An accomplished serial entrepreneur and innovator, Ugo Loustalet has decided to hand over the reins of his startup Buyzooka. He shares his insights on his startup, what it takes to be the next CEO of Buyzooka and why he is leaving the ecosystem.
When did you found Buyzooka and what problem does it solve?
We started to study how to cope with the rise of large marketplaces in the summer of 2019 and created Buyzooka in September 2020. We were looking for a way to prevent independent e-merchants from disappearing in favour of marketplaces that kill the diversity of brands.
Buyzooka is the e-commerce’s Single-Sign-on which allows its users to buy from more than 1.5 million e-merchants without having to create an account beforehand. This erases the barrier of access between an independent shop and Amazon for example.
We also deployed 100.000.000 BZOO tokens to incentivise our users with cashback in crypto on every purchase.
It is not often that founders decide to hand over their startup to other people. What made you realise that this was the right decision for you?
No, it doesn’t happen often but that’s a good thing, no?
I created my first startup in 1999 in the world of video games. We were few players in this emerging market, essentially composed of “dreamers” who wanted to change the world, accompanied by a few industrial fortunes were often incredible associates who did not hesitate to take risks while bringing structure and networks.
At this time, it was all about the idea behind the startup and the talent of the team. Today, I no longer fit into the ecosystem because I am not in tune with all the VCs or in touch with all the startups that are sprouting up like mushrooms. To me, the ecosystem has lost some of its previous charm and being neither a Parisian in Paris nor a Luxembourger in Luxembourg nor young enough for some, I’ve decided to move on.
With the agreement of my young partners, I decided to leave the world of entrepreneurship indefinitely to join a corporate as an employee. I’m joining F4A.com to which I hope to bring my know-how, my motivation, my mental structuring for the young and super talented general management.
“The buyer(s) can take over either only the technology or the entire baby.”
Ugo Loustalet
What should interested “repreneurs” know about your startup?
Today we have achieved a feat both technically in terms of the network and in terms of acceptance of our software which communicates with 1.5 million sites in the world (all the shops that work with Shopify). We are also opening a scaler technology to connect it to 90% of merchant sites in the world.
What qualities should the next CEO of Buyzooka have?
Only one is mandatory: To have the necessary financial network to skyrocket Buyzooka. The rest can be learnt during the journey.
How will you help the “repreneur” with taking over Buyzooka?
This will depend on the takeover offers that will be made to us. If the buyback price is satisfactory and if we can keep some shares in the takeover, we will be happy to support the buyers. If we sell “scrap”, I doubt that there will be a great motivation for supporting them.
Our brand is registered at the European level and in the United States. It would still be silly and counterproductive to bury all this by liquidating the company, which has a cash-burn of 2000 euros/month and no liabilities!
We talk a lot about circular economy and recycling, well we think that Buyzooka must be recycled in a circular approach by one or two tech or e-commerce players or by smart investors.
How many clients does Buyzooka have? Are you a self-sufficient startup?
Buyzooka is now a Chrome extension. We have the budgeted specifications to make the IOS and Android apps and then the B2C acquisition.
All our financial forecasts are made for the next 3 years and are available under NDA to potential buyers. We also have social media accounts that exceed 10,000 followers and 300 active customers. Our business model is based on a 15% commission on each sale made via Buyzooka, which also serves as a common shopping list for the 1.5 million connected sites.
What’s will the buyer(s) of your startup get? And what is the asking price?
The buyer(s) can take over either only the technology or the entire baby: the Luxembourg company because it owns the brand + the social networks (Telegram, Twitter, Insta, FB and Linkedin) + the technology + the 100 million Tokens BZOO.
The floor selling price is independent of the chosen formula: 250,000 euros excluding tax.
