The Zizo in Zizo Technologies stands for zoom in and zoom out.
In other words, the Buffalo-based tech startup aims to help its clients have data for long-term planning while staying focused in the short term – in a fun way.
The startup, based on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, integrates gamification with companies’ data and business intelligence systems of record to help customer service, contact center and collections businesses. Zizo emulates popular video games and mobile apps and recently launched three-dimensional avatars.
For example, if salespeople know they typically close 20% of the calls they make, they can set making a certain number of calls as their targets and Zizo’s platform tracks it in a game-type format.
“People are starting to understand the value of gamification and have started to look more to gamification to help their attrition problems,” said Jimmy Chebat, CEO and founder.
And the startup practices what it preaches. In Q3 of last year, Zizo implemented an entrepreneurial operating system that allows it to use data to keep the team accountable, organized and communicating clearly. The metrics are front and center to help the company map out objectives for the next decade and then scale that back to 3-year to 90-day plans.
Those plans include closing some big deals, raising capital, continuing to evolve its product and grow its team.
The business has nearly 10 organizations on its platform with close to 200 users. Two of the groups are in the late stages of proof of concept, and Chebat expects them to scale to potentially thousands of users.
The startup has over $1 million in total annual recurring revenue based on its current contracts.
Zizo expects to start a $3 million to $5 million seed round raise this year to accommodate a growing team and customer base. The startup raised a $200,000 pre-seed round in 2021 and Chebat has personally invested over $4 million into his company.
If almost-finalized deals go as planned, the business, which employs about 27, expects to double its workforce by the end of the year.
The startup is already a partner with Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), an American cloud-based software company, and plans to integrate Zizo technology into Salesforce’s platform by the end of the year. The move would give Zizo access to all of Salesforce’s clients.
While the startup is focused on call centers for the next few years, Chebat does see future potential to expand to other industries, anywhere where there are large workforces doing repeatable tasks.
“Nowadays, everything is data-driven and performance is data-driven and measured through results,” he said. “Any industry or organization that collects that information to measure performance, we can take that and run with it.”
