MIGUEL ALVARO MELO

Coordinator: Okay. So, ummm, Alvaro, let us know something more about your startup.
Alvaro: Okay, ummm… Momenttuns.com is a lone marketplace for having suppliers. We work in Spanish, English and Portuguese. We give the opportunity that all persons of all organizations that have events business can subscribe to our system.
Coordinator: Okay, so how did it start… momenttuns? How did you start momenttuns? What inspired into, you know, starting this business?

Alvaro: Okay, umm… We found one year ago that the market in the event world, all portals and directories are always focused on the big event and wedding planners, but we did not find anything to support the critical mass of event providers who are actually doing the work. This (is) happening everywhere we asked.

So we created the momenttuns.com to give the opportunity to all event providers or event suppliers.

Coordinator: Okay, that’s really great, Alvaro! So, I’m sure, when you started your business there might have been some challenges that you faced, you know. I mean, since you’re doing this business, are you alone… I mean are you alone doing this kind of a business in your area or are there any kind of competition over there?
Alvaro: We find competition from peers and smaller events suppliers. All directories have been catering to biggers – the big ones. But the smaller event providers, we don’t find any solution for them.
So, we started to look in for marketplaces (solutions) in the internet, we were into the most relevant solution in the market. And we thought for many features for them – mainly, we need(ed) a multi-language feature, which can manage any store, a product service catalogue – this is for case management – we asked (for) these features for our solution. We finished the operational prototype was a more difficult technical issue because we need(ed) to integrate many many technical components.
Coordinator: Okay…ummm… So, I mean, finding the right solution for building your marketplace – was that the only challenge that you faced when you started your business? Or were there any other obstacles that you found when you started your business? I mean, we all know that starting a business is not, you know, a child’s play… It’s pretty difficult, it’s very daunting for many new entrepreneurs. So, I mean, what were the challenges that you faced during the initial days of your startup?
Alvaro: The initial time after finding the prototype was trying to create and develop a full marketplace with all components integrated. And all the components was in WCFM. And we had Ultimate, Group & Staff and Product Hub. And these components mostly work with WooCommerce mainly. Because our market is in Spanish and Portuguese.
Coordinator: That’s really great to know about WCFM! So, Alvaro, I’m sure your business would have flourished so much till now in just one year. So I’m sure you you would have reached many milestones and have achieved quite something in your business. So tell me something about your achievements in Momenttuns. Some statistics that you can boast about?
Alvaro: In September of last year, the construction and development was completed. And then a phase went out – the white-out phase face – until January 2020. Because we need(ed) to test all the systems in real environment with real vendors, real traffic… and test all the features and all systems of WCFM. So, by February 2020, we began marketing phase and until today, we have 68 sellers/vendors from Italy, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil,… Now we have more than 20,000 visitors per month and in our direct social networks we have more than 2,000 followers. We are expecting that at the end of 2020, we will reach 500 vendors with active memberships.
Coordinator: Okay, so you just said 20,000 visits per month! That’s a great number in 1 year! Congratulations, Alvaro!
Alvaro: Thank you, yes! It has been a big, big work.
Coordinator: Yeah! I mean, that’s really impressive! So, Alvaro, do you have any future plans? I’m sure you have some future plans for your marketplace. Would you like to share with us?
Alvaro: Ummm… another plans?
Coordinator: I mean, you must have some future plans for your marketplace… What next? I mean, what are you planning next for your marketplace?
Alvaro: We found in WCFM the main feature we’re moving -the successful cases or blogs or articles. We’re showing it to the database… We’re going to create a knowledge database with course and many content that will give the vendors the opportunity to share their services.
Coordinator: Okay, so this content is mainly for the vendors?
Alvaro: For the vendors… We are creating more content for vendors into (through) WCFM Knowledge Database.
Coordinator: Okay, alright. So, tell me about your team, Alvaro. I mean, are you the only person who’s working in this marketplace or do you have a big team?
Alvaro: I have a real team that was made a few months ago. I have a Commodity Manager, I had a Sand and Sea Manager, and I had a Technical Programmer.