Upmarqt is a personalised platform that helps early stage startups, in a matter of minutes, build perfect outsourced teams of experts who specialize in working with startups and only join by referral from other founders and after a 2 step vetting process
Please introduce yourself and the Startup Upmarqt to our readers!
I’m Olga Ten, the Founder of Upmarqt. I started my entrepreneurial journey in early 2022 after 12 years of corporate.
At Upmarqt our mission is to make building great startup teams really straight forward. We do that by matching founders in a matter of minutes with specialists and boutique agencies referred by other founders and additionally vetted by us.
We cover areas such as marketing, development, design, fractional CMOs/COOs, fundraising and more. Pretty much anything a startup needs to successfully grow through the early stages.
Why did you decide to start a business?
During the pandemic I did a lot of thinking about what my real strengths and talents were. At work I was recognised as an overachiever and so I thought that if I did something that I was truly passionate about, I could really make a difference.
I’m excited by new ideas and the dynamism of startups and my zone of genius is seeing talent in people and creating great connections. Combining my passion with my corporate background in business launch I felt like I had an idea that could fill a gap in the market.
That is where the idea of Upmarqt came from.
What is the vision behind Upmarqt?
23% of startups fail due to a poor team composition. We want to help more startups succeed. The vision behind Upmarqt is to enable startups to build and manage winning scalable teams fast. We create a plug and play solution of specialists and boutique agencies that know how to take startups to the next level.
From the idea to the start what have been the biggest challenges so far and how did you finance yourself?
I am still financing Upmarqt myself. This came from my savings and the revenue we are starting to generate. I have a very lean and brilliant team. We only spend our resources on things that will take us to the next level. This means that we have to make choices and find creative solutions.
The biggest challenge for me is the fact that as a founder you don’t have the support of corporate resources, where you could just go and ask a colleague. But you are effectively on your own and more often than not you have no idea how you are progressing.
Who is the target group of Upmarqt?
We work with early stage startups that are ready to onboard specialists or boutique agencies for either a retainer or for a project. We come in when founders are looking for part-time marketing support or a development agency to build their MVP or an Accountant.
How does Upmarqt work? What are the advantages? What makes you different from other providers?
Founders spend up to 40% of their time on HR, recruitment and payroll activities. That’s insane.
On Upmarqt founders are matched with the best suited specialists within 2 minutes. All of the specialists and agencies have been referred to us by other founders and additionally vetted by us.
We also hold live training sessions by our specialists for the founders to help them build the best possible team and effectively manage it.
We give time and headspace back to the founders. And that’s what makes us different.
How has your company changed with Corona?
Upmarqt was started during Covid. And if anything Corona has created more opportunities as more and more highly skilled people are turning to freelancing or to starting their own startups. So our talent pool and target market have become bigger.
Where do you see the opportunity in the crisis?
Crisis forces you to find creative solutions and it expands your view. You start to approach things differently, which helps you grow.
Upmarqt, where does the road go? Where do you see yourself in five years?
I want Upmarqt to help the world of startups survive and scale. I have a passion to enable service providers to do more of what they love. We have an ambitious roadmap and we are taking it one step at a time. In 5 years from now I see myself part of this journey in one way or another.
More information you will find here
Thank you Olga Ten for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
