This entrepreneur drew inspiration from his life as an employee to create a solution-oriented communication system. Read on to learn his story and insights on the importance of sharing information effectively.
In 2014, Guillermo Garcia found himself frustrated after taking on a new assignment with Procter & Gamble. “I faced quite a lot of difficulties. Some of the people had left the company, new people had no knowledge on the processes, documents were lost in disorganized shared folders and time zone differences made communication even more difficult,” he explains.
Then he met his future business partner, Yann Echeverria, at the office coffee maker: “It was fantastic. Yann gave me access to all the information, documents and contacts I was desperately looking for since I started. I could have saved so much time if I’d had access to the knowledge earlier.” After their early morning chat, the duo hit it off and decided to leverage their shared frustration to create a solution: Elqano.
With a heavy focus on collaboration, Garcia and his partner built an algorithm specifically designed to help team members share information quickly and easily. The system “analyzes and classifies text and information contained in existing documents (such as PowerPoints, case studies, one-pagers, etc.) as well as databases. Then, it activates artificial intelligence algorithms to push relevant, up-to-date and personalized content to each employee through our social network interface.”
Garcia describes the founding principles behind the company, saying, “We realized that if people are not naturally willing to find and share knowledge, why not make knowledge find its way to the right people? By automatically assigning tags to all the company documents via machine learning, our software makes any company a place where people are instantly connected to the knowledge they need. And, workers leaving the company does not translate into lost knowledge.”
The startup has gained considerable traction since its founding, and the experience has given Garcia an even deeper respect for effective communication. “I believe the most important part of a business is communication—both internally to keep the whole team working toward the same goal and externally to convey your ideas to prospective users.” He goes on to explain why, as an entrepreneur, success hinges on being able to express oneself effectively: “It is always easy to be enthusiastic about the idea you are developing. But it requires a lot of work to make others eager to try it and pay for it. The biggest challenge is making clients who have never worked with you in the past—and who already have tools that do the work—to completely change their organization’s information setup and try your product.”
For others out there looking to take the leap and build their own company, Garcia stresses the importance of consistently moving forward, saying, “A quote I try to remind myself of every day is ‘Winners never quit and quitters never win.’ I would recommend it to everyone who starts a new business with a goal they believe in. It helps—especially through hard times.”
Interested in learning more about Elqano or trying their system? Check out the company’s website at www.elqano.com.
