Interview with Nathalie Brähler

Nathalie Brähler is co-founder of Virtual Audience Influencer. She participated in the past StartupLeap edition, together with the CEO and founder of VAI John Meulemans. Virtual Audience Influencer is bringing virtual influencers to live by empowering the audience of brands

How did you find the problem and the solution?

To find the solution, we decided to use a new strategy. We flipped the script of the current virtual influencer marketing field, giving the audience a return on attention.

What’s the best thing about your co-founder?

The best thing about John is that he combines marketing, trends and business model knowledge with creative thinking.

What surprised you the most about being a startup founder?

The most surprising thing was that we managed to turn the COVID-19 (semi) lockdown into a benefit, turning threats into opportunities.

What’s the coolest thing about being a founder?

The best thing about being a founder is the creativity and opportunity to connect the dots and to put the paper concept into practice for clients, using existing and new technology.

What’s the worst thing about being a founder?

Looking for funding!

If you can go back in time, what would you do differently?

Start earlier. We have been talking about bringing this to live for so long, but the daily jobs got in the way. StartupLeap was the right moment to push the Go! button.

What’s your advice on approaching investors?

Show them the beef. In other words, focus on the severity of the problem. The bigger the need, the more important the the solution becomes.

What advice would you give to an early stage entrepreneur? A thing you wanted to know when you started off?

You will be facing intellectual property issues almost right from the start. So make sure you familiarise with IP law.

How do you see your idea in 10 years?

Since our VAI runs on A.I. it will function as an almost autonomous virtual influencer, as if it were a human influencer connecting with the audience (Gen Z). You probably will not know the difference anymore between a human or a synthetic influencer.