Thinking Digital Startup Competition
Welcome to the 9th startup competition - we used to say Annual, but that's not quite right any more. 12 startups get to pitch for 3 minutes each
I'm Will, cofounder of Base Pace and we want to make fitness easier for everyone. Fitness knowledge is either hard to find or trivial
We're creating personalised adaptive training programmes powered by AI - we gather lots of data and tune per user
we want to harness events like the Great North Run to give athletes and runners a better experience and healthier training
we're PhD Students from University of Newcastle who have been rowing for years and are testing with Newcastle Uni personal trainers
q: revenue model? - a: subscription service and white label apps, with a % of subscription - revenue for race organisers too
q: uniqueness? a: others are static, we're adaptive to injuries or other life events. There are other AI co's but linking with events should spread more
James Hanson, co founder of Biblio - we are digitising certification management for offshore and renewable energy
certification at the moment is spreadsheets and paper or pdf certs - we want a dat trail from the trainers to learners to employers
we want to create a much more usable dataset to create efficiencies compared o the current setup - this hasn't happened as it is an addon
Offshore Renewable is the fastest growing industry in the UK, and there is a high risk if certification is not correct
Wind engineers alone spend £2000/year on training and certification
we're a spin out of Layers Studio - me and Paula Donnelly
q: you're not delivering training, just certification? a: currently it is done through spreadsheets and printing, we digitise it
q: how do you get them to trust you? a: we are looking into security solutions - we looked at Blockchain but that may just be a trend
There are digital certs already, but not integrated into the process, so adoption is low
We all have that friend we go to to ask what show should I see? I have been that friend. We made a web page, but then a website for friends to rate shows too
we took all the information we got, and compared the ratings to see what the best show is, and tailor it to the individual
we then built a calendar to track what you have seen and to recommend shows based on that
we can track when shows move venues, and when performers or directors move to another show for further recommendations
we have data on all shows back to 1937 - IMDB for UK Theatre
q: just musicals? a: musicals, dance and plays - not comedy and music. Do we go outside UK, or add in music and comedy next?
revenue is partly ticket sales, but also data for shows to target tours as we know where fans are of previous productions, and can go to amateur too
1-10% of ticket sales on bigger shows, advertising for smaller venues too
Chris design engineer and founder of Global teacher - currently 15% of the world population - 1Bn people
1Bn people don't have internet, and we're shipping printed textbooks to these people.
Pod is the worlds first 3D printed solar-powered projector to deliver teaching material to off-grid places
We have a charitable board and a commercial board. We're going to Kenya for a trial in July to aim for 1M marginalised students
I'm Edwin Bartlett, CEO of Hi Comply - we help our customers build trust with their customers by providing information security and certifying them with ISO
We spent £20k of our £30k startup funding to get ISO certification, and that led to a £20k/mo contract
we saw that businesses suck at information security - no-one likes Cyber and they fear a guy in a hoodie will steal your data and get you fined
there are 200k UK businesses needing this - fintech and more
q: are you a consultancy or a product? a: core product is certifications such as ISO - you don't need a consultant, though you do need an audit 90% software 10% consulting
you need to be audited and certified every year so it is recurring revenue
I'm Jeni Smith - networking strategist and founder of Net Kno - I'm passionate about networking with people
How do you know which networking events to go to? People have chosen based on whether there is free booze and a buffet
I have built a SaaS platform to tell you which events are right for you - there are 200-300 events at any given time
it launched last year, and we're enabling you to follow event hosts, topics and themes so you don't miss valuable opportunites
Business is self funded - £40k invested, returned that last year, on track for £100k this year
vote for me to empower more people to connect
q: revenue? a: subscription model - £150/year as personal advice given- also online courses too; will do a monthly sub for automated
q: Global teacher who sponsors a pod? a: anyone could do that, but we're targetting corporates and philanthropists - we have 100 so far
q: hicomply, how do you generate the documentation? a: we have a document merge tool based on pre-written templates tuned for each company.
q: are you cheaper than a consultant? a: about the same, but the consultants get to do advice rather than boilerplate
q: how do you manage copyright/IP on content? a: when you donate a document it is within the pod, not available externally
q: user activity and growth a: when people add info, we generate a post for their profiles on social media. We get actors sharing info about their show, then look at others
Place Changers is a SaaS platform for submitting planning applications to speed up planning
we need to decarbonise existing and future buildings so need faster planning
Uk 400k planning applications are submitted without geodata and we are digitising that
we have a tool for online consultations rather than physical events - we import 3d models and mapping onfo and create interactive expereinces
we are working with developers and local authorities -
I'm Sebastian Weise, co-founder is Alex Moon - we're hiring
q: LAs customers? a: different teams within LAs, we also work with housing associations
We have a project based sale at the moment, but are. looking at a subscription/retainer model too
We come in at about the 10 homes level of planning at the moment
I'm Michael, founder of Recall - remote working with conference calls, emails and Kanban boardsinvolves lots of rummaging
Recall converts a project plan into software - we can show critical path and what has been done, and connect tasks in a graph
q: what is the price compared to Asana? a: seat based subscription at £10/seat/mo
it is standalone at the moment, but want to connect to github or trello
It is live at https://recalllab.com - we have a 7 day free trial
the big selling point is connection between tasks - dependencies
I am Regina, the founder of Renovate Law - a lawyer spends ~ 30% of their time doing research - 15 hours a week.
we want to improve legal research so that this time and billing is reducde
Lexis Nexis et al have a large database to do search but they don't help you with case management
we want to use machine learning to find related cases for your work on a specific case
q: AI legal research - this is hard as there is nuance in law a: what we do is use the software to map Uk and US legal terms and precedents
95% of goods are transported by port systems, and they are mainly paper based or old excel scripts
legacy systems make it hard to adopt, and the date is locked in to the closed systems
our offering is to improve Uk port systems - we can provide packaged services to ports
we're aiming for an enterprise subscription model
I'm Chris founder of Xpllorre - we're creating a Metaverse streaming service for learning
Tutors want more immersive learning,
we're creating a tech-first platform where developers can upload their content to our service
We have done a proof of concept for 4500 students at coventry university
q: £20/user paid by who? a: paid by the university q: hard to get university to pay a: we have interest from universities, though they want caps on usage time
I'm Damian Hypi is empowering next generation fo app makers 0.0029% of people can develop software. We need to add to this
we have a visual drag and drop editor so entrepreneurs and designers can build an App without code, and developers can add in APi access
this year we are focused on no code and mean it
q: I understand no-code idea, what's different? a: time consuming part of software is rebuilding things over and over - we have reusable code libraries
you can connect users from external tools, and build a hypi dependency that is used by external tools
Honourable mentions @seer_bi @Xpllore1
Judge's choice for pitching tomorrow is @dresscirclecouk and audience choice is @globalteacher_
Thanks to @Mincoffs @InvestSundUK @STyneBusiness & @TechStartupSR for sponsoring the Startup Competition