TechMass turns 5!

In these days of August TechMass reaches an important milestone. In fact, 5 years have already passed since our adventure began in August 2017. 5 years in which thanks to the initial investments by Gellify, to important partners such as auxiell and to the very fast Exit which took place in less than two years with TeamSystem, we were able to grow in the market, continuously developing the solution and pursuing our mission.

We like to remember and share 3 fundamental steps of this extremely stimulating and statistically uncommon path in the world of startups.

What are they, what have we learned and where will they take us? We tell you about it in this TechStory.

1) The choice of partners

At the end of 2017, a few months after the establishment, the Paul solution was little more than an MVP but we had very clear what our mission was: to make a system accessible to anyone to measure and improve production performance, thus giving everyone the opportunity to become and / or remain competitive in an increasingly difficult competitive manufacturing context.

We were getting to know our market better, our competitors and the value of the peculiarities that would have made us emerge in the field of MES software. We were young, inexperienced but aware of our potential.

We made the first leap in quality at the end of 2018 when we chose the new teammates. We met Gellify, a company based in Bologna that supports B2B startups through financing and with growth and coaching programs (gellification), and we understood that it was what we needed. An important choice that allowed us to consolidate our solution into a real product and to set up the first processes to start growing.

The industrial partnership with auxiell, a consultancy firm that supports companies and organizations that want to become an example through Complete Lean Transformation, was also fundamental. Thanks to them we have come into contact with numerous structured manufacturing companies.

Without Gellify we would certainly have made many more mistakes, on all fronts, and without auxiell it would have taken us much longer to confront high-level industrial players. Both have given us credibility, structure, and expertise.

2) The exit with TeamSystem in less than two years

The acquisition by TeamSystem was the second turning point, which occurred in 2019 when not even 2 years had passed since the establishment of TechMass.

Many ask us: why sell your startup immediately? To tell the truth it was a very easy choice. Our mission was clear right from the start: to give anyone the opportunity to remain competitive in the market. The positioning of TeamSystem, their network and commercial capacity, were the right choice to reach as many companies as possible.

Furthermore, we knew that we would still grow on a human and professional level. Working with a leading company in the verticalized B2B software market in the industrial world could only enrich our wealth of knowledge of the market, processes, partners and customers. Digital solutions can be an enabling tool to be able to win in the market, even in an increasingly complicated manufacturing context.

The Exit with TeamSystem, therefore, represented for us the possibility to reach our goal faster and more sustainably and thus help manufacturing companies.

We often compare this choice to that of a parent who lets their child go their own way. While suffering from the detachment and even wanting to hold on to us, we realize that alone it will be able to grow faster and better.

3) From startup to scaleup

The acquisition by the Group had important implications in the way of working, developing and marketing the solution:

• – as an agile and fast startup, with its own processes, contents and positioning, we found ourselves confronted with one of the largest companies in Italy. An important opportunity that allowed us to see closely and adopt corporate processes, without losing the agility and mindset that usually characterizes a startup.
• – Joining a group that is already well positioned in the market has allowed us to understand the commercial, pricing and partnership strategies of a structured company that has numerous customers to serve.
• – We have learned what it means to be and work as a product company, with a technological core-business and what it means to develop and evolve a software to offer an ever better solution and service, which focuses on the needs of manufacturing companies and specifically of its Customers.
• – We have invested heavily in continuous improvement, necessary to perform in every situation, and in the growth of people, the backbone of the company. The team has remained so compact and cohesive despite the thousand difficulties and opportunities.

Thanks to TeamSystem we have quickly reached the technical threshold of turnover and number of customers to be sure of having a product suitable for the reference market and we are prepared and structured to grow quickly in the market now.

And now?

Years of aggressive market penetration await us, aware that we have the right product to help the growth and competitiveness of our manufacturing companies.

We also know our positioning in the market well, we know we are the new generation of MES software and we are ready to scale quickly thanks to the ever-growing network of partners who have chosen and accompany us.

We are aware of being the number 1 MES software in Italy for quality, ease of use and implementation. Now the real scale up phase begins with the ultimate goal of becoming the most used MES software in Italy.