From idea to prototype to predictive AI platform

2017-2018 – The Starting Point: Identifying the Business Blind Spot

Customer behavior is the key variable for guiding business strategy, often unpredictable and difficult to analyze, yet undoubtedly a crucial factor for profitability. Today’s decision-makers strive to better understand their customers’ behavior to drive their acquisition and retention strategies.

The best source to guide these decisions is data. Over the past decade, companies have collected it in massive volumes, yet it remains complex to process and interpret. For Maximilian Gismondi, CEO of Backwell Tech, data is one of the most valuable untapped strategic assets.

By 2017, Maximilian already had experience with data-driven business strategies, combined with his academic background as an economist and statistician. From the start, he knew that artificial intelligence would redefine decision-making. By 2018, he launched his first AI project: automating news content generation for a highly promising investor. This marked the beginning of a long-term mission to turn data into predictive business value.

2019-2020 – A Shift in Focus: AI Beyond Content Automation

The foundations of Backwell Tech were laid when Maximilian partnered with Emiliano Massi, an expert in Artificial Intelligence Research and Development (Quant Development), to begin creating AI-powered applications. After connecting with an investor linked to a publishing company, who saw potential in AI-driven journalism, the Backwell Tech team began developing their first proof of concept (POC) through self-funding, confident that the prototype would secure investment.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the team faced its first big challenge: The investor decided to back out of the deal, leaving Maximilian and his co-founder with an unfinished project and limited resources, but not without direction. Rather than abandon the idea, they doubled down and threw themselves back into research and market analysis to identify new investment possibilities where they could continue to apply their technology.

2021-2022 – Building an Idea and its Challenges

While pivoting from content automation, Maximilian continued leading a variety of AI initiatives, from developing stock market forecasting models in partnership with Boston Finance to launching speech-to-text tools and conversational AI for business services. These projects sharpened his ability to identify practical, high-impact applications of machine learning across industries, laying the groundwork for what would soon become Backwell Tech’s core solutions.

As part of the strategy turnaround, Maximilian reached out to his network of contacts and connected with new investors interested in AI-driven proof-of-concepts, but who were hesitant about investing in writing software. After a few iterations, they identified a pressing business intelligence problem: the inability of the company they worked for to effectively leverage their data for at-risk customer retention.

The central question then emerged: What if companies had an AI-based tool that could predict customer churn before it occurred?

This opened a new application area for development by the Backwell Tech team in the customer and business area. However, the high cost of developing this proof of concept with predictive artificial intelligence, coupled with the limited manpower of the Backwell Tech team, forced Maximilian Gismondi to get a job as a data analyst that would allow him to subsidize Backwell Tech operations. From 2021 to 2023, he worked between 70-80 hours per week to ensure the continuity of the company and the success of the project. 

By this time, Backwell Tech had developed a scalable predictive AI framework designed to:

• Analyse customer behaviours in real time
• Score customers based on churn risk (high, medium, low)
• Deliver proactive recommendations to improve retention

2023-2024 – AI’s Moment & Refinement of the Proposal

As Backwell Tech developed its models, artificial intelligence solutions began to gain popularity and traction at a rapid pace and followed by an increase in companies looking for AI-based solutions to include in their processes.

For example, the popular ChatGPT model, which launched a free preview only in 2022 (Nyst, 2024), reached 100 million users faster than TikTok, according to Reuters (2023), underscoring the rapid market readiness for AI tools, even in their early stages. The rise of AI pushed the Backwell Tech team to strengthen its value proposition and business acumen to reach out with more concrete solutions to new sectors such as utilities and insurance. 

Backwell Tech's proprietary algorithmic models, which have a strong foundation in applied mathematics, statistics, machine learning, and natural language processing, proved to be highly accurate in their predictions, with up to 70% precision in a specific case for an energy company. This achievement allowed Backwell Tech's technology to move from a theoretical concept to a more tangible value for guiding at-risk customer retention strategies with clearer and more transparent insights for business leaders.

In 2024, Maximilian left his second job to fully dedicate himself to Backwell Tech, securing his first investors. By then, he was no longer just an early adopter of AI but a recognized expert in applied machine learning, combining strategic foresight with practical innovation. Thanks to his leadership, Maximilian evolved Backwell Tech from a startup into a scale-up and began structuring the company for global expansion.

2025 & Beyond – Scaling AI for Business Growth

Having laid this solid foundation and secured further funding, Backwell Tech now extends its AI capabilities beyond customer churn prediction, covering also:

• Price Sensitivity: Optimize pricing models using predictive analytics.
• Customer lifetime value: Understanding which customers generate the most revenue over the long term.
• Developing the explainability of AI: Providing clear and interpretable forecasts for the business leader.

Backwell Tech believes in the power of data-driven decision-making, supported by predictive and explainable AI. By ensuring clarity and transparency in the outcomes of its solutions, Maximilian and his team are innovating the way predictive analysis is done, with ethics and a focus on delivering valuable results.

Based in Berlin, Backwell Tech is expanding its operations globally, leveraging the growing market potential of artificial intelligence to implement it in practical ways that help companies transform their profitability.

About Backwell Tech

Backwell Tech is a Berlin-based high-tech company specializing in predictive AI solutions. The platform offers companies scalable AI models for profit maximization by utilizing historical and real-time data, ensuring data integrity, and supporting dynamic pricing strategies. Since its founding in 2019, Backwell Tech has combined cutting-edge research with practical innovation in explainable algorithms. The company focuses on ethical AI development and delivers reliable, interpretable forecasts that enable informed business decisions. More information at www.backwelltechcorp.com.

Backwelltech Corp contact:

Maximilian Gismondi

hello@backwelltechcorp.com  

Sources:

• Nyst, A., 2024. “History Of ChatGPT: A Timeline Of The Meteoric Rise Of Generative AI Chatbots”. Link: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/history-of-chatgpt-timeline/488370/ 
• Hu, K. (2023). “ChatGPT sets record for fastest-growing user base - analyst note”. Link: https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/