Viaka Newsletter: Analytics to fuel growth -- Growdash!
This week, we sat down with Sean Trevaskis, the founder of Growdash!
What is Growdash and how/why did it come to life?
Growdash is a purpose-built Analytics & Business Intelligence SaaS for restaurants. Growdash empowers restaurant brands to confidently boost paid and organic growth across online sales channels. We achieve this by connecting a restaurant’s data points (aggregator and POS) into a centralised source of truth.
By translating data into one common language, providing a holistic overview on campaign performance, utilising our in-house algorithm to analyse the data for growth opportunities and facilitating restaurant operators to seamlessly action strategy via Growdash or their dedicated Customer Success Manager.
The results of which allow restaurants to develop and execute strategies that maximise their top-line opportunity (orders & GMV) whilst remaining focused on positively impacting bottom-line profitability.
What is your personal story and relation to the problem (alongside your founders)
Sean and Enver met while working together at Talabat; they were a core part of the team responsible for building, launching and scaling Talabat's suite of advertising products, such as GEMs, CPC and Banners across the MENA region.
Post-covid, Sean and Enver both left Talabat and went their separate ways with Sean taking up a senior commercial role in the UK with Deliveroo, and Enver doing the same in the UAE with Quiqup.
Although residing in different continents, they remained in touch, speaking regularly about the industry and the commonalities/differences of MENA vs. Europe; they noticed how restaurants were struggling to generate positive ROI from the advertising products that they had helped to introduce to the market. This frustrated them, they knew that these tools were built to provide growth opportunities for restaurants, but restaurants' limited access and application of data was inhibiting them to generate actionable insights.
Instead of being part of the problem; Sean and Enver started Growdash, as a means to develop a solution and empower restaurants through analytics & BI to build and execute profitable growth strategies.
What market are you attacking? Are you adding on or trying to replace current offerings?
Restaurants are investing anywhere between 5-15% of their GMV from online food delivery channels such as Talabat, Deliveroo and Careem back into said channels for the purpose of top-line growth (orders, GMV).
Restaurants do this by spending their ‘growth & marketing’ budgets on a variety of purpose built tools that can be defined under two buckets: ‘Visibility Tools’ (CPC, Premium Positions, Banners and Seasonal Campaigns) and ‘Discount Tools’ (Menu Discounts, New Customer Discounts, Loyalty Discounts, Free Delivery and Free Items).
However most are experiencing a poor return on investment (UAE average 2x Return on Advertising Spend) or in some cases simply losing money.
Our research, working directly with restaurants across the GCC, suggests that this all comes down to a data problem.
Mission: Empower restaurants, globally, to seamlessly build, execute and manage profitable growth strategies across digital sales channels.
What are you looking for from the Viaka community?
We are looking to connect with passionate F&B leaders who can help us continue to build traction and potential investors that are interested to find out more about our seed round, launching in October 2023.
Where will that take you?
By the end of 2023 we will be live in four key GCC markets; UAE, Kuwait, Qatar (already live) and KSA (October). In 2024 we plan to further penetrate these markets and the remainder of the GCC, aggressively, plus launch in Singapore and the UK. These footholds in SouthEast Asia and Europe will cement our position in key markets at a global level whilst simultaneously preparing us for rapid expansion across 2025 and 2026.
Viaka Connect pulls together the top fractional service providers, freelancers, consultants and agencies in the Network, puts them in one place, and makes it super easy to access their services.
Service providers are Viaka Network members, vetted for their quality and experience, and have worked in North America, MENA, and Europe 🌍 Looking for something in particular, or just interested in the concept? Click here to check it out!
Upcoming Events
Below is a list of upcoming events from the Viaka Network & beyond over the next couple of weeks!
Fintech events are going to be frequent in the MENA region this year — check out this article for details on all the top events and conferences!
Viaka Connect is hosting workshops hosted by Network experts on topics like personal branding and digital presence! Be sure to sign up for the Network for access.
If you’d like to share an event in this newsletter, we encourage you to join the Viaka Network and share the event with info@viaka.net!
Work Opportunities
Recent job openings from the Viaka Network & beyond!
212 Founders is hiring an Entrepreneur Advisor - Apply Here
Seedstars is looking for a Partnerships Intern - Apply Here
If you’d like to share a job posting in this newsletter, we encourage you to join the Viaka Network and share the event with info@viaka.net!
Reads of the Week
Viaka has launched a Network Reading List, where Network members are encouraged to submit media suggestions of their own.
A Mentality to Build in Saudi Arabia (Christopher Schroeder)
What to Watch in AI, July 2023 (The Generalist)
Creating Virtual Cycles: How Venture Capital Support Fuels Founder Success (Global Ventures)
Check out Viaka’s full reading list here.
Weekly News Digest
Check out our weekly digest — we provide news from all across the MENA startup ecosystem, every single Friday. Be sure to follow our LinkedIn and Twitter for more.
That’s it for this week. Thank you! 👋
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