Meet the co-founder of Sona

I’m Steffen Wulff Petersen, co-founder of Sona.

There’s always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?

In a previous venture we were managing a growing ‘gig economy’ workforce and drowning in admin. So we built our own technology platform to streamline things. We made it an app experience as that was the easiest way for our candidates - who are often on the move - to stay connected with us.

At some point one of our candidates - who had been working for a major UK retailer - showed us a WhatsApp group filled with photos of annotated paper schedules. A pattern started to emerge across our customers as we discovered that many didn’t have their own equivalent of ‘our’ tech for their teams.

That was when we realised there was an incredible opportunity and we made it our mission to put the same game-changing technology in the hands of every non-desk based worker.

Tell us about your experience prior to launching your business?

Though I’m originally from Denmark, I’ve lived and worked across Europe and Asia. I set up Rocket Internet in the UK and I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved with several startups that went on to hit ‘unicorn’ status and achieve big exits such as Lazada and HelloFresh. 

Before switching my career towards tech startups, I worked in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs in London and prior to that I completed my BSc and MSc in Corporate Finance from Copenhagen Business School. The world of finance provides a good tool box, but I much prefer building companies and trying to create value and jobs, so I have never looked back. 

What’s the most common problem your customers approach you with

Without a doubt it’s the cost - in both time and money - of managing a frontline workforce. For the industries we serve - health and social care, hospitality and retail - this was a huge challenge pre-Covid. The extra pressures the pandemic has put on staff availability - from enforced time off through sickness or mandatory isolation, through to attracting new talent into the industry - have been headline news.

Thanks to technology, today’s staff rotas are optimised for efficiency whilst maintaining the levels of service required to meet demand. But the rota only survives contact with reality if all shifts are filled, and as we know, things can change quickly. So even once the week’s rota is set, managers often find themselves spending way too much of their time finding people to cover shifts. And if they can’t find contracted staff that can help, they resort to hiring agency workers at extra cost to the organisation. 

For example, before working with us, one of our customers could spend up to 3 days a week completing and then filling their rotas. With Sona the process of contacting staff about available shifts is automated and takes 90 minutes and they’re spending less on agencies too.

How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?

Our key point of differentiation in the market is our focus on the needs and wants of our end users - frontline workers. Most enterprise technology is built for desk-based workers, regardless of industry. What then happens is their desktop systems are ported into an ‘app-like’ experience for use on mobile devices, which results in lots of friction.

We have the benefit of a lot of prior experience working with, and in, the industries we serve so we know that our customers are not going to get the full value out of technology for their employees if it isn’t easy for them to access and use. So we build for mobile first and with the end user experience front of mind at all times. 

We’re taking our inspiration from the world’s leading consumer apps. Viewing your schedule should be as quick as looking up a restaurant on Deliveroo and booking annual leave should be as easy as booking an Airbnb - that’s the bar we’re setting ourselves.

Keeping an eye on the numbers in any business is important. How do you ensure that you’re always up to date?

We are really big on data, and we believe keeping on top of the numbers is a collective responsibility, not just an executive one.

Culturally this starts with giving everyone clear and measurable KPIs. We also go over all our key metrics as an entire team once a week. It’s important that everyone knows what quantifiable success looks like and how we’re progressing against the targets we’ve set.

The other crucial element is systems. It’s important we practice what we preach, so in addition to our in-built customer analytics we take advantage of software that makes reporting easier in all areas. 

What are your thoughts on failure?

I’ve experienced several successful and several failed startups and I genuinely believe that failure provides as much, if not more, valuable learnings. Very successful startups often benefit from strong external factors (timing, triggers etc); and only sometimes also execute well. This can lead to false positive learnings. And when you listen to the early stories from companies that have ‘made it’, more often than not the founders got a stroke of luck at an important time. When startups fail they probably didn’t benefit from strong tailwinds and had more execution on their hands and that’s an environment you learn a lot from operating in.

What was the journey like when you decided to raise funding for your startup? And what tips would you give to early-stage founders getting ready to take the same path?

Happily, the round was competitive and therefore moved quickly. It took 4 days from the first meeting to receiving term sheets. It definitely helped that we are all repeat founders with previous fundraising experience. We quickly settled on SpeedInvest as our ideal partner and closed out the legals over the next few weeks. We ended up raising around $2.2m (£1.6m) for our pre-seed. 

My first piece of advice to other founders looking to secure investment is make sure you are targeting the right investors that are relevant to your stage and business. In our case, SpeedInvest is highly focused on early stage B2B SaaS and hence was a perfect fit whereas many other funds would be the wrong fit and a waste of time. If you’re already targeting the right investors but not getting the raise done, then look at the feedback. There is usually a pattern of 1 or 2 key concerns across investors. If you can address those concerns (which may require a big change and might be painful) then you often end up with a better business as a result, on top of being able to raise funding. 

What plans do you have for Sona over the next two years?

As a relatively young company it’s important we stay focused on building amazing experiences for our early customers and learning as much as we can from them. We’ll be opening up the platform to new customers very shortly and we have a packed roadmap that includes 4-5 new feature areas we plan to launch by the end of the year.

Then, as with any investor-backed startup,  it’s all about growth so we’re excited to deepen our engagement within the industries we serve and help more operators to get more flex from their existing workforces, engage their teams and return more time to their managers.

How do you believe the evolution of tech will affect your industry over the next 10 years?

We created Sona because our target market has typically been under-served by technology. Although they make up 80% of the global workforce, just 1% of funding for enterprise software is dedicated to developing technology for employees in frontline roles (who do most of their day-to-day work away from a desk). 

Our view is that over this decade the technology gap between desk and non-desk based workers will close significantly. The proliferation of dedicated tools to empower non-desk based staff will have the same transformative effect as the adoption of company email. The future of work is knowledge work, regardless of role type and location, and we want to be at the forefront of that movement.

How does technological advancement speak to the strategic direction of your business?

We’re in a really good place to ride the wave of digital transformation in non-desk work. The pandemic has not changed the direction of travel, it has simply accelerated the pace  of change in lots of areas, including adoption of workforce management software. So with funding and customer validation for our product in place we are in a good position to grow into an expanding market. Covid is also leading to a complete restructuring of the overall labour market and changing people’s attitudes towards work. We call Sona “The employee app for tomorrow’s workforce” because, through our technology, employers can give staff the greater autonomy and flexibility they have been calling for.

What are your thoughts on automation and how it could impact our economy?

Automation is not a new phenomenon. Technology has been replacing manual work for centuries - it’s in our nature to invent things that make our lives easier. And on balance the big picture outcome has always been progress - both social and economic. 

Though I understand the concerns that people may have about the impact of automation on jobs, as a tech startup founder I am by nature on the side of optimism. If you look at what we’re doing as a microcosm - the automation we provide frees up our customers to focus on the most important things like spending more time with patients or customers, or coaching and mentoring staff. Though the journey to get there won’t be pain-free, if we go about it the right way, more automation should help more people live meaningful and fulfilling lives at home and at work.