Florin Grozea on the value of blockchain in the creator’s economy
“I am an artist with a technical background,” Florin Grozea, founder of influencer marketing platform MOCAPP, and eCommerce app L!NK, revealed at the beginning of the interview. He recently raised a €300,000 funding round to take the spin-off to the UK market, supporting businesses to save time and budget wisely when developing campaigns.
“My career has always been at the intersection of creativity and technology,” he continues his passion for computers and programming since high school. At the age of 16, he co-founded the music group Hi-Q, and that’s when he began his entrepreneurial journey.
Naming, branding, communication and budgeting appeared on his artist-entrepreneur to-do list. And while his music career remains a distant memory, he continues to find, create and use technological innovations that add value to everyone’s lives.
In the interview below, Florin Grozea shares with The Recursive his tech founder journey so far, what he’s aiming for next, the importance of the influencer industry, which is valued at €13B worldwide, and why the future will be blockchain-based.
The Recursive: What inspired the launch of MOCAPP in 2017?
Florin Grozea: It all started with an infinite chart that I used to manage celebrity social media campaigns. The table got so thick that I needed a way to search and filter that database.
This led me to build the minimal software (MVP) and take it to the agencies for a test. The feedback from over 50 agency experts was incredible. One agency head even told me, “You’re going to be a billionaire with this idea.”
In 2019, we officially launched the MOCAPP platform – an online application that helps businesses and agencies discover influencers and work with them to implement online campaigns. Since then, over 1,300 influencers and content creators have joined from nine countries.
How did the L!NK spin-off follow?
After running hundreds of campaigns through the MOCAPP platform, we discovered a type of client that has specific needs and niche has exploded in the pandemic: online stores.
Unlike multinational brands or advertising agencies, online stores are focused on conversions and often have their own marketing departments. So we concentrated on these needs with a new app.
The goal is for online stores to discover daily which influencers they have in their customer base. Who better to talk about your product than your customers?
L!NK helps e-commerce companies with an algorithm that is unique in Europe. This scans store orders to discover customers who are popular on social media. Spontaneous reviews have the most credibility, especially when they come naturally from famous people – opinion leaders, influencers and content creators.
What drew you to the influencers niche?
People need real stories, they want to know that out there, somewhere, there is someone like them.
In the online communication from 2022, authentic stories weigh heavily in the audience’s decision to follow and consume a brand. When everything around you is moving sand, you need security and inspiration from someone you trust. At the center of the virtual tribe are the opinion leaders called Influencers. They are important to our society, more than ever.
What are the benefits of using influencer marketing tools that entrepreneurs should know about?
When you are at the beginning of the road, you need to stand out in your industry. The easiest thing, but not easy to do, is to associate with a personal brand that is already known and respected in your industry. People, meaning potential buyers, are looking for other people, not brands.
Tools are important because they reduce the time and cost of marketing.
From our statistics, MOCAPP reduces the cost of an influencer campaign by 45% to 70%! And this is an important discount in any business.
How to measure the success of an influencer campaign?
Short answer: Hire an expert!
Long answer: Influencer Marketing is part of the marketing strategy of a brand, it is located at the intersection of PR (which is measured by specific variables), branding (which is measured by other variables), and advertising (ditto, other variables). All entrepreneurs want to have a profit at the end of the year, so they follow the sales.
But the influencer is not a salesperson, the employees in the sales department are your salespeople!
The influencer draws attention to your brand, creates a positive image association, creates relevant content for your consumers and gives you access to relevant buyer communities.
So you need to measure:
- the traffic;
- the increase in brand awareness;
- the impact of the content;
- and the aim – it’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
What resources helped you acquire MOCAPP?
I had mentors like Dragos Stanca, Iulian Padurariu and Catalin Chis. I was part of two accelerators: Techcelerator and Innov-X. We used the support of the influencer and leadership community. We raised two investment rounds from the SeedBlink platform. It takes a village to start up.
What are MOCAPP’s goals for the next 12 months?
We plan to break the ice in the UK market with L!NK.
This autumn we are launching L!NK in the UK. We raised money from two investment funds (ROCA X and NETOPIA Ventures), to which 60 private investors were added through SeedBlink.
What are your thoughts on how Web 3.0 technologies, such as blockchain, will affect the entertainment industry? Where are the biggest opportunities?
Blockchain will fundamentally change human society, even more than the Internet.
Those who think that token speculation in the crypto market is the only thing caused by blockchain remind me of those who thought that PCs are only for storing recipes on the kitchen counter. I am passionate about the future of NFT in the creative economy and e-commerce.
Although we have seen the potential of using blockchain (e.g. tokenized digital art, smart contracts), adoption is still slow in the local market. Where do you see the biggest obstacles slowing the adoption of blockchain solutions in the entertainment and marketing industry?
Blockchain adoption doesn’t seem to be slowing down. We’re talking about a technology that’s less than a decade old – that’s less than a millisecond in human history. Be patient, we’re still early!
The music industry has always been opaque, an industry that has exploited its lack of transparency and friction. It is natural for showbiz (leaders in the entertainment industry) to oppose the transparency that the blockchain brings. We talked a lot about copyright innovation in Stakeborg Conversations podcast.
Can you share any plans to integrate Web 3.0 technologies into your work as an entrepreneur and at MOCAPP?
First of all, in June 2022 we announced that we are working on an initiative called I.AM – an Influencers Academy for the Metaverse. It is a Web3 education initiative dedicated to influencers, content creators and artists.
Second, as an entrepreneur and marketing expert, I started working with various Web3 startups as a consultant – Ludo, the NFT search engine, being one of them.
