After several years and roles at Google, leaving this atypical company was not an easy choice to make. Going back a "few" years to when I was a kid in France, I often felt an entrepreneurial spirit kicking in. I wanted to open my tea shop later on. At 18, eager to put the theories I was learning at the university into practice, I started working as a freelancer on a few marketing projects.
Then I graduated at 24 and worked for a company where things were not moving fast enough for me so I decided to move to San Francisco in 2014, giving myself a 3-month trial period. Upon arrival, I did some marketing consulting for a startup, and then got an unexpected invitation from Google to stay longer than expected. So I stayed, of course!
After 3 years, even if I was passionate about the company, I was not finding myself creating and growing at my ideal pace. I needed more challenges to go faster. To compensate this need in creativity and innovation, in 2016 I started my own marketing consulting practice with startups on the side. It was so rewarding to be able to help with a few resources. This was it, I knew I wanted to pursue this career path.
In 2017, I decided to fully hop on the plane, said goodbye to my friends at Google and launched my consulting business full time in London. Talking about going faster, this is part of the 5 reasons why I decided to work with startups. They change the way we live and I want to be part of it helping them grow through marketing intelligence. An effective marketing strategy is the difference between one good product and an outstanding product.
5 ways startups are changing the way we live
1. Go faster
Accelerating access to information, interacting in various environments with various tools, finding quick ways to commute and travel. On average, how much effort does it take you to get access to all of these online services? We counted... 5 clicks! Startups’ proximity with the market allows them to develop accessible and easy-to-use products.
2. Disrupt your life
Startups are not only present in tech and mobile services but also revolutionize education with new educative alternative teaching methods, the health industry by helping doctors and patients to take the right drug decisions, real estate with an entire image-creation process to virtually decorate houses goods... Can you find one material or immaterial thing you acquired through a startup product or service today?
3. Connect and disconnect
How disconcerting is it to be at home and think startups are working for you? Yoga, fitness and cooking mobile applications bring you all different types of services you would certainly not have the time or the money to spend on every day. You can then disconnect and have a rest, and startups will adapt your favorite products and services for you by tomorrow. After all, 70% of startups start at home so you can trust them.
4. Infinite possibilities
Startups have no innovation limits and recreate our lifestyle every time we open our electronic devices or we walk out of our homes. Startups create wonderful science discoveries and hope: 3D printed organs, new eco-friendly energy solutions, food industry alternatives and other biotechnology revolutions. DNA and lifestyle are being explored in labs right at this moment.
5. The next job creator
Startups are younger sister companies leading classic companies toward innovation and job creation by example. However, they need more support to grow up. Marketing may be underestimated in startups' early business stage while they could grow 10x with frequent market research. Who knows, 50% of us may work for startups in 20 years so let’s move forward with them!
Lena Baudo | Digital Marketing Nomad helping companies and non-profit organizations grow their business through marketing intelligence and actionable plans. My motto is to begin with the end: no data analysis = no effective decision.