If someone asked, “How many multinational companies do you know in Brno?” undoubtedly, many of us could name over 20. However, if the question was, “How many start-up companies do you know in Brno?” the vast majority of us would struggle to name more than two or three. However, Brno has a wide range of start-ups, and this new series aims to share with Brno Daily readers the journeys of some of the city’s most innovative young companies.
Let’s start with Customerscore.io. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Tomas Horacek, who has founded and sold his first start-up, Jobote, and is now in the process of scaling up his second.
Tomas Horacek and Customerscore.io
Tomas Horacek is the CEO of Customerscore.io, a Brno-based business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service (SaaS) start-up company. “Acquiring new customers is costly and time-consuming,” says Tomas. “We believe in understanding customers better in order to keep them, and our service makes that possible.”
What does Customerscore.io do?
Customerscore.io provides B2B SaaS companies with data-driven insights into customer engagement, customer health, and patterns to avoid disengagement and loss of customers (churn). On the other side of the funnel, they can also spot sales opportunities within a new customer base. Their value proposition might come in handy: “We are dedicated to helping B2B SaaS companies prevent customer churn and spot sales opportunities within their user base”. They achieve this through smart alerts that notify the company when a customer is at risk. Customerscore.io uses this data to identify specific customer profiles, allowing for more targeted sales and marketing strategies.
The Founder’s Journey
Throughout high school, Tomas was always interested in computers. He spent his time teaching himself programming, and went on to create e-commerce websites on a freelance basis for various companies while still studying. After completing his studies at the Brno University of Technology (BUT), he began working at Pixmania as a PHP developer, where he hatched the idea for his first start-up, Jobote.
“Pixmania was offering pretty nice money if you recommended somebody to work there, so it got me and my colleague thinking that maybe there’s potential to create some software to optimize this process,” Tomas explains.
Jobote is a recruitment referral platform that helps companies hire qualified candidates through employee referrals by sharing job openings via email or social media and tracking the referrals. After a few years of development and scaling, Jobote was sold to LMC, and Tomas stayed on as a product manager.
After two years, Tomas opted to move to Smartsupp. Based in Brno, Smartsupp is a live chat and chatbot platform that helps businesses engage with website visitors in real-time, providing customer support and boosting sales. It offers features like automated messaging, visitor tracking, and detailed analytics to enhance user experience and improve customer service efficiency.
“I joined my friend’s company Smartsupp as a product manager. I’m a data guy, and after 5 years working there, I started to think about a new start-up. I identified that support was needed for customer success managers and sales managers to have a better understanding of customers,” Tomas says. “I then created a scoring model to display the health of each customer. After conducting market research with other companies, they agreed it was a business need. While still working full-time at Smartsupp, I spent all my free time building what would become Customerscore.io. Once it took shape and needed my full attention, I made the decision in October 2023 to leave Smartsupp and drive the business forward.”
Now, Customerscore.io is active in the market with several paying clients and is growing. Its value is proven. With additional products and services in development, the business is focused on future growth, seeking both new clients and additional investors.
What’s Next for Customerscore.io?
Customerscore.io is currently preparing for significant growth, planning to expand its team with both business development and technical roles. “We aim to have a team of 13 employees by the end of next year and continue enhancing our product with more detailed insights and automation capabilities,” explains Tomas.
The platform is now equipped with additional features and ready to scale up. Tomas and his team are actively seeking new clients and investors to drive the next phase of growth. “We are committed to pushing sales, refining our product, and ensuring that Customerscore.io becomes a leader among customer success and revenue operations platforms,” he adds.
Advice for Start-ups
When asked what he would do differently if he were to start Customerscore.io again, Tomas answered, “If I could start again, I would go to potential customers faster and discuss the idea with the South Moravian Innovation Centre (JIC) sooner. Don’t worry about making mistakes; start selling from day one and seek feedback early on.”
He emphasizes the importance of leveraging available resources and engaging with the local start-up ecosystem. “For us, it is definitely the support provided by JIC. Additionally, there are great events such as Velvet Innovation Meetup. This also applies to contacts and networking. There is a fantastic start-up community where you can share your ideas and get feedback,” Tomas advises.
JIC.cz
JIC provides support and resources for innovative businesses, offering mentoring, funding, and networking opportunities.
Visit JIC
Velvet Innovation Meetup & Conference
An event series and annual conference focused on fostering innovation and collaboration among startups and tech companies in Brno.
Visit Velvet Innovation
How AI Plays a Role in Start-ups
Regarding the use of AI in the business “we are using mainly ChatGPT and GitHub CoPilot,” says Tomas. “We are also trying tools like Heygen for generating virtual avatars. We mainly use these tools in the research and ideation phases, and similar activities. They also help us handle a large number of repetitive tasks, whether it’s in the technical or business part of our work.”
Customerscore.io plans to further leverage machine learning and generative AI to provide detailed insights into user behavior, helping companies identify at-risk customers and tailor their engagement strategies. “AI allows us to automate processes and deliver precise recommendations, making our platform highly efficient and effective,” Tomas explains.
Other Start-ups in Brno
What other start-ups should we be looking out for? “CustomerScore.io, of course. There are many promising start-ups in Brno such as Eventee, Reservio, Survio, and Tolgee. There are also more mature start-ups like Virginers, Sewio, and Threatmark that I would advise checking out”
If you would like to follow Customerscore.io or find out more, you can do so via their website or LinkedIn.
