There is power in data. The founders of Pivit are planning to tap into that power to help the retail and hospitality industry use this data mining — but not all data is created equal.
Pivit, via their software Taiga, works by allowing users to access the data in real-time, with a custom built AI platform. This also allows for integration via social media, geo-targeting, location, data and competitive analysis. Retail users, such as marketers, dig into the data and find what the info they need — the issue is that usually by the time users get that data it's outdated and doesn't provide enough value.
"This is a key differentiator from the batch and scheduled driven data jobs which only report on 10 percent of surface level data and is stale by the time it's reviewed," co-Founder Greg Oakley said. "Taiga brings retail in real-time by unlocking and helping retailers understand all of their data to drive additional revenue."
Launched by serial entrepreneurs Matt Gattiker, John Oakley and Greg Oakley, Pivit is a natural progression for the team, who have worked in SaaS, private club and the hospitality industry.
"There are a lot of parallels between hospitality and retail in our modern experience economy."
The founders, who have all bootstrapped the startup, were all part of a successful exit at Clubessential, where they honed their skills in SaaS and private club industry. Later, they launched a startup, Cenetic, under the Clubessential umbrella. They briefly left the hospitality industry, but returned with Pivit.
"When we formed Pivit in June 2017, we were set on continuing within the hospitality sector with a focus on destination resorts and "flag" (chain) level hotels," Greg said. "We had branded a product called GEM, guest experience management, and even did a pitch on it at an HCDC/Xavier University co-sponsored event. We wanted to work with property management, point of sale and all the various other big data systems they use across the properties."
"During our due diligence of the hospitality market, we began to narrow the focus into revenue management and loyalty," he continued. "It wasn't until then did we realize that this could be opened up to a much larger transaction driven market, being retail."
They then sat out to work in the retail environment, meeting with large grocery retailers (whom they can't name yet) in the Cincinnati market, as well as those on the retail marketing side. Noticing that smaller retail outlets don't have the resources the big chains do, they sought to add value to these companies.
"There are a lot of parallels between hospitality and retail in our modern experience economy," Greg said.
