Digidip founder Sabrina Spielberger on bootstrapping a multimillion dollar tech startup

"I founded out of pure opportunity".

You can listen to the full podcast interview here. (German)

"We don't make promises. We deliver.": The founding story of Digidip is characterized more by pragmatism than passion. Because Sabrina Spielberger did not necessarily want to found her own company, nor did she want to make the topic of "affiliate marketing" the content of her career.?

"I founded the company out of pure opportunity, because it was a no-brainer for me to enter the market with the product. I only tasted blood afterwards,"

the entrepreneur clarifies.

The fact that she founded an adtech company in the field of affiliate marketing, of all things, was primarily a pragmatic decision:

"I've used similar technologies and wasn't really convinced by any of them. I thought maybe there wasn't a chance it wouldn't convince others either."

And so, in 2013, Digidip was founded, a company that acts as a middleman between publishers and brands in the affiliate marketing space.?

The company ensures that links leading from a blog post to a company's website, for example, are reliably tracked. If a website visitor follows the link and actually decides to make a purchase, the blogger receives a financial reward. As the digital middleman that takes care of reliably tracking this process, Digidip receives a percentage of the amount paid to the blogger.?

"We make money by bundling affiliate networks. We are rewarded for tracked sales, of which we distribute the majority to the publisher,"

says Sabrina Spielberger, summarizing her business model.

Nine years later, the start-up has established itself as a reliable partner for publishers and brands. The start-up's 30,000 business customers include E-Bay, Nike and Walmart.?

The fact that it had "plenty but weak competition" from the start was both an advantage and a problem. Because in an industry plagued by fraud and intransparency, it took a lot of convincing to win the trust of customers.?

And yet Sabrina Spielberger also had to bluff a little, especially when expanding into the USA:?

"When I flew to the U.S. to pitch, I told people that we were just setting up an office [in the U.S.]. I conveyed to them that we have a strong presence and can be there when they need us."?

It was a move that worked: although the company still doesn't have a single employee in North America, the U.S. is now Digidip's largest market. That's because even without an office, the company's remote approach makes it easily accessible to American customers.?

"We have managed the balancing act of automating everything for the customer on the one hand, but also offering hands-on customer support," says the young entrepreneur, summing up her recipe for success. This is attractive to both content creators and brands. While the former can focus on content creation, brands can rest assured that they won't be cheated: A win-win situation for both sides, in other words.?

And yet it is by no means a given that Digidip has established itself at the top of the market. "When I founded Digidip, it was 'We don't need another meta-network,'"the entrepreneur recalls of the early days:

"The competition wasn't doing a good job, so it was hard to sell us as better."?

Her main advice to other young entrepreneurs is to remain pragmatic and do their homework:

?"I would research the market carefully first. You shouldn't just go with your gut and follow your passion. It's important to include things like the market, opportunities and risks. In addition, the unique selling point and also the competitor analysis is a very important point."?

However, you can't do it completely without passion either. After all, that's what motivates you to keep going despite all the difficulties. In addition, the young entrepreneur first had to learn that you can never start early enough to establish values and proactively shape the corporate culture:?

"I established values much too late. At the time, I thought, that's start-up blah blah and we don't need that. But it is important,"

the founder says in retrospect.?

Although Sabrina Spielberger still works for Digidip, she has since sold the company. The sale wasn't about money for her, however, but about the future of the company:?

"I feel the industry is going to change a lot. We need innovation. I simply don't know anything about certain topics. That's why I sold,"

says the young entrepreneur, explaining her decision.

If you want to hear more about Sabrina Spielberger's pragmatic approach, her opinion on networking and her future plans, listen in to the podcast!?

The #FemaleFebruary is only possible thanks to the support of Canva, your design tool for everything related to content and presentations. Canva is offering an extended trial for their pro version (the core features are free anyway), for everyone who reads or listens to the Female February. Click here to test the new way of creating content in teams for 45 days.