Domenico and Matteo Focus on e-Commerce... For Animals
"The internet offers great opportunities for anyone who would like to open an entrepreneurial activity and needs to be able to seize the moment," say Domenico Gimeli, a twenty-seven-year-old Catania native, and his Bocconi classmate Matteo Valente, a twenty-seven-year-old Bari native, who both left careers in consulting to dedicate their time to their very own company, Bauzaar. The name is a play on words because Bauzaar is a virtual emporium for animals, an e-commerce platform that simplifies things for pet lovers. It allows users to purchase products and save 5% of the cost of the order. The best part of the service is how well the delivery scheduling works.
A Master of Science degree in Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology (EMIT) and a passion for animals: this was the common denominator for the Bauzaar founders. It may seem like another great example of two smart graduates in economics who, after several professional experiences, choose entrepreneurship by taking advantage of web 2.0 opportunities. The process of the startup does reflect the usual standards, but Domenico and Matteo's idea stands out because it's so original: where did they get the idea to create a website dedicated to pets? "We decided to create Bauzaar after a trip to New York," says Domenico. "We were at a friend's place for dinner. The doorbell rang and, instead of a pizza, the delivery person dropped off a bag of dog food." So the two friends discovered that across the ocean people purchased products for their pets online and even choose how often they should be delivered. It's based on a very simple, but revolutionary mechanism. "We told ourselves we had to replicate this in Italy," say the startuppers. After a careful market analysis and after writing up a good business plan, Domenico and Matteo quit their jobs to work full time on their business. 70,000 euros and a lot of hard work later and Bauzaar made its online debut. Their mascot? Sirio, Matteo's American Akita.
"Most of the initial investment was to set up the first release of the IT platform and base processes of the value chain," explains Domenico. The project's first sponsors were the two young entrepreneurs' families. "For the rest we emptied out our bank accounts, but we were very happy to do so," they say.
So far they have received 80 orders, thanks to which they can also support the Save the Dogs non-profit. They are optimistic about the future: "We're very close to announcing investment from two important Italian investors," says Domenico. "It's an important step that could be the foundation for our project's organic and sustainable growth, so we can be a point of reference for high quality purchases dedicated to pets."
Bauzaar was also selected as one of the 8 startup finalists for the second edition of TechCrunch Italy, one of the most important events dedicated to digital startups, which will close on 27 September.