GOLD AVENUE: A Precious Metals Startup Made for Our Time

How Alessandro Soldati of GOLD AVENUE created a great place for people to BUY GOLD ONLINE. 

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Alessandro Soldati: I am doing well, thanks. My grandparents got the vaccine last month, so we can now relax a little more. But like everyone, we hope to be able to get back to normal as soon as possible.

Tell us about you, your career, how you co-founded GOLD AVENUE?

Alessandro Soldati: I’m a passionate entrepreneur addicted to creating added value. Over the last ten years, I have co-founded and taken part in the creation of several startups. My background is in e-Commerce development, and in 2017 I joined the MKS PAMP GROUP to manage a new project: democratizing access to physical precious metals. With GOLD AVENUE, people can now easily buy gold products online and store them in secure vaults in Switzerland in one click.

How does GOLD AVENUE innovate? 

Alessandro Soldati: We have created an all-in-one platform to buy, sell, and store physical precious metals in a transparent and accessible way. Today, the online offer in precious metals is mostly aimed at coin collectors or a little archaic. Our innovation is getting rid of the barriers to entry on the market for investors. Precious metals are a complex industry, and buyers often struggle to find a partner they can trust. We are customer-centric, and our users really appreciate our easy-to-use and transparent solution.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Alessandro Soldati: Being a digital business, the pandemic has boosted our results. And the uncertainty hitting the financial markets has pushed investors to look for safer assets: gold is the global and historical reference. The combination of those two factors has really accelerated our growth.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned?

Alessandro Soldati: Since we have experienced exponential growth, we’ve had to hire new employees in the middle of the pandemic while also respecting social distancing and all the regulations. We’ve realized that the main challenge of a growing company such as ours is hiring talented people in a short amount of time. I believe that is something no one should underestimate when it comes to recruiting.

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Alessandro Soldati: We were already used to interacting with our customers online through chat, email, or phone. First, we’ve had to hire more customer agents to meet the demand. Then our main obstacle has been to coordinate our different customer agents, who are now working from home, as they cannot exchange information as easily as in the office. To solve this challenge and increase efficiency, we decided to start integrating a CRM service with Salesforce.

Your final thoughts?

Alessandro Soldati: We are experiencing one of the most unexpected global crises of the century, maybe of our lifetime. But difficult times always offer the best opportunities, and those who are ready to embrace change will turn these difficulties into future successes.

Your website?

https://www.goldavenue.com/