and support of SAP and SAP.iO is an endorsement. It shows that our startup has been vetted, that we know how to work with large companies and that we have a mature product that adds value to the customers. In our case, we add value to CPG and retail industries where SAP is one of the strongest technology partners for these companies.”
Congratulations to Wisy from SAP.iO for this huge win and great achievement! If you are interested to get to know Wisy better, you can reach out to them on their website and check out their solution on SAP Store here!
