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Emilio Di Marco
CEO at Aument
Emilio Di Marco is a seasoned professional with a passion for enabling data-driven decisions in businesses of all sizes.
Throughout his career, Emilio has demonstrated his expertise in building, leading, and promoting companies, with notable experiences at companies like WeWork, Corona, Stella Artois, and SAP.
Currently, Emilio is dedicated to creating employment opportunities at Aument and developing a platform aimed at boosting online store profits.
Emilio's educational background includes studies in Business Intelligence, Predictive Marketing, Analytics, Marketing, Business Administration, and Economics.
He has held key roles in various organizations such as CEO & Founder at Aument, Partner at Latin American Capital Group, and positions at Anheuser-Busch InBev and WeWork.
Emilio is always open to networking and connecting with fellow professionals.
Highlights
Sell first, ship product then.
My biggest learning as a first-time founder.
Yes, the only way to truly validate if a customer is suffering from a problem is if they pay you to solve it ASAP, especially in tech B2B.
As a first-time founder w. Aument (2 years ago):
- Had an idea.
- Raised money.
- Hired people.
- Built a product.
- Tried to sell my 'already built' product to customers.
RESULT = Poor MRR, burned through 60% of the raised funds, laid off 50% of the company, had to pivot, and faced uncertainty. 'What am I doing here?'
Fortunately, we still had enough money in the bank, a great founding team, early employees and investors who believed in us. So, we went VERY lean financially.
As an 'injured' 😅 first-time founder w. Aument (9 months ago):
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Had a problem hypothesis
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Had potential solution hypothesis.
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Validated that problem with customers.
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Built an initial, shitty, almost non-usable solution and asked customers to pay for an unfinished product.
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The solution didn't impact as expected (went back to point 1 four times in less than 3 months, even letting go of our paying customer base twice).
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Identified a bigger problem (significant profit loss due to price and promotion guesswork).
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Deeply engaged with the customer problem.
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Asked customers to pay us to solve the problem, even if we initially delivered just a spreadsheet.
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Shipped very small pieces of the product faster and gathered feedback. Initial customers kept paying us, providing stronger validation.
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Began finding more customers with the same burning issue, further validating our solution.
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Built first case study (brand is paying).
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Built second case study (brand is paying).
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Built third case study (brand is paying).
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Prospects are more engaged with the problem and the solution at every demo.
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Prospects became genuinely engaged with our problem hypothesis and excited about our solution.
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Our active customers began demanding faster delivery and improvements. Team is working crazy 24x7 to deliver.
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Onboarded the first brand with over $20 million in annual sales. (paying)
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Onboarded the first brand with over $50 million. (paying)
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Onboarded the fiest brand with over $100 million. (paying)
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Onboarded the first brand with over $200 million (paying)
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Here we are now: Customers are asking us to move faster, they're paying, and prospects are excited about our solution and signing agreements.
Next 2 months: Our focus is 100% on onboarding just 5 more customers with the same problem, using the same product, and keep validating our ICP (who is the ideal user within this brands).
Though I’m still navigating my own path, I found 'The Four Steps to the Epiphany' from Steve Blank incredibly insightful. Maybe it can offer some valuable perspectives for you too.
