Moteefe- Reinventing Product Manufacture and Delivery

by Startacus Admin

Time and time again, studies have revealed that one of the biggest obstacles to entrepreneurship is fear.

Many people dream of starting their own business, but the risks associated are often enough to prevent them from moving forward with their ambition.

On a positive note, the rise of the internet, and particularly things like e-commerce have helped to alleviate some of the financial concerns that many would-be entrepreneurs harbour. Indeed, some innovative platforms, and management systems have further increased the viability of entrepreneurship as a realistic career choice for a wide range of people.  

One such innovation is Moteefe, a social commerce platform that takes a non-traditional approach to the production and delivery of products.

Moteefe has recent won the accolade of ‘ones to watch’ at the recent UK Angel Investment Awards, and have previously held the spot of Startacus Startup of the Week.  

Time to learn a little bit more about them.

We chatted to one of the businesses co-founders Olivier Stapylton-Smith.   

Hi Olivier, Can you tell us a bit more about Moteefe?

Moteefe is a social commerce platform that helps entrepreneurs around the world to sell customised products online. We are offering a full solution for people who are creative and driven to start their own business on our website.

All they need to do is come up with great designs for t-shirts, mugs and phone cases and we will help with the marketing, production, shipping and customer service. The aim is to help people make money by doing what they love without taking any financial risks.

Who is your target audience?

Initially we were targeting graphic designers which seems like a logical group of people who might want to sell t-shirts, however we have expanded that to entrepreneurs and influencers now. Anyone with an idea and a bit of drive can make thousands of pounds on Moteefe and we have hundreds of people using the website as their primary or secondary source of income. Design is only a small part of selling customised products - people with great ideas and a knack for marketing are actually far more successful!

Why did you decide to do an MBA before launching your startup?

Doing an MBA happened a bit organically for me and I was looking forward to taking a bit of time to learn core skills and reflect on what my next steps should be. Being in that highly stimulating environment was incredibly helpful and INSEAD is also where I met my 2 co-founders.

It has proven very helpful in thinking more strategically and building a great team for Moteefe, and we’ve also benefited from tapping into the incredible INSEAD network. However, having an MBA is certainly not a prerequisite for launching a start-up!

Why did you decide to launch a social commerce company?

The concept of Moteefe is quite powerful: we help people make money by doing something fun and that they love. We’ve changed the lives of some of our sellers who now make more money in a month than what they used to make in a year! Being a part of those individual successes is very satisfying and drives us to grow the business daily so more people can benefit. The dream is to see people leaving their jobs to set up their own online businesses.

We are also one of the many innovators in the social commerce area which is growing exponentially. Social media changes every week and creating new tools to leverage the power of social media is very stimulating.

Any advice for people who want to launch their own business?

Use Moteefe and build your business risk free! Joking aside, I think the only way to succeed is to take action and learn quickly. You have to be bold; most businesses succeed thanks to great execution. It also helps to start working on your idea or a small business on the side before taking the plunge as you can learn without taking too much risk.

Also, build a great team that is well balanced. Don't start a business with 3 marketers - who is going to build your product?

What are your plans for the next 12 months?

We’ve been building the core Moteefe over last year and we are now gearing up for growth. This means expanding our product range, ramping up our marketing efforts and building innovative features for our entrepreneurs. We’re very excited to help many more entrepreneurs over the next year!

Thanks for the chat Olivier and best of luck with Moteefe!

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Published on: 3rd August 2016