[Startup story] easySales | Fall edition of Rubik Garage Accelerator 2022

[Startup story] easySales | Fall edition of Rubik Garage Accelerator 2022

January 12, 2023

easySales is one of the 21 startups selected in the Alpha USA Startups Accelerator (fall edition of Rubik Garage 2022), tailored to startups targeting the USA market. Discover its story below. 

First of all, we would like to know who’s behind the keyboard.

Hi, my name is Ciprian Cazacu and I am the co-founder of easySales, an innovative SaaS solution for the integration and automation of eCommerce. I built easySales 3 years ago, together with my brother, Iulian Cazacu. We are very complementary, he’s a visionary software developer, while I strive at business development and general management. Obviously, he is the CTO and I am the CEO. We both share common values and our vision is to grow the company with people, for the people and make an impact in society.

Tell us more about your startup. What problem do you solve? Who’s your audience?

56% of e-commerce sales are done by third-party sellers through marketplaces and this share is expected to grow as big retailers seek to become marketplaces. But, this huge opportunity to sell on marketplaces comes with a big operational challenge that is currently very little addressed: lack of connection between platforms and the amount of work required to operate each channel. Listing products on multiple channels, managing orders and synchronizing inventory are an operational nightmare, especially for mid-sized merchants or starters who do not have the financial leverage to develop custom integrations and automation tools. We’ve built easySales for all these merchants, sharing the vision that online sales should be easy. And that’s where our brand name comes from.  

What motivated you to create this startup? What’s your „why”?

We had tech experience with building websites for eCommerce and we were familiar with the struggles merchants face when selling online. In fact, we had subsequent similar requests from customers to solve the same problem of integration between platforms and automation of orders. And we realized this was just the beginning of a problem that is only getting bigger with the growing number of eCommerce platforms that are being developed worldwide. We just knew that with our know-how we can build a product that helps the entire eCommerce community. And that’s how easySales was born, a no-code, cloud self-service, easy for any merchant to use and sell online. 

How is your startup different from competitors?

We have 3 main differentiators:

• Technology – our platform is easy to use, scalable and flexible. Our vision is to have solid API integrations with real-time synchronization between platforms
• Services – onboarding & high-quality user support services are embedded in our business model
• Community – we build our roadmap based on community suggestions and voting

We’re curious to learn about your team. 

As previously mentioned, I founded the company with my brother, back in 2017. In 2019, after we finalized the first version of the product, we raised our first investment from angel investors who are also acting as advisors for us. As we grew our company, we also grew our team, and currently, we are 16 people. The technical team has 8 developers and is led by Iulian Cazacu, my co-founder and CTO. The commercial and customer support team has 7 eCommerce specialists and is led by Irina Zamfir, Chief Revenue Officer. In our team, we all share a high level of enthusiasm and ambition to scale the company and this is endorsed by the fact that half of our team invested their savings in our company. 

What are the biggest rewards of being a startup founder?

The impact our work is making on the community and society. I feel very motivated and energized whenever I hear merchants advising other merchants to use our platform to sell easier on marketplaces. It confirms that the solution is adding value to the community and it gives our entire team the motivation to continue to build more. 

On the contrary, what are the biggest challenges?

The biggest challenges for our company are the resources we need to gain speed and accelerate growth. This is even more challenging considering the recent global economic context. But I am grateful for this challenge because true value is built in tough times and we have the opportunity now to get stronger and better.

What made you apply to our accelerator Alpha USA Startups (fall edition of Rubik Garage)?

We found out about the Alpha USA Accelerator during the “How to Web” event and we were thrilled to see that Rubik Hub is helping startups with high ambitions understand and get ready for the US market. The program was very useful and we clarified a lot of the open points we had before.

Obviously, you were selected in this accelerator because you are targeting the USA market. Why is that?

The US is definitely the largest market and, in the industry we operate, there is space for our solution considering the differentiator we bring in terms of technology. Another reason is that it is much easier for us to adapt the product for a single large market than to accommodate all the cultural European differences and languages. This helps us scale faster. 

What are your top 3 learnings of the acceleration program?

1. How to prepare the business in order to launch in the US – operations, finance, legal, go to market, competition analysis; What are the specifics of the US, and what pitfalls should be avoided. 
2. How to prepare for fundraising – valuation methods, how to approach investors, how to build a dealroom, how to structure and conduct an investment pitch.
3. Resources – we’ve got plenty of useful resources, links and tools we can use.

How was Demo Day for you?

Demo Day was great! First of all, the whole event was perfectly organized. And it was more than an event. It was a community building. We made lots of connections and found out very useful information from other startups and VCs. And the Rubik Hub team is doing a good job at helping startups grow and contribute more to the society and business environment. 

What do you like in the Rubikorns Startup Community?

The energy and the openness to share information and support startups in their journey, encouraging and giving useful advice. 

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

Yes, we encourage people who want to build something meaningful to stay connected to the Rubik Hub community because there are a lot of opportunities out there. 

We encourage you to support easySales and follow its journey on Linkedin and Facebook.

Stay tuned to discover the story behind the other startups from our accelerator! #WeAreInThisTogether

Rubik Garage is an equity-free acceleration program aiming to support startups from CEE get to their first paying customer, raise investment or go international.

If you want to pre-apply for the next Rubik Garage edition, complete this form and be the first one to get the chance of starting their acceleration journey!