According to the cyber security company Imperva, over 40% of Internet traffic is bots. This is the problem BotNot is seeking to solve. Many have experienced the pain of trying to buy concert tickets or new sneakers only to find they’ve been sold out, and been forced to shell out an upcharge on resale sites.
BotNot is a pre-seed startup co-founded by current Michigan Ross MBA student, Jordan Shamir, which seeks to identify and prioritize real customers in the aforementioned scenarios. BotNot’s core product is a Shopify app plugin that provides retailers with actionable insights to prioritize real consumers over bots to maximize lifetime customer value, brand affinity, and data fidelity.
Shamir shared his advice and entrepreneurial journey in an interview with Business+Tech. Going into business school, he knew he wanted to leverage his MBA experience as an incubator to begin his entrepreneurial journey. He started a Discord channel to brainstorm startup ideas with friends and his broader network, before eventually settling on the idea of BotNot. Once he and his co-founders had settled on an idea, the next step was to build out a team. Shamir cited one mistake his team made early on was focusing on finding cheap resources on Fiverr instead of hiring the right full-time dedicated hires, which led to much longer product development times. They also faced other challenges, from negotiating contracts to coordinating with teammates across different time zones to dealing with different schedules.
BotNot’s next hurdle was finding funding. Initially, the team was worried if investors would fully understand the depth of the problem. They started by cold calling and emailing venture capital firms and getting introductions from their network. Shamir credits the BotNot team’s iterative process during funding, explaining “The best way to build credibility is to make consistent progress.” He advised other founders that a finished product is not necessary to start talking to potential investors, but that a well-presented and clear idea backed by consistent product development over time is enough to begin having these conversations and building relationships.
Shamir also acknowledged the many resources available within Ross, University of Michigan, and the broader Ann Arbor community. He specifically mentioned Ann Arbor-based pitch competitions like SPARK and Ann Arbor meetups as resources the BotNot team leveraged this year, as well as UpRounds, an investment fund run by undergraduate students at U-M. He also advised other student entrepreneurs to take advantage of faculty members and the student and alumni networks, from Professor Lindy Greer’s experience analyzing successful start-up teams to fellow students with retail backgrounds.
BotNot is currently in Beta, adding new clients each week, but plans to be generally available this spring.