Kris Hiiemaa, the founder and CEO of Erply, a New York-based, Estonian-founded software company focusing on retail and point-of-sale technology, advises aspiring entrepreneurs against wasting much energy and time contemplating, when a potential investor taps on their idea.
The energetic chap sitting opposite me is wearing a casual t-shirt and scans his eyes rather quickly through the pages of local weekly newspaper in front of him. By the look, age and dress code he is fairly similar to Mark Zuckerberg. Like Zuckerberg, the young gent behind a coffee cup started his first technology ventures very young. Like Mr Facebook, he started his firm from basic facilities. But he’s not Mark – just not yet anyway.
His name is Kris Hiiemaa and he’s the founder and CEO of Erply, a New York-based enterprise software company focusing on retail and point-of-sale technology, helping companies deal with inventory control, bookkeeping, and other tasks, from their brick-and-mortar stores to online operations. And instead of basking under the Palo Alto sun, we are having a cup of coffee in a beautiful old café in Kadriorg, a leafy and picturesque part of Estonian capital Tallinn, a stone’s throw away from the official residence of the tech savvy Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
Humble beginnings
Software programmer Kris launched Erply in 2009, tapping away on laptops and answering customer calls at his home in Tallinn, Estonia, slowly but determinedly building up a local customer base.
The same year, when it became clear that more funds and advice were needed for the Erply to expand internationally, Hiiemaa decided to try his luck and participate in Seedcamp’s event. Seedcamp, a London-based early-stage micro seed investment fund and mentoring programme, was founded in 2007 by Saul Klein (previously involved with Lovefilm and Skype) to help European entrepreneurs successfully build technology businesses.
Slightly unexpectedly for themselves, Erply team won the Seedcamp’s business ideas contest – the first startup from Estonia and the wider Nordic region to achieve this – and secured their first investment of 50,000 euros. It was not long after when a technology blog TechCrunch described Erply as “the Skype of business software”.
Investment rounds followed in London and in the US, and in 2010 Erply secured a $2m investment from Silicon Valley-based Redpoint Ventures and Swiss-based Index Ventures. That allowed Erply to hire a team in London and Silicon Valley and market their service in Europe and the US.
Move to the US
In 2010, the company decided to relocate their offices and operations to US completely and has been based in New York since.
“It wasn’t easy to start in the US. We had to change a lot on our product. The retail business we are offering our software for is actually pretty conservative and slow moving when it comes to new technology,” Kris recalls. “It’s not possible to conquer the world immediately with what we are doing. To gain a market share in Germany, for example, we would need to hire German marketing and support specialists.”
Although the internet has a global reach, it’s important to know the local conditions. That’s why Erply has so far concentrated on the US, their biggest market.
“When we first set our foot in the US, we had to compete with the likes of Microsoft, SAP and Oracle from the start. We couldn’t apologise that we are still a startup firm and some of the functions on our software wouldn’t work yet – or that they only work for retail chains with 20 shops, not for example the ones with 100 shops. Luckily we had had an experience with few large retail chains in Estonia; that certainly helped” Kris remarks.
Initially, Erply launched as a retail payment solution for small to medium-sized businesses but have since expanded to bigger retailers and offer point of sale technology, inventory control, billing, business reporting, and custom barcodes.
Their app gives retailers a quick overview of sold stock, as well as swift feedback about their customers. Additionally, Erply is cloud-based, meaning that the retailer does not need to possess their own servers.
Today, Erply employs 35 people and has over 50,000 subscribers – from the 200 in 2009. Their biggest client in the US is a 500-store retail chain and their plan for future is…well, to expand. Their mentors include Seedcamp’s founder Saul Klein.
Don’t stall
Although running a barely three years old company, Hiiemaa himself is already seen as a potential mentor for startups in Estonia. He is perfectly aware of the positive hype which has started to surround Estonian startups in recent years. But he also thinks that there’s a long way to go for many to actually become successful companies in their own right.
“I have seen too many Estonian startups, including those participating in Seedcamp, to stall at some point and not closing an investment deal for various reasons. Some of them think that their idea is so great that they deserve more than 50,000 euros (Seedcamp’s seed money) to start with; some of them are not keen to give away equity; some of them get sucked into pointless arguments about petty legal paragraphs with investors, scaring the potential investments away,” he explains.
Kris is now getting more heated up. “My advice for fellow bustling entrepreneurs is this: try to close the deal and win your first seed money. Even if it’s just 50,000 euros, you can still do a bit with the money – but more importantly, it opens new doors and brings invaluable connections and therefore advice and experience, and may well lead you to secure substantial second round of investment, like happened with Erply,” he states.
“Do not waste too much of your energy and time contemplating, when a potential investor taps on your idea – before you know it, it has become an old idea and you’ve lost your chance!”
