Founder and chief entertainment officer of Luxembourg-based Supermiro, eLfy Pins shares what’s in store for the brand along with some words of wisdom for other entrepreneurs.
When Supermiro launched in 2015, eLfy Pins knew she wanted a brand that didn’t take itself so seriously. “At the start, the idea was to have a strong and friendly brand on the Luxembourg market, to create a digital media that brings together all the things to do in Luxembourg and the greater region, so users could easily discover local outings and experiences,” she says. It was also important to shine a light on local businesses, and celebrate the vibrant ecosystem of creators, places and talents.
Inspired by brands like My Little Paris and Michel & Augustin, Pins herself created the light-hearted illustrations that appear on the Supermiro platform. The drawings reflect the brand’s DNA—“cool and fun”, Pins says.
Supermiro is what she calls a one-stop destination for finding all sorts of events and experiences, spotlighting the local business ecosystem that helps add flair to daily life. There’s also a sharp focus on offering a user-friendly experience. According to Pins, the media side of the business today has 72,000 unique monthly visits.
Constantly evolving
Supermiro launched its club at the end of 2021, right after the start of the covid-19 pandemic. Although a difficult time for the startup, the team was able to pivot and connect with corporate clients in a different way, offering solutions for employee well-being.
The club programme currently counts around 8,000 employees and serves as a sort of “VIP [platform], with about 20 first-rank plans per month, whether those are involving chefs who are doing something special, an avant-première, or an event at a location that just opened, etc.,” Pins explains.
One of the main challenges Supermiro faces is working with big corporations. “Decisions can take time. It’s also a question of time for employees to discover how they can take advantage of the platform,” Pins explains. “We don’t have a lot of channels to reach out to them directly, so we have to convince HR about a vision and work together with them to reach those employees.”
Supermiro regularly meets with corporate clients, providing them with monthly statistics which, in turn, can help those HR representatives better understand what works within their own channels of communication.
Another challenge Supermiro faced was when it wanted to create a more personalised experience for users but was limited by General Data Protection Regulation requirements. “We had to go back to a one-fits-all solution,” Pins recalls. “That’s because users have become increasingly reluctant to share their personal data or location. We could have gone a lot further in terms of technology and personalisation, but the regulatory constraints didn’t allow us to.”
Managing such efforts requires a strong resilience to stress, Pins adds, but it’s something she’s learned to do better over the course of the startup’s journey. One of her main tips for other entrepreneurs is not to get too attached to an initial idea: “What’s important is how it evolves,” she says. “You have to be obsessed with the user or client, listen to them, and adjust constantly. You have to be agile with what works or doesn’t.”
Future plans
Supermiro now has a team of eight full-time employees and works with others externally. For Pins, the team’s values—being passionate, innovative and creative, as well as flexible and reactive in responding to the needs of partners and users—have been key to the organisation’s success.
While Pins says the media side of the business is well-established, she sees possible areas for further optimisation and development. As for the club, which benefitted from getting big partners onboarded early on, “I think we can go a lot further than what we are doing now, to have an ever more relevant offering.” The team also hopes to re-energise its Hello Boss brand, the equivalent of the Supermiro event platform but focusing on professional events.
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