StartupRealities

StartupRealities No 115 ChurchPooling  is a real estate developer which converts disused churches into community swimming pools. The pools designed and built by the company have a characteristic Gothic atmosphere as the structure and interior of the church is preserved in the transformation process and the roof or dome is visible from the water. The foundations of a church usually need to be dug out and strengthened to accommodate a pool at ground/basement level. Fancier projects are sometimes implemented where the water level of the pool is up to 2 metres above ground level, which requires strengthening and waterproofing the walls of the church to support the weight of the water column. CEO QUOTE "We often get asked if we discover interesting objects when we dig inside churches, 'Tales from the Crypt'-style. Occasionally we do find bones in the oldest churches as the church floor was traditionally used for burying nobility and clergy in the Middle Ages. However, most...

StartupRealities No 114 PhdEngine is a venture capital (VC) firm which uses a diverse range of social science PhD graduates to review and assess investment prospects and projects. The company maintains a large database of business-savvy PhDs and runs every investment project by at least a dozen doctoral graduates from a diverse range of social science areas, in addition to the regular quantitative, investment and industry analysts who carry out the basic eligibility review. The additional social science angles give the company's investments an edge over its VC competitors. CEO QUOTE "We all try to create a unique startup pipeline but it is clear to all that access to startup investments is now a commodity. Where we do make a difference is in subjecting these startups to review by such a diversity of minds that we get ideas about the development of these startups before their own founders have had these ideas. That's the advantage of diversity," said PhdEngine fo...

StartupRealities No 113 PractitionersTeach is an online directory of corporate executives, managers and other professionals who have an interest in teaching at university or in secondary education and have either experience in teaching or a teaching certificate. Experienced practitioners are commonly used to teach on MBA programmes and in acting courses, for example, but are starting to become more common outside the business school and drama department. The company has its own teaching certification, consisting of an online course and an exam. The directory also has a depository of links to videos and podcasts of teaching materials by practitioners, including YouTube videos and TED talks. CEO QUOTE "We create a marketplace, a two-sided network. On the one side there are all those gifted and experienced people who are interested in teaching and developing the talent of the next generation. On the other side are all the education institutions, which desperately need current an...

StartupRealities No 112 Mokemon is a gamification company that turns your favourite household item into a Pokemon-style animated gaming monster called Mokemon, which inhabits an augmented reality universe called Mokemondia. Each user is entitled to create one Mokemon by photographing an object which then grows and gradually develops augmented reality features if it is virtually fed and cared for. During the 30-day Mokemon growing period, the game resembles the 1990s Japanese virtual pet game tamagochi. Mokemons that have come of age (over 30 days old) can be traded on a virtual Mokemon Exchange and their value is determined by the rarity of their features. If the object on which the Mokemon is based is original and unique and the juvenile Mokemon is looked after well, the features the Mokemon develops will be more original and thus the monster will be of higher value. Whereas in the Pokemon Go world only 900 different Pokemon monsters have been created so far, in Mokemondia the numbe...

StartupRealities No 111 HomeConstitution is a subscription service that arbitrates and adjudicates on family issues and helps discipline children, rein in parents and iron out household conflicts. All members of a household (parents and children alike) are required to sign up to a set of pre-agreed rules, known as the #HomeConstitution, and to abide by the ruling of a panel of volunteer judges when their intervention is requested. LEGAL PROCESS To help draft the rules, templates of common rules are provided, e.g. " Mama Bear will give Baby Boo Boo a monthly pocket money allowance that cannot be spent on sweets" ; or " Boo Boo will write his homework every day" . Once agreed by all household members, these rules are framed and shipped to display on the wall as the family's HomeConstitution. In case of conflict, children or parents can request a hearing and adjudication by a panel of three lay judges. The plaintiff and the defendant select one judge each, whi...

StartupRealities No 110 InstaPedia is an online wiki-based encyclopedia which has an Instagram-type reliance on visual information to describe terms and concepts. The images, infographics, charts and simple drawings on InstaPedia are accompanied by brief captions. As in all wiki-projects, volunteers contribute the images, photos and captions to InstaPedia and volunteer editors oversee and improve the content. AUTOMATED IMAGE CREATION In addition to humans, InstaPedia also uses bots to enhance the images and design computer-generated infographics and charts. To circumvent copyright restrictions and increase the availability of images in more conceptual fields in which little concrete imagery exists, InstaPedia's AI algorithms use Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) to create new images from scratch. CEO QUOTE " What Twitter is to Wikipedia, Instragram is to InstaPedia. Social media and online encyclopedias are not directly related but their conceptual models of conve...

StartupRealities No 109 OneOr100 is a food retailer which sells all products in packages of exactly 1 kg or 100 grams, and liquids of exactly 1 litre or 100 ml. This simplifies price comparison for customers and inventory management for store employees. The most challenging products for the company are eggs, fruit and vegetables: two medium-sized eggs of 50 grams each are glued together to form a 100-gram packaged unit; while fruit and vegetables which cannot fit the 100-gram requirement are sold chopped up and packaged. CEO QUOTE "The shopping experience at a regular supermarket can be quite intimidating for many customers. We make shopping simpler and more fun. Our 1-kg jumbo packages also offer significant savings, so we encourage customers who have storage capacity at home to buy in 1-kg units, which also reduces paper and plastic packaging and the impact on the environment," said OneOr100 founder and CEO Oneal Hund. US supermarket (image source: Wikipedia ...

StartupRealities No 108 StealthDemystifier is an venture capital (VC) firm which invests in startups in stealth mode . The company has developed proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) technology to discover and analyse stealth-mode startups. The StealthDemystifier algorithm distinguishes between genuine stealth-mode companies and non-starters, based on analysing the CV and background of the entrepreneur, their network of contacts and social media presence. CEO QUOTE "There are four types of people who launch a stealth-mode startup or claim they are working in stealth mode: A) Experienced people who disappear from the radar screen and don't make any public statements for sometime. B) Serial entrepreneurs who announce that they are working on a startup in stealth mode and have solid rationale for doing this in stealth. C) Inexperienced entrepreneurs who believe they have something to hide but actually don't. D) People who are hiding the fact that they are unemploy...

StartupRealities No 107 MBAquatro is a global business school which runs four types of MBA programmes for four stages in the career of a professional: 1) MBA-Operations, for young executives in their 20s. 2) MBA-Leadership, for executives in their 30s. 3) MBA-Strategy, for senior executives in their 40s. 4) MBA-Legacy, for professionals in their 50s. Most #MBAquatro students take (or plan to take) all four programmes when they reach the respective age and professional seniority. CEO QUOTE "You know all those jokes about what the abbreviation MBA stands for:  - married but available; - mediocre but arrogant; - management by accident; - more bad advice; - master bullshit artist. This is all nonsense. Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a respected qualification that serves professionals and companies alike. The only thing that many MBAs can rightly be accused of is having unrealistic expectations.  Our 'quatro' series helps level expectations, as the...

StartupRealities No 106 Humamole is a food company that has developed and patented a new spread composed of 50% hummus and 50% guacamole. The Humamole spread is heavier in texture and lighter in colour than guacamole, which appeals to vegan, vegetarian and health-conscious buyers. The key ingredients, chickpeas and avocado, account for 98% of the recipe; a selection of flavours account for the remaining 2%. Normally hummus requires adding olive oil but the high oil content of avocado makes any addition of oil unnecessary. CEO QUOTE "You know when you put 2 and 2 together and you get something exceptionally good. This is when the cronut was invented: croissant and donut. And now we have the #humamole, pronouced who-moo-mole-ley. While some people have guac at breakfast and hummus at dinner, humumole is good for 'brinner': both breakfast and dinner," explained Humamole founder and CEO Humbert Molais. Guacamole (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 105 TheFunMBA is a management education company which runs an Online MBA based exclusively on fun exercises, interesting content and viral videos. #TheFunMBA does not use any traditional lecturing, nor any traditional case studies. Instead, the focus is on experiential learning, current mini-cases, memorable stories and gripping visual content. CEO QUOTE "If young people nowadays spend their time on Netflix and TikTok, we should all be using content from Netflix and TikTok when teaching to them. The #TikTokMBA is another name that our students use for TheFunMBA programme and we all agree this is a compliment. There are so many metaphorical parallels that you can draw in education using Netflix memes, even when using extreme ones such as #ChicagoSunroof or #SquatCobbler. With material like this, teaching and learning will never be boring again," said company founder and CEO Fiona Mbembe. TikTok logo (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 104 PrefabDomes  is a building design company which has developed and patented a half-elliptic pre-fabricated domed roof of glass tiles and metal frames that is custom made for individual houses and can be installed in a day. The domed shape of the roof creates a fully-functional additional floor at the top of the building, so house owners will no longer need an attic conversion in the future. The dome is custom-produced at specialist manufacturing facilities off-site and is delivered in large segments that are assembled on-site. Windows and chimneys can be integrated into the design of the dome at the manufacturing stage. CEO QUOTE "PrefabDomes draws inspiration from the domes of mosques in Central Asian. We create so much additional space in a house and the fact that the rooms under the dome are fully functional spaces makes them the most expensive part of the house. If all houses installed a prefab dome, this would increase house-specific residential sp...

StartupRealities No 103 WaveGenergy installs wave power generating facilities off sea coasts threatened by wave erosion, which slows down or stops erosion altogether while also generating electricity. These facilities consist of interconnected polymer sheets on the surface of the ocean and are installed along the coast to dampen the power of the waves that reach the shore. The company's primary focus are erosion-threatened populated shorelines and built-up coastal strips with high real estate valuations. In almost all countries the shallow waters off the coast are owned by the state, so contracts for installing these wave power generating facilities are awarded by governments under a formula that takes into account both the land saved from erosion and the electricity generating potential. CEO QUOTE "The ocean is a blessing in so many ways, but its destructive power should not be underestimated. We turn the negative of wave erosion into a positive: coast protection and ele...

StartupRealities No 102 TrolleyPets  is a pet services company which installs trolley lines and loops for dogs and other pets to walk and run along. The company's range includes trolley lines for the garden as well as loops that encircle entire neighbourhoods. The company's patented technology allows a dog to overtake another dog on the trolley line. CEO QUOTE "Dogs love running; they can never have enough of it. Dog owners and dog walkers struggle to keep up with the hyperactive lifestyle of dogs. So TrolleyPets comes to the rescue: all you need to do is put your dog on a leash, attach the leash to one of the platforms that are part of the TrolleyPets line, and let your dog run in circles around the neighbourhood from dawn to dusk," said company founder and CEO Troy Petty. Dogs on leash (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 101 HologramBadge is an events technology company which has developed hologram technology to project as a virtual hologram badge the name, position and company of a conference delegate above their head at big events and gatherings. This helps to find more easily the right person and facilitates networking. Mini-projectors, attached to the back collar of delegates, project the hologram badge above their head. CEO QUOTE "Have you been to a conference recently, before the Covid-19 lockdown? When you go to one, you end up staring at people's chests to read their name badges. Sometimes clever people lift up the badge close to their neck or pin it on their shoulder to make it easier for others to read. But even this extra visibility is suboptimal if you are looking for a stranger in the crowd. This is how our hologram badges help: they are projected above the head of each delegate, for all to see," said HologramBadge founder and CEO Holly Badger. Ho...

StartupRealities No 100 StartupWarmup is an entrepreneurship education company which teaches children and adults Entrepreneurship using a series of startup fiction articles and videos. The company has a daily blog series of startup fiction articles which describe feasible and novel startup ideas that are yet to be implemented. CEO QUOTE "#StartupFiction is the best thing since sliced bread, buttered toast and morning coffee. It portrays an alternative reality of startups where every feasible and novel idea gets executed and grows into a company. Certainly, we know the difference between an idea and a revenue-generating company. We are not underplaying the importance of #execution in the #startup world. However, we are trying to draw attention to the initial spark of inspiration and creativity that leads to a startup idea. After all, #inspiration and #ideation are two of the three phases of #DesignThinking (together with #implementation)," explained StartupWarmup founder...

StartupRealities No 99 SponsorGodfather is an advertising and public relations firm which links up corporations with expectant parents who would like to name their child after the corporation in return for an annual sponsorship fee. The options are giving the child a middle name which is the company's exact name, or giving the child a first name which is similar to the company's name. The sponsored children and their parents are free to legally stop using the company name and change the child's name at any time, upon which the sponsorship payments get terminated. CEO QUOTE "You know the phrase 'give a dog a bad name.' Well, our firm does exactly the opposite: we give a child a good corporate name. Some parents are concerned that their child may get bullied by other children if they have a name like CocaCola Smith or Amazon Jones. On the other hand, the corporate name creates a community: the Amazons of Chicago, the Amazons of New York, etc., so it is a gre...

StartupRealities No 98 OlympicShip is a sports events organiser which is building an Olympic-size stadium on a giant ship in order to host Olympic Games and World Cup size events. The ship will be moored at different coastal locations for major sports events and will host music concerts for the rest of the year. CEO QUOTE "You've heard about cruise ships converted into hotels to help accommodate tourists during Olympic Games. But the concept of a stadium on a ship is entirely novel. Our Olympic Ship will be a slow-moving barge, as ship technology goes. However, it will be one hell of a modern supersize stadium," said OlympicShip founder and CEO Olympia Shiparova. Olympic Stadium (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 97 WineYears is a scientific research company which explores novel physical treatment processes to accelerate wine ageing. Micro-oxygenation, exposure to electricity, higher temperature, pressure, shaking, magnetism, ultrasound waves and radiation all seem to accelerate the maturation of wine. HISTORY OF WINE AGEING Aged wine sealed in ceramic amphorae was prized highly in Ancient Greece and Rome. However, from the 5th to the 16th century new wine was more expensive than aged wine because of the inability of merchants to store wine in airtight containers. With the spread of the cork in the 17th century and the popularisation of fortified wines (Port and Sherry), ageing became possible and prestigious again. GLOBAL AGEING STATISTICS Most wines do not age well: only 5% to 10% of wine improves after one year and only 1%  improves after 5-10 years. As a result, about 90% of wine in the world is consumed within one year of production, while 99% of wine is dru...

StartupRealities No 96 ShakespeareCube is a musical and movie production company which develops modern productions by merging three classical works of the same author into one. The company's first production was an agglomeration of Shakespeare's Hamlet (set in Denmark), Othello (set in Italy) and King Lear (set in Britain) into an interconnected plot. This gave the name to the company. The resulting plot was a modern trans-European movie under the invented portmanteau title Hamothlea (Hamlet-Othello-Lear). CEO QUOTE "Our movies and musicals help introduce the younger generation to the classics of world literature. We intertwine the original plots creatively, so that there is smooth flow between characters and locations from the three original works. My big inspiration for this model is the 1999 ABBA musical 'Mamma Mia!'  The real challenge for us are authors who have left fewer than three major works, e.g. Harper Lee with 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and ...

StartupRealities No 95 OneIPodPerChild is an international education foundation that gives children in developing countries a solar-powered MP3 player with pre-uploaded science and education talks in the local language. CEO QUOTE "We try to spark an interest in science and technology in children. The 5.0 GB memory of the MP3 player can store 200 hours of audio podcasts on a variety of interesting topics. And if a child finishes the first batch of 200 hours, they can download another 200, and then another, from the local school teacher. We provide teachers with a library of several thousand hours of podcasts," said company founder and CEO Ona Chiltern. One Laptop Per Child image from Nepal (source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 94 LuckyDucky is a B2B consumer behaviour consultancy which helps its clients enhance their marketing and product offering by incorporating elements perceived to be lucky by the target customers. For example, the company uses heavily the number "8" when dealing with Chinese customers as "8" is a lucky word in Chinese because of the homophony between the pronunciation of the number and the word "get rich" [fa] in Cantonese. CEO QUOTE "We know everything about luck in different cultures and we help our customers adjust their product names, packaging and offering to increase the perception that a purchase of a product or a service will lead to good luck. We also help businesses pick lucky dates for launching major sales campaigns: lucky dates not from the perspective of the business but lucky as seen through the eyes of the customers," said LuckyDucky founder and CEO Lucy Ducato. Horseshoe on a door as a lucky sign (imag...

StartupRealities No 93 LiveVerifier is a media analytics company which tracks and verifies the time when video footage is aired live (for the first time) on TV or on the internet. The company uses automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to determine if footage is novel and if it is being aired in real time. CEO QUOTE "When you are watching a TV report and you see the sign 'Live' in the corner, is it actually live in real time? Often recordings of the live footage are also run with the Live sign on, which creates confusion and uncertainty. LiveVerifier deals with this problem by following all mainstream TV channels as well as popular social media and internet channels," said company founder and CEO Livia Vermilione. Dutch Prime Minister on live TV (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 92 SharedChildcare  is a social enterprise that matches childless couples with families with children to give the couples access to children for a limited number of days per year. Normally couples are expected to plan at least one day a month for childcare volunteering as part of the SharedChildcare scheme. This is done on a long-term basis and with the same child until the child reaches 18, so the volunteer caregivers are seen by the child as a secular godfather and godmother. CEO QUOTE "SharedChildcare is a win-win: the parents get some time off for rest or for personal projects; and the volunteer caregivers get to spend time with a child if that's what they want. We conduct thorough background checks and vetting, of course. When you think about it, people spend so much time on their own pets, or even on other people's pets via apps such as BorrowMyDoggy. So looking after a child once in a while is a complete no-brainer. To use a real estate anal...

StartupRealities No 91 PondMapper is a geographical information systems company that catalogues and maps artificial ponds in urban environments. The company asks for a $5 dollar donation to include each garden pond in its database and on its maps. The information is used by biologists exploring aquatic and amphibian habitats, while pond photos are shared on the website and on Instagram. Each pond owner has a dedicated page on the PondMapper website where they upload current photos of their pond. CEO QUOTE "People with garden ponds really care about their ponds and are proud of their ponds. We help create a community of pond lovers, but we also give a scientific and research purpose to this community. Exploring biodiversity and species migration is a central part of what we do," said PondMapper founder and CEO Pony Mascarpone. Garden pond in California (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 90 HurricaneMitigation is an international climate change relief charity that helps areas in the path of hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones to prepare for higher-incidence and higher-strength storms as a result of global warming. The charity is funded by the governments of industrialised countries. Some 80% of the funding is disbursed to help disaster-prone regions to act in advance to minimise potential property damage and loss of life, while the remaining 20% is spent on post-storm relief measures. STORM-PROOF TECHNOLOGY An example of mitigation measures is the use of long screws to attach house roofs to walls and foundations, instead of the use of nails. Research shows that nailed roofs are much more likely to be damaged or blown away in a storm than roofs fixed with screws. Another storm-proof technology in coastal and littoral areas with a high risk of storm surges and flooding is the construction of houses on stilts/columns. CEO QUOTE "Act in ant...

StartupRealities No 89 ExperienceMBA is an education company that delivers a full-time 12-month education programme for graduate students composed of one-month service postings at 12 different organisations. The postings are a series of CSR-focused companies or charities such as: a shelter for homeless people,  an orphanage,  an emergency response and ambulance service,  a municipal rubbish collection company,  a drug addiction clinic,  a climate change charity a zoo, etc.  Students are admitted and move through the 12 rotations as a monthly carousel, so that a new group of students replaces the previous group at each organisation at the beginning of each month. CEO QUOTE "We don't teach courses in a classroom. We teach experience in the field. We don't simply talk about corporate-social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability: we make it happen." said ExperienceMBA founder and CEO Exel Mbambo. Traditional MBA lecture theatre (imag...

StartupRealities No 88 SushiMovement  is an art gallery that displays its exhibits on a winding kilometre-long conveyor belt that resembles those found at sushi bars. Visitors and patrons can view the moving artefacts while sitting at the cafe, sunbathing on the terrace or even swimming in the gallery swimming pool. The works of art are locked securely in glass cases attached to the conveyor belt. An automated system randomly selects objects for display from the full set of art held in the storage depot of the gallery. CEO QUOTE "Museums and galleries are tiring places to visit, especially for the elderly. SushiMovement provides a unique experience that is customer-centred, not object-centred. Our visitors leave inspired and well-rested after sipping a latte at the cafe and viewing paintings for an hour. No other art institution in the world offers such an unforgettable experience," said company founder and CEO Sushmita Moverley. Sushi bar (image source: Wikipedia ) ...

StartupRealities No 87 EmbraceSpace is an interior design company that creates more space in the house by creatively installing shelving and cupboards. The company's speciality is lining with cupboards and shelves the upper end of the walls inside the room, so that the space at all ceiling corners that are not windows is utilised. CEO QUOTE "We all dump things on the floor, on chairs and tables at home. This habit creates clutter. EmbraceSpace helps you declutter your house by creating storage space high up on the walls. Think about a library: how many books can you store on shelves on the walls as opposed to in piles on the floor? The only thing that you sacrifice with EmbraceSpace is the Plaster-of-Paris decorations lining your ceiling...but these are out of fashion anyway," said company founder and CEO Emma Spaziani. Living room (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 86 WikipediaEntry is a media and PR company that creates by request Wikipedia articles on people, companies or products. The company does not guarantee to its customers that any newly written Wikipedia article will not be deleted. However, using the company's services increases the chance that the article will meet the notability threshold required by Wikipedia. CEO QUOTE "We are not magicians. We simply know how to write well and reference thoroughly an article on a subject of certain notability. Beyond that it is up to the (volunteer) Wikipedia editors if the article will survive the two major hurdles: 'immediate deletion' and 'proposed for deletion'. We normally would not take on a project if we expect it to result in immediate deletion. Yet, sometimes grey areas do exist in this space and we can help turn the grey closer to white" said WikipediaEntry founder and CEO Wiktor Entchev. Wikipedia logo (image source: Wikipedia )...

StartupRealities No 85 StoredInVacuum  is a modular self-storage company with storage facilities that maintain vacuum in the storage units. This allows excellent preservation of documents and valuable items but also minimises the storage volume required. The company's storage units are not fixed but modular in size, with flexible stackable walls, so each customer takes up only as much physical volume as is the minimum necessary. CEO QUOTE "Removing the air from a bag of clothes reduces the bag's volume several-fold. By pumping the air out, we can afford to be based at facilities with a much smaller footprint, for example in Manhattan and in the City of London," said company founder and CEO Stocker Vacanti said. Traditional self-storage facility (image source: Wikipedia )