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This week, the SphereCast team interviews Ren\xe9 Pfitzner, Co-Founder and CEO at experify.io. Pfitzner\u2019s company fills a market gap for direct-to-consumer brands, connecting product shoppers with real product owners to get a hands-on trial before purchase. Experify boasts a \u201cnew way of authentic consumerism\u201d and allows shoppers to cut through unreliable online reviews to more informed decision-making. The company is based in Zurich, Switzerland and is backed by various international think tanks. Pfitzner himself, prior to founding experify.io, worked as a data scientist in one of Switzerland\u2019s most renowned news publications.

On the podcast, Pfitzner lays out the journey of experify.io thus far, including the process of identifying and meeting a market need. Ren\xe9 spares no details in retelling his company\u2019s story and even briefly highlights his platform\u2019s infrastructure, which is built for speed and on-demand scale. Though only a business for 18 months, Pfitzner can attest to the ups and downs of startup life but shares how, even in the hardship, the proverbial \u201cgrind\u201d is worth it to work alongside people you trust in building something that you truly believe in.

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Noteworthy Quotes:

\u201cThere\u2019s this saying: \u2018If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go as a team.\u2019 And, as a team, that is something that we truly believe in\u2026 We founders have three completely different personalities, but we have common ground. And the common ground is important."

\u201cOur story is really not a typical \u2018founder's story' where you start building something, then you try to sell it. It was really the other way around. We were first trying to see if there was a business and if people would actually use it.\u201d

\u201cAs a startup, moving forward is success. If you feel like you\u2019re moving forward and growing more comfortable with what you\u2019re doing and gaining more clarity on the vision, that is success\u2026 At the moment, success is very much still being here."

\u201cThe most rewarding thing for me personally is to get up in the morning and know that you are actually moving forward with a team of people that you really like and trust on a project that you truly believe in."

\u201cIn terms of our technical strategy, the focus is on speed. Lightweight and organically scalable. Which is why I wanted a \u2018backend-as-a-service\u2019 approach where, at the end, I\u2019d only feel the cost impact if things pick up and I\u2019d have to scale, but I wouldn\u2019t have to worry about picking up five more servers or something."

\u201cProgress at the beginning of a startup is very slow. You develop skin as thick as an elephant because, at the beginning, getting buy-in is difficult \u2014 especially in Switzerland."

\u201cThe emotional support of others in a startup is super important. If you go on this journey, it\u2019s full of ups and downs. You sometimes think, \u2018Why am I actually doing this?\u2019 You have to believe what you\u2019re doing can really make an impact and is really worthwhile."

\u201cTo me, technology is a tool to achieve something. It\u2019s not an end in itself. So I always prioritize the business side of things.\u201d

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Bullet List of Resources \u2013\xa0

Ren\xe9 Pfitzner

• LinkedIn

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experify.io</