Monocle is an AI-based incentive platform that enables brands to manage, analyze, and optimize their discounts and offers. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Monocle co-founder and COO Mark Lotman and co-founder and CEO Noam Szpiro to learn more about the AI-based incentive platform company.
Background Of The Founders
Amit (Pulse 2.0): What is the background of the founders?
Mark (Monocle): Prior to starting Monocle, Mark worked on incentive and pricing optimization across consulting and tech. First at McKinsey as a Manager in their New York Office and then as a product strategy manager at Stripe looking at B2B pricing. Similarly, Noam was working at senior engineering roles building AI-powered incentive targeting models at Lyft and Instacart. Noam’s teams helped considerably improve the efficiency and effectiveness of promotion spend, leading to +$100 Million in cost savings. That success was the inspiration to start Monocle and help consumer businesses gain access to similar tools.
Formation Of The Company
Amit (Pulse 2.0): How did the idea for the company come together?
Monocle (Noam Szpiro): We spent our entire professional lives working on incentive and promotion strategies across Lyft, Instacart, McKinsey and Stripe. At these places we saw the potential of using data and causal AI models to transform one-size-fits-all promotion policies into personalized incentives strategies. It was also there that we realized that because of the investment they require, these technologies were accessible only to a small fraction of the largest consumer platforms in the world. We decided to start Monocle to bridge that gap, and empower consumer brands of any size to use AI to optimize and personalize their incentive strategies.
Favorite Memory
Amit (Pulse 2.0): What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far?
Mark (Monocle): There so many great moments so far – from team building to customer work to hairy tech problems we were able to solve. The one that stands out the most was the first time we showed a customer the results of using our models and the impact that had on their business. That was very special to see all the work we put into building Monocle to make such a difference for a customer.
Core Products
Amit (Pulse 2.0): What are the company’s core products and features?
Mark (Monocle): We are an AI-powered incentive platform which means we help consumer brands personalize and optimize incentives at-scale using AI. The key product includes personalization of incentive spend in Email & SMS channels, real-time incentive targeting models for on-site assets (E.g., popup forms), and a robust analytics platform.
Challenges Faced
Amit (Pulse 2.0): What challenges have Lotman and the team faced in building the company?
Mark (Monocle): No major challenges stand out, we’re actually seeing increased adoption of our platform because of softening consumer demand in the US which makes consumer brands put more of emphasis on running discounts and promotions in a way that’s value accretive and doesn’t dilute their brand equity.
Evolution Of Monocle’s Technology
Amit (Pulse 2.0): How has the company’s technology evolved since launching?
Mark (Monocle): So many things change every week! I’d say the biggest change was expanding from personalizing incentives in email and SMS to also optimizing on-site offers. That required transforming the way we process data and run our models but unlocked a significant value source for our customers.
Differentiation From The Competition
Amit (Pulse 2.0): What differentiates the company from its competition?
Monocle (Noam Szpiro): We offer consumer brands superior incentive targeting technology – backed by our storied expertise in incentives and promotions. No one in the space has spent more time researching and understanding how promotions can help businesses unlock incremental value and reach their targets. Specifically, our platform provides AI capabilities that accurately predict the incremental effect of every offer at any point in time and allow businesses and brands to deploy them in a way that’s aligned to their overall strategy, whether it’s growth or profitability focused.
Significant Milestones
Amit (Pulse 2.0): What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones?
Mark (Monocle): Getting out of stealth and announcing our round is one that comes to mind – that really enabled us to grow the reach of GTM efforts and team.
Customer Success Stories
Amit (Pulse 2.0): Can you share any specific customer success stories?
Monocle (Noam Szpiro): While in stealth, we have been working with select DTC and Omni-channel brands, such as BRUNT Workwear, Honeylove and Death Wish Coffee – and already have great results to showcase. A couple case studies as an example for you: working with Monocle, Honeylove increased revenue per user by 20% and Death Wish Coffee was able to boost its abandonment flow conversion rate by 40%.
Total Addressable Market
Amit (Pulse 2.0): What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Lotman assessed:
Mark (Monocle): We’re serving all types of online consumer businesses and we estimate the annual spend on promotions online is about $400 billion so that’s our most immediate TAM.
Future Company Goals
Amit (Pulse 2.0): What are some of the company’s future company goals?
Monocle (Noam Szpiro): From a product perspective, we want to continue to serve consumer brands and become the single engine that informs and optimizes all of their incentive decisions. From a commercial perspective, we’re focused on growing our go to market (GTM) and marketing teams to continue to scale the business.
Additional Thoughts
Amit (Pulse 2.0): Any other topics you would like to discuss?
Mark (Monocle): We’re hiring across positions in GTM, Data Science and Engineering so if you’re interested in shaping the future of consumer incentives, please feel free to reach out!
