Home Blog Page 15

Never give up because it takes time

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Povilenas Fashion House: focused on soul, character, and sophistication

Please introduce yourself and your startup  Povilenas  to our readers!

I’m Oskaras Povilenas, Founder and CEO of Povilenas Fashion House.

Our designs are focused on soul, character, and sophistication, not the gender of the person wearing them. Each one is as distinctive and unique as the humans of our world.

Genderless fashion designers make clothes for people, not body parts. They have a state of mind that focuses on the fluid nature of beauty. But genderless doesn’t have to mean shapeless, formless neutrality. It can be vividly expressive, striking, and vibrant. Aesthetics should never be compromised.

Our androgynous styles are created to help you embrace your most authentic self. They have the power to express who you are beyond the binary. They are unapologetic, daring, and transformative. They do not conform to boundaries or boxes, and each one is crafted from the characteristics of a distinctive individual.

In our garments, you will see the past and the future. You will see the divergence of the world and all the people in it. You will see heterogeneity in its purest form.

In addition, some of our designs is limited. Custom designs are completely unique and curated from an interpretation of the customer’s character and essence.

Why did you decide to start with  Povilenas ?

I am simple man. I do not need so much. But I need solitude to arrange my thoughts in a manner, so that I understand them. My brain seems to be extremely biased to see the
aesthetic and exclude the rest. I would be aware, but not focus on thoughts and perceptions causing negative emotions in me. Sometimes it may happen that I find myself far from reality.
Moments of rationalisation will follow and ground me. Those are unpleasant, but necessary. This oscillations are essential. They drive the process to create a my own world of aesthetic.

What is the vision behind  Povilenas ?

To be synonymous with elegance and creativity by fusing traditional aesthetics with a futuristic vision. Our concept SLOW-SHORT-STOP describes our mission on sustainability – slow fashion, short supply chains (EU only) and the stop of low-quality production and material waste.

SLOW. At Povilenas Fashion House, we epitomise slow fashion. We uphold ourselves to the highest standards of craftsmanship, sustainability and ethical practices. Each concept is rooted in the past, where it lends from tradition to acquire a timeless aesthetic. It lives in the present, as local artisans imbue their soul and story into the garment. And it transcends into the future as a long lasting, quality design that customers will wear for years to come.

SHORT. Making the supply chain as short as possible allows Povilenas Fashion House full control from concept to the final seem. We work directly with local artisans and seamstresses to promote their craft, empowering and elevating them to world renowned status. Our materials are carefully sourced from local, European manufacturers All our fabrics are Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified and details like buttons are sourced from local suppliers. This way, we support local craftspeople with fair working conditions and pay.

STOP. We promote responsible consumption patterns as the highest form of expression. Slow fashion is the choice to articulate your individuality through clothing rather than mindlessly consuming the next passing trend. It is the choice to express over excess. Our collections embody this ethos by featuring long-lasting apparel in limited editions. Any excess fabric and clothing left from previous collections are upcycledin new collections — eliminating waste and the negative impact of producing new.

How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?

The brilliance of highlights was distracting from the challenges of the fashion industry heavily in the past decades. The pandemic came as a boon and bane. Meaning it gave us the needed time to step back and reflect where we stand, whilst being economically highly challenging.

We were situated in a treadmill of quantity, growth and excellence that placed a high pressure on creativity and is its ultimate enemy. It was noticeable that quality suffered. For being creative it is essential to take the time to think and reflect. This was simply not possible thinking of the 4 and more ??? collections that had to be designed and produced every year.

While the production slowed down, the sustainability movement accelerated this year. Before the pandemic the industry did put very little aspect to the wide range of meaning this word implies. Yet it is the future.

We as an industry of visionaries are responsible to bring the future to the present.

Who is your target audience?

25 to 45 years old person. Every human who loves quality, design and a vision of my fashion house.

What is the USP of your startup?

Provide my customers quality and expertly crafted products and deliver them with empathy, trustworthiness and generosity.

Can you describe your typical workday ?

Everyday brings challanges because at this stage of my start up i’m managing everything. From skecthing to design. From funds to marketing.

Everyday is different. But i like IT.

Where do you see yourself and your startup  Povilenas  in five years?

In 5 years we would like to break open more markets in Europe as well as China. Also new fabric types, the implementation of eco-friendly 3D printing and to create a slow fashion empire in Europe.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Never give up because it takes time.

Each question has an answer and each problem has its solution.

Respect yourself and others.

More information you will find here

Thank you Oskaras Povilenas for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

Have honest and difficult conversations early

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Circu Li-ion helps to upcycle already used batteries through an automated process.

Please introduce yourself and your startup Circu Li-ion to our readers!

My name is Dr. Xavier Kohll. I am the CTO of Circu Li-ion – a Luxembourgish company which I co-founded with Antoine Welter (CEO) in 2021. Our startup helps service providers in the mobility sector as well as recycling companies to upcycle already used batteries from electric vehicles through an automated process. We are currently focusing on micromobility companies that produce e-bikes or e-scooters, as the battery packs used in these vehicles usually consist of lithium-ion cells. We have developed a Machine-as-a-Service solution which automatically analyzes each of these cells and processes those still usable for new battery packs and/or other electricity storage solutions. With our technology, our customers save valuable resources, lower their operational costs for new batteries and simultaneously help to reduce waste as well. 

How did you get the idea of Circu Li-ion?

Before founding Circu Li-ion, I had always aspired to become an entrepreneur who could have a positive impact on society. In other words, I was and still am driven by the vision to change the world in a positive and sustainable manner through innovative technological solutions. My co-founder Antoine shares the same vision. He had already been active in the startup scene in Europe and Africa for a couple of years when we started to regularly exchange thoughts about various business ideas and sustainable technologies in early 2021. During these numerous conversations, Antoine told me about industries he had analyzed and where he saw particularly large opportunities to save CO2 emissions. Amongst them, he had identified the need for a more efficient way of recycling, and potentially upcycling, batteries used within the micromobility sector. This was the starting point for Circu Li-ion.

Why did you decide to start with Circu Li-ion?

With my background as a process and chemical engineer and Antoine’s business experience, we immediately had a complementary basis for addressing the identified problem in depth.  As we began focusing our discussions on the fact that most batteries from electric vehicles are not adequately reprocessed and recycled after their ‘first life’, we saw potential for a novel solution which could help extend the life cycle of lithium-ion cells from e-bike and e-scooter battery packs. We conducted more market research and realized that there was indeed no contemporary, innovative solution to this problem until now. For me, this provided the perfect opportunity to seriously consider starting a business together. By offering a new technology that provides a solution to a real problem in the e-mobility and recycling sectors, I could actually begin to make a positive impact on our world. The decision to found Circu Li-ion together followed relatively quickly.

What is the vision behind Circu Li-Ion?

As our economy increasingly shifts from fossil fuels and combustion engines to electric alternatives, the need for batteries continues to grow on a worldwide scale. However, the supply of resources for battery manufacturing is limited. This is particularly true for lithium, which is essential for electromobility drives. Additionally, a lot of energy is required to produce new battery cells. Faced with this problem, we developed the vision for Circu Li-ion to maximize the life cycle of each lithium-ion battery cell to effectively help fighting the global climate crisis. We want to help ensure that battery cells, which could still be used, are given a ‘second life’. Our goal is to preserve valuable raw materials for as long as possible and to lower CO2 emissions with our technological solution.

How difficult was the start and which challenges did you have to overcome so far?

At the beginning, the biggest challenge was to decide which technological concept we would ultimately use to tackle the problem we had identified. We had to think carefully about what kind of initial prototype we wanted to build as our solution. To make our idea a reality, we had to assemble a skilled technical team and recruit the right talent early on. We managed to accomplish this task and have since been able to develop our Machine-as-a-Service solution, which consists of hardware and software.

To fund our launch, we raised a seven-figure pre-seed funding round from business angels. We also received great support from the government of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg – our home country, where we successfully participated in the Fit4Start program of the Ministry of Economy. Moreover, we were also selected for the Shell Start-Up Engine accelerator program, which helped us to develop our company and go-to-market strategy even faster.

Who is your target audience?

Our current target customers are micromobility service providers who want to up- and recycle used batteries on a large scale as well as recycling companies who acquire lithium-ion cells in substantial quantities. In the long term, we plan to serve the entire so-called ‘second life market’ for battery cells of both electric vehicles and appliances. Eventually, we also want to offer new batteries and storage solutions from CO2 neutral cells.

What is the USP of your startup?

Circu Li-ion offers a fully automated process to individually extract battery cells from used battery packs, diagnose each cell and separate them for reuse or material-based recycling. The biggest advantage of our solution is that lithium-ion batteries are no longer simply sent for recycling in their entirety after their primary use, which commonly leads to the loss of most of the raw materials as only a small percentage of various recyclables such as metals are returned to the economic cycle 

With the help of our service, each individual battery cell can be reused in various storage solutions until it finally reaches the end of its lifecyle. As a result, we help our customers save valuable resources as well as operational costs for otherwise newly purchased batteries. Companies in the waste and recycling industry can also use our technology to meet increasingly stringent recycling quotas. Overall, our service offers an important contribution to the increasing electrification of the global economy, by prioritizing sustainability and lowering CO2 emissions while ensuring cost-effectiveness as well.

Can you describe your typical workday?

I usually do some yoga in the morning after I get up. My workday starts at 9 AM at the latest, when our tech team holds its daily Scrum meeting. In my role as CTO, I am responsible for all the different aspects of our technology. Accordingly, I usually spend the majority of my day working with the different engineering teams, trying to efficiently drive our research and development forward. Finally, I end my workday by answering emails. 

Where do you see yourself and your startup Circu Li-ion in five years? 

The market for electromobility has already reached a considerable size and will continue to grow and gain in importance in the future. We intend to fully serve the sub-segment of micromobility – from e-bikes to e-scooters – in the coming years and then also focus on the electric car sector. In parallel, we are already exploring the market for electrical appliances, such as power tools, which also use battery cells that can be upcycled. Our team currently consists of 21 people, most of whom are engineers with solid backgrounds in mechanical, software and process engineering. In addition to our headquarters in Luxembourg, we have a production site in Karlsruhe and are currently building a team in Berlin. We want to develop into an international technology company in the next few years.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

“Have honest and difficult conversations early”: It is important to address difficult topics as early as possible in order to avoid potential future obstacles.

“Capitalize on your advantages”: You need to know your own strengths and weaknesses in order to act with maximum speed and confidence when launching a startup. Everyone has ideas, but it is the implementation that counts. Therefore, as a founder, you need to know exactly what you are good at and hand over the activities that may not suit you to others.

“Startups are like a rollercoaster”: You should try to learn from every moment – the good and the more challenging ones – together with your team.

More information you will find here

Thank you Dr. Xavier Kohll for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

Your employees are the most important asset of the company

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Forsea nourish the world with delicious, high-quality seafood while securing the ocean’s health and wealth

Please introduce yourself and your startup Forsea Foods to our readers!

Hi, I’m Roee Nir, the co-founder and CEO of Forsea, a cultivated seafood company aiming to nourish the world with delicious and high-quality seafood while protecting ocean life and its delicate ecosystem.

I am a biotech engineer and also holds an MBA degree from New York University. In the past 18 years I’ve served in various strategic roles in the Foodtech, Biotech and Digital Health industries. I’m a big ocean fan and my favorite hobby is surfing.

How did you get the idea of Forsea Foods?

The Kitchen Hub, a well-known Israeli incubator and venture creator, connected me with Dr. Iftach Nachman, a senior researcher in Tel Aviv University and the innovator of the organoid technology and with Dr. Yaniv Elkouby, a senior researcher in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. With my background at Biotech and international business I immediately got fascinated by the technology and about the opportunity make such an incredible impact on people food security while helping our oceans and planet strive. Forsea’s technology is the next generation of cultivated meat and I’m proud to lead such an innovative company at such notable missions.

What is the vision behind Forsea Foods?

Forsea’s vision is to nourish the world with delicious, high-quality seafood while securing the ocean’s health & wealth.

How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?

Running an early-stage start-up is challenging at many aspects. We have set ambitious technological milestones for a unique disruptive technology.  As we are dealing with a biotech process things take time, and also significant funding is required. I’m happy to say that, so far, we managed to achieve the goals we had set for ourselves and we are moving forward very well across all domains.

Who is your target audience?

Forsea will commercialize products that are identical in flavor, texture and nutritional value to wild-catch products – and at the same price. Hence, our audience is people that love eating fish and seafood at high quality and are happy that the products they eat also does not have any adverse impact on our ocean and planet.

What is the USP of your startup?

Forsea has a unique, disruptive to produce cultivated seafood in a very similar way nature does. While the cultivated meat common practice focuses on directed differentiation – which means directing stem cells to specific cell types, either muscle or fat, our technology focuses on helping stem cells form 3D micro-tissues (organoids) that spontaneously differentiate to the different edible cell types. Our tissue is naturally composed of a mixture of fat, muscle and connective tissue – just like in nature.

Can you describe your typical workday ?

My workdays are quite divers and I’m not sure that I can say that there is a typical day. I usually start my working day at 8AM, after sending the kids to school. I scan through my emails to prioritize any urgent tasks that may require my immediate attention. After handling these I start many pre-scheduled meetings with our tech team, partners, vendors and stakeholders. I always block some time in my calendar, later on the same day to handle unexpected events as well as answer emails. My working day may end quite late in many of the days.

Where do you see yourself and your startup Forsea Foods in five years?

In 5 years will have a full commercial-scale manufacturing facility in APAC. This facility will produce several fish and seafood products to the territory. In addition, we will be in the process of building another manufacturing facility in the USA and/or Europe to serve these markets as well.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Your employees are the most important asset of the company. Treat them as such.  

Chose your investors and partners wisely. You have a long journey together  – you want to do it with the right people.

Believe in and be passionate about what you are doing. This give you an endless motivation that will help you overcome many of the hurdles along the way.

More information you will find here

Thank you Roee Nir for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

3 Reasons to Do an MBA Degree

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a postgraduate program designed specifically for people with work experience who want to learn more about businesses’ operations. An MBA is a valuable degree that can offer various opportunities to enhance your career.

You will significantly benefit from having an MBA, especially from a reputable business institution. These benefits include earning a high salary after graduation, getting a management job, building a strong professional network, or starting your own business. Here are a few reasons to consider doing an MBA degree.

1.    Standing Out From the Competition

Most MBA candidates are recent graduates with at least two years of professional experience. Sometimes, even senior employees who are up for managerial tasks will take up the degree. Taking MBA classes will give you the ability to run a successful business. While every Master of Business Administration degree’s curriculum is different, there are a few essential topics. Here are a few things you may learn:

  • Using partnerships and connections to build a solid network
  • Being a good leader and proper people management skills
  • Managing company finances
  • Developing, promoting, and selling your goods and service
  • Promoting and maintaining a positive company image
  • Making important decisions on behalf of the business
  • Managing public scandals, financial crises, and other tough situations.

An MBA is the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone. You get to modern management tools and approaches. You’ll also be challenged to improve your company and collaboration abilities. An MBA from reputable schools like Sunway MBA allows you to learn modern trends in international business.

An MBA degree prepares you for the dynamic business climate, and opens you to new markets, sectors, and business practices. If you want to change occupations or the industry changes in a way that interferes with your ambitions, an MBA makes it easy to adapt.

2.    Many Specialization Options

Check out the list below to determine what each of the MBA specializations means for your future:

 General Management

Probably the most common MBA concentration, it’s fantastic for creating a flexible work atmosphere and a generally effective business arsenal.

Strategic Management

A degree in strategic management will prepare you for both long-term and backup business planning.

 International Business

If you wish to work overseas or for a multinational corporation with offices worldwide, an international business degree shows you how to coordinate corporate objectives across boundaries.

 Operations management

This specialty is beneficial for managers in charge of streamlining the production process. You’ll discover the best ways to manage production.

3.    Impressive Salaries

Some of the most significant reasons for the popularity of MBA degrees include job security and high salaries. Compared to a worker with a conventional Master’s degree, the average income for an MBA graduate is significantly higher. You can anticipate making double as much money as you would with a traditional university degree.

If you plan on getting an MBA degree, the salaries are high, there are many specialization options, and you can stand out from other job applicants.

Picture pixabay

Author Lorelyn

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

Justhome raises €3.3m to help more people become homeowners

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Justhome, the next generation home financing startup, has raised €3.3 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Target Global.

APX, the Berlin-based early-stage fund backed by Europe’s leading digital publisher Axel Springer and Porsche also participated in the round, alongside a number of industry-leading angel investors.

Launched this year to simplify what can be a confusing and intimidating homebuying process, Justhome is building a digital service to help more people afford a home against a challenging economic backdrop. Home ownership in Germany is the lowest among EU countries, with a rate of approximately 45%. Based on research by the German Economic Institute (IW), Justhome estimates that more than 300,000 first-time prospective homebuyers each year are unable to access the market as property prices have doubled over the last decade. With interest rates tripling over the last 6 months, buying a first family home has become even more difficult. Studies by the German Federal Bank show that this significantly impacts wealth distribution.

The funding will be used to further build out Justhome’s digital home financing platform and develop its own financing solutions. Operating in the German market with a total outstanding mortgage volume of €1.49 trillion, the Berlin-based startup provides aspiring homebuyers with a vastly improved digital customer experience during the mortgage process and the ability to receive pre-approved mortgage options delivered in minutes from more than 700 lenders. This fulfills a growing need in the market where nearly 50% of German mortgage seekers still turn to their local bank for property financing, missing out on the opportunity to compare the best rates available.

Justhome’s vision extends beyond better brokerage, with the company developing its own financing solutions specifically targeted to enable first-time homebuyers to expand their budget and responsibly purchase a property where they otherwise would not have been able to.

The founders bring extensive relevant experience. Co-founder Marc Rustige was previously COO and managing director at Aviv Group, one of the world’s largest operators of online real estate marketplaces. Together with Johannes Fenner, former chief of staff to the CEO of Axel Springer, and technical co-founder Martin Mehlitz, www.justhome.co started operating under a mortgage brokerage license earlier this year and has since grown the team to 15 people.

CEO Johannes Fenner says: “Nine out of 10 Germans below the age of 30 want to own a home in the future, an even stronger trend post-COVID. That’s why we are so determined to provide financial solutions to help this generation become homeowners in a way that is convenient and native to them: digital and self-driven.”

Ricardo Schaefer, Partner at Target Global, added: “We have increasingly observed the global appetite for more customer-centric and innovative home financing solutions. With Justhome, we found an extremely ambitious team that is really looking to shake up the market to address that demand. We are excited to be part of this journey, which has only just begun.”

Source FAKTOR 3 AG

Believe in your idea and just do it

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Phyron AI powered software that produces on-brand engaging videos from existing still images and the descriptions used in car ads.

Please introduce yourself and your startup Phyron to our readers!

I’m Johan Sundstrand the CEO of Phyron. We’re Swedish video tech pioneers and together with my team we’ve developed a piece of AI powered software that produces on-brand engaging videos from existing still images and the descriptions used in car ads. The software takes a data feed of hundreds or thousands of vehicles from dealerships or automotive manufacturers (in the case of Volvo retail) and produces videos in real time. The videos are then pushed out onto the dealers’ websites, classifieds sites, social media channels, etc. 

Dealers no longer need to film and edit their own promo videos for every car on the forecourt. Phyron’s software even strips out the background, adding a neutral on brand background and a drop shadow. The AI identifies what is in the picture; infotainment system, alloys, sunroof, etc, and adds the key selling points to the video. The entire process is automated and for less than the price of a coffee per vehicle per month. If a dealer wants to run a special offer or change the price of a vehicle, the change is made in the data feed and a new video is rendered automatically and it goes live to the world, saving dealers many hours of laborious editing.

How did you get the idea of Phyron?

Whilst I have a background in the marketing technology space, my team is made up of world class AI software developers and Hollywood special effects experts. Video is the most powerful marketing tool in the world, video can engage a buyer like nothing else. But, there is no inventory of videos for companies with many products they wish to publish online and they all struggle to present their products in the best possible way. Everyone wants video but producing videos is an hassle and it cost a lot of money and time. Just taking quality still photos is a struggle for many companies

So, we tried to tackle that. How can you mass produce videos, fully automated and with studio quality videos? We started off in the ecommerce  industry and received tons of clients but in order to grow fast globally and train the AI the most efficient way we decided to focus on one industry. And after talking to colleagues in the automotive retail sector I was confident there was a better way to advertise and sell cars using state-of-the-art AI software. 

Why did you decide to start with Phyron?

After a decade in the marketing tech industry, we discovered that video outperformed all other formats, but our clients had no inventory of videos, and it cost them a lot to create. We had to fix that problem. I also truly believe that all repetitive tasks can be and will be automated!

Today our automated AI software can perform a wide range of defined actions such as creating high-quality videos, enhancing images, or sorting out the right still. We streamline processes, creates a uniform branding and making the path to digital transformation fast and cost-effective.

What is the vision behind Phyron?

Phyron aims to enable our customers to produce on-brand and engaging videos with zero human input, enabling them to do this at scale and generate sales or generate stock turnover at a rate never possible when traditional manual videos had to be made. We want to videos to be as attractive and engaging as seeing the cars in a showroom.

How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?

It has actually been quite good since the start. Our biggest challenge was to reach the quality that we wanted. We could automate rendering, but to be able to reach studio quality and train the AI, we made some bold decisions to focus only on the Automotive sector. Back then, 98% of our revenues were coming from ecom. And to scale globally. Our GTM strategy is very good today and we are a remote first company but it took a while to find the recipe of expanding in new regions. 

Who is your target audience?

Our target audience is currently automotive dealers and manufacturers, but there is no reason why in the future we can’t train our artificial intelligence to work on any other products, be they boats, furniture or jewellery and produce automated videos.

What is the USP of your startup?

Unlike other video software that is in the market, our AI powered software is 100% automated and required no manual input to produce on brand videos, and we still reach studio quality. 

Can you describe your typical workday ?

We have been growing a lot lately and that has been my focus, to help my team grow globally the best possible way, recruit, and as a SaaS company, founding is always on. Then I’m obsessed with keeping clients happy (no churn last year!!) and supporting big deals. So, a lot of time is spent there.

Where do you see yourself and your startup Phyron in five years?

Phyron’s software is already in use by dealerships in in 16 countries around the world. We expect that in five years’ time we’ll be the biggest supplier for video in the Automotive industry, video-ifying the whole buying journey, creating a uniform branding for our customers and are a unicorn. 

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Always hire the best talent out there, even if it costs more, it is worth every penny. The team is everything. 

Sell and project manage all clients yourself at the beggining. The absolute best way to learn and adapt. 

Don’t create massive business plans at the beginning and focus too much on the product, you will end up changing them 500 times. Believe in your idea and just do it.

More information you will find here

Thank you Johan Sundstrand for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

Passion and perseverance should go hand in hand with priorities

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Celebfie fan experience and celebrity engagement platform

Please introduce yourself and the Startup Celebfie to our readers!

Celebfie is the World’s first and fastest growing fan experience and celebrity engagement platform, which targets to create Unforgettable Memories while bridging the gap between celebrities, their fans, and brands through meaningful experiences and by redefining celebrity-brand collaborations. Celebfie is fast becoming the go-to app for fans and users who want to directly connect with their favorite celebrities and create exclusive moments with celebs from various walks of life. While the Celebfie app is free to use but with a minimal subscription fee for celebrity micro-channels, fans can watch exclusive content created by the celebrities and even get direct access to share and receive responses from the celebs themselves.

Why did you decide to start a business?

I was trying to launch an ed-tech product in Dubai & my team was trying to onboard some celebrities to help us launch the product. While doing this, I experienced various difficulties with celebrity booking and engagement. It was a very hectic & tedious process. The industry was much unorganized, we saw huge gaps, and nothing was transparent. Having more than 20 years of experience in technology, I thought I could utilize new-age technology and make a seamless, transparent way to engage & connect with celebrities. This platform is for everyone starting from individual fans, brands, or small businesses who want to engage for purposeful causes. It solves a huge problem that the industry was experiencing earlier, now catering to the audience with transparent and fair dealings with celebrities.

What is the vision behind Celebfie?

As a part of the ever-dynamic and transformational digital entertainment space, Celebfie provides transparency to the fans-celebs and brands relation while making it a unique business model. Celebfie is positively establishing the future of fan engagement for celebrities across all walks of life including Bollywood, Television, Music, Sports and many more alike. Platform has been Developed in India, but Celebfie aims to improve and bring together fan community to connect with their choicest celebrities across the globe. 

From the idea to the start what have been the biggest challenges so far and how did you finance yourself?

The whole concept of it gets me excited; especially the fact that I founded such a unique and different startup at the age of 48. Celebfie is poles apart from what I have been doing for most of my professional life. So, this shift is quite thrilling. Learning about new things, facing new challenges, and working with a team of bright young minds from whom I learn a lot, all of it get me excited. We started as a bootstrapped startup. I invested the initial capital myself to bring the startup to a level where we found funds flowing in from my close friends and family because the concept of Celebfie clicked with them. However, as of now, we have not had any institutional funding, but very soon, maybe in a couple of months, we are getting ready to raise our first series ‘A’ funding.

Who is the target group of Celebfie?

1. Celebrities who come from various genres like bollywood stars, TV personalities, musicians, authors, comedians, regional artists etc want to expand their global digital footprint for fans and brands to connect with them directly. 

2. Fan communities that include national and global, both

3. Brands like SMEs, startups, event organizers & established businesses who want to collaborate with celebs. 

How do Celebfie work? What are the advantages? What makes you different from other providers?

Celebfie is focused on creating unforgettable real life experiences for celebs, fans and brands alike. It’s way ahead of the present crop of celebrity centric platforms as they are just offering paid celebrity shout outs, whereas Celebfie provides an opportunity for the fans and brands to create memorable moments together with their favourite celebs. For brands, we try to create an impeccable aura around their products and services with our celeb driven macro & micro campaigns that match with the brand’s core value. There is no single comprehensive fan experience and celebrity engagement platform that actually bridges the gap between celebrities, fans and brands.

Celebfie took the idea of bridging the gap between celebs, fans and brands a step further by introducing fan experiential events which was initiated with the successful launch of our flagship event— ‘Cruise with the Stars’, a sea-cation which brought 30+ Bollywood Celebrities, 100+ Influencers and 1200+ fan guests together on a luxurious cruise ship. Celebfie also partnered with Bombay Times Fashion Week 2021, where we selected two young fashion fans and aspiring models and gave them the opportunity to walk the ramp for ace designer Narendra Kumar at his finale show.

How has your company changed with Corona?

During the socially distant year, Celebfie’s new-age platform featuring celebrity-created video content facilitated meaningful, virtual conversations between at-home celebrities and their similarly locked-in fans. For many fans, the personalised shout-outs and celebrity greetings proved a heart-warming source of family support during a challenging year. The pandemic also presented a unique challenge to brands, SMEs etc. People spending time at home greatly increased the volume of content consumed online, making the digital realm more desirable for reaching out to their target audiences.

As the Covid times had shown that digital marketing was more advantageous than conventional marketing— whether it’s online ads, social media, blogging, or all of the above – thus people were looking at new and more engaging ways of building interesting narratives across multiple media platforms. Celebfie helped them curate these narratives by connecting them with the right celebrity. We created a seamless process for our users to customize and create engaging content with their desired celebs, tailored to their budgets, in a transparent setting. 

How did you adjust to it and what changes have you made?

Celebfie also offers the celebrities an opportunity to build a deeper connection with their fans and collaborate with exciting national and international brands for Social Media Campaigns, Product Promotions, TVCs, Events and Appearances and much more. Technology and entertainment came together to crystallize the concept Celebfie. However, Celebfie offers a lot more dynamism for the fan-celebrity interaction slice also, to improve the fan experience, and help fans cherish their fandom.

Where do you see the opportunity in the crisis?

Undoubtedly, the pandemic years were challenging and a time to despair. But, it was also a time to come up with relevant solutions to fight the challenges. As a startup, we understood the definition of the ‘new normal’ and we tried to bring viable and reliable solutions for our clients, ideas that could solve problems faced by the common masses with our technology enabled product. The pandemic made us develop a far-sighted view and identify the steps needed to create a platform that would help make celebrities more accessible to fans and brands. 

The opportunity in the crisis, like you said, was in the form of creating better solutions to bridge the age-old gap between fans, brands and the celebs, making this process seamless and transparent, which almost seemed like a Herculean task earlier. It ultimately paved the way in spreading happiness and creating unforgettable moments in unprecedented times, and this was our true silver lining. 

Celebfie, where does the road go? Where do you see yourself in five years?

We’re very confident that Celebfie is a unique concept and a disruptive solution which will further change the celebrity-fan ecosystem. We’re sure bringing a positive change in the celebrity-fan space will take a lot of continued team efforts. So, our 4-5 year road map is simply to expand Celebfie and make it the go-to app for the fan communities all over the globe and for the celebrities and brands to connect and collaborate.

This is the length of our upcoming plans, now coming to the breadth of it, we’ve launched new verticals like Celebfie Music, Celebfie Media etc. We’ve also stepped into production with 5 music videos already launched, the latest one being Galti which is nearly touching 5 Million Views with incredible response from viewers and listeners. We’re also planning for more exciting events and collaborations in the days to come which are intended to offer our fan users a truly unforgettable experience in terms of unique content, music, entertainment, etc. We’ve been developing various other fan-engagement features on our app too, that will give our users authentic and memorable experiences.  

At the end: Which 3 tips would you give to future founders?

1. To seek out new things and not just replicate standard ones is a great mantra. You should always be eager to find new ways to conceptualize the best possibilities. You can’t be good at everything, but you can progress, try to make a positive difference, even if it’s only incremental.

2. Passion and perseverance should go hand in hand with priorities. You might have multiple ideas and motivations to start a company, but you should be sure they’re prioritised correctly. If making a lot of money is first on the list, there are probably better ways to fulfill that dream—because eventually, it will be outweighed by the challenges you face. I truly believe you’ve got to tap into a deeper passion.

3. Be sure to enjoy the steps you take towards achieving your goals. Becoming successful can have some challenges, but having fun while learning new things and meeting new people can motivate you and make the journey enjoyable. Learning what you are capable of can be exciting, so it is important to keep your goals light and fun in order to have an emotionally positive experience.

More information you will find here

Thank you Raminder Singh for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

Stop thinking about it, do it now

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Nexoya helps marketeers to optimally allocate their marketing budget across channels to achieve best performance results.

Please introduce yourself and your startup Nexoya to our readers!

We, that’s Manuel Dietrich and Marco Hochstrasser, founded Nexoya in Zurich back in 2018. Today, 23 amazing people belong to our team. Nexoya helps marketeers to optimally allocate their marketing budget across channels to achieve best performance results. We do this in a fully data privacy-compliant way and with predictive AI-algorithms to find the most interesting trend in the marketeers’ data. Nexoya reads millions of data points every day, from the number of sales, conversions and clicks to likes from each individual post or sessions on a landing page. Currently, we can take into account data from 36 integrations, ranging from social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest, to search engines such as Microsoft Ads or Google Ads, to customer systems/CRMs or exogenous factors such as weather data or exchange rates. 

Our platform reads and evaluates all the data of active marketing campaigns on a daily basis. These campaigns are grouped in a digital advertising portfolio. Based on the historical data and the specific configuration made for this portfolio – such as the available budget and the selected risk level a customer’s individual AI model is generated. This model predicts the trends and future results of the various campaigns and ads. For example, the expected conversions on the website, the cost-per-lead or the cost-per-click for entire campaigns and each individual ad.

From the predicted values, the AI model determines the best possible distribution of the advertising budget across all campaigns, ad sets or ads assigned to a specific multichannel portfolio. It does so on a regular basis – increasing overall performance up to 30 per cent and at the same time significantly decreasing effort for the marketeers, as the changes can be automatically applied and sent back to all publishers. 

How did you get the idea of Nexoya?

We both previously worked in the cloud industry and were looking to move from developing infrastructure at scale to building an effective application on top of the cloud. From the start, we wanted to build a SaaS and Machine-Learning/Artificial Intelligence startup. When we looked into the marketing technology space, we witnessed how people struggled with data analysis, interpretation, and especially data-driven actionability and automation. That was the moment we realized we’d be in the marketing field with our endeavor – we discovered “the problem” to solve.

Why did you decide to start with Nexoya?

We both already had entrepreneur experience in different areas and wanted to launch something from scratch. In combination with the obvious problems marketeers had and the ask for help we got when talking with them – we knew it is the right time to start it. We were able to create added value for these customers immediately which made it clear for us that this was the right thing to do.

What is the vision behind Nexoya?

We had the idea to help marketers get their data together and become data driven. In digital marketing, everybody has the data digitally available per definition – but rarely does someone take this data and make sense of it or even automatically drives conclusion with it, like changing budget allocations. When we presented the first prototypes to people, and they said „and when can I have that? “, we knew we were on to something.

How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?

Building a startup is a roller coaster ride; by its very nature, founders have to go through plenty of dark canyons and cross many chasms. We were particularly lucky to have our low points at different times, so one could always encourage the other. It is challenging to build something we built with all the market hurdles and challenges such as COVID, unstable market conditions or other aspects to hurt startups in the last couple of years. And in statistics, only 4% of all startups achieve €1M ARR, annual recurring revenue, after they were funded – so I am proud that we are coming there very fast.

A first and important milestone was the financing of our company. We knew we were on a very interesting path, but the fact that we were able to convince many investors and close our first investment round made us very proud. A second very moving moment was when we were able to prove for the first time that our AI-driven engine can dramatically improve the performance of cross-channel campaigns.

Who is your target audience?

We address digital marketers who are performance driven, invest in cross-channel advertising campaigns and want to change their way of doing budgeting and at the same time get significant better return on ad spend. 

What is the USP of your startup?

We grew up with large customers such as CSS or Generali, and that is why our platform and AI models are particularly strong in B2B lead generation and ecommerce areas with complex funnels. Our platform starts to make sense when you are spending €250’000 per year in advertising or more. Besides the unique value proposition, Nexoya is a no-bullshit company willing to add real value. We follow a high work ethic and very open and honest customer relationships.

Can you describe your typical workday?

As a founder there is no typical workday I believe – but we can try to summarize the most important points. Our day starts with alignments with the team, looking into product management and obviously –  we try to meet customers at a regular basis. Keeping a close loop with our customers on their challenges and problems and how we can help them best is pivotal even if you grow as a company. 

Where do you see yourself and your startup Nexoya in five years?

Helping performance marketers across Europe manage their marketing portfolio in the most transparent and efficient way possible. Our vision is a thriving and prosperous company that adds real value to marketing teams across Europe and beyond.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

If you think about starting a startup – well, stop thinking about it, do it now. Quit your job and dedicate yourself to the problem you want to solve – 3 months in a startup are like one year in the corporate world, and you will not miss the experience.

People are everything, especially in the early stages. So, choose your partner(s) and employees wisely because they are your most important asset.

Build a tent next to your first customers office and sleep there, for a period. Sounds funny, but I think next time we will do that… Your first couple of customers are your entry point into the problem area you are solving – try to be as close to them as possible to understand what you want to solve and what not. 

More information you will find here

Thank you Manuel Dietrich and Marco Hochstrasser for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

Live-in care startup marta secures €6.6m in Seed funding to revolutionize the elderly care sector

By
Quepatagra
-
0

SumUp Impact Fund announces first Venture Investment into marta

marta, the European digital platform for live-in care, announces a €6.6 million Seed round led by Capnamic, alongside co-lead Almaz Capital. GMPVC, Ithaca, SumUp Impact Fund, Verve Ventures and renowned business angels also participated in the round. Existing investors include some of the most prominent German entrepreneurs and business angels Christian Vollmann, Johannes Schaback, Laura Esnola, Dr. Steffen Zoller and Julian Stiefel. The fresh funding will be used to expand the core team in Germany, Poland, Romania and Lithuania and scale up business processes – driven by the mission to set new standards for more affordable, transparent, and reliable live-in care.

marta is changing the way elderly care is offered today, tackling the €18B market in the DACH region alone. Germany alone has more than 4m elderly seeking at-home care, while only 280.000 caregivers work in the ambulant care sector. This huge imbalance creates an opportunity for over 600.000 live-in caregivers from CEE countries to come to Germany to fill the gap. 

With its algorithm-based marketplace, marta solves the most pressing problem in live-in care, namely the usually poor fit between careseekers and caregivers. marta’s data-driven approach ensures successful matchmaking and significantly decreases costs and complexity for families seeking care for their elderly relatives while increasing caregivers’ ability to negotiate the terms of their contract and their earnings. Emphasizing transparency and the human sides of the experience, marta aims to improve the quality of elderly care and addresses a pressing societal issue at the same time.

All around the world, families with relatives in need of care and, on the other side, caregivers themselves are facing similar hardships: organizing care is difficult and time-consuming, the market is fragmented and lacks transparency, legal security and expert guidance. Yet, as the worldwide population ages, elderly care is becoming increasingly important. Existing solutions for elderly care can involve as many as 6 intermediaries, which means information critical to matching caregivers with careseekers is usually ignored or lost in the process. Four out of five placements fail as a result, an unsustainably high breakdown rate that leads to distress, confusion and frustration among all involved. marta’s platform leverages data and a proprietary matching algorithm which creates a self-service platform that eliminates such avoidable failures entirely. 

“There are hundreds of examples of how elderly care can go wrong and it’s almost impossible for humans to accurately predict placement success. There are simply too many requirements, skills and preferences on both sides to consider. We have seen how difficult it was to organize care with our grandparents. Aging is a natural process and we must have the tools and skills to manage it appropriately. We believe that we can leverage technology significantly to help elderly people and their families as well as the caregivers,” said Jan Hoffmann, co-founder of marta. 

marta enables its customers to make their own choices around live-in care. Seniors can decide with whom they want to live. Families have peace of mind knowing that the contractor, who comes into their home has been verified and has been rated by staff and other families before. Caregivers have the opportunity to choose a household based on detailed, verified case information, including photos of the housing arrangement. In addition to the matching function, marta has developed several features to automate the caregivers’ backoffice, enabling them to manage their registration, insurances, invoices and taxes through the platform. Caregivers are thus free to focus on what they do best: providing high-quality care.


“marta has created a transparent marketplace that connects caregivers directly with families seeking care. At this point a truly unique approach based on digitization. We have been following marta for the past months and are impressed by the technology and traction the team has delivered. Most importantly, we are excited about the teams’ enthusiasm for solving a paramount societal problem,” said Jörg Binnenbrücker, Founding Partner at Capnamic.

Philipp Buhr and Jan Hoffmann, marta’s founders, discovered the care industry in a similar way most people do: their grandparents needed care and they were in charge of finding a live-in caregiver. In a complicated, overpriced market, both searched for five years to find a decent agency to work with before their frustration led them to launch marta in 2020 and build what they were looking for themselves. 18 months after launch, marta is active in four countries, and has cumulatively provided at-home care services to over thousand customers and caregivers.

Source cosmyc Partners 

We have an ambitious roadmap and we are taking it one step at a time

By
Quepatagra
-
0

Upmarqt is a personalised platform that helps early stage startups, in a matter of minutes, build perfect outsourced teams of experts who specialize in working with startups and only join by referral from other founders and after a 2 step vetting process

Please introduce yourself and the Startup Upmarqt to our readers!

I’m Olga Ten, the Founder of Upmarqt. I started my entrepreneurial journey in early 2022 after 12 years of corporate.

At Upmarqt our mission is to make building great startup teams really straight forward. We do that by matching founders in a matter of minutes with specialists and boutique agencies referred by other founders and additionally vetted by us. 

We cover areas such as marketing, development, design, fractional CMOs/COOs, fundraising and more. Pretty much anything a startup needs to successfully grow through the early stages.

Why did you decide to start a business?

During the pandemic I did a lot of thinking about what my real strengths and talents were. At work I was recognised as an overachiever and so I thought that if I did something that I was truly passionate about, I could really make a difference.

I’m excited by new ideas and the dynamism of startups and my zone of genius is seeing talent in people and creating great connections. Combining my passion with my corporate background in business launch I felt like I had an idea that could fill a gap in the market.

That is where the idea of Upmarqt came from. 

What is the vision behind Upmarqt?

23% of startups fail due to a poor team composition. We want to help more startups succeed. The vision behind Upmarqt is to enable startups to build and manage winning scalable teams fast. We create a plug and play solution of specialists and boutique agencies that know how to take startups to the next level.

From the idea to the start what have been the biggest challenges so far and how did you finance yourself?

I am still financing Upmarqt myself. This came from my savings and the revenue we are starting to generate. I have a very lean and brilliant team. We only spend our resources on things that will take us to the next level. This means that we have to make choices and find creative solutions. 

The biggest challenge for me is the fact that as a founder you don’t have the support of corporate resources, where you could just go and ask a colleague. But you are effectively on your own and more often than not you have no idea how you are progressing.

Who is the target group of Upmarqt?

We work with early stage startups that are ready to onboard specialists or boutique agencies for either a retainer or for a project. We come in when founders are looking for part-time marketing support or a development agency to build their MVP or an Accountant. 

How does Upmarqt work? What are the advantages? What makes you different from other providers?

Founders spend up to 40% of their time on HR, recruitment and payroll activities. That’s insane.

On Upmarqt founders are matched with the best suited specialists within 2 minutes. All of the specialists and agencies have been referred to us by other founders and additionally vetted by us. 

We also hold live training sessions by our specialists for the founders to help them build the best possible team and effectively manage it.

We give time and headspace back to the founders. And that’s what makes us different. 

How has your company changed with Corona?

Upmarqt was started during Covid. And if anything Corona has created more opportunities as more and more highly skilled people are turning to freelancing or to starting their own startups. So our talent pool and target market have become bigger. 

Where do you see the opportunity in the crisis?

Crisis forces you to find creative solutions and it expands your view. You start to approach things differently, which helps you grow.

Upmarqt, where does the road go? Where do you see yourself in five years?

I want Upmarqt to help the world of startups survive and scale. I have a passion to enable service providers to do more of what they love. We have an ambitious roadmap and we are taking it one step at a time. In 5 years from now I see myself part of this journey in one way or another.

More information you will find here

Thank you Olga Ten for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

1...141516...21Page 15 of 21

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

©