SeedBlink Blog

We're thrilled to welcome Adriana Gogonel, the dynamic CEO & Co-founder of StatInf, one of the promising startups currently raising on SeedBlink, to our blog. Adriana's journey from a post-doc researcher to an entrepreneur is as intriguing as the innovative solution, RocqStat, her company offers.

StatInf is at the forefront of providing robust tools tailored for industries such as Aerospace, Automotive, and Autonomous vehicles. With Adriana at the helm, the company's focus on catering to embedded systems markets is as unwavering as their commitment to quality and innovation. In this exclusive interview, we delve into Adriana’s journey, the inception of StatInf, the unique features and applications of RocqStat, and how the startup navigates the complex yet exciting landscape of EU regulations and diverse market dynamics.

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or an avid tech enthusiast, this conversation promises a wealth of knowledge and inspiration.

• How did you decide you want to become an entrepreneur?

During my post-doc, with my supervisor and current associate, Liliana Cucu-Grosjean, DR Inria, I co-wrote two patents which allow significant advances in the field they address. We tried to transfer them to companies that already existed but we realized that no one other than the two of us knew how to make them grow. So we decided to create a company.

• What’s your background?

I have a PhD in statistics on medium-term temperature estimation methods with a view to improving the estimation of electricity consumption in France. Still in the academic world, during a post-doc at Inria, I applied one of the methods proposed in my thesis to estimating the worst times of computer programs. At the end of this post-doc I co-founded StatInf.

• Supposing it’s the first time I hear about your solution, Rocqstat, can you explain how it works and what are its most important features?

RocqStat, through its flagship functionality, provides a criterion for choosing the processor size that the plane/car/rocket/submarine/needs to be operational. Another important feature allows the designer to carry out non-regression tests throughout the design process and which make it possible to target the places which produce regressions, if any. Another functionality allows the correspondence between HW events and SW events, which makes it possible to optimize the use of HW by the SW.

• Currently, your solution, RocqStat , is dedicated primarily to industries like Aerospace, Automotive and Autonomous vehicles. Do you plan to diversify into other industries, as well?

The software can already address all embedded systems markets: railway, naval, etc. A strategic choice was made to start with critical markets (those requiring certification). In the long term, the field of Edge Computing and IIoT will be expanded markets.

• Although EU is governed by regulation, there are still challenges when it comes to countries' legislation. How do you cope with a common yet fragmented market - does it affect the business?

The market where there will be significant changes is that of autonomous vehicles and we have already placed ourselves in this market alongside the important players who participate, at the French level, in the implementation of the regulations. For other markets, possible changes will also be in the sense that the need for software such as RocqStat will increase.

• Being a startup founder comes with a lot of challenges. What have been the biggest ones you and your team faced so far?

Indeed, setting up a company from scratch means going on a journey with a lot of randomness. My first challenge was to take responsibility for bringing other people on board with us, committing to paying salaries. But in one year there were already five of us and I quickly understood that we were all gaining experience by moving forward on the project. When we were little, we learned to have several hats, a main one and several secondary ones. To the point where when we started to grow the team, we had the opposite challenge, because it wasn't easy to just stay on our main tasks. Another challenge has been learning to operate as a large company while we are still quite small.

• You have a diversified array of investors joining your round. Why did you go for them and how are their specializations in synergy?

We offer very technical solutions. If at this stage we need Business Angels, if they do not have the technical background to understand the solution, they will not go there. The VCs have the necessary means (expert analysts or calling on experts) to confirm the relevance of the solution but they are not going to go for early seed. Finally, the common traits of our investors are respect for excellence, confidence in those who dare to offer it and the desire to participate in the success of innovative projects, put at the service of improving technology in a field that affects us all. They listen to our needs and are there to help us with advice and networking, showing us shortcuts for the best way forward.

• If you could travel back in time, is there any decision you wish you could change and why?

Whether it's the company or my professional career in general, I always take the best from all my experiences. StatInf, in particular, has been a journey where we have been so well supported that we are almost a textbook case of how to make a successful startup from scratch. We haven't gone fast, but we've gone very far, and we've grown taller with each step in the company's growth.

• It’s clear that every industry has its own particularities. Could you name some of the trends and challenges specific to the tech one?

This is a sector where perhaps the best engineers to graduate from school, work. Profiles who can and believe they can do everything. They will want to create their tools, rather than buy them. Our challenge is to make our product a software so complete, easy and pleasant to use that they will no longer be able to imagine that they could do without it thanks to their homemade codes.

• Finally, we would like to give our readers some practical advice, especially to the young, ambitious entrepreneurs who are trying to ride the waves of the tech industry. What are the top 3 lessons you’ve learned so far, as a founder?

Listen to all the advice that people who have already done this kind of journey give you. But trust yourself, trust your instinct but above all once you have made a decision, move forward with it, and forget the alternatives that you had taken into account.

Don't forget that it's just one of the trips that you will take in this life, you have to put all your energy into succeeding but accept that it may not work and that's okay, you will have learned a lot of things.

Choose carefully the people who will surround you on this journey, because you will have to trust them. Learn to delegate, and take all the help one can offer you.

Explore StatInf’s opportunity on SeedBlink.