IFE Welcomes Mattia Merra, CMO of Ruleat
On Wednesday, October 4, 2017, JCU Institute for Entrepreneurship welcomed Mattia Merra, CMO of Ruleat, to Prof. Daniele Pica‘s Operations Management class. Mattia Merra discussed the challenges of working in a startup and explained the best strategies to deal with them.
Mattia Merra, CMO of Ruleat
Ruleat is an app that restaurant owners use to manage customer service. The app allows customers to make orders online, explained Merra, and it provides the restaurant staff with information about customers’ orders and preferences, in order to simplify their work. “We wanted to give the restaurant owners a solution that would increase the productivity of the staff while providing feedback – i.e. understandable statistics – about customers’ preferences,” said Merra.
Based on his experience at Ruleat, Merra introduced the difficulties of working in a startup, such as lack of guidelines, unexpected problems, pressure of uncertainty, and conflicts between teammates. He then compared a startup to a bet: “you never know the outcome and you have to be ready to take risks.”
Merra also explained the strategies of running a startup and gave a few tips on how to manage difficulties in this business. Stepping out of the comfort zone, being flexible and eager to learn new things, he said, are the most beneficial qualities a start-upper should have. Merra added that the core of working in a startup is to “imagine, experiment, and innovate.” He then highlighted that keeping up with the newest technologies can be beneficial for any business.
Merra remarked that knowing how to work in a team and thus have good relationships with colleagues is also a difficult yet important task. The most appropriate approach to have a comfortable and productive work environment is to put “your ego aside and listen,” he explained. Merra concluded the lecture by emphasizing that it’s normal to not succeed at the beginning, and an attempt followed by a failure is always better than no attempt at all.
