Name: Barbara Buades
Business Name: MEETOPTICS LABS, S.L
Location: Barcelona , Spain
Establishment (Year): 2019
Category: Business Services
Profession/ Specialty: AI Photonics Search / Database in optics and photonics
Website: https://www.meetoptics.com/
Social Media : LinkedIn
Company Detail:
MEETOPTICS is an AI-powered metasearch and guide in Photonics. Their objective is to make the search for photonics technologies easy and more accessible. Photonics is present in the newest high-tech applications: LIDAR, Automotive, VR & AR, advanced manufacturing, medical imaging, and diagnosis, and quantum technologies. With their customized search engine, their aim is to help researchers and optical engineers to find photonics products easier, and to help them develop technologies based on light. The platform allows quickly finding, filtering, and comparing optical components from +100 suppliers around the world. When catalog components are not enough, MEETOPTICS also provides direct access to photonics service providers.
Unique Selling Proposition or Competitive Advantage:
MEETOPTICS has developed the largest Database in Optics and Photonics with close to 100K products and +100 worldwide providers. Their platform is intuitive and technical, making it easy and fast to find photonics products from trusted vendors. They use AI algorithms to match their users with their photonic service providers. They have helped more than 90K engineers and researchers in the photonics industry and are growing at a 10% monthly rate. Unlike search engines operated by distributors of electronic products, MEETOPTICS does not prioritize one optics manufacturer over another, and there is no company bias. The only criteria for including a supplier is that the company and its products must be verified by users and/or members of the photonics community. They keep adding new features constantly. They launched an Academy page with technical specifications and information, a Photonics Forum where users can discuss technical questions, and a Ray Tracing Simulator, which is open and free to use.
Challenges Faced During the Journey:
Transitioning from research to managing a website has been quite the journey for Barbara Buades Sabater. At first, she missed the hands-on lab work, but helping users with technical issues and guiding their projects, mostly tech-focused, has been fulfilling. Another challenge has been the weight of being a CEO. Yet, she realized that both leading a research team and being a CEO share similarities. With running a research team, you’re inspired by other researchers but ultimately responsible for designing and building experiments and for the success of the end results. As a CEO, the feeling’s the same as you have to build a company from scratch with inspiration from other start-ups, mentors, and investors, and at the end of the day, the success of the company is on your shoulders. Another challenge has been building a great team. For many photonics start-ups, recruiting experts in photonics is often problematic. But thanks to their extensive network of contacts in the research field, finding the right talent has not been that difficult.
Advice for Women Entrepreneurs:
Dream big but make sure you test out your ideas on your clients as you go forward. Find people who can help and advise you and don’t try to do everything on your own”. Getting finance can be difficult and the best way to approach an investor is as you would for a job interview. To get hired, you need to convince the employer that you can bring value to the company and it’s the same with investors because they need to be confident that you can bring enough value to make a return on their investment. So, prepare your letter of application to an investor in the same way as you would for a job application. Understand the investor’s motivations, what they want and approach them with empathy Listen to the market to understand their needs.
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