Meet Venture Leader Karim Choueiri’s smart bottle opener startup

14.03.2019 14:08, Guillaume Tinsel

Ten Venture Leaders will represent Switzerland in Silicon Valley in March. Meet Karim Choueiri, founder of WeCheer.io. Learn more about the internet of things, the consumer goods industry and Karim's expectations on his roadshow in Silicon Valley.

Can you introduce yourself, how your company started and what your project is?

My name is Karim Choueiri, I’m Lebanese, a beer lover first, and marketer by passion.
And like every founding story there are two versions: the real and the really real. I’ll let you decide which is which:

As an expat with friends in all corners of the world, an evening with many beers tends to end up with many text messages being sent back-and-forth. And one evening a slightly inappropriate, drunken message was WhatsApped to the wrong group (the delete function wasn’t available then). After this very embarrassing moment, came a moment of inspiration: why not create a smart bottle opener, which would share every ‘cheers’ moment with your best friends safely and seamlessly – without you needing to touch your phone. So, four minds came together (co-founders Karim, Aurele, Minh and Tai) and we created the world’s first smart bottle opener, an opener that captures every special moment when a bottle is opened and shares it safely with the friends of your choice.

As a marketer with more than 10 years of experience at Nestle, I knew first-hand that digital marketing in the fast-moving consumer goods industry lacked a fundamental element: there isn’t a scalable, digital solution that captures the moment of physical consumption and offers real, measured engagement.

For example, worldwide in the beer industry, 25,000 bottles are opened every second, that’s $25,000 consumed every second without trace or record. Imagine a solution that could identify every bottle, know when, where and which brand was opened, and directly connect with the users to suggest what bottle they should open next! That was the birth of the smart bottle opener. The moment a bottle is opened, a direct connection is established between the user and his favourite brewery, opening a new level of engagement, the most efficient type of marketing that offers a direct return on investment.

What attracted you to Silicon Valley as a business development destination?

WECHEER is currently growing in the extremes poles of the world, in South-east Asia and South America. But Silicon Valley remains the heartland of innovation and there isn’t another place we could find a melting pot of talent that better understands tech and consumer engagement. Tapping into these resources may unlock our exponentially potential and skyrocket our growth.

What do you hope to achieve from the trip? What are your expectations and goals?

We believe this trip will unlock two key opportunities. First, get us on track for our series-B funding; then offer the chance to onboarding great mentors and advisors, to help steer our startup’s growth.


Why is Venture Leaders Technology beneficial for your startup?

As a growing startup we need all the support to breakthrough and gain the right visibility and support. Without Venture Leaders Tech, we wouldn’t have such an opportunity. It has truly enabled us to advance our innovation and given us a platform to connect with the most-influential decision-makers in the global tech industry.



What is pushing you towards international expansion?

The essence of our startup is global: our first market was Vietnam, followed by Mexico. Like many Swiss startups, while Switzerland is our home base, our main market is the world – we are looking to secure a first-mover advantage in key countries.

What do you foresee as the largest hurdles towards expansion into the U.S. market?

The U.S. market is sophisticated and demands a great consumer experience. We learned the basics of serving users in Asia and South America, now we need to grow to the next phase. The engagement and consumer experience expected from our product in the U.S. will push our boundaries to the next level.

In addition to a deeper understanding of the latest consumer trends, we also have concerns about the legal and regulatory framework. Beyond the well-publicized issue of product liability risks, we want to gain a better understanding of America’s strict alcohol regulation laws, and how much state-specific regulation may affect our business expansion.

What makes you most nervous or excited about the trip?

Each new experience is packed with a rush of adrenaline, but this is standard daily life at a startup. Every day we’re faced with new challenges and opportunities that could make or break our startup. And I believe this trip will be packed of those situations: some people/companies will think we are crazy, some will embrace our vision. The challenge is to keep our eyes on the ball, ignore distractions, learn objectively from our critics, and build on our genuine supporters.

Do you have a “funny/best day” anecdote about being an entrepreneur?

To pitch to join Venture Leaders, I had to fly from Mexico City east to Zurich and then back west to Bogota within 24 hours, and of course economy class. Just for an 8-min pitch :-)
Many, many people thought I was crazy... but I can promise you the moment we got the email announcing our selection, I opened that Bavaria beer and it tasted like pure happiness!
Cheers!




Read about the Startup Champions kick-off event and follow the trip on Twitter using the hashtag #VLeadersTech

Venture Leaders Technology is sponsored by Rothschild & Co Bank, Kellerhals Carrard, DPD, Swisscom, Canton de Vaud, ETH Zürich and EPF Lausanne.