Find the best people and empower them

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4 March 2022

Gavan technology is based on our ability to extract proteins from a wide variety of plants

Please introduce yourself and your startup Gavan to our readers!

Hello, my name is Itai, I am a serial entrepreneur with a passion to build new companies, create value and always make sure there is something good for the world. Gavan has given me the opportunity to engage with one of the most challenging problems in the food industry: How to create quality food by using fewer resources, via sustainable practices.

How did you get the idea of Gavan?

Gavan was established during a quest for new tastes by Uri Jeremias, a famous chef from Acre, Israel. This initiated the work with Spirulina.

Our mission is driven by a deep-rooted commitment to unlock botanical resources to create bioactive ingredients. Longtime collaborators Uri Jeremias, a famous chef of the restaurant who brought his groundbreaking culinary knowledge and passion to the ingredients industry, and Allen Hazan, with rich experience in designing processes and products, were inspired to create the new technology after meeting me and Baruch Dach, a marine biotechnologist and inventor. The new perfect blue was the brainchild of our inventive synergy, leading us to form Gavan in 2020.

Why did you decide to start with Gavan?

We have a passion for strategizing sustainable solutions. We started developing new technologies in that respect. The spirulina was our first source and we succeeded to extract three different and valuable products from Spirulina making use of the entire biomass. This was our landmark to develop a full sustainable platform.

What is the vision behind Gavan?

Our unique technology is based on our ability to extract proteins from a wide variety of plants. In fact, the blue pigment from spirulina is a small protein. Our vision is to deliver the best-in-class affordable, plant-based protein to the food industry that can be customized to meet customer needs with respect to the protein properties.

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

The start was relatively easy, we had a mission and people who believed in us. The real challenges we faced began later on, once we started the transition from technology development in the lab towards production.

Who is your target audience?

We are targeting food and beverage manufacturers who looking to use natural colors in their hot and cold drinks. Our pallet of colors includes beyond blue, green and purple. All high temperature resistant.

What is the USP of your startup?

We have a game-changer plant -based extraction platform. It enables us to create unique natural, vivid blue colors with resistance to high temperature and low pH making them perfect for pasteurization. We have more innovative plant-based products in the pipeline.

Can you describe your typical workday?

That is a great part of my job. There is no typical workday. It is certainly not a nine-to-five job and very hard to explain what it is. Every day is a new adventure.

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

Gavan will be a significant company in the plant-based protein and coloring market offering unique protein complexes that poses high functionality on one hand while enable to produce the exact color, scent, and taste of the protein.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

So many books have been written with tips for founders. For me, there is one important tip that guides me throughout my career and should be considered by founders or any manager in that respect. Find the best people and empower them. I have an amazing team in Gavan and I am so proud of them and what they have achieved.

Thank you Itai Cohen for the Interview

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

Be patient and persistent

By

StartupValley

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3 March 2022

0

LastBasic unites inventors with designers and engineers from around the world

Please introduce yourself and your startup LastBasic to our readers.

My name is Alejandro Turell, I’m the CEO and Founder of LastBasic. I set up LastBasic as an industrial engineer in 2017, using the learnings I gained from my master’s degree in Organisation Engineering, Project Management and Business. LastBasic is the first-of-its-kind industrial design and engineering platform which allows inventors to turn ideas into functional prototypes. The platform unites inventors with designers and engineers from around the world to create a product prototype at a fraction of the time of traditional, offline methods and at costs of up to 60% less than traditional engineering consultancies.

How did you get the idea of LastBasic?

I worked in a traditional engineering consultancy for some time after my graduation, and quickly grew frustrated with the industry’s traditionalism. Engineering consultancies are built for big companies with huge budgets to come forward with their product ideas, which is hugely limiting for the average person. People who have great tech ideas might not know how to proceed, nor have the time or budget to become a full-time inventor alongside existing commitments, but that doesn’t mean their idea is any less valuable.

These consultancies are not designed for inventors working alone, or as a freelancer or as a side project to their full-time job. The up-front cost of working with a consultancy can be extremely high, and even if an inventor does manage to raise the funds, they often find that they lose control of their design.

Why did you decide to start with LastBasic?

I wanted to revolutionise this archaic industry and open product development up to a broader range of people. During my business master’s programme, I learned about the sharing economy model, and knew that this was the right way forward for the engineering industry. This model, which is based on sharing access to goods and services within a community, could offer lower costs than traditional consultancies, as well as increased efficiency and a higher-quality output for inventors. Combining this knowledge with my engineering background felt like the perfect step to making the industry work for everyone.

What is the vision behind LastBasic?

LastBasic believes that everyone should dare to create real-world solutions to real-world problems, without financial barriers or overly complicated processes. We aim to become the biggest global meeting point in hardware technology creation and interaction, using a digital approach to link inventors with designers and engineers. For LastBasic, inventing should be underpinned by a community of likeminded people exchanging concepts and ideas, not limited by budget or time constraints.

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

I didn’t really have any money to build the company, so I had to focus on bringing in the right people to help me succeed rather than focusing solely on capital. I knew my project was a little out-of-the-box and non-traditional, so it was difficult to find people I could trust. Luckily, I was able to find colleagues with the right energy who saw value in my idea, and the business grew from there. Some people give up when they experience these kinds of challenges, especially when those around you in your personal life doubt your idea. I knew I had to stay focused, blind almost, and shut out these critics to succeed.

Who is your target audience?

At LastBasic we have two clear camps: our inventors and our experts. The inventor audience is incredibly broad; for example, we’ve worked with a serial entrepreneur, with years of experience creating products, and we’ve also worked with a local politician who had no experience with any of this, just an idea. The ideas are what make our target audience – it doesn’t matter who you are, what experience you have, or what you do, it just matters that you have an idea that you want to make a reality.

Our experts are a global community of designers and engineers who are specialists in their field. They are as diverse as the inventors are, each bringing a unique skillset that they use to create a part of an inventor’s idea.

What is the USP of your startup?

LastBasic is a home for anyone to invent, innovate and develop new economical prototypes in an easy and accessible digital environment. The platform unites inventors with designers and engineers from around the world to create a product prototype at a fraction of the time of traditional, offline methods and at costs of up to 60% less than traditional engineering consultancies.

Can you describe your typical workday?

I always start my day with a big cup of coffee and with my mind full of new ideas. After organising my thoughts and setting the day’s priorities, I meet my colleagues at the office. We have to start by getting up to speed on whatever happened during the night, because as we are a global digital platform, it is important that we don’t miss any opportunities that come through whilst we were sleeping.

For any startup and even more so for a leader, it is difficult to have a fixed daily schedule, as things evolve rapidly from one day to another. But, usually after a variety of different events and meetings with external partners, investors, and other stakeholders, I can move onto the rest of my day. My schedule is usually full of paperwork, troubleshooting tasks, and ad-hoc strategy meetings. These might not sound like the most exciting parts of my job, but they’re often the kind of tasks that get the best results, such as successfully closing a funding round or hearing positive feedback from a member of our expert or inventor community.

After a busy work day, spending time with my family and friends is the best way for me to recuperate my energy and start afresh the next day.

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

Our vision is to become the biggest global meeting point in hardware technology creation and interaction. We want to be a market network of tech trends for inventors to exchange concepts and ideas, providing a technical support ecosystem for entrepreneurs, SMEs, and corporations. The next three years will be spent defining and growing our three main pillars: inventors (our clients), revolution (the platform/innovation), and creation (our experts). We want to increase our presence, brand image and reputation in the UK, Europe, and US markets through marketing efforts as well as build partnerships with SMEs, corporations, engineering associations, universities and other organizations and institutions.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

1. Be patient and persistent – if the market needs your solution, it will happen. Build fast and don’t fall into the trap of perfectionism, because there is always time for improvements. Make sure you start testing and validating as soon as you can and the sooner you start selling, the better.

2. You have to shut out the noise from those who say that ‘this won’t work’. If you really want something that will disrupt the industry you have to be a little bit blind and a little bit crazy to make it happen.

3. Trust in yourself and your team. A founder isn’t supposed to have the ability to do everything, you just need to have the ability to bring the right people on board at the right time to support you in your endeavour.

More information you will find here

Thank you Alejandro Turell for the Interview

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

The days are long but the years are short

By

StartupValley

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1 March 2022

0

Lovevery Playthings are made with sustainable, organic, and natural materials that are good for your child

Why don’t you briefly introduce yourself and Lovevery to our readers?

I’m Jessica Rolph, Cofounder and CEO of Lovevery. I’m Roderick Morris, Cofounder and President of Lovevery.

JESSICA ROLPH: Lovevery is a stage based early-learning program, sold by subscription, that helps parents feel confident they are giving their children the very best start. All of our playthings are designed in house, and each Play Kit includes thoughtfully created toys that support all kinds of learning within a developmental window-language, math, physics, fine and gross motor skills, and social-emotional learning.

Why did you decide to start a company?

JESSICA ROLPH: I’ve always been passionate about early childhood. As I began my family I started to look for a more thoughtful way to play. I discovered a doctoral thesis on infant brain development that had all these detailed, nerdy, cool things that I could do. It felt really natural and simple and I never looked at our toys the same again. My child and I were connected and I had confidence that I understood what he was hungry to learn. I wanted to share that feeling of confidence with other parents. Lovevery brings confidence to parents who want to make playtime smart.

RODERICK MORRIS: When Jessica came across the doctoral thesis, I was working at Opower—an American software company that helped families save energy—where I managed marketing, operations, and helped lead the team through its IPO. I got a call from Jessica, and we started talking about the research and experimentation that she’d been doing building her own toys at home. It became immediately clear to me that she was onto something and that we should team up to pursue it further. In 2017, we launched with Lovevery’s first product: The Play Gym.

What was the biggest challenge in founding Lovevery?

JESSICA ROLPH: At my first company, Happy Family, getting to product market fit was a challenge and we really struggled in the beginning. We had to pivot multiple times to find products that would best suit both our customers and retailers. Learning from that experience made a difference when we were trying to get Lovevery off the ground. Rod and I were determined through lots of parent testing to get our first product right. We had so many initial designs that didn’t work, and kept going back to design and testing. While it took us a while to get there, our first product—The Play Gym—became a top-selling product in the category right off the bat.

Can you start with an idea when not everything is perfect yet?

JESSICA ROLPH: The truth is, it may never be perfect in your own mind. I would suggest taking the emotion out of it (so incredibly hard when you’re pursuing your dream) and just figure out a way to everyday be taking that next baby step. If you break the big vision and inevitable problems into incremental to-dos, you can make a ton of progress. For Lovevery, what took the idea from incubation into the “okay we’re really going to do this” was teaming up with Rod. I believe in partnerships, and needed Rod to make Lovevery really happen. He is strategic, creative and particularly good at making quick, hard decisions.

What is the vision behind Lovevery?

RODERICK MORRIS: Everything that we do at Lovevery is driven by our mission to be a support system for families. It can feel overwhelming and hard at times to sift through and determine what you actually need and what exactly is happening in your child’s brain.

Lovevery is a simple, verifiable, and holistic resource for families. We know that making it easy to tune into your child’s development helps eliminate that feeling of overwhelm, encourages meaningful parent-child connection, and ultimately leads to greater outcomes for more children.

Who is Lovevery’s target group?

JESSICA ROLPH: Lovevery’s customers, like all of us parents, are caregivers who want the best for their children. They’re tired of the overwhelm when it comes to what their child is learning. They are asking questions like ‘does this plastic toy with flashing lights and electronic sounds help my child?’ And they are looking for a more intentional approach to parenting that puts them in touch with what their child is hungry to learn at each stage. They also want products that are sustainably made with materials they can feel good about. And they appreciate that Lovevery is here to help.

What is special about the products?

JESSICA ROLPH: We are a simple, verifiable, and holistic resource for families. We provide supportive and informative content, along with sustainable playthings designed by experts and grounded in decades of educational research. We aren’t some kind of top-down authority; we know that great parenting is a mix of intuition and reliable, timely information. To help build confidence, we always deliver our messages from a place of empathy and solidarity.

What sets you apart from other providers?

RODERICK MORRIS: Lovevery is different because we don’t see ourselves as a toy company—we are a holistic early child development program.

Our products and books are tailored to each stage of a child’s development from 0 – 48 months. We design original playthings that make the most of a child’s desire to learn.

Parents and caregivers are also looking for a smarter, more informed approach to supporting their child’s development. In the Play Guides and App that come with the Lovevery subscription, we provide expertise from neuroscientists, speech and language experts, Montessori educators, occupational and physical therapists, and social psychologists.

Where is Lovevery heading? Where do you see yourself in five years?

RODERICK MORRIS: Lovevery has already become an essential resource for parents around the world. We recently launched our subscription Play Kits program in the U.K. and Europe, which was an important milestone for us. Our goal is to continue listening to our customers, expanding the business, and creating new products that serve children all over the word for more years of their early development. Our long-term vision is to support every part of the parenting experience throughout early childhood. We want to be truly accessible to as many families as possible.

What 3 tips would you give to aspiring female founders?

JESSICA ROLPH: “Don’t get bogged down by the idea of what success should look like. Instead let yourself be guided by your passion, curiosity and the impact that you want to have on the world.”

“It all comes down to purpose. Instead of framing it as “reaching the top”, think of what will allow you to live the most fully and to share your unique talents with the world. Success is likely to follow.”

“My mantra right now is: the days are long but the years are short. This feels very true for my life as a parent and as CEO. I’m always trying to find a way to be more present and enjoy the journey.”

Picture Jessica Rolph with family (left) nd Roderick Morris with family

Thank you Jessica Rolph and Roderick Morris for the Interview

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

Learn to deal with rejection early

By

StartupValley

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28 February 2022

0

Imburse, companies can solve their most pressing payment problems

Please introduce yourself and your start-up Imburse to our readers!

I am Carl, the CFO and co-founder of Imburse. We founded Imburse with a single goal, to simplify how companies access the global payments ecosystem and embed financial services into their operations. We provide our clients with a low code platform and the expertise to deploy new payment technologies, workflows and providers into their organisations via a single connection.

Imburse was founded in February 2018 and has grown rapidly since then. We are backed by some of the worlds leading technology investors and have over 50 employees across our offices in Zurich, Lisbon and London. Our clients include large multinational insurers such as Generali and Swiss Re. We have also developed key partnerships with renowned consultancies and core system providers, making our solution more readily available for our enterprise clients.

Prior to founding Imburse I had an extensive career in finance spanning a number of disciplines where I witnessed the challenges of technology integrations and financial operations first-hand.

How did you get the idea of Imburse?

We were forced into it as a pivot actually. We had a completely different business in 2012, in the flight tracking space. Our business model was to sell flight-delay insurance to consumers, and we needed to be able to do real-time payments to meet customer expectations. Unfortunately, the insurer we worked with did not have that functionality available and was not prepared to develop it. It would have cost them $ 500,000 and taken an estimated 15 months to deploy. We wanted to make our business a success of course, so we built what we thought would be a temporary solution. This was the beginning of Imburse. Our solution garnered a lot of interest, so it became clear to us then that this was the main pain point that needed to be solved.

Why did you decide to start with Imburse?

Many of the founders had started companies before and once we got an inkling that there is a problem that needed addressing and that companies are willing to pay for, we invested more time in understanding it. We found out that companies really struggle with technical integrations to payment providers and technologies, both from a time and cost perspective. It’s a common hurdle for many companies, especially those that rely on legacy IT systems. In short, we understood that this was a huge problem that companies are willing to pay for, it’s cross-vertical and it has global reach. These are great foundations for a start-up.

What is the vision behind Imburse?

Most corporations today are hampered by their own process inefficiencies, lack of access to specific skills, and, of course, budget constraints. A lot of resources, both financial and human, are wasted on helping complex and old systems cope to meet ever-evolving customer needs. We free up companies from these restrictions, allowing them to deploy their resources to build better companies, better products and generate more value for their customers. We focus on solving the payments integration problem, so that companies can allocate their resources to core business areas, all whilst still optimising and future-proofing their payments system. Aside from enabling connectivity to the payments world, Imburse also provides the payment expertise needed to make more informed business choices.

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

The start was difficult. The main challenge is to get early investors excited about B2B software. The problems are sometimes more difficult to understand and not as well-known as customer pain points. In addition, B2B deals take longer to conclude and the solution needs to be essentially operational before it can be sold. The pool of early-stage investors who have a good B2B software market appreciation is small, but we managed to attract some of the best early-stage investors out there. This allowed us to invest in the product and grow the company successfully.

Who is your target audience?

We target medium and large corporates, specifically those with complex corporate structures, old IT systems or multi-market presence. This can include insurance, banking, utilities and healthcare, amongst others. Our solution is geographically agnostic, despite our initial focus on European markets.

What is the USP of your start-up?

With Imburse, companies can solve their most pressing payment problems whether the challenges are on the collection, pay out or data side. Through our platform, companies can access any payment provider or technology available in any market. This enables them to offer any payment method they want, from more traditional payment mechanisms to alternative payment methods and vouchers. Most importantly, we are accessible to enterprises with older, legacy IT systems and old finance processes. This means we are best positioned to solve the payments integration problem for any corporate globally.

Can you describe your typical workday?

I typically start my day with a workout which is usually followed by some time playing with my young daughter. After this we have a family breakfast and I spend some time getting the family ready for their daily activities.

I start the workday around 9:00 and prefer to spend my mornings on high concentration tasks, often involving financial, legal and compliance topics. This leaves my afternoons open for team engagements and strategic focus areas. I make sure I am home for an early dinner and am normally online for an hour or two once I have put the kids down for bed in order to close out open topics and prepare for the next day.

Where do you see yourself and your start-up Imburse Payments in five years?

In 5 years, Imburse will be the “go-to” solution provider for corporates and SMEs for anything related to the topic of payments. We will be a strong team sharing a common mission, and excited by the opportunity to grow even further into other industry verticals. Imburse will be a globally recognised brand in the B2B software space with a reputation for delivery and bringing value to our clients.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Don’t be afraid to spend money early on to ensure you build a solid foundation. Know what resources you need in order to achieve your next milestone and raise enough money to give yourself the scope and runway to achieve this. This includes allocating resources to get the proper legal advice and structures in place early on. The right advice really allows you to move through investment rounds and closing deals faster.

Secondly, hire more, earlier. We learned painfully how hard it is to hire good people and how long it takes. Spend time very early on to define your hiring strategy.

Lastly, learn to deal with rejection early. You need to find the right balance between taking feedback to improve your offering and ignoring negative people that may not understand your offering. There are unfortunately some investors who look to justify why not to invest, rather than look for opportunities to invest, and this means you will probably get more “no” than “yes”. It is an opportunity to learn.

Thank you Carl Strempel for the Interview

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

Try to maintain a healthy work life balance

By

StartupValley

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16 February 2022

0

twoplus Fertility: twoplus Sperm Guide an effective, at-home fertility treatment

Please introduce yourself and your startup two plus Fertility to our readers!

I am Dr Benjamin Tee, co-founder of fertility tech startup twoplus Fertility. twoplus Fertility has developed the twoplus Sperm Guide – an effective, at-home fertility treatment to help increase the chances of natural conception by aiding more sperm cells to reach the egg.

How did you get the idea of twoplus Fertility / why did you decide to start it?

My wife and I faced our own problems conceiving. We were excited to start a family together after spending time on our careers. However, the longer the process took, the more frustrated we became. Fertility doctors eventually diagnosed unexplained infertility. I decided to channel my frustrations into understanding fertility and conception. I was surprised by the lack of a simple and effective home-based solution for couples that also preserved the privacy of the process. Most of the fertility products out there are focused on fertility tracking or incremental product improvements. None have concentrated on providing new, ground-breaking solutions to improve sperm transport to the egg.

What is the vision behind twoplus Fertility?

First and foremost, we wanted to ensure that couples have alternative options to achieve successful natural conception before or whilst seeking medical intervention. Sperm count among men has halved in the last 40 years while couples still struggle to get accessible fertility care. In other words, fertility health is declining among the adult population but the solution landscape has not changed much for the past decade. Focusing on solutions that make fertility care more accessible, frequent and affordable will help to unlock tremendous value for couples. This is a huge, relatively untapped, market opportunity.

The twoplus Sperm Guide is an effective, at-home fertility treatment to help increase the chances of natural conception by aiding more sperm cells to reach the egg. The small, comfortable device is used during sex to help sperm get to the right place. The device mimics cervical cap insemination, preventing leakage of sperm after sex, while also increasing the amount of sperm which reaches the cervical mucus. Without intervention, less than 1% of sperm reach the egg. The twoplus Sperm Guide has been shown in in-vitro testing to increase the effective sperm count by approximately eight times.

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

twoplus fertility started mid pandemic and our main sales channel has been via our e-commerce store. There was a lot of engagement as couples decided to take the opportunity to start a family during the pandemic. When we started twoplus one of the aims was to reduce the barrier to quality fertility care. Even prior to the pandemic, getting access to fertility help was a challenge for most people around the world. The pandemic accelerated this further. We therefore had to carefully manage supply and demand at a time when people were searching for alternative solutions more than ever before.

Who is your target audience?

Our target audience is couples who have been trying to conceive for more than 6 months without success. The Sperm Guide can be used before, or whilst seeking, medical intervention.

What is the USP of your startup?

Our USP is providing an affordable option for couples to improve their chances of natural conception at-home by ensuring that more sperm reaches the egg during sex, as well as preventing sperm leakage afterwards.

Can you describe your typical workday ?

In a start-up your schedule tends to change a lot so we end up having to deal with a lot of spontaneous tasks that are time bound. Our days are usually packed with internal meetings and meetings with shareholders. No two days are the same and there is always something new to look forward to. We also try to make time to talk to our users and of course invest lots of energy in to new product development based on what are customers tell us they want or need.

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

We are currently developing new products that will soon be ready for launch. There is no shortage of opportunities in the fertility space! Our longer-term aim is to become a one-stop hub for fertility solutions. We have big ambitions: we want to help 1 million couples conceive over the next 10 years.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Try to maintain a healthy work life balance. Spend some quality time with your family and friends which will help keep you rejuvenated and mentally healthy.

Always ask for feedback and maintain healthy discussions. It will help you understand different angles to a problem you are facing/solution you are developing.

Don’t stop trying and don’t be afraid of failures. One of the most common obstacles we face is coming up with revolutionary ideas that don’t always pan out. Each failure presents you with a new learning opportunity and gives you the path towards success

Thank you Dr Benjamin Tee for the Interview

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

Don’t Worry About Perfect

By

StartupValley

-

14 February 2022

0

Trust Energy Africa high quality, durable, portable and affordable solar products

Please introduce yourself and your startup Trust Energy Africa to our readers!

Elvis Kadhama is 28-years-old Ugandan, clean energy social entrepreneur and environmentalist. He is committed and passionate about changing people’s lives, income and saving the environment through catalyzing clean energy transition in rural Uganda. He’s committed to change the mindset that most people are having towards carbon emissions, he believes through sensitization and training of rural populations on the health, financial and environmental benefits of clean energy products, Elvis graduated from Uganda College of Commerce Tororo in 2015 with a Business diploma, Elvis is a Young African Leadership Initiative-YALI RLC EA (2018) Alumni, Bridges for Enterprise Ambassador Uganda, One Young World Ambassador, Elvis is the Founder and Executive Director of Trust Energy Africa Limited and he also believes in the role clean energy products have in improving individual livelihoods and sustainability.

Trust Energy Africa Limited (Formerly Pearl Entrepreneurs Academy) is a cleantech social enterprise established in 2018 to empower under-served markets in last mile communities with holistic solutions to their economic and social challenges by providing them with access to clean, affordable, durable and high-quality Solar products and economic opportunities. The Enterprise aims to spread clean energy products across Uganda and Africa with the help of a direct sales network of Entrepreneurs.

Trust Energy Africa provides education, distribution, financing and after-sales support for clean energy products which include portable solar lanterns, and Solar Home Systems to families living on less than $2 a day in rural Uganda that create healthier and safer homes, increase productivity, reduce household expenses and provide additional income-generating opportunities. Trust Energy works with families in rural and urban slums of Uganda to address their energy needs and Trust Energy’s range of solar products is designed to replace kerosene, allowing families to save money while improving their health.

How did you get the idea of Trust Energy Africa?

For years, my family was exposed to smoke and fumes while lighting using kerosene lamps, unaware of the effects that these dirty fuels would have on our health and wellbeing. In 2018, my grandmother died in a fire outbreak caused by a kerosene lamp and after spending extensive time implementing microfinance initiatives in rural Mayuge District, I knew firsthand the suffering arising from a lack of access energy in remote communities.

In the same year 2018, I witnessed Annet (a widow) lose both her home and her son in the blink of an eye due to a kerosene lamp fire. This incident echoed countless stories shared by the women she was working with in their savings group, who seemed to have accepted a dangerous fate in the face of limited energy options. I felt that even in the remotest areas of the world, renewable energy solutions could alleviate that suffering. While solar seemed like an obvious, scalable solution, there was a lack of awareness and distrust in solar products were a major barrier to adoption.

In February, 2018 I conducted research in rural communities of Uganda and discovered that, approximately 4 million people die prematurely from illness attributed to household air pollution produced by inefficient energy sources. I learned about alternative energy sources during the burial of this Annet’s son. I was determined to improve the quality of life for low-income households in rural communities such that nobody else would have to face the pain and financial strain caused by pollutive fuels. All these stories beat me far but later inspired me to come up with a holistic solution to the problems hence founding Trust Energy Africa Limited.

Why did you decide to start with Trust Energy Africa?

Trust Energy Africa addresses the environmental, financial, and health issues caused by unsustainable lighting practices in rural Uganda. There is a critical need for clean energy solutions in Uganda. According to government sources, only 15% of the population in Uganda (independent sources put this as low as 9%) has access to electricity. This translates to 29 million people, mostly low-income populations in rural areas and urban slums – who burn fossil fuels, usually kerosene, for light and heat. It is estimated that 1 million liters of kerosene are burned daily in Uganda alone. Households and small businesses that rely on kerosene for lighting spend up to 20 percent of their annual incomes on energy.

They spend more on medical bills due to the negative impact on health outcomes from kerosene fumes. 30 percent of the population that uses kerosene report having lost property to kerosene related fires, yet kerosene is expensive, frequently cause fire outbreaks and emits significant amounts of CO2, causes deforestation as people cut down trees to get firewood to burn at night and numerous eyes, lung and chest complications affecting especially women and children.

What is the vision behind Trust Energy Africa?

Trust Energy Africa envision a world where low-income communities in Uganda have access to clean energy products that transform their health, environmental and socioecomic outcomes and break the poverty cycle.

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

Lack of Seed funding: When we started, we did not have funds to recruit team members, acquire an office space, or head sales, finance and administration. However, to get startup capital, we formed a partnership with Enventure enterprises Uganda, offering us clean energy loans at affordable interest rates. We’ve also received grants from Family and friends, the Pollination Project and the McGinnity Family Foundation.

Entrepreneurship: We had limited access to information about establishing and sustainably growing a business. To learn more, we participated in several entrepreneurship boot camps and programs.

Impact Tracking: We face difficulty in tracking quantitative and qualitative impact accurately. However, we collaborated with pro-bono consultancy organizations and Hubs to create impact tracking tools.

Competition: Our Company faces competition from fake, substandard clean energy products on the market, leading to high cases of defaulting customers. To overcome competition, we educate our customers on the benefits offered by our products, including but not limited to 1-2 years of warranty and a 3-5-year lifetime of products.

Consumer Attitudes: Changing customer perception from traditional cooking and lighting practices remains difficult. We tried our best to change customer attitudes towards clean energy products by providing them with education and training through village meetings.

Who is your target audience?

Trust Energy targets customers that are of low-income households living on less than $2 PPP a day. In Uganda, these people are generally smallholder famers and small business owners living in under-served, off-grid markets, aged 18-65 years, both men and women, and our beneficiaries are family members of our customers, namely female family members and children, who experience the highest exposure to unsustainable lighting and cooking practices.

What is the USP of your startup?

Trust Energy provides customers access to high quality, durable, portable and affordable solar products, convenient delivery to customers door steps, after- sales service like (product maintenance and repair), follow up calls on customers. To ensure we reach the people in need, we recruit local women and youths as Energypreneurs who bring solar and cook stoves straight to families’ doorsteps, educating customers about the new clean energy technology and providing a payment plan to fit their budget.

Can you describe your typical workday?

Elvis likes to start each day by going over my schedule to make sure any sales, calls or meetings I have are on top of mind and I get any prep work for those done first thing. Then, I usually answer my emails while I’m still fresh.

Where do you see yourself and your startup Trust Energy Africa in five years?

I am someone who loves learning about new technology and trends around the world, so in the next five years, I see myself as having established a strong knowledge on what’s new and emerging in the digital marketing in clean energy, I also see myself and Trust Energy as a big energy company employing over 1,000 youth and women as Energypreneurs, impacting over 100,000 low income families and leading a successful team that is result oriented.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

As a self-made social entrepreneur, I advise aspiring founders out there that;

Don’t Worry About “Perfect”

One piece of advice at the very beginning would be: “Don’t try to perfect your product too much before launching it.” The more time you spend building your product without getting feedback from real users, the higher the risk you are taking. At some point, you might even realize that your customers want something very different from what you have just given them.

You will find that most early adopters are more than happy to use a new product, even though it may still need some tweaks to work optimally. In fact, I’ve come to see that most of them just love to be part of the process. That makes it your job to align your expectations and be open to their feedback.

Teamwork Matters

There are three important things that must be in place when you start a company. The first (and most essential) is having a team that is completely aligned in terms of your vision. That’s because building a company is not about building a personal brand – it’s about building an entity that outlasts you, and that cannot be accomplished by just one person. Your team members should all have complementary skill sets that enable your vision to come to life.

The second thing is the idea itself. It needs to be one that you feel can materially change the way that things are done now and in the future. Building a company is a long-term commitment, and the worst thing you can do to yourself as a founder is to waste those early years on concepts that might not ultimately be worth your time.

The third part is your support system. A support system can range from your family to your friends to your business ecosystem, and even to early investors who might provide funding. These are the people who will support you and help you stay sane while you’re going through the complex process of getting your company off the ground.

Think Like a Customer

Too often, founders work on an unproven idea for months before taking it to the market. That’s a mistake. The single condition for having a real business is to have a paying customer. If someone is willing to pay for your idea, it means your solution solves a real problem. This is why you need to think and act like a customer-first company from day one.

Test your assumptions on real clients with real needs in the real world. Don’t spend too much time strategizing, because real world feedback will either crush your initial idea or force you to tweak it in order to be viable. I like to say “plan to change the plan” because execution eats strategy for breakfast. Bringing customers inside your company and inviting them to the drawing table will be your best decision ever. Chances are the problem you are solving for this client is universal, and experienced by most companies who share similar traits. Do unscalable things first and then take these learnings to build your path to scale.

Thank you Elvis Kadhama for the Interview

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

Take utmost care of your team

By

StartupValley

-

10 February 2022

0

Inntot: digital broadcast radio receiver solutions at very low cost

Please introduce yourself and your startup Inntot Technologies to our readers!

I am Rajith Nair and i am one of the founders of Inntot Technologies. I have completed my post-graduation in Computer Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras and have 22 years of experience in the automotive and consumer electronics entertainment domain spread over Royal Philips Electronics, Wipro Technologies, LSI Logic and Inntot Technologies.

Inntot Technologies is a technology driven company with prime focus on enabling cost effective next generation digital radio receiver solutions. And inntot has Software Defined Radio IP Solutions for Digital Radio Mondiale (AM and FM bands) Receivers, DAB/DAB+ Receivers, HD-Radio Receivers (in collaboration with Xperi), CDR Receivers and ISDB-T Receivers and is all set to play a pivotal role in the Analog Sunset of AM and FM broadcast radio transmission paving way to Digital broadcast Radio Transmission in the near future.

Inntot Technologies is the winner of several prestigious awards including National Technology Awards 2021 of Government of India, Industrial Innovation Awards 2017 of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) – for the Best Service Start-up and Top 10 Promising Start-ups of India., ASSOCHAM 4th ICT Awards 2020, DRM Enterprise Award 2019 instituted by Digital Radio Mondiale Consortium.

Inntot’s solutions power Digital Radio Receivers of some of the major car manufacturers worldwide.

How did you get the idea of Inntot Technologies?

Digital Radio Broadcasting is being mandated across the globe by all countries due to the advantages of multiplying the number of channels, excellent quality Audio for long distance reception and availability of useful data like traffic, news etc. Digital Radio will also play a crucial role in bridging the digital divide in developing countries such as India by providing free access to educational programs and on a large-scale deployment. It is also useful in broadcasting emergency warning in the event of natural disasters in an automated fashion to all radios including car, desktop and mobile phones when mobile networks may be completely dysfunctional. Also, Digital broadcast Radio is a viable and useful option in rural and remote areas where ensuring internet access may not be that easy.

However, current Digital Radio Broadcast Receiver solutions (DRM/DRM+, DAB/DAB+, HD-Radio, CDR) in the market require dedicated chips to perform complex operations like Demodulation in hardware and hence end solution becomes very costly due to high chip costs. Such high costs prevent swift penetration into emerging and high-volume markets like India, European Union, South Africa, Indonesia where the usage of Digital Broadcast Technology is mandated by Government as part of shut down of Analog Radio transmission in AM and FM bands.

It is the need to the hour for digital broadcast radio receiver market to have a high- quality solution that is cost effective.

Why did you decide to start with Inntot Technologies?

Inntot was formed with the very idea of breaking the general convention that high quality and cost effectiveness will not go hand in hand. With strong and considerable experience of founders in the area of digital broadcast receiver solutions, we decided to take up the challenge of coming up with high quality and cost-effective solutions based on the concept of Software Defined Radio with our own patented improvisations.

What is the vision behind Inntot Technologies?

Inntot’s vision is to facilitate the availability of the best of next generation radio broadcast technology to common man at very low cost.

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

Inntot’s software-based IP solution is a direct competitor of radio decoder chips manufactured by semiconductor giants who are well established in this industry. It has been an amazing journey for Inntot to develop the first product prototype, optimize the solution for the best performance and rope in the major customers who are accustomed to using the solutions of major semiconductor giants. Now, Inntot solution is being used by major customers and is in production for some of the heavy weights in car manufacturing industry replacing their first-generation solution based on the radio decoder chips provided by established semiconductor companies.

For every new customer, Inntot has to get its solution evaluated and validated for the feature and performance. This customer acquisition cycle is generally very lengthy. This process is getting easier as Inntot solution is now in production for some of the major companies.

Building cost intensive testing infrastructure and niche area competency were some of the other challenges faced during product/IP development.

Who is your target customer?

Our target customers are Automotive Tier-1 companies for in-car and aftermarket automotive products, consumer product companies for desktop radios and combo products and smart phone manufacturers.

What is the USP of your startup?

USP of Inntot solution is in terms of

Cost: Using Inntot solution will save at least 3-12 USD for the manufacturer.

Quality: Inntot solution is high performing and provides competitive
advantage to its customers with granted patents and multiple productizations.

Time-To-Market: Inntot solution is reusable and proven IP which reduces
Time to Market in a substantial manner.

Easy Maintenance: Inntot solution is easily maintainable using software upgrade.

Chip related:

unaffected by the global shortage of chips since the solution is software based.
Saves energy and environment by eliminating the need for radio decoder chip.

Can you describe your typical workday ?

Being a start-up founder and also CEO, I have to wear multiple hats and play multiple roles. Typical tasks during a day involve business development activities, customer interactions, project reviews, touch basing with key team members and certain operational activities.

I usually keep a “To do List” with different categories of role that I have to perform and that is really helpful. I am flexible with the working hours and this could be both advantage and disadvantage from a personal perspective.

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

Inntot plans to raise next round of investment with the objective of expanding its solutions globally. And inntot has a vision of become market leader for the digital broadcast radio receiver solutions in next 5 years and acquire much of the market in in-car and after-market solutions in automotive segment along with a substantial presence in the upcoming segments of consumer electronics and smart phones.

Inntot plans to further improvise its IP solutions for providing outstanding performance and further reduced costs.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Always dream big!

Keep attempting with the right intentions and be open for changes! Success will come to you for sure!

Take utmost care of your team. Your team members are your biggest asset!

Thank you Rajith Nair for the Interview

Picture Rajith Nair

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

Invest your time in your education

By

StartupValley

-

9 February 2022

0

Dogo personalize training plan for dogs that is based on positive reinforcement and clicker methodology

Hi there! Could you please introduce yourself and Startup Dogo to our readers?

I’m Tadas Žiemys co-founder of the Dogo App. My background is computer science and more specifically, I have been working as an iOS developer for the last 12 years. Nowadays I don’t have many chances to write code (even though I still love it!) and my main responsibilities in the company are trying to find perfect Pricing for the services we offer and the most important job – leading the team by making sure everyone can do their best work.

Where did you get the idea to start Dogo?

It all started when we adopted our dog Ūdra from the shelter. She was such a cute small devil and we decided to try out dog training school. Very quickly we understood 2 things: Ūdra does not enjoy the company of other dogs during the training. And that Ūdra is extremely smart and loves training! She learned everything very quickly, enjoyed the attention, the treats, and all this quality time together. We decided to continue the training at home and started looking for tools that could help us with that. We didn’t find anything better than books so we came up with our own idea – first a gamified mobile app that your dog loves! Everyone loves their best friends but smartphones are big attention thieves and we wanted to change that by creating Dogo – my dog’s favorite app.

What is Dogo’s vision?

At Dogo, we help, educate and motivate everyone who lives, works, and spends time with dogs to create a unique and enriching relationship for the benefit of dogs and their parent(s)

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

Having an amazing idea, that you believe in and that solves the real problems is incredibly important but the first step is to start. Most of the ideas die in our heads and we don’t even try them in the real world. It almost happen to us too, as we had the idea in 2013 but only started working on it in 2016.

We financed ourselves for the first 2.5 years first by working on the idea after work, on weekends, later from our personal savings and by freelancing. First external money came accelerator (APX). They were incredibly helpful to make us “investor-ready”. After that, we got money from angel investors and my previous bosses – Moritz Hohl and Marius Jeuck. They also mentored us and with their help, it became much easier to attract other amazing angels. And just recently, we closed our last round that was led by Change Ventures and Monkfish.

Who is your target audience?

Our ideal customer is young professionals, living a busy urban life that just got their first puppy. We have content for all different behavior challenges and different environments but our focus has been early stages of a dog’s life so if you just got a puppy Dogo is the best thing you can get for yourself to become the parent that your dog deserves.

How does Dogo work? What is your USP? What differentiates you from other providers?

When user downloads the app, we ask them to enter information about their goals, what their dog know and struggles with. Then we generate and personalize the training plan that is based on positive reinforcement and clicker methodology. Then everyday, users have lessons that are separated into 3 parts – theory, execrise for dog and activity to do together with the dog. Once users learn a trick or think that they know the exercise well they can take an exam. Film how their dog does it, send it to our dog trainers and then in 24h we send back if they passed it and add additional tips and suggestions what could they do to improve. Our biggest differentiators from competitors is amazing UI/UX and customer success that will make sure we will find a personal solution to our customer’s needs

Where do you see yourself and Dogo in five years?

At Dogo our sturcture is not based on a traditional hierarchical system. We work as self-organizing team where authority and decision-making is distributed throught the different teams and roles. In 5 years I see my role being less hands-on but being able to focusing more on making sure that as organization we are fulfilling our vision and that everyone in the company knows well why we exist. How we pursue our purpose is as important as making sure we are fullfilling it.

We want to grow as company so that we would be able to do more for our users. With new colleagues joining we will be able to expand and be useful for entire dog parent journey from the very puppy to the golden senior years. We want to be a one-stop app that covers all dog parent needs. If we can do it in 5 years – amazing. If it will take us 15 years to get there, it’s also ok!

What three tips would you give founders?

invest your time in your education. read books, take courses. You will need to fill in so many different roles so you must learn new things quickly

It’s a marathon. Pace yourself and take care of yourself and the people around you. It’s easy to burn out and it takes a lot of time to recover.

Coaching and mentoring is an incredible way to boost your productivity, grow and achieve incredible things faster than you imagined. I absolutely recommend finding a coach and mentor who could help you.

Thank you Tadas Žiemys for the Interview

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

Think like a user

By

StartupValley

-

8 February 2022

0

Movingto is a marketplace to compare and review visas, law firms, accounting and other services

Please introduce yourself and your startup Movingto to our readers!

I’m Ana Ibanez, a product designer and digital nomad who has lived in many different countries. I help companies build industry-leading products that delight and inspire users. However, this time I build my own Movingto,

A comparison website for ex-pats and digital nomads to help them move abroad. Remote work is an on growing trend that is here to stay.

We compare visas, law firms, tax numbers and more to make moving countries simpler and cheaper than ever before. At the moment we are only focusing on Portugal but planning to expand to other countries very soon.

How did you get the idea of Movingto?

My husband and I were both living in London and decided that we wanted to move to Lisbon with our newborn child and found the whole process slow, expensive and stressful. We wanted to create a better way for more people to enjoy this amazing country. We decided to create moving to remove the stress, expense and mistakes that most people make when moving to Portugal.

Why did you decide to start with Movingto?

After we moved to Portugal in April I started to do a lot of research and benchmarking. Then I did some wireframes and the design system in Figma. I have a developer who helped me to build the site so by June it was up and running.

Since then I have changed lots of things from the site, we are still learning what works and what doesn’t by checking Google Analytics. Every day we learn and iterate.

What is the vision behind Movingto?

There are lots of things you need to move to another country but the most important is your visa to be able to live and work.

Also, Portugal has a NIF number also non as a tax Payer number. Without one you can’t do anything in Portugal, not get your Visa, rent a place, or open a bank account. The list goes on. There are lots of companies that do NIFs also the law firms that can do your Visa can do NIFs but the price range is huge.

We made some tables where you can compare all the companies that offer to do your NIF by price, turn around and review rating.

You can see very quickly what is best for you. My husband and I spent weeks doing research just to get the best company

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

The biggest challenge at the beginning is to keep working when you see very little growing.

Who is your target audience?

Digital nomads and ex-pats from around the globe

What is the USP of your startup?

Movingto is a marketplace to compare and review visas, law firms, accounting and other services to enable people to move freely around the world.

Can you describe your typical workday?

Currently, I’m working on adding more law firms and companies to the site, reviewing them and comparing them on our tables.

I also have a writer who helps me with all the content. We try to write about trending searches on google like ‘How to move from the US to Portugal?’, ‘What is the NHR tax regime?’, or “is Portugal a crypto tax-free heaven’?

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

Opening to at least 5 other countries. We would like to do Spain, Australia and Indonesia next.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

1. Don’t give up, everything you do everyday compounds and one day without realising you have a business running on your hands

2. Fundraise wisely, not every startup needs funding, this is very controversial advice. MailChimp was purchased for $12B by Intuit. they build the business without ever taking venture funding.

3. Think like a user, If you really want to build a delightful product that gives value to users and solves a real problem.

Thank you Ana Ibanez for the Interview

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

Prioritise your mental and physical health

By

StartupValley

-

3 February 2022

0

Lotuly offer translation services in around 90 languages and cover 40 subjects

Please introduce yourself and your startup Lotuly to our readers!

Lotuly : We are striving to help businesses communicate with their customers in the language of their hearts and showing them a way to experience a world of understanding through translation.

We both have a passion for languages and sustainability, we also love dogs and I personally (Mariona) enjoy playing the guitar and Robert loves to play football (he almost made it professionally). Being a native Spanish & Catalan speaker I struggled with fear of rejection (my husband/business partner having Romanian roots too).

As a company we’ve managed to successfully onboard Fortune 500 companies and work with top startups giving us the push we needed and the support we craved. We doubled our revenue after launching and we hope to keep on growing sustainably.

When we came to England back in 2015 we started working as freelance translators mostly translating into Catalan and Spanish. We built a portfolio of all sorts of clients and little by little we managed to create a global team of translators.

One of the best implementations we’ve put in motion is planting trees for translated words through our partners Ecologi.

We strive to help businesses communicate more effectively and in a meaningful way because we know how it feels to be misunderstood due to language barriers, I know how it feels to speak other languages, I know how it feels to always be the one that doesn’t fit in a place that it’s not your own country, so we created Lotuly with the goal of taking that weight off our clients’ shoulders.

I moved through those challenges and strived to help other young people overcome the same feelings of rejection. We give a lot of opportunities to young people, to work with us and feel appreciated no matter where they are from.

How did you get the idea of Lotuly?

Before my husband and I moved to England we were selling antiques in several markets in Spain. It was here that we translated our first documents, explaining the specifics of the items we were selling to our buyers. This led to a series of further enquiries for translations. Eventually, it got to a point where we were making more money from translating than from selling. And Robert and I realized how much we enjoyed the feeling of breaking through the language barrier and helping people to understand each other. That was our ‘aha’ moment and this is essentially where our business idea came from.

Branding and naming wise, Lotuly comes from two Latin words: The name Lotuly is a combination of two Latin words. LO comes from the word Logus, which means ‘words’. TULY comes from Tratuli, which means ‘translation’.

Why did you decide to start with Lotuly?

When I did freelance work I noticed that prospective clients would usually list something like the following: I’m trying to reach a new market, my copy is in English and well, it’s also translated with Google Translate but I’m not getting the ROI that I was expecting.

Boom! That’s what made us come up with a solution. You can argue there were other giant translation agencies and we didn’t stand a chance but they operate on a business model that undermines freelancers and they pester translators with mass emails trying to see who will do it cheaper and faster – that’s where we come in. We decided enough is enough, we’ve experienced that atrocious way of doing business and the only ones benefiting were agencies with deep pockets – not the clients.

Clients would get bad quality, and often machine translation therefore losing money in the long run and at the same time suffering from a damaged reputation.

Big agencies would charge a lot of money and pay very little to its translators or sometimes not pay anything at all until 90 days after invoicing. We’ve scrapped that and decided to operate our translation agency by putting our translators first. We pay them upfront, they choose their place of work and time they want to do the work and they can do it remotely. We vet them, interview them and make sure they understand what we value about them. And we make sure we offer human translation done by qualified experts in the subject matter. We love tech but machine translation and all these AI services like Google Translate are not sufficiently advanced in order to take over human translation, yet. And a lot of B2B companies have seen a huge improvement in their sales by having their content translated by a human expert translator.

What is the vision behind Lotuly?

Make a difference in the translation industry, not only educating our clients on the importance of translation and localisation done by humans but also helping translators get paid what they deserve. When we started we were afraid to reject a project even if the payment was ridiculously low because we were always thinking that maybe in the future that client would paid more so we want to help translators get paid for the work they do but also help see clients the importance of having a text translated by a human instead of a machine.

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

Our business was and still is 100% bootstrapped, we’ve always reinvested what we’ve made back into the business. We’ve not been successful at securing any funding from the government or any schemes offered because we couldn’t find any suitable ones for what we do. The industry, ‘Translation’ doesn’t exist when you try to choose what category your business is so it always ends up being the odd ”other.’’ Despite all that we’ve managed to stay afloat and to be fair at the beginning of the pandemic we’ve turned over the same amount we did in the previous 6 months, in just 1 month.

In the beginning there was this feeling of guilt or fear of rejecting a project, you would always think, am I making a mistake by walking away? Am I throwing away an opportunity to work long term with this company/client? But there are several red flags that unfortunately I had to learn the hard way and these moments make or break you especially during a pandemic and needing clients to push harder and advance your business to the next level.

If a company does not want to pay upfront how do you know they’ll want to pay you afterwards?

There was this client who I worked several times with, so there was trust between us and he always paid upfront, then suddenly he started asking for new projects but he did not pay me, he said that he would do in 30 days, as we had worked together before I trusted him, in the end I spent around 2 months working for this person and I only got a couple of hundreds of the total amount which was over $4k.

To this day I haven’t seen the money,once I told him I wouldn’t do any other projects he ghosted me, unfortunately it happened again with a big dentist who has several clinics around Europe. Since then, I’ve implemented several steps to avoid going through that situation again such as charging upfront.

When they do not respect your boundaries or time:

I’m available for my clients all of my working hours, and sometimes even more, I always try to go above and beyond for each project but there was this time that a renowned doctor, she needed an urgent file translated within hours, I said that we can help her without a problem but then she asked me to do some copying and pasting (from one language to another, that means also checking that the translation already done is up to our standards of quality), which I said that is fine no problem, I’ll charge a small fee for the time invested doing that, which is normal, right? If you don’t have the time to do something then you pay someone to do that instead, isn’t it?

But of course she did not like that despite her consultancy turning over millions she was very concerned that I would charge her for my time as it was only copying and pasting, and well, unfortunately we did not end up collaborating as I found quite insulting what she said, but if it would have been when I started out I would probably have given in and let myself be disrespected not only with my time but also from the way she spoke to me and working without being paid.

This is why I always encourage people who are starting out to have their values and boundaries very clear because if they do, clients will see that and they won’t be able to “play” with them.

Who is your target audience for Lotuly?

We target mainly Software, e-Learning, e-Commerce companies and also Marketing agencies but our focus is to be able to help businesses that have products or services which are highly marketable to an international audience.

What is the USP of Lotuly?

Lotuly helps businesses reach their global audience by adapting their content to the local market (also called localisation). In simple terms we turn their English documents, websites, apps or software into the language of their customers’ hearts all while we invest in the planet by planting 1 tree for every 500 words we translate.

We offer translation services in around 90 languages and we cover 40 subjects. Thanks to the free and instant quote tool we’ve created, potential customers know the cost and timeline of their project before committing to hiring us making us fully transparent and honest.

Can you describe your typical workday ?

Of course, even though not two days are the same, it normally starts with opening the computer, checking emails and answering them accordingly, do a last check and deliver any project that we may need to deliver that day, create some social media content, engage with other business owners and businesses on different platforms and also trying to find new clients that we can onboard, pitch our deck to our ideal audience, build relationships through LinkedIn and Bizfluence and if we get another project then get that project started by assigning it to the translator/s, check all the emails again.

And at some point we try to get some breaks in between all these activities in the middle of the day for a 1 hour walk with our Chief Happiness Officer (family dog) and finish the day off by seeing if there’s anything else we can solve that day or if it can wait until the next one (planning is super important).

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

Integrate our API with more marketing agencies and find the right partners (we have developed a unique quotation tool where by selecting the pair of language, subject and word count you will be given an automatic quote in seconds without the need of giving any personal information/you can also drop a file in one of the twelve formats we currently support and the tool will count the words automatically).

Also develop and tweak our MVP by integrating a function where our clients will be able to see how many trees we are planting as a result of their project since the beginning, now we have to tell them manually but in the near future we hope to integrate this option.

Be in the top 3 translation agencies in the UK that put human translation at the forefront of everything and invest highly in the environment/offsetting its carbon footprint and at the same time put a lot of emphasis in treating translators with the respect they deserve, paying them upfront or on time.

This year we want to plant at least 1,000 trees in our forest through our partners Ecologi, push our new subscription based translation service we are offering to our clients and break the £500k in turnover and hire our first full time employee.

In the next 3 years we would like to reach our goal of crossing £5M in turnover and increase our full time team of employees to ten.

What 3 tips would you give to founders?

Don’t wait until everything is perfect because as a business owner it’ll never be, we delayed our launch almost a year just because we wanted to have everything perfect. In the end, there’s always so many things to do but your advantage is that your customers do not know that. So get your business out there as soon as it’s presentable and gather feedback.

Ask as many people as you can for feedback and tell them to please tell you what they like but most importantly what they don’t like, some feedback will sting a bit but it may help you to push your business forward as they may see something that you did not, that’s the raw and unfiltered feedback you are looking for in order to build a successful and robust, product, service or business.

Prioritise your mental and physical health. If you are not well, no one will be able to care for your business, or what is a business if you are not able to enjoy it? Always trust your gut feeling, if something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t. Be able to detach yourself from rejections, don’t take them personally, learn from them and move on, there is no point in thinking about it. You can’t force someone to understand the importance of your product or the good you are doing to their business and eventually the ROI. If they don’t see the value, move on to the next one.

Thank you Mariona Bolohan/ Lotuly for the Interview

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