Ep. 56: Smadar Landau, Founder & CEO of Feelter, Has No Need For A Plan B
"I do believe that you don't need to compare yourself to anything. To be the best version of yourself...just understand who you are and what you want to do, how you're going to do it, and how it's going to work best for you."
Smadar Landau is the Founder and CEO of Feelter, a startup that collects and analyzes how customers feel about products across social media for ecommerce companies. Smadar's life story is one of fearlessness -- from studying Buddhism in the far east for seven years to winning multiple startup competitions for her company. "Fear is not something that controls me in any way," says Smadar. She is so confident that she will succeed that she does not ever have a plan B. It is impossible to listen to Smadar and not be inspired to grab life by the horns!
"When you are an entrepreneur, you must think out of the box."
We discuss her company, the secret to her success versus such tough competition, how she became confident enough to not need a Plan B, being bold enough to ask for the opportunity, how she moves beyond fear, figuring it out even if you lack the credentials, creating opportunities by not being afraid to try and do something different, being a woman in Silicon Valley, the huge role of Buddhism and meditation in her success, creating the DNA of her company, and what she learned from her father's passing.
"The only way to do it is just to do it...there's no chance for failure...I know what I want to do, I plan my way, and I know how I'm going to succeed."
What you'll learn:
- Smadar is the CEO and Founder of Feelter.
- Feelter is a programme that helps you link your product to reviews across social media.
- $170 billion is spent worldwide by brands to increase their visibility.
- Despite this the conversion rate of visits to sales is about 3%
- 98% of people who visit these platforms won’t spend anything because they don’t trust the reviews on the site.
- A Feelter widget next to a product will link to reviews across many social media channels.
- This will keep the customer on the same website so they can purchase the product after seeing the reviews – they don’t have to surf the web for trustworthy reviews.
- The program uses machine learning to adapt to the way users interact with the widget.
- Smadar and her team recently won several start-up awards for their company.
- Smadar has complete confidence in herself and never doubts that she’s going to succeed.
- She never thinks about her competitors – except to briefly learn about them in a market sense.
- Smadar believes women limit themselves by comparing themselves to men or other women.
- Before working in start-ups, Smadar was an officer in the Israeli Navy.
"What are you willing to do if I can promise you that you're not going to fail? What would be different?"
Advice:
- If you don’t compare yourself to anyone you can achieve anything.
- Its crucial for confidence to see the good things and believe in people.
- Don’t listen to the nay-sayers.
- Instead of focusing on the fact you’re the only woman in a man’s world, just focus on the quality of the product.
- Meditate everyday.
- Don’t be controlled by fear, live life to the fullest; everyone dies but not everyone lives a full life.