Don’t be afraid to try new things

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10/14/2022

Alfred Travel travel companion pick up your luggage at your hotel or Airbnb and deliver it to the train stations and airports in Paris

Please introduce yourself and your startup Alfred to our readers!

My name is Sophie Goujet, I am the co-founder of Alfred Travel. I have worked for ten years in the Travel Retail industry. I am a keen traveler by nature, and I created Alfred almost a year ago with two co-founders: Charlotte Sevin and Amee Cox.

Alfred is a tailor-made luggage pick-up and drop-off service in Paris. We collect the luggage of travelers from Paris airports or train stations, and we deliver them the same day at the time and location of their choice (hotels / Airbnb, etc). We also do the process the other way around: from Paris city center to the airports or train station.

In a way, Alfred is the Uber of luggage, allowing everyone who visits Paris to enjoy the city free of their bags. Especially on their first and last day of holiday.

How did you get the idea of Alfred?

I was a frequent traveler prior to 2020. I was taking on average two flights per week, whether it was for personal or professional reasons. Naturally, I know what it means to lug my luggage everywhere! Usually, I had to leave my luggage in a locker or at the hotel reception. But it was not often practical, as I always had to come back to pick-it up at some point. And this is how the idea developed.

Why did you decide to start with Alfred?

We had discussions with many people: CTO’s, entrepreneurs, hotel directors, to understand the ins and outs of creating a company, developing a service that doesn’t exist yet, grasping the customer needs, understanding the market, etc.

And we also did extensive market research, which helped us understand what travelers require or want when they travel. We already sensed it, but we realized that people from other continents or countries are sensitive to complete different triggers when it comes to their travel. It is very much based on their culture, their age, or their sensitivity to technology for example. Based on all our findings, we built the business plan and went for it!

What is the vision behind Alfred?

The vision is to help travelers by providing an affordable, safe, and user-friendly service. It is as simple as that! Enjoy the moment and make the most of your trip. That’s what really drives us. And there is nothing better than seeing a customer at the airport, at the very end of their trip saying: “wow, thank you; I had the time to do so many things today!”

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

We created Alfred in the middle of COVID-19. We thought it was an opportunity because most of the businesses re-focus on their main product / service when a crisis arises. And we believed there was room for newcomers like us. What we didn’t see, is how long Covid would last and how it would impact the overall tourist industry.

Hence the beginnings were slow, and we had to wait for travelers to come back to France. But when the situation got better, we had some great conversations with hotel managers, tour guides, and several partners. This was back in December 2021. And we had the vision to start our model on a B2B2C basis.

Unfortunately, most of our potential partners suffered from a tough cash flow + recruitment issues (many hotels have difficulties recruiting since COVID-19). So, they were not ready to integrate a new partner.

And then the 5th wave of COVID-19 arrived (Jan – March 2022). It put most of our conversations in the bin and we had to start from scratch again. This is where we decided to change for a B2C model. A month later the first orders arrived and the number of requests per month keep growing now! It allowed us to prepare for the high season, to fine-tune our concept. And to approach partners again with both a successful concept and customers reviews in hand.

Who is your target audience?

Basically, anyone who comes to Paris! We have customers coming from all over the world: Scotland, Singapore, Israel, Thailand, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa – you name it! I don’t like using the word tourist as I believe you can visit a city as a local and still live somewhere else. But most of our customers come to Paris for personal reasons.
We are planning to target business travelers a bit later down the line.

What is the USP of your startup?

Alfred is a safe yet fun travel companion that helps people explore the city like locals. We liberate customers from their bags and allow them to enjoy and live every minute of their trip “in the moment”.

Can you describe your typical workday?

The first thing I do in the morning is to check if we have had any orders coming through during the night. A lot of our customers live in a different time zone, which means we receive payments early in the morning frequently.

I take note of all confirmed orders and book the slots for them according to their travel dates. Following this, I check the emails we received overnight. A lot of customers also contact us via the traditional contact form on our website. We do our very best to answer them within a 24-hour timeframe, which means providing a response as soon as we can.

Around lunchtime, I usually go to our dispatch area to check the orders of the day. At this time, 95 percent of the luggage have been picked-up and we can then organize the team around the deliveries in the afternoon.

We double / triple check every element, then we do a briefing with the team and load the cars with the luggage. In the afternoon, I typically spend some time on business development and customer satisfaction: I answer the customer requests, and try to organize all my calls during this timeframe.

Later in the day, we plan together the upcoming deliveries and do a round-up of the day to discuss what went well and what could be improved. Customer satisfaction is the main driver of our entire business, so we do review every single review / comment we receive and discuss them as a team.

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

In five years we aim to be present in different cities across Europe and be a reliable travel companion for many people!

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

My first tip would be to find a work-life balance from the start. You may not be able to take four weeks of holiday during the year, but it’s important to find time for yourself. Being an entrepreneur is a long journey and if you throw yourself at it for 200 percent for too long, you will end up living only through your company: its successes and its failures, which is not what life is about.

My second tip would be to test your pricing from the start to understand what your clients are ready to pay for what you offer, while understanding if your business is sustainable with the selling price you are proposing.

And thirdly, don’t be afraid to try new things to sell your product/service. You may be shy in front of people, undersell your product. But if you don’t sell it, you will never grow. Sometimes that will require you to put your ego on the side and be persistent while keeping all conversations open.

Picture from left to right: Charlotte Kevin, Sophie Goujet, Amee Cox – Credits: Alfred

More information you will find here

Thank you Sophie Goujet for the Interview

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

Former Checkout Team Raises $6M to Build the Modern Infrastructure of Money Movement

By

Quepatagra

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10/11/2022

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Payable – a new platform to streamline payment operations and automate business bank transfers for the internet economy – today announces a $6 million seed round. The round was co-led by CRV and Earlybird Venture Capital with participation from Conversion Capital, Clocktower Ventures, and angel investors including Francesco Simoneschi CEO of TrueLayer, Hristo Borisov CEO of Payhawk, Nik Milanović founder of This Week in FinTech and the FinTech fund, Bitpanda founders, Dileep Thazhmon CEO of Jeeves, and many other founders and operators in the space.

The idea for Payable was conceived by co-founders Daniel Yubi and Raz Musca, who built the marketplace solution while at Checkout. Doing so helped them realize how hard it is to manage payment operations. “It is one of those problems you don’t notice until you are working directly with the finance operations team and see their challenges firsthand,” states Yubi. “We literally watched them use a spreadsheet with one hand to count payments and cash with a bank file on the other hand to manually send money to their customers. It was both inefficient and antiquated. Once we saw the problem, we knew there had to be a better way and became determined to create it.”

Payable solves payment reconciliation for companies data matching products and integrating with corporate bank accounts. It provides both an API and a dashboard that enables marketplaces, lenders and fintechs to manage money movement from a single interface. Currently companies have to deal with bank files such as EBICs and spreadsheets and use engineering and finance professionals to understand why payments happened. This becomes increasingly difficult as companies scale.

“Today, it is easy to accept payments but to understand where money is, it is quite difficult. The vision we have for Payable is that any product manager in a company is empowered to launch a new fintech product, a product that ‘moves money”’ without freaking out their finance team”, said Daniel Yubi.

Building payments operations software requires unique technical expertise at the intersection of payments, banking and finance. While there are some companies starting to appear in the PaymentOps space, what distinguishes Payable is its deep founding-team / market fit in this new emerging category.

“What excited us most about investing in Payable is that Daniel understands the core problem fintechs struggle with and have created a platform that can automate the entire payment lifecycle,” said James Green, partner at CRV. “We have tremendous confidence in their ability to deliver on their mission as they have assembled a team with similar backgrounds coming from companies such as Curve, TrueLayer, 11FS and Stripe.”

“As we got to know Daniel and his team over time, it became clear to us that the founders have lived the pain point and possess the domain knowledge to build the best product to solve for it. The team’s vision redefines the possibilities enabled by automating money movement” said Tim Rehder, Partner at Earlybird.

A remote first company with headquarters in London, Payable is building a team of payment experts at the intersection of banking and payments. It will use the seed funding to scale the organization and add new integrations with banks across the United Kingdom as well as expand its coverage to other European countries beyond the U.K.

Source Earlybird DWES Management GmbH & Co. KG

Team wellness and mental health are as important as achieving your product goals

By

Quepatagra

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10/07/2022

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Robbi develop robotics intelligence the first product is Robbi Forests

Please introduce yourself and your startup Robbi to our readers!

My name is Andrés Jiménez. I’ve been working in the tech industry for the last 15 years leading teams in the design and development of new technology products and starting 2021, I co-founded Robbi (https://robbi.co). We develop robotics intelligence for a better tomorrow and decided to initially focus on a first challenge: wildfires. Our first product, Robbi Forests, analyzes vegetation to generate insights that could prevent or mitigate a wildfire. We do that by using AI and combining data from different drone sensors.

We’re now a startup in residence at MassChallenge, one of the biggest startup accelerators in the world. And in the last few days we classified between the top 5 in the program. People can know more about the top 5 startups and even vote for us to let us access a Community Choice Award until October 14th at http://more.masschallenge.org/community-choice-2022

How did you get the idea of Robbi Forests?

Together, with my co-founder Jhorman, we share a common goal about using technology to solve impact challenges. Wildfires are one of those and how they have been growing through these last years got our attention, urgently asking for a solution. Jhorman started to reach out to stakeholders, including forest and fire departments in Germany, Portugal, Ireland and Denmark, to explore possibilities to contribute and we found positive reception that gave the foundation to what we’re doing.

Why did you decide to start with Robbi?

After finding a business partner with the same commitment and passion to work on this topic. I’m convinced that great companies are created by great teams, and I think we have one.

What is the vision behind Robbi?

We wanna create an ecosystem where technology and life converge to solve impact challenges. We started with wildfires but we see us quickly moving to work on climate and more.

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

We started by working together for what we called “a week without commitment”. We quickly found a good synergy as a team, but to turn it into a full time activity we went through different challenges, going from providing economic stability to the team to achieving market-fit. It was great to find support from organizations like Climate Founders, Startup Incubator Berlin, SIBB, German Accelerator and MassChallenge along the way.

Who is your target audience?

Wildfire forest consultants and forest investors in a first phase, but we’re continuing with forest and fire services, local governments and insurance companies.

What is the USP of your startup?

We find a gap in the market when we talk about wildfire tech. Solutions are focused on early detection, suppression or even prediction, but prevention has been left apart. Our technology focuses on wildfire prevention, providing the best return on investment, and takes advantage of the smart detection technology developed with our trained AI models.

Can you describe your typical workday?

We usually start with a quick check of the pending tasks and the daily agenda, we prioritize and decide on the strategy for specific points and move to work. It’s interesting how we evolved to also worry about having the best work environment for the day, so you’ll easily find us working in different places and having a drink and a nice playlist next to us.

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

There should be a before and after. If we talk about helping to prevent wildfires, our influence should be felt in the field.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

A co-founder that shares your vision, passion and commitment is key.

Always promote communication, between your partners, your team and with your customers.

Team wellness and mental health are as important as achieving your product goals.

More information you will find here

Thank you Andrés Jiménez for the Interview

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

QuantPi wins top VC investor and closes a €2.5M pre-seed round

By

Quepatagra

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10/07/2022

0

QuantPi, the leading development platform for Responsible AI has announced the successful closing of their pre-seed funding round

QuantPi, the leading technology-provider for Responsible AI, announced that it has secured 7-digits in pre-seed funding. The financing from top investors, leading angels and industry experts signals QuantPi’s strong position as a first-mover in a highly relevant, massively growing but still emerging market.

QuantPi’s general hypothesis is as simple as powerful: The indispensable AI transformation of nearly every industry has just started. Global yearly investments in AI surpass $US 59Bn in 2021 and are expected to reach $US 422Bn in 2028. Modern AI algorithms are considered a century invention that will change the way we live – yet companies need to learn how to handle them correctly in order to avoid significant financial and physical harm as seen in the past: Whether it’s credit card which has been investigated for discriminating against women, a chatbot that reportedly made racist tweets, or an autopilot that was reported to cause crashes, there are plenty of of recent AI incidents.

Hundreds of examples can be found in the AI incident databases. This has not only been recognized by industry leaders (more than 90% of executives plan to invest in Responsible AI) but also by hundreds of initiatives to regulate and standardize AI, with its most prominent and impactful example: the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). One of the consequences of the AIA is that companies who cannot explain the decisions made by their AI will be fined up to 6% of yearly global revenues. QuantPi addresses this market opportunity by closing the gap using researched backed technologies delivered via its platform in order to develop efficient, secure and compliant AI-based products.

QuantPi takes care of eliminating uncertainty in building trustworthy AI products

Using QuantPi’s platform, enterprises can ensure that legal, commercial, ethical, and reputational risks related to their AI solutions are identified, assessed, and mitigated. The platform can be seamlessly integrated with modern ML and BI tools. It collects artifacts and metrics about AI systems within the most important risk and auditing dimensions.

Following a research period of nearly 7 years, QuantPi was founded in 2020 by leading mathematicians, computer scientists and business minds as a spin-off of the renowned CISPA – Helmholtz Center for Information Security and Saarland University. Having started with the intrinsic motivation of making black-box AI understandable to non-machine learners through eXplainable AI (XAI), the technology quickly developed to a holistic platform to make AI safer and more understandable to the different stakeholders in society, research and business.

“At QuantPi, we are convinced that intelligent systems can be beneficial to humanity. However, we believe that certain people and technologies are needed to enable this positive coexistence. Our state-of-the-art Responsible AI platform places us on a strong trajectory to make our vision a reality: enabling society for a safe & self-determined co-existence with intelligent machines.” says QuantPi co-founder and CEO Philipp Adamidis.

Source COHORT GmbH

Keep chasing your dreams

By

Quepatagra

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10/06/2022

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Money Masters is a financial education platform aiming to solve the financial literacy crisis around the world.

Please introduce yourself and your startup Money Masters to our readers!

Hi, I am David Giron, the CEO, and co-founder of Money Masters. Money Masters is a financial education platform aiming to solve the financial literacy crisis around the world.

How did you get the idea of Money Masters?

The idea for Money Masters wasn’t a lightning-in-a-bottle moment, but rather came in parts. Let me first start with the fact that I was born and raised in Guatemala, one of the poorest countries in the world. In order to create a better future for myself and my family, I moved to the US for college and later endeavored out to Europe. After experiencing the inequality between developed and emerging nations, I realized that a vital part of a country’s development is the educational infrastructure that is in place. However, despite the infrastructure being so well developed in places such as the United States I found that there was still minimal financial education available. Even in a top country like the United States, over 37% of the population is financially illiterate and this number grows much larger when you begin to look at developing economies.

Why did you decide to start with Money Masters?

When I was living in Germany, I used Duolingo to learn German. That’s when something clicked. Duolingo changed the game in the language learning space. It made it possible that anyone could learn a language anywhere in the world for free. I asked myself, why can’t I do the same thing for finance? Inspired by Duolingo, we created Money Masters.

By breaking down finance into bite-size modules, and creating interactive content, I believed I could make learning finance a fun experience. Just like Duolingo, we gamified the experience by creating rewards, streaks, and competitions so that learning about finance was more of a game. Technology is changing the way we learn, we don’t want to sit down in a classroom and just read for hours. We all learn in different ways, and that’s what we try to achieve at Money Masters.

What is the vision behind Money Masters?

The vision behind Money Masters is to make financial education accessible to all. We believe that everyone has the ability to be financially free and we are looking to unlock this potential through knowledge. Everyone spends their whole life working for money and we believe with sufficient education you can make your money work for you.

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

The company was founded in October of 2020 and this was a difficult time to start a business as Covid made the business landscape difficult to navigate, whether it be finding potential partners or working in a team environment. But despite these difficult challenges we were able to set achievable goals that we were then able to meet which got our project off the ground. As we are dealing with an ed-tech platform, transitioning financial education into the tech atmosphere took some time. But as of now, we are fulfilling the goal of reaching over 400 bite-sized lessons by the end of 2022.

Who is your target audience?

At Money Masters, we want to make financial education accessible to all. Our app is designed for anyone who wants to learn about finance and in particular we target the demographics that have the lowest levels of financial literacy, which includes Gen Zs and Millennials.

What is the USP of your startup?

The unique selling proposition at Money Masters is that we mix theory and practice. Most programs either educate you in totality on the theory or attempt to teach you how to beat the stock market. We have created an ecosystem where the two aspects of financial education are mixed together, both theory and practice. You must complete a section of our academy (lesson learning) before you can enter the arena, also known as the Fantasy Investing Competition. We are a one-stop shop for all things finance, we don’t only teach people about personal finance or investing, we teach people about all things money and then allow them to use their newfound knowledge in practical ways.

Can you describe your typical workday?

No two days in a start-up environment are the same. However, we do our best to embed routines into our team’s schedules to avoid the chaos that comes hand and hand with the start-up lifestyle.

Every Morning we have a simple 15-minute meeting to catch up with all members of the team and see what they are working on and what obstacles they are facing with current tasks. We heavily prioritize company culture and the whole team will have lunch together frequently.

The majority of the days will include meetings with potential investors and partners, attending events for our established partners which lead to a growing community presence, and also meeting with other founders and mentors as they have helped me immensely on this journey.

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

In 5 years we see ourselves as leading figures within the Ed-Tech space. With a 20% month-over-month growth since our product was launched on the app and google play store we believe it’s very reasonable that we will have accumulated over 1 million active users globally by 2027 on mobile and web applications. However, we believe our content shouldn’t only be consumed by the English-speaking community and we are working hard every day to translate our platform into different languages. We are hoping to have 15+ languages available on our app within the next 5 years. Most importantly we want to see financial literacy rates around the world increase and we want to be the company that takes the complexity out of finance.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Keep chasing your dreams
Use the resources available within your area and network (incubators, connections, etc.)
Keep the team’s spirits high, and develop a good company culture from day one.

More information you will find here

Thank you David Giron for the Interview

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

Build a great team of founders

By

Quepatagra

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10/05/2022

0

DocVox is a smart meeting assistant that allows you to document your meeting without even typing!

Please introduce yourself and your startup DocVox to our readers!

DocVox is a smart meeting assistant that allows you to document your meeting without even typing! In a few clicks, it joins your meetings as a participant and works in the background to recommend you notes, tasks, and todos. It leaves you the time to focus on the conversation while being sure that your meeting is well documented and your data is treated carefully.

We are 3 young productivity experts who bring a different set of qualities to the team.

Tom Würden most recently worked as an IT consultant. His responsibility was the management of the integration of an internal project management system (PMO) and dealt with topics such as team leading, requirements engineering, quality, and test management. With Simon Krantz, we have an experienced commercial person with a focus on cross-cultural marketing and negotiation. He worked in the field of knowledge brokering, where he led teams of associates and oversaw more than 15 to 20 projects weekly from start to successful completion. Lastly, Viktor Walter-Tscharf has been involved in Machine-Learning research for 7 years. His responsibility is the algorithms and deep learning model which brings DocVox’s vision to life.

How did you get the idea of DocVox? Why did you decide to start with DocVox?

Viktor and Tom got the idea of DocVox during the first lockdown in 2020. They both had a lot of online meetings and felt the pain of having to keep track of all the minutes and tasks discussed. Working on this pain point they started to develop the first version of the smart meeting assistant that became the core product of DocVox. Simon joined a few months after. He participated in the UX design and helped polish the solution with his user-centric view.

What is the vision behind DocVox?

Facilitate meetings across the world by keeping them stress-free, focused, and organized.

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

The main challenge when starting a SaaS product and most of all an AI-based solution is the development of the technology. Having the idea behind it is, of course, critical but the hardest part is to develop it into a stable, user-friendly, and efficient tool. Through a lot of trial and error, we developed DocVox to its current version. However, we are constantly improving it in order to offer our users the best tool possible. We believe in a tool that evolves with its users’ needs.

Additionally, funding is another challenging area. You need money to be able to focus fully on this endeavour but finding it is a headache. It took us a lot of time to secure our first finances but hopefully, we managed to do it through efforts and perseverance.

Who is your target audience?

From a general standpoint, any individual that regularly attends meetings online will benefit from DocVox. Indeed, our smart meeting assistant is relevant in any industry, at any business level.

In terms of strategy, our target audience is product/ project managers. In this profession, people spend hours of their week in meetings, They often have to manage a lot of information, share it with their teams as well as manage tasks and deadlines for the product or project they are managing.

What is the USP of your startup?

No post-processing is required: In contrast with other solutions on the market that require the user to revisit the meeting transcript in order to extract the valuable information, with DocVox you receive AI-based recommendations while the meeting is happening.

Focus on voice to action: The main purpose of our solution is to provide our users with a clear transcript and actionable items. Once the meeting is over you can get to work right away.

Data security: One of the pilar of DocVox is data protection. We want to ensure the utmost security of our users’ sensitive (and less sensitive) data. Having that in mind we implemented key features such as GDPR compliance, on-premise deployment, an option to opt-out of the recording.

Can you describe your typical workday?

As big promoters of remote working, the whole team works most of the time from home. We of course collaborate closely on a daily basis and communicate substantially over the phone, online meeting tools, slack, etc..

A typical work day starts with a quick stand-up with the whole team on slack to exchange on our tasks and challenges.

Afterward, each one of us works separately in his area. We are very complementary and we each have our own area of expertise.

We have multiple meetings per day with external and internal partners. Depending on the nature of these events, one, two, or all of us will be joining and bringing their expertise. We also catch up on an ad hoc basis to discuss some issues that may arise.

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

Such as many start-ups, it is very complicated to have an accurate forecast of the future in the current ecosystem. Nevertheless, we are very confident in the validity of our business plan.

In 5 years we plan to be an implemented actor in the marketplace with our smart meeting assistant helping tens of thousands of teams worldwide to stay engaged in their meetings.

We also plan an organic growth with around 30 employees by this time. We want to implement a sustainable business with a great work environment and the lowest turnover possible.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Build a great team of founders

Take time to find the right product-market fit

Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance

More information you will find here

Thank you Simon Krantz for the Interview

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

Keep passion in mind throughout the good and the bad times

By

Quepatagra

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09/27/2022

0

Chordify – The Music e-learning platform that automatically transforms music into chords

Please introduce yourself and your startup Chordify to our readers!

My name is Tijmen and I am one of the co-founders at Chordify – The Music e-learning platform that automatically transforms music into chords. Like magic! Well, not really… It’s actually done through AI technology that can recognize even the most obscure songs and then produce the chords to that song so that you can play it on guitar, piano, or ukelele. So not magic at all really, just state-of-the-art music technology, which I think is even cooler in a way.

How did you get the idea of Chordify?

I used to play in a band with Bas, our CEO, and a few other guys, some of whom still work with us at Chordify. With our combined interest in music and programming, we saw a chance at revolutionizing the world of chord recognition technology – and so we did!

Why did you decide to start with Chordify?

As musicians, we used a lot of chords platforms and we never really thought any of them lived up to their full potential. There was always the issue of chords missing for less known songs and sometimes the chords weren’t even right. We wanted a platform that was easier to use and had any song you’d search for.

What is the vision behind Chordify?

Seeing the world is living its music, that has always been our vision.

We just love seeing the millions of users that jam along with us at Chordify. Music can both be a way to deal with stress and emotions but it can also let you escape from everyday life for a while – I think that’s something everyone needs from time to time. We also strive to see people connect through music, whether that’s with friends, an audience, or with your old self by playing something nostalgic. Finally, Chordify can be a great way to develop as a person considering how learning something new gives you a sense of confidence and achievement.

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

We faced a bunch of challenges, like any start-up we struggled with time, funding, and structure. It’s, unfortunately, true that nothing worth having comes easy. It really comes down to expecting mistakes to be made, learning from them, and then remembering why you did all this in the first place so you don’t lose hope. It helps to have friends as colleagues who love music as much as you do.

Who is your target audience?

One of the best things about Chordify is that everyone from novice players to self-made professionals can make good use of our platform. When you’ve decided which song you’d like to play, the chords are provided to you in progression with the song, and the platform shows you how to play every chord. Then there’s a bunch of groovy features that help those who are still just starting out, like slowing down the tempo so you can follow the song at your own pace. We’ve really put a lot of effort into making it a platform for all music lovers – no matter your previous skills.

What is the USP of your startup?

First and foremost, our cutting-edge technology really sets us apart as it makes it possible to get the chords to any song, without being dependent on anyone else having manually entered the chords before. Without getting too nerdy with the tech details, we built an AI robot that could do both chord recognition and beat tracking. After feeding it with thousands of song examples, it can now figure out the chords to any song in the world, all by itself! We’re very proud robot parents.

There are obviously other chord and music e-learning platforms out there and right on them for helping people connect with music, that’s the most important thing. But Chordify has a unique technology and a combination of features that together gives the user a better all-around experience and accommodates a wider range of music lovers.

Can you describe your typical workday?

Most days at Chordify are quite upbeat (pun intended) since we are in the scaleup stage of things. No day is the same, but it’s usually coffee, meetings, coffee, listening to some good music, coffee, tech stuff, and then finishing the day with some physical puzzle solving at the bouldering gym.

I feel very lucky to have so many amazing people in our big band and I think they are what makes our company culture so great. More than that, we all love music so we often share our favorite new releases and even our own creations. We also meet up at concerts and festivals and like to jam together, even if it sounds horrible sometimes.

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

I am hoping that more music lovers join us in chordifying music. Starting off in the Netherlands, Chordify has seen fast and organic growth in the last 10 years but we’ve always had our eyes on expanding internationally so that’s where our focus lies right now.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

You most likely built your business around something you’re passionate about, so my recommendation would be to keep that passion in mind throughout the good and the bad times.

This is a little bit of a cliche, but don’t underestimate the value of hiring the right person. Your employees are what will make or break your business.

And last but not least, ROCK ON!

More information you will find here

Thank you Tijmen for the Interview

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

Why Accounting Is Important for Your Startup

By

Quepatagra

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09/15/2022

0

As an entrepreneur, your startup will require solid accounting practices from the beginning. This will allow the founders, financial managers, and business leaders to have real-time visibility to accurate information on accrued expenses vs, accounts payable. Accurate financial data is crucial because of how unpredictable startups are. This post will look at the reasons why accounting is crucial for startups.

Benefits of Accounting for Startups

An accounting process will allow a business owner to see how good or bad the business is performing financially. The business will have a better understanding of its past activities, and where it is currently. This makes it easier to make business plans for the future. Accounting for startups allows you as the owner to easily track accrued expenses for services rendered, and goods produced.

Below are five accounting basics every startup should be tracking.

Bank statements
Payroll
Credit card statement
Invoices
Proof of payment

Bank Statements

With the use of online banking, dealing with bulky bank statements for businesses is no longer common. However, reconciling your startup’s bank account can not be ignored. Reconciling these statements every month will allow you to balance the general ledger balance to the balance in your bank account. Performing these actions will allow you to easily trace and find errors in banking that may otherwise go unnoticed without reconciling the statements each month.

Payroll

Tracking payroll includes retaining employee records of time to managing employee personnel records. As a business owner, it means you have to manage all related payroll forms which include 941S, W-2s, and 1099s.

Credit Card Statements

It is as crucial to reconcile your credit card statement as it is to reconcile your bank statement. With the rise of credit card fraud, multiple small charges may be going through your credit card without detection. Ensure that you have a backup for all charges on your card’s statement. This is especially critical if different employees can use the company’s credit card.

Invoices

Your customers need to be invoiced for products and services that your business offers. You should be able to create an invoice at the beginning of your business. The accounting software you may be using or planning to purchase will probably have an invoicing feature and accounts receivable tracking included. Ensure that you are invoicing and following up on the invoices regularly to get paid.

Proof of Payment

A supplier calls to inform you that they will not be shipping products to you until you’ve cleared your bill. You’re frustrated because you mailed a check to them two weeks ago. Always ensure that you keep bank statements close to determine if it has cleared. If it has cleared, you need to request a copy to give to your suppliers. If you are not using checks in your business, keep proof of payment safely along with the bill in case the payment is missing.

Endnote

Managing your business accounts from the start allows you to better control the finances, and properly plan for the future. You will know when your startup is overspending and when you need to reduce certain expenditures. Above are points that show you the importance of accounting for any startup business. Start tracking these features and watch your startup thrive.

Author: Lorelyn

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

Never give up because it takes time

By

Quepatagra

-

09/13/2022

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

-

09/11/2022

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.