2.1 Built in Brazil: How Wedy Is Transforming Wedding Management Software | Gabrielli Galeazzi

Speaker 1 Unipod the podcast. Speaker 2 On all things management software Hello everyone, welcome to Unipod, the podcast on all things management software. And today we have Gabrielli who will take us through all she knows about management software and Wedy software in particular. So super exciting to have you there, Gabrielli, if you can start by introducing yourself and how you got into this, what we recall management software world, that would be a great way to. Speaker 1 Start. Yes, sure. First, I'm very honored to be here and thank you for the invite. It's very, very nice to hear that opening line live. So very, I'm very excited to be here. I'm Gabrielli Gabby. I'm a Brazilian and I work in Wedy tech. You could call it, but it's kind of a celebration stick because right now we are company not just about weddings, but about celebrations in general. I, I lead product at Weddi, which is a Brazilian startup and we are trying to revolution, revolutionize or transform the events industry. So this industry is very fragmented, but it represents 4% of the national GDP. So we are trying to connect both sides of the industry, the B2B side and the B2C side. And the way that I, I started is that my back, my background is in design actually. And I got into Wedy by working with UX research and trying to understand this complex industry and how does events even work. And slowly, but gradually I, I transitioned to product managing management. And so I, I started working on the our B2B product which is our SAS and our management software for mainly for wedding planners for now. But we are hoping to broaden a little bit our verticals and to get into venues, photographers, all of the vendors in the industry, I can say. So that is a big overview, but mainly what we do and how I got into it. So we. Speaker 2 Started from the management software, but now it's gradually becoming AB2B software for wedding planners. So can you explain a little bit about the transition? What? What did you see in the market, how it happened, how it evolved and how does it affect your product Rd. mapping? Speaker 1 Sure. Yes, exactly. We started as a gift registry mainly. Wedy was, was a place where the guests could buy presents or people were getting married essentially. And the people celebrating, celebrating would get the presents in money and they could choose where would this money go. So it was a kind of how do you say it in English? When people get together and they they do a sponsoring, the guests can help, for example, with the honeymoon. So if if the couple wants to travel but they don't exactly have the money to go to let's say Paris, they could make a registry and put presents that are travel related and people could help them actually achieve the the money to to be able to travel on their honeymoon. That's one of the examples. Speaker 2 How did you handle the payments, the money transactions when people paid the the the platform or the couple and then you transferred you to the couple? Speaker 1 Yes, we, we have been intermediate. So a company that helped us with all of the money exchange and we, we create basically we ask the information for the couple and they, we create a digital account for them and they can get the presents or the money in their account and then they can get it in, in Wadi. But the interface and the experience, it's all ours. So it's a partnership. But we, we eventually we saw that only the B to BB to C side. Sorry, was kind of not enough to, to, to be able to handle all of the complexity of the, the market. So we went to the B2B side because it was kind of the, the lacking part in our ecosystem. And we wanted really to have a kind of a market network where not only the couple who are getting married, but also the wedding planner, the photographer, the buffet, the venue. So it was important to us to also have the B2B side and that that is where I I got into, into the scene. I started working from 00 to 1:00 on the B2B project. Speaker 2 OK. And today, this is the main, this is the main product. Speaker 1 Exactly. Yeah, it's our main source of revenue. So it it represents a big chunk on the revenue and it's really nice for us because it's a proprietary channel, we can say. So we we still have the gift and we have wedding planners bringing couples to the gift registry model, but we also have the sauce. So we are kind of layering different pricing models one on top of the other. Speaker 2 We could say, so when you say it's that or when we think about the management software, your customers, the the B2B's, they are the wedding planners and they are your customers. But then you have also more users of the application like the to be married couple and maybe also the venue. That's how it works. Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes, exactly. We kind of have two separate products, but on the same ecosystem. So the final client, the couple has an experience designed for them because the communication is different, the experience is different. We are talking with a B2CE and we have the product for the management, the vendors essentially. So, but they both communicate and they are on the same ecosystem, yeah. Speaker 2 Yeah. And so wedding planners, did they have any alternatives before wedding or was it the first SAS for wedding planners? For me it's a new vertical so. Speaker 1 Sure. Yeah, it was very new for me also when I started. I didn't understand anything about the events industry or weddings or anything. But we are not the first management software, but we are the first to be bold enough I would say to try and connect the both sides. So a huge benefit for us and for the users is that and the wedding planner for example, they can have the very, very tight exactly contacts with their clients. So it is more seamless and the workflow flows better. So this is our kind of very huge advantage, and not only for them. Speaker 2 But also for us, OK, amazing. So why so you said you were you are going to expand into even more let's say verticals or industries. Can you tell us like what's your next step? What's the vertical you are looking into right now and how it's going to affect wedding? Speaker 1 There, this has been a big challenge for us because internally we know everything there is to know about wedding planners. We are nerds about wedding planners. And so even our mindset, it has to change in order for us to grow in other verticals. But the one that we are looking mainly right now is venues and decorators. So they both have similar use cases to the wedding planners, but not really they have different needs. They have to personalize some parts of the the product and this has been a real challenge for us in the the last months. Speaker 2 And I'm curious. So I see a very vertical specific trend in management software. So for example, if there is a management software for hairdressers, it would barely be the same for nail polishers. So I, I see. So the way I see some sometimes companies grow is that they are very focused on their vertical and then they grow geographically but sometimes decide to stay in their geography but expand vertically. So can you explain a bit if you had thoughts about this or if you have this dilemma and why you decided to grow this way? Speaker 1 Yes, it's a, it's a great question actually. We've thought a lot about it, but the way they we understand it is that this vertical is very specifical. So wedding planners is there is a limited amount of wedding planners in Brazil and we cannot grow very much longer in this specific vertical. And since we are trying to connect everyone that is involved and and create a market network, it wouldn't make sense for us to try and go globally. For example, for example, in the wedding planning vertical, we really believe that we have to try to get PMF in different verticals so that we first can connect everyone around the event, which is kind of the project. And then we can try and replicate this, which is by no means an easy task, and try to grow more exponentially or globally or not, not only geographically. Speaker 2 OK, that makes sense. Do you see it as a completely different product and completely different customer? So you have a wedding planner and you have an application for venue designer. Is it all for the wedding planner? And then there's going to be also an interface for, let's say, the venue designer. Speaker 1 What we are seeing is that the tools or the features kind of interpolate. They can relate between verticals. So we don't believe that it has to be a different product. We believe that all of the vendors could work on a similar, having a similar experience. But of course we have to tailor a little bit depending on the vertical. We are doing a very heavy discovery process with other verticals and it's been really nice to see the similarities. And at the same time this doesn't feature, doesn't quite work. This we need to change. So it's been a process of documentation. Now we are getting to the face of what are we going to change and to tailor to different verticals. But it's going to be mainly the same base because essentially it's the events industry still. So we we believe that we can personalize, but we don't have to change completely. Yeah. Speaker 2 And sometimes I talk to management software that seems like it's a similar vertical, but there can be so many small differences between even, I don't know, swimming management software and yoga instructors management software, because every everything is so unique and has its specificities and its language, language. And it's so, yeah, I can relate to that. Speaker 1 Yes, it's been it's been very informative to see how many products there are and how many verticals people can find to act on. I know that events, it's not a very I've known or thought of market, but yeah, I feel like we have a lot of opportunities here also. Speaker 2 Yeah, definitely. So you're on the product side. Maybe you can tell us if there was ever a feature that you decided to shut down and why? Speaker 1 There were a lot, I think, but because I think it's natural to try something and learn from it, but making mistakes is not actually, it's not all bad. I think that if you learn from them, you can always kind of come back and have the the learnings make the wedding planners referral their vendor that they work with and they could kind of make a list and and share it publicly. But what we didn't understand at the time is that there is a value on those referrals. So a client, most of the they want a wedding planner because of their knowledge, their experience. So they want their referrals, their vendors, their, their special indications. But that is something really sacred. And so it didn't quite work to have the list of being public. We no one used it. We had 4 users, I guess, in four months and we decided to shut it off. But then we decided to make to, to incorporate into the connection with the client side and to, to make it so the wedding planner could refer the vendors to their clients specifically. So we kind of learned from that mistake and understood why it didn't work and try to iterate on top of that. And it turned out to to be a a worthy feature after, but we we had to kill it first to then make something that was worth using super. Speaker 2 OK. Interesting story. OK. Do you have any integrations that you have with your product? Speaker 1 Yes, yes, we, we have an integration payments integration with Stripe and for our SAS subscription on the management software. And in Brazil we have something called a system called Pix, Pix, which is a very easy way to transfer money. So it's made by the the central bank, by the federal government and it's been really disruptive in Latin America. So people can just stand the pics to their friends and it's really easy, it's instant and you only have to have the information about, for example, social Social Security number or the ID of the person to which you are sending money to. So this has been news since to 2020 and we are trying to also incorporate that because SAS subscriptions mainly work with credit cards, but in Brazil it's becoming normal to pay with fixed. So Stripe is trying to incorporate this in their system and it's been something that it's, it's becoming kind of a requirement in, in, in SAS, in Brazil. So it's it's kind of a different technology, but we are trying to incorporate it. Speaker 2 Yeah, it sounds like there's a high demand for it now. So you have besides the payments for the SAS subscription, do you have a way to enable the wedding planners to to get paid or to pay within the app? Speaker 1 Yes, we, we actually started by helping them to track all of their payments because as I said in the beginning, is a very incipient market. People don't really, it's B true B, but it's very small. So it's a one person business, two person business. So they don't really know how to keep track of the finances of their business. So we try to start by helping them, even educating them on how does the, the finances of a business work When what do you have to do? What payments do you have to keep track of? Which expenses do you have to keep an out of four? And so we, we started by tracking all of the, the expenses and the receipt receipts. And then we, we also offered a form of they, they can received credit card payments and peaks payments through the platform. And this way it's safer for them and they also can connect it with the tracking of their, their payments. So kind of a win, win proposition. We we tried to help them, but we also offered the the payment system which we we have a few. Speaker 2 Obviously, nice. OK, that's pretty advanced I would say because once there is the layer of the SAS and that's established, that's also a stick. I see a lot of management software getting into where they also enable their users to get paid and then there is another revenue stream and something that can be a really recommended for a management software companies and so. I see this trend really helping management software that we talk to and even though sometimes it looks complex and a lot of regulation and starting to get into money and transactions can be simpler and and help you increase your revenue eventually. Did you see this potential from start or did you realize it over time? Was it a surprise for you or was this the plan? Speaker 1 It was kind of. Speaker 2 Both. Speaker 1 We we were hoping for it to work, but we didn't understand the path that we would walk on to get to it. So first we, we tried to discover how things actually work on real life and how do wedding planners, our first vertical, how would they keep track of everything and, and how do did payments work for them and everything? And, and once we figured that out, we thought, OK, now, now we think that we can make it work and, and, and put this other layer on something that is already working. So it was kind of a step by step process, but we were kind of hoping that that it would work. It was one of our bets, let's say, Yeah. Speaker 2 Awesome. So did it help in any way for the couple that are getting married also and to pay maybe easier because so for example, yeah, I remember us getting married and it can be a burden and you need to pay in advance or you want to pay later. So I guess that's also something very in the center of how this integration plays a role. Speaker 1 Yes, yes, for sure. And this is also how the the network we see it working kind of. But every time that a wedding, wedding planner or a vendor puts a payment on the management software, the client gets a reminder every time that there is an installment to be paid or that there is a payment that they agreed on on the contract. We read that and we already prepare all the conditions of the payment, let's say. And the client get gets this reminder on WhatsApp, which in Brazil, everybody uses it. It's wide, wide use wide, widespread. And so the clients can already they received the link of the payment and they can pay when they received, they received the reminder. So it also makes it is here for them and once they pay already updates the software of the the wedding planner. So nobody has to in in Brazil. The way that it work is that the client had to pay and they had to get the receipt of the bank and send it to the wedding planner through WhatsApp. And now that doesn't have to happen anymore. It is everything in one place in Wedy in the platform, yes, yes, but but we tried to use kind of the same flow that it it already happened before. So things still happen through WhatsApp. We still use the platform we integrated with with WhatsApp too. And so it's not a kind of a new way of communicating. We, we don't try to oblige people to not use WhatsApp anymore. We kind of take advantage of the way that things were and try to make it better. Speaker 2 Yeah, that's very smart and that's part of really knowing your vertical. So you know, they are used to using WhatsApp. So instead of trying to make them do something else, you just make everything smoother for them. And that's a lot of how management software can really give more and more value to to your users best. So really, what would you say is your biggest challenge right now that you're facing in Weddy? Speaker 1 Big question right now, I think that as Head of product is keeping the ecosystem cohesive. So we have a lot of different initiatives, but we are a very small team. We have 18 people, so very small but very senior team. And so I kind of have to keep the, the ecosystem working. And for example, I have a squad working on the management software, but I also have a, a squad for the clients product for the B2C product. And we have to all have the same vision. So it's very important to keep the focus and to keep our eyes on the price, I would say. But we we can have different initiatives and we are very autonomous with our teams, but we also have to keep things making sense. So it's a challenge in what we are trying to do, which is to connect everything the both sides of the industries. It's also an internal challenge for us to to make everyone understand what are the goals, what what are we trying to do? How does this initiative connect with that one? And yeah, this is an ongoing challenge and it's a very, very big one. Speaker 2 You said that you guys are a skied up, but you are 18 team members. Maybe you can tell us a little bit more about how is it to live the startup life and nowadays in Brazil, do you like it? Speaker 1 I actually love this question because every time I watch a podcast, or I mean, we have a lot of references, but they are always very United States or not North American most of the time. So it's very nice to be able to talk about a different, different space, I guess, or to try to bring some other references. But the start of life in Brazil is very rich, I would say, not in a monetary way, but in an inspiring way. Our people are very creative. Some of the best marketing strategies and campaigns that you may know of or not, but are from Brazil. And we have a very imaginative culture. We not only in the way that people know like samba and football and everything, but we have a really strong market. We have great designers, great developers, and most of them are based in Sao Paulo, which is right next to Rio, which is the city that people may know, but we are spread all over the country as well. I'm in the South, so it's very, it's very plural. I would say we also can bring a different references, different ways of doing things. And yeah, I I believe that we are very influenced by the stuff that is that goes on in other places like the Silicon Valley and Europe. But we also, we are bringing things different things to the table and we have a lot, a lot of unicorns now. So we have a very strong startup culture and it's very nice to see that we have company that we can aspire to be that are from Brazil. I, I, I get excited talking about it because it's, it's a really exciting time, I guess to be, to be a startup in Brazil. We have more references now and I think that's important because you have to have someone or something to look at when you are trying to grow and trying to start a company. So those examples, they are very important. Speaker 2 Yeah. And I'm happy we have the chance to expose this startup area on our podcast. It's the first episode we do, We do from Brazil. OK. And do you, you said you live in the South, so are you working remotely? Speaker 1 Yes, Wedy is is from the South, but we work remotely. We go to the to the office maybe once a week. It's very flexible. It's when the the team feels like it needs some time talking to people and exchanging ideas. But it's a very, really flexible schedule. We only work 6 hours a day. So that's that's also a plus. We, we have a 3036 hours weak and we we believe, we truly believe in doing things a little bit different. We say that we are a little bit rebels, but in a good way to try different things. We try to be curious, we try to be innovative, and in the very sense of the word. Speaker 2 Sounds like a very nice culture and I'm happy it's working for you and it's nice to hear about, you know, other cultures and how startup works. It's usually sounds like a very intense and hard work and but sometimes I guess, I guess we can thrive or I believe we can also thrive in different environments. So it's it's nice to hear how how it works. Speaker 1 Yes, we just to add a little bit, but we do the the six hours a day because we also believe that employees should have a chance to study outside of work. So it's not only to be less hours working, we work very hard when we are working, but outside of that, we believe that people should have a life work balance, really good life work balance, but also to have a chance to study, to do other things and to pursue hobbies and to learn that. I think it's a very good ingredient for having a culture that is really is explorative and who wants to try which one that wants to try new things. So I think that is also a part of. Speaker 2 It but do you feel there are some moments that I don't know, sometimes in startups the runway is about to end or you need to get more efficient. Do you feel like it changes, maybe that it's dynamic and it changes over time? Or is this like a strict culture? Speaker 1 Yeah, we try to maintain it and I, I've been at Wedy for almost almost five years now. So it's been 3636 week hours a week for as long as I've been here. So it's been working really well, I would say. But yeah, there are times when you need to be one or two hours working extra, I would say. But it's mainly we, we, we try to respect the the six hours day and it's been working really. Speaker 2 Well, some. So final inspirational questions. What do you think is the difference between average management software and excellent management software? Great. Speaker 1 Question, I think that good management software is it responds to what people users already want and they already expect. And maybe excellent management software exceeds the expectations or maybe takes the the bar higher. So people, users, they could not be expecting something to work really well. And the vertical sauce, you can know the users so well that you can deliver a kind of a higher expectation. So you raise the bar. That for me is excellent. I think that maybe they will never forget it. They will be really excited and they will want to use it. They will want to build this thing. Speaker 2 With us and maybe build the trust or loyalty. Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes, yes, it will be reliable. Speaker 2 Thanks, Gabrielli. Thank you for joining us at UNIPOD and to all our listeners, I hope to see you next time. Speaker 1 Thank you.