A Fireside Chat with our CPO: Finding fun in life’s one constant
I embrace change. My whole life has been a whirlwind of movement. I used to switch schools almost every year to follow my mom’s passion for starting businesses, and grew up contributing to a variety of projects at each job in my career. This attraction to change was certainly inspired by my mom, and being able to thrive — no matter how much the roadmap changes — is key to my team’s success at Aument.
Though I founded this rapid-growth startup in 2021, I actually started my career in traditional companies: an airline catering company, working on state contracts, and in real estate, to name a few. I have to admit that the levels of hierarchy in those companies seemed excessive, and a little stress-inducing because they hindered my ability to make any real change.
Nonetheless, I’m grateful for having had so many opportunities to learn from fascinating people. My time as an employee taught me how to freelance and how to work with ecommerce brands. Some of Aument’s beta users are actually contacts from those days!
I also worked at one of the fintechs that raised the most funding in the last 10 years (US$126 million) and I launched a digital bank in Argentina, which was touted as a success story by Facebook. We acquired 100 thousand users in 7 months through excellent digital marketing campaigns.
With all that tech experience in my back pocket, I realized I wanted to work on my own terms. Sacha, Emilio, and I sat down in a cafe back in 2020 and began talking about launching a company related to marketing technology. A lot of reading led us to realize that the starting point for any big idea is to get talking to potential users. So that’s where we started!
At first, we wanted to create a high-tech audience-driven marketplace, a sophisticated tool for business owners. But as we spoke to potential users about our idea, they all told us: “I have a thousand problems to overcome before trying to enter a marketplace.”
So, we asked about their pain points. We even asked them for their company data to analyze and, to our surprise, many potential users handed it right over. They trusted us and knew we were looking for ways to help.
Meanwhile, plenty of business owners told us their focus was simply selling more, perhaps via other sales channels that would allow them to acquire new customers. So we took the leap, got stuck into analyzing their data, and came to realize something key to how Aument looks today:
Most businesses are continuously looking for new customers, even when they have clients making recurring purchases.
This incessant search for new business, instead of retaining buyers who’ve already shown interest and commitment with a purchase, was wearing ecommerce owners out. At that point we had consolidated the founders of Aument: Emilio, Sacha, Alan, and me, so the four of us set out to fix this.
Several prototype launches later, we began to see the impact we were making. Users were happy. We’d found a way for them to grow their businesses and they were hiring larger teams. Those stories, in which the successes are tangible, make me strive to do more every day.
Without a doubt, launching a startup is crazy. You have to have a screw loose to just throw yourself into the ocean without a sail, and essentially weave it as you go. But I knew that if we caught a tailwind, Aument could make it round the world.
What I love most about my career now is that we are creating employment. And what better way to do that than with great friends? My co-founders and I provide the boost that ecommerces need to grow.
Small business owners get time back, to build relationships with their clients, and to focus on developing their product.
I’m immensely proud to be heading up such a talented group of people.
