My name is Tomas Diaz and I am the CEO of flexReceipts, a three year old company based in Orlando, Florida. This is my first major entrepreneurial venture. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family and have always wanted to build my own company. I am motivated by competition, a desire to succeed, and a fear of failure.
Name: flexReceipts
Location: 1412 Longmeadow Way, Windermere, FL 34786
Website: http://www.flexreceipts.com/
Offering: the leading enhanced digital receipts solution, offers retailers a post-sale opportunity to communicate with their customers.
This article is part of our Business Startup Spotlight Series featuring entrepreneurs and their companies. We hope these founders’ interviews will inspire and motivate you as you undertake your own entrepreneurial journey.
Tell us a little about yourself with a focus on what motivates you?
“My name is Tomas Diaz and I am the CEO of flexReceipts, a three year old company based in Orlando, Florida. This is my first major entrepreneurial venture. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family and have always wanted to build my own company. I am motivated by competition, a desire to succeed, and a fear of failure.”
What need or needs does your company seek to fill for its customers?
“flexReceipts helps retailers better engage their consumers post purchase through enriched digital receipts. Retailers are struggling trying to find ways to drive customers back into their stores or to get their customers to be more loyal. flexReceipts helps by allowing retailers to publish targeted offers, product recommendations, dynamic content and more on their electronic receipts.”
What is the one thing that sets your company apart from its competitors?
“Our competitors simply offer static e-receipts. These are good for purchase confirmation but they don’t help retailers with their underlying problems of customer engagement.”
What was the biggest challenge you faced while getting your company up and running, and how did you overcome it?
“The biggest challenge we have faced has been where to focus or invest our time. In the beginning it is easy for an entrepreneur to want to ‘boil the ocean’. As an entrepreneur you have to learn that you can’t or shouldn’t do everything. From my perspective, I sat down with my team and picked a few areas where we thought we would have the most impact and then aggressively attacked those areas. That made a night and day difference.”
What steps have you taken to secure funding for your company and what, if anything, would you do differently if you had to start over?
“We have raised over $2M so far. We went on a bit of a roadshow in the southeast where we found some good success. If I had to do something differently I wouldn’t have been so aggressive / naïve during our initial funding round. This made us lose some potential capital and thus made it harder to raise funds down the line.”
Have there been any questions you have had as an entrepreneur of a fledgling startup that you had a particularly hard time finding the answers to?
“I can’t necessarily think of any at the moment. We are fortunate that we have a strong board of directors and advisors. If we ever have a question we go to them and most of the time they are able to help us find answers. It is very important to have this type of support or backing for any entrepreneur.”
What challenges, if any, are you grappling with?
“At the moment, we are grappling with how to accelerate the growth of our company. We have validated our product and technology. Now it’s a matter of trying to find out how we can grow faster.”
What is the most helpful tip or “hack” you’ve ever learned, stumbled across, or been given?
“I can’t say I have magical ‘hacks’ but I will go back to an earlier point and emphasize the importance of focus. Every investor or successful entrepreneur that I have met has validated the importance of this trait. As a fledgling entrepreneur it is important to know what areas of your business are going to drive the most impact and then put a laser focus on these areas.”
To learn more about flexReceipts, visit their website, (www.flexreceipts.com).
Are there startups you would be interested in seeing in our Startup Spotlight Series? If so, share them with us through your comments and we will consider them for future articles.
