SuperSolver CEO, David Montoya (interview)

SuperSolver can figure out how to best deploy staff to make customers happy. Retailers are under pressure to do more with less, and the staff has been cut to the bare bones. When a customer walks into a store, SuperSolver takes over. The app can deal with complaints, alert staff, manage inventory and help customers. And managers can keep staffing and payroll constant.

The SuperSolver app is a complaint-zapper. It’s a concierge. It’s logistics expert. It’s an inventory management system. It’s everything management wants it to be. Using iBeacons, SuperSolver can pinpoint a customer's location within a hundredth of an inch. It can manage logistics and keep track of personnel. It’s Big Brother. Hotel Indigo, Marriott Hotels and T-Mobile are all users of SuperSolver. Droid Report recently interviewed CEO, David Montoya.

Droid Report: Hello David, could you tell us more about your current role as CEO of SuperSolver?

David Montoya: SuperSolver is in the early production stages, and is successfully launched in five major corporations. As such, my priorities are shifting from development to a concentration on sales and operations. Last year, we hired a new CTO to rationalize our platform and add new features to our software. We've successfully finished the release and it is in operation. That said, our clients like to customize the software, so we add code as required.

As CEO, my focus is to manage the team, grow the customers and position us well in the fast-growing market. We specialize in several vertical niches now and will expand opportunistically going forward.

Our CTO makes sure that the software can perform to spec and scale to demand. He also integrates our software with proprietary systems of our customers. And he has an eye on new technologies to determine if it makes sense to adapt them for SuperSolver.

We are self-funded, but evaluate offers for capital to accelerate our market penetration. While one of the co-founders acts as CFO, I am the chief fundraiser and was previously a venture capitalist. I was trained as a lawyer and fill the role of General Counsel. The management team has to wear a lot of hats.

Droid Report: What are your initiatives for 2014?

David Montoya: We are planning a new software release in the Fall 2014, and will add iBeacon and SmartBeacon (a unique two-way version of iBeacons that we created). We are also enhancing our data analytics capabilities (Big Data). For our new software releases, we look to  improve performance along several metrics -- processing, functionality and scalability.

Droid Report: What separates the company from its competitors?

David Montoya: SuperSolver is a GPS app that knows your location and can leverage it for intelligent tasks. Competitors offer mobile messaging without a platform for backend analytics.

With our software, customers can maximize their resources, like sales associates, with "logistically-aware" analytics. Our clients want to improve staff productivity.  We map the customers and their demands, then overlay the requests with available salespeople. Our tools improve responsiveness with fewer resources.  

We stay ahead of the competition by letting our customers influence our development priorities.

We view our market as "Engage and Manage Customers" (or, Automating Customer Service) and we believe the total addressable market (TAM) is $17 billion. The business model for retail stores is rapidly changing. Sales associates and customer service reps are a big expense item and retailers want to improve the return on the investment. We expect bricks-and-mortar stores to adopt some e-commerce strategies and bring the internet experience into the stores. We are positioned to help retail stores leverage the internet with mobile software.

We expect a surge in demand for the Internet of Things, for systems that can operate, network and control machine-to-machine interfaces, like managing distributed devices. SuperSolver's sweet spot is control systems. Our software can collect locations and match them to a logistical framework. We expect to be a major player in managing all resources -- people and things.

SuperSolver is ahead of the curve in using mobile technology to improve operations. We got started over five years ago and use our market lead to stay ahead of the pack.

Droid Report: Is there anything else you feel Android users and the Android market should know?

David Montoya: The SuperSolver app is downloadable in the Google Play store. We will have iBeacon functionality built into the app in the next upgrade. Finally, Android users should download the SuperSolver app!

We would like to thank David Montoya for taking the time for this discussion and SuperSolver.