Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1120492
16.05.19 TRENDSETTERS MASSIMO COSTA In what ways does Hotjar help website owners and what does it offer over and above its competitors? Hotjar helps website owners to under- stand how people are really using their site – it aids them to make sense of the numbers they see in their analytics tools. We call this "behavior analytics" and in- cludes seeing where people click, how far they scroll and recreating their expe- rience. Over and beyond this Hotjar also allows website owners to understand why their users behave the way they do by us- ing "user feedback" tools. Hotjar is diff erent in that we combine this feedback with behavioural analytics (at the "hip"). We also don't have a "sales team" you need to speak to before you can use and test out the platform. We're very much "self-serve" and anyone can just create an account and start using Hotjar. What gave you the idea to create Hotjar and how did it grow and develop since its inception? For six years I worked in a software company where we struggled to fi nd the right tools we needed to improve the experience and improve our conversion rates. After that experience I spent two years consulting some of the biggest digi- tal brands in the world. During this time, I realised that these companies were also struggling with the same challenges I had faced earlier in my career: they needed multiple tools that were expensive and complicated. We built Hotjar to be a simple, aff orda- ble all-in-one solution. We launched a beta late in 2014 that lasted until mid- 2015. During this time Hotjar was tested on over 20,000 sites. Since then we've fo- cused on improving Hotjar based on the feedback from our users and customers. How many businesses make use of Hotjar's services? Over 400,000 sites use Hotjar to collect and analyse data about their site. Hotjar off ers a free plan as well as a premium paid plan for businesses. We currently have 23,000 paying customers. Do you have an international market-base, and do you count any big names amongst your clients? Hotjar has customers in over 150 coun- tries around the world. e biggest mar- ket is the US, followed by Europe and the UK. Hotjar is used by some of the highest traffi c sites and biggest brands in the world including Ryanair, AirCanada, Hubspot and Box. As the winner of this year's EY Malta Entrepreneur of the Year Award, you'll now be representing Malta at the World Entrepreneur event in Monaco. What was it like to win this award, and what are you expecting from Monaco? I'm not a big fan of awards as I prefer to keep a low profi le and just focus on de- livering value to our customers. However, it was wonderful for Hotjar and myself to receive local recognition for what our amazing team has achieved. I look for- ward to participating in Monaco – mainly because I look forward to meeting other entrepreneurs and be inspired by their stories. Meet the 2019 winner of the EY Malta Entrepreneur of the Year Award David Darmanin is the founder and CEO of Hotjar, a business which helps website owners understand user behaviour and optimise conversions. He is the winner of EY Malta Entrepreneur of the Year™ Award 2019. In June, he will travel to Monaco to represent Malta and compete in EY's World Entrepreneur of the Year™ award together with business leaders from more than 60 countries EY Malta Entrepreneur of the Year David Darmanin and Ron Attard, EY Malta Managing Partner