A technological startup – HawX, which appeared on the international market about two years ago, offers CRM (Customer Relationship Management) technological solutions to businesses. The company is already presented on five continents and helps e-commerce businesses operating in 27 countries communicate with customers the right way. Its co-founder is 27-year-old Giorgi Tsutskiridze, who, together with two partners, quickly brought the company, which was created with a zero GEL investment, to the global market. Today, HawX has two offices – in Tbilisi and Yerevan. Forbes Georgia recorded an interview with the CEO of the company, young entrepreneur Giorgi Tsutskiridze in the Tbilisi office.
Giorgi, you founded a company in 2020 that has already entered the international market. What caused your such rapid progress?
Let’s start by saying that the company was created by us, the professionals, who knew very well where and what the demand was and what businesses needed to increase their results. It was also important that the cooperation with our first partner was very successful. It was a Swedish group of companies involved in several businesses, including real estate, e-commerce and iGaming. With a small team, we have increased their number of users in a short period of time. It was followed by several other successful projects that gave us the opportunity to show tangible results and further expand the circle of our partners.
I think one of the reasons for the rapid growth was the fact that I myself have a fairly large network of contacts around the world, which I have accumulated during the stages of my career and education. I worked in many international companies, and it helped me a lot to create a good “network”, and I also made many important contacts while studying at Harvard Business School. In general, I think that a network of good contacts is the most important thing when you are an entrepreneur and start a business from scratch, so I am still constantly taking care of expanding the “network”, I go to international conferences, I am often presented as a speaker, I conduct webinars, all this is very important for the development of the company.
As a result of the tireless work of me and my partners and the constant concern for the development of the company, today we are a company that has been serving the strongest companies in the world for two years and has undoubtedly achieved successful results. We continue to develop and expect to grow by about 120% by the end of this year compared to last year. The proud fact is that we have the so-called zero bounce rate. That is, our customer has never left us. We have no former clients. This highlights that they like our business solutions, as a result of which thanks to our strong team they see growing numbers in their businesses all the time.
Basically, what do you offer the business?
We offer a complete package of CRM solutions for online businesses. Our solutions include everything needed for conducting and maintaining proper communication with customers and satisfying them. This includes both research and analytics of user behavior, as well as segmentation based on this research, personalized offers, loyalty programs and many other details. This is exactly the solutions and maintenance that every business needs to grow and grow sales and, most importantly, retain customers.
HawX is already presented in more than 25 countries of the world. Where is basically the demand from?
We actually have partners on every continent. It can be said that there is equal demand from regions of such as Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America.
As for the Georgian market, why don’t you have local customers?
We focus on the international market, as working globally is accompanied by a rapid pace of development and growth. Besides working in the world market is more interesting. In the modern world, when technology allows us to work from one point on different continents at the same time, why should we limit ourselves and not go beyond the boundaries of one country. That’s why we focused on foreign markets from the very start. We did not make any proposals for the Georgian market. At this stage, we decided to use the resource in a different direction.
In addition, the development of e-commerce in Georgia began in the last ten years. This is new for us compared to other markets. Therefore, the demand for our solutions in Georgia is not so high. In the international market, e-commerce, especially in developed countries, is at a high level, so they go ahead in terms of effectively managing these processes. They see that CRM is very important for business development; they accurately assess the importance and need of our business solutions. However, as soon as we see the demand in Georgia, we will also appear there. With the knowledge and experience gained in the international market, I am sure that we will bring great success to Georgian companies as well.
Who are your company’s team members? How many people does your team include?
We currently employ 80 people. We have experts with serious experience in key positions. However, of course, there are also young and novice personnel in our team who are developing quickly. The HawX team is international, bringing together people of various nationalities and backgrounds. Our advisors are from the US, UK, Sweden, Israel and the Netherlands.
Did you have difficulty finding qualified personnel in Georgia?
Yes. In Georgia, the shortage of personnel in our field and in technology as a whole is very large. The direction of CRM is a “new fruit” for Georgia, therefore, this is not taught in Georgia. Moreover, only a small part of companies use this solution. However, for example, giant companies, such as Amazon, Netflix, Nike and others, pay a lot of attention to CRM, since it is actually the key to business success. Today there is so much competition in any industry that if you don’t have a good personalized approach to the customer, growth will be very difficult.
We constantly provide our employees with advanced training courses, finance appropriate trainings for their professional development and increase their opportunities. New employees also get the most experience from department heads, whose main mission is to share knowledge and experience as much as possible. Also, in this regard, our company is working on cooperation with various higher education institutions so that their students can get practice working with us. Among them are both private universities and Tbilisi State University. As a result, we are one of the private international companies where students will be able to get practice, master professions that are in high demand in the world and get great experience of working in the international market.
Based on your experience, do you think it is difficult to become a successful entrepreneur in Georgia?
Promotion is. There are very good conditions for launching a startup in Georgia, there are many investors, coaches, projects within which investments or strategic partners can be found. My advice would be for beginners to be more active, not to miss the chance. to use and expand the circle of acquaintances, because every communication with the necessary person gives an opportunity for the birth of a new idea. It is also important to be risk takers, but take risks where you believe in yourself and your abilities.
Speaking of the company’s action plans, what is HawX’s target for the next two years?
Our plans are to expand even further and, as I mentioned earlier, to form partnerships with universities and grow new professionals. Due to the growing demand for our business solutions, this year we are going to open a third office in Paris. There is an accelerator-hub. The French government has a serious start-up acceleration program, we have been negotiating with them for the second month. We will complete this process in the autumn.
Also, until the end of the year, our calendar is quite saturated with plans to participate in various international conferences and exhibitions. HawX will be represented by stands at the events, which will give us an additional opportunity to introduce our company to more potential clients in the international arena.
Finally, we plan to create some technological solutions, tools. which will help us and other companies to automate CRM processes further. This is important in order to make processes more effective, faster and more flexible. Most of our operations are still automated as much as possible, and it is thanks to this that today, with a team of about 80 people, we are able to serve dozens of clients at the same time.
HawX is already a successful company. Isn’t it time to start thinking about implementing new ideas?
We are always thinking of new ideas because this is our lifestyle. Of course, we also have new projects. I am currently working on three different ideas with my partners. I will refrain from divulging the details for now. However, I can tell you briefly about one. It is an online educational platform. The pandemic has shown how important it is to have online learning opportunities. We will start with Georgia, and then we will go to Transcaucasia. We will offer various educational courses to those who wish. The programs will be quite diversified. Our goal is to make this platform relatively accessible to everyone. In short, we have big plans and no less motivation.
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