Exploring MagicDash

AI (but really ChatGPT) has been seeping into so many facets of our lives and businesses, it has revolutionized various industries, and the world of commerce is no exception.

Through my work with Express Checkout, I’ve encountered countless new startups leveraging AI in some capacity. Siena AI just raised $4.7 million in funding to develop an AI customer service agent with empathetic capabilities, AI Personas, multitasking abilities, and a cognitive reasoning-based engine. Both Google and Amazon released generative AI tools for product imagery. Alloy.ai added predictive and generative AI features to its software platform to help consumer brands with sales, inventory, forecasting, and supply chain challenges. BigCommerce and Google Cloud partnered earlier this year to bring AI-powered tools to enterprise merchants, including AI-powered writing capabilities, personalized storefronts, and AI-driven data analytics.

There is no shortage of use cases for AI and in an era where DTC brands face unprecedented challenges, the role of AI in driving customer retention has become increasingly vital.

Today, NYC-based startup Peel is making waves with the launch of their groundbreaking AI tool MagicDash, an "AI Retention Strategist." I sat down with Co-founder & CMO Ben Hindman to talk through the release.

Nate:  So, what is it like building in AI in 2023?

Ben: “It’s moving fast. A lot of creativity. You’re starting to see the next layer evolve. We’re part of a generation of startups improving the capacity of what LLMs can do. Purpose-built applications with AI-optimized architectures, creating new use cases, and expanding what’s possible. 

Nate: Don’t leave me hanging, what is it!

Ben: It’s called MagicDash. It’s designed to give you answers that unlock LTV. You can ask it a question about your business, And it selects which reports would tell the story best. Then it generates insights and writes them as headlines on each report. As time goes on, we’ve built it to get smarter and actually alert you to patterns or opportunities in your reports- help you find money. 

Nate: Sounds really interesting! How is it different from other AI tools on the market? 

Ben: It’s the first AI application that is actually reading the data and the charts, and explaining why they’re important- in plain speak. Also we’ve built it on top of Peel which has a library of hundreds of on-demand DTC reports, slices, and audiences - it goes very deep. So it’s not just a visualization tool, it's a synthesis tool, that you can double click and dive deep into the data to find that golden insight about that perfect segment.  We optimized for internal shareability- it’s meant to look like newspaper headlines with revenue opportunities being delivered to you everyday.  

Nate: In that template library, what are the most underrated DTC reports? Give me your top 3 favorites:

Ben: Ooh - Hard Question!…  Top of my head…. 

1. Market Basket for the combinations of products that have the best repurchase rate? 

2. Subscribers segmented by post-purchase surveys - seeing that grow in usage.

3. Annnnnd - Hibernating Audiences which is created from an RFM

Nate: I bet I can make an educated guess here, but who is this product for?

Ben: Any DTC business that has recurring revenue - like subscriptions, memberships, or repeat purchases - this is a way to supercharge it. Founders, Marketers, Retention people, Data people… and “not data people”. We’ve been really lucky. We’ve been working with our Retention Marketers from our customers to design the results. True Classic Tees, Aura Bora, Harney & Sons Teas, and Javy Coffee to name a few. Big thank you to their team, they’ve been super helpful in developing this!

Nate: What’s the hardest part about launching a startup in AI right now? 

Ben: It’s noisy out there! Everyone is claiming a lot, and it’s unclear how “real” it is. But then again there are some companies that are driving crazy value. So a lot of differentiation has to happen after the trial - put up or shut up. But there is momentum in B2B… companies are adopting AI.  marketers are eager to get that unfair advantage. I mean, OUR stack has fully transformed since the summer. Motion for creation , Burnerpage for A/B testing, Daily.ai for newsletter and Podpitch for Podcast placements. All are built using AI. Oh and i’m using Adobe’s new voice alteration device for videos we’re shooting, gamechanger   

Nate: Where’s this Magic Dash going?

Ben: So, this summer we asked a big question: What would it look like to build an application that is actually itself “customer obsessed”? Especially in DTC, we all talk about “customer-centrality”, but it can be so tough to get the full story of your audience. So hard to really get your arms around your business. We want to fix that. We imagine a tool that keeps track of billions of customer data-points, and synthesizes them like a newspaper, in a way that makes it obvious what the heck to focus on next! 

Nate: And where can people go to follow Magic Dash?

Ben: We’re live, baby. Go try it out - you get 5 questions risk free. Go to Magicdash.com or connect with me on LinkedIn Ben Hindman.

Click here to watch a short video on magic dash 👇️