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Whatagraph: Accelerators Can be a Great Shortcut, Just Take The Most of it
2016
Dec 13

Meet Justas Malinauskas, CEO & Co-Founder at Whatagraph, an infographics startup that also just graduated from Rockstart’s Web & Mobile Accelerator in Amsterdam. Justas introduces his company and also his experience at Rockstart Accelerator.

Hi Justas, so could you please introduce Whatagraph?

Justas: Whatagraph changes the way website and social analytics are prepared by automatically converting data into understandable infographic reports. Our target customers are marketing agencies and independent website owners, who usually spend hours manually preparing website performance reports, so Whatagraph saves time by allowing to get a quick overview of web and social performance. Our product was fully launched this February and currently our clients are marketing agencies such as BBDO and Triple 888, corporates like Fairfax Media and Bombardier (BRP), and world-known brands like Desigual, Fujifilm Europe and Foot Locker.

How and when did you discover Rockstart? How did you decide to apply?

Justas: We learned about Rockstart from Rockstart alumni Packpin who are also based in Klaipeda. When they told us about it, our product wasn't fully launched and we still had a lot of work to do, but in the beginning of this year after our launch, we felt like we are ready for more and proceeded with the application process. The process itself was interesting, because when we had to go to Amsterdam to pitch our ideas, we met a lot of other startups. Startup community in Netherlands is much bigger than here in Lithuania, so it was really exciting to see a lot of ambitious and inspiring entrepreneurs.

So what was the Rockstart programme about, what did you do, see, meet, etc.? How has it helped you?

Justas: In a nutshell, Rockstart program was all about helping a startup to grow and preparing it for scaling. From the very beginning we were taught to think about how we want our business to look like in the future, not to think how it is right now. I think this is a very interesting strategy, because with this mindset, it's easier to make decisions. During the program we also had a chance to learn a lot since almost every single day we had workshops and lectures from professionals coming from different backgrounds. Since the program is 6 months-long, you really get a chance to expand your knowledge and network, but it's not the only reason why the program was so useful for our team. I think the biggest thing that we took from this program is a clearer vision of what we want our product to be like and what we have to do to achieve that. As I said, Netherlands and Amsterdam especially, are very welcoming towards startups, so we had a chance to talk to a lot of marketing agencies and learn more about the problems they encounter every day, which allowed us to put everything into a better perspective.

Whom would you recommend to take part in an accelerator?

Justas: I think it depends what you take out of it. I have seen few startups who just party out all the time in the accelerator and enjoy time spending somewhere else. Also it could be time-wasting thing, when you still need to develop your product. But I think if you set the right priorities, what matters for you the most, and take out as much as you can, then you can succeed – like we participated there with all our team, so we separated the events and spheres, so marketing people were soaking out all the knowledge about marketing, sales about the sales and etc. And of course we had a lot more time together because we were living in the same apartment šŸ™‚ To sum up – first know why you are going there, and when you know just go for it!

So what’s next then?

Justas: We have a lot of plans, but I think the main one is to expand the number of integrations that Whatagraph currently has. This will allow our clients to be more efficient and will definitely strengthen our position in the market.

Can you introduce your core team?

Justas: Our team is quite big, considering that it's a startup. In our team, besides me, there are other two co-founders, Andrius Malinauskas and Tomas Malinauskas, who both have experience in different fields and make a good contribution to the team. Our designer, Agnė Kuniutytė, is in charge for all the visual aspects of the company, and our CTO, Domas Labokas is mainly working with the development team. Whatagraph also has a strong sales and marketing team which also talks a lot with our clients and constantly collects feedback from them which helps us with product development.

Great, thanks for your time Justas. By the way, Rockstart is looking for more Lithuanian startups and founders for its 2017 program – have a look at what’s on their menu.