3 New Startup Products That You’d Actually Use
Where you work, how you work, and the platform you do it from are all being revolutionised by three UK Startups that demand your early adoption
Typically, early-adoption is one the biggest challenges of any startup.
Often people will enthusiastically support an idea, but seldom will they sign up early and have a clunky prototype on their actual device. Neither will they want to provide constructive feedback which is the surefire thing that all new products need in the beginning.
Three startups pitching at London’s New Tech Startups and Entrepreneurs night are all in their early development, but they already offer a product or service that is definitely worth exploring right now. Without any exaggeration, if you’re into tech, there’s a high chance you’ll want to download all three.
Meos
Meos have got a serious job on their hands: they are looking to rebuild the internet.
Impressive founder Wilhelm Van Der Walt, says,
“The current architecture of the Internet is to be consumer. Yet the internet consumed us.”
He’s referring to how the internet is a tricky, beguiling and, at times, intimidating place to navigate. Early users of the internet were so excited about a world with shared information that key security protocols were overlooked. Now, says Van Der Walt, the next version of the internet needs users who are excited about privacy and personalisation.
Meos provide one baseline product: a personal cloud with a server inside just for you. Their code will lock the cloud down, making it impregnable from the outside, even to them! Then inside your Meos cloud, they will offer their own kind of App Store with a bunch of essential applications that you are already familiar with: blog, dropbox, email, messaging etc.
If you worry about your online privacy or you like the idea of being in control of your own data, check out this explainer animation and/or sign up to Meos here.
Autocruit.io
Alongside estate agents, recruitment might just be the one industry that is guaranteed to leave a bad taste in the mouth. Be it from an employer or job-seeker perspective, the most unfair part, is that we ALL have to use recruitment agents at some point. As it stands, the recruitment process is as broken as the housing market.
Until now.
Autocruit is the world’s first recruiterless recruitment platform.
That means accurate job matching through smart profiles and algorithmic screening.
For employers, the traditional recruitment approach is bloated and expensive. 15–35% commission of the successful candidates’ salary to the recruitment agency is an industry standard that no-one but the agent appreciates. With Autocruit it’s $500 per month per active job on the platform and you can hire as many developers as you like for the same job with no extra cost.
For job seekers, whereas before the the traditional job hunting process was not unlike a full time job in itself, now you can manage your smart profile and apply for jobs with super-speedy video screening.
Autocruit has been in the making for eighteen months by brothers Dave (CEO) and Paul (COO) Cervi and the product has been live for only 7 weeks.
The only obvious drawback is that it’s (currently) only entering the tech industry. Dave Cervi, we all need this! I need this in the media and communications sector!
Wecoffee
In his previous role as a digital strategist in the automotive industry, wecoffee.io co-founder Arnaud Mardegan was travelling a lot.
“Which was always very cool, up until I had to actually get some work done.”
Then it was noisy cafes, glitchy wifi and unreachable plug sockets. So Mardegan quit his job and launched a business to help creatives, freelancers and students find a work-worthy work-space.
What immediately jumps out with WeCoffee.io is its simplicity. Just log on and search for cafes and coworking spaces near you in London. You book for an hour, half day, or full day, and generally get a promo offer with your choice. So, at a glance on the platform, if you book one hour cafe space at Vegan Yes! in Shoreditch, you get 30% off your drinks orders when you are there.
Mardegan’s revenue model is simple. Cafe/space owners are charged a fixed fee or 10% of the total transaction. By the end of 2019 they intend to have 2000 London venues registered and 10,000 bookings a week.
The platform literally launched this week and they need your early adoption.
Early Adopters
Have you ever been an early adopter? What was your experience? I’d be super intrigued to hear.
Why not give one of these startups an early olive branch and help them develop to the next level? You can leave your feedback and thoughts below. It’s definitely what all early stage startups need…
Craig writes for Calcey Technologies, a boutique software product engineering agency with roots in the Silicon Valley, that lends its software development muscle to start-ups and scale-ups around the world. Calcey’s client portfolio includes global names such as PayPal and Stanford University, alongside numerous exciting startups, including Nutrifix (UK), Nelly.com (Sweden) and MyBudget(Australia). The team of 100+ engineers, based at its development centre in Sri Lanka, are looking to engage with more startups.
