Diana Morato, Chief Growth Officer at Sensei
Diana Morato is responsible for all Growth related strategy and execution at Sensei, directly managing the Comms, Marketing, Business Development, and Sales teams.
Having started her career in strategy consulting at LEK in London and then moving on to corporate strategy in the publicly listed Spanish multinational INDRA, Diana has since focused on transforming traditional sectors through new business models and tech. Today, she is considered one of the most influential women in the tech startup scene in Spain & Portugal. In recognition of her career in business and tech, she has received numerous awards, including Top 100 Female Leaders in Spain and has been recognised as one of the Most Influential Women in Business in Spain.
She also serves as non-executive Director in Boards, such as the publicly listed retail company Adolfo Dominguez, and supports local entrepreneurship through the IE Venture Lab, STEM initiatives and gender diversity & inclusion in the tech space.
What were you doing before launching your business?
Prior to joining Sensei as Chief Revenue Growth Officer, Diana spent the last 15+ years creating and leading tech-enabled startups through hyper-growth in the retail, mobility, and food delivery sectors.
She has held numerous Managing Director and Country Manager positions in successful high growth, disruptive and operationally complex scale-ups such as Circ (formerly Flash), a pan-European e-scooter sharing startup which she co-founded and that was acquired by Bird in 2021; Deliveroo, in the food delivery space, which she set up and led in Spain from series C to pre-IPO or brands such as Zipcar and Fon, which are considered among of the first share-economy companies in the world.
Getting involved in Tech is still a hot topic for women, what was the motivation for you?
As many young people (in my late twenties) I wanted to make a difference in the world.
The positive impact I could generate in a short timespan in the lives of many people. The ambition of startups (they want to change the world) and their ability to scale quickly, bringing their products and services to millions of people in very short time span because of scalable business models and the intensive use of data and technology.
Coming from a large corporate, I was also drawn towards the entrepreneurial environment / working style (small, multidisciplinary teams working together in very flat organisation style).
How have you found your journey so far and what has been your greatest accomplishment?
I am proud to always worked in startups wherein I have had a strong connection with the purpose and where I have had the chance to influence their culture to make them more inclusive and a great place to work
I´ve been incredibly fortunate to work alongside amazing teams and helped scale several very fast growing startups that have had a pivotal role in creating new trends and improving customers lives across the globe. In Fon, one of the first examples of collaborative-economy, we helped millions of people access the internet affordably. In Zipcar, we started the trend of giving people the opportunity to easily access a car without having to own one; in Circ we went a step further and replaced cars by electric mobility. In Deliveroo we democratised access to quality restaurant food on the go.
What has been the most challenging thing so far?
Hypergrowth is for me, the most, exhilarating and fun phase in a scale-up hyper-growth. Your business and team are doubling every couple of months and this goes on for some years, like it did at Deliveroo. Sustained hockey stick business growth is great, but it often comes with unexpected issues arising and also growing exponentially.
As a leader, during that phase you never really feel things are under control, it is incredibly difficult to balance personal / family time with professional life, you feel extremely attached to the business and to the team you are building and take negative press very personally so it is easy to feel the impostor syndrome. Dealing with that feeling without being able to share it with others has probably been the most challenging for me.
Having realised that this is a pretty common feeling, particularly for women in tech, I think it is important to speak publicly about this and to support people in this situation.
You have created a business that is adaptable and progressive. What has that process been like for you?
Sensei made a big bet on computer vision technology and autonomous stores years ago when it was very unclear whether autonomous store technology was even technically possible. The pas 4 years, working on the product and the tech, have been a constant learning process for us and our teams, and it has not always been easy.
Despite the difficulties, being at the forefront of a technological breakthrough is great from the perspective that we now have one of the most mature and tested solutions in the market. This is what allowed us to launch the first autonomous store, open to the public, in continental Europe.
Who is your target audience?
Retailers, mainly in Europe, who are looking for ways to improve customer experience, to improve P&Ls and who embrace technology to transform their businesses.
Innovative retailers who are thinking about the future, recognising the need to adopt new tools and use data in their daily operations and decision making and who will seize the opportunities offered by digitalization and progress in the fields of AI, machine learning and computer vision.
What advice would you give to fellow entrepreneurs stuck on mapping out a strong business model?
I don’t believe in creating the perfect business model the first time around. I believe in putting the customer first and in creating a really strong team with a growth mindset implement processes and a company culture that will allow you to adapt, iterate and improve.
Consider your prospective customer in everything you do. Once you´ve done your research and built a product that you feel makes sense, test it on customers as soon as possible. Record data and feedback continuously and use it to iterate and improve.
What plans do you have for business over the next two years?
The next years are going to be very exciting at Sensei. We will be scaling the team, going into new countries and deepening our relationships with retailers across Europe. Together, we will be transforming the offline experience for shoppers and building tools that will help retailers manage these intelligent stores, of all formats and sizes.
Overview of how your business works:
Sensei is a deep tech company and the leading European provider of autonomous stores. Our mission is to equip retailers with the best possible technology tools they need to transform the shopping experience for their customers and improve the efficiency of their business operations, helping them level the playing field towards digital retail giants such as Amazon.
With Autonomous Stores, customers can simply enter the shop, grab the products they want and leave the store without needing to wait in line to pay. We remove all friction from stores, turning them autonomous and checkout free, making shopping seamless, pleasant and more efficient.
When developing our product, we felt it was important that customers can easily use the technology in store without the need for them to radically adapt their shopping habits or even ‘learn’ a new way of shopping.
Currently customers just need to download the app on their phone and add a payment method. Our ambition in the long-term is to eliminate barriers. We’re currently developing a system where customers can pay for their items through a simple contactless card, but this is still work in progress.
Overall, our aim is to make the familiar and enjoyable customer shopping experience even more seamless and convenient. Every store that adopts our technology still looks the same, it just means customers can avoid wasting time waiting in queues and pay for their items immediately.
