StartupRealities

Startup No 201   TIMBA (The Interesting MBA) is an online program that teaches the entire Business School curriculum in 1,000 stories and videos available as TED talks, YouTube videos and even TikTok footage. Participants vote for the most interesting material in a "Trip Advisor"-style ratings system that determines whether content remains on the programme or gets dropped. The program hires actors to produce in-house videos on a minority of subjects and theoretical topics that have not been covered on existing platforms. Auditing the TIMBA program is free of charge but participants who want to receive a certificate of completion pay a fee. Such participants are not required to take exames but have to re-watch key parts of the content once or twice again months later, to ensure memory retention in line with the "forgetting curve" timeline. CEO QUOTE "Don't we all have horrible memories of the drudgery of school and university courses. TIMBA is the exact oppo...

Startup No 200 Exec Ed For All is an online education company which produces quarterly digests (summaries) of new developments in a dozen MBA-type subject areas (Marketing, Finance, Leadership, etc.). The digests come in two formats: email newsletter and audio podcast. The novelty-focused series forms a continuous top-up programme in which every week one of 12 quarterly newsletters and podcasts are published on a rolling basis. The company's target market are business executives and practitioners who have graduated from university at least five years earlier. In effect, the company democratises access to high-end executive education, as the cutting-edge business-related programmes that leading business schools sell at USD 2,000 per day of training are now opened up to the mass market for an annual subscription of USD 50-100. INTERVIEW WITH THE CEO: "Most MBA alumni and masters graduates find it frustrating or a waste of time when they sign up for a regular online or on-campus ...

Startup No 199 - #StartupRealities 2020 series ApprenticeEntrepreneurs is an education and training company which runs rotational 5-year apprenticeship placements at startups for entrepreneurially-minded 18-year-olds. After 5 rotations at 5 different startups, the graduates of the programme receive a diploma which the company deems equivalent to a university degree. The programme duration varies in some cases: occasionally 16-year-olds get admitted into a 7-year entrepreneurship apprenticeship. For university graduates with an arts and humanities background the programme is shortened to 4 years; while university graduates in business and engineering complete the programme and receive the diploma in 3 years. The last year of placement is usually combined with a stint at a world-renowned accelerator, e.g. Y Combinator, TechStars, 500 Startups, SeedCamp or Wayra. CEO QUOTE "Learning by doing is our motto. Budding entrepreneurs are best taught by being put in the thick of it, rather t...

Startup No 198 - #StartupRealities 2020 series DecentralizedTutoring is a global online education company that supports university students enrolled in online programmes by organising local physical meetup study groups and project groups supervised by qualified tutors. The company works with a range of students enrolled in online courses delivered by Code Academy, Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn, Kadenze, Khan Academy, Skillshare, Udacity and Udemy. Online MBA programmes such as ThePowerMBA, Quantic MBA and AltMBA also have their community groups and team project groups supervised by the company. CEO QUOTE "Everything is moving online these days. Yet, human interaction remains most intimate and efficient in face-to-face format. Students appreciate both the support of our tutors and the physical venues where we organise group meetups in the neighbourhood of the student. Convenience, teamwork and intimacy are our keywords." - said DecentralizedTutoring founder and CEO Decima Tuton...

Startup No 197 - #StartupRealities 2020 series BoatyMcBoatBase is a restaurant chain which operates a central hub of restaurant catering facilities and a flotilla of boats that function as restaurant venues while cruising in open water off coastal cities. The hub base stocks up the boats with a fixed menu of dishes and drinks, similar to the way onboard airplane catering works for business class passengers. Once stocked up for the day, the cruising boat restaurants pick up and drop off customers from centrally located stands at downtown sea or river piers at regular intervals. BUSINESS MODEL The business model of BoatyMcBoatBase is viable in major cities where it is cheaper to operate ships in open waters than to buy or rent expensive waterfront real estate for restaurant venues. At the same time, labour costs are lower as the food is not cooked on site by expensive chefs, but is prepared in the factory-size facilities of the out-of-town hub bases. Waiters and staff costs are similar ...

Startup No 196 - #StartupRealities 2020 series Applied Entrepreneurship Platform is a global university network which promotes the teaching of entrepreneurship to all university students, irrespective of their academic background and university major. The network is at the same time also a faculty platform for entrepreneurs who are interested in and good at teaching; and a membership platform for budding entrepreneurs and potential future startup founders.  South Korean TV series "Startup" (Image source:  Wikipedia ) The universities who are members of the network offer at least one Entrepreneurship course to every single bachelors and masters student and make it known to their students that they are expected to take one course, usually called Applied Entrepreneurship. CEO QUOTE "Clearly we don't believe that every single university student will become an entrepreneur. What we expect is that every single university student will develop an entrepreneurial mindset. We...

Startup No 195 - #StartupRealities 2020 series CampusAtHeart is a real estate developer that builds new cities centred around a "university city" hub. The company normally obtains commitments by at least three higher education institutions to set up campuses in a new "university city" before giving a project the go-ahead. The company's policy is to attract diverse participants that offer university programmes in different price ranges. The anchor institutions usually include at least one of each of the three categories: the campus of an existing university; a joint-venture campus by two or more universities; and a newly-founded higher education institution. CEO QUOTE "Young people make a city come alive. When there are multiple university campuses at the heart of a city, the city starts living. All pieces come together once the university hub is up-and-running: residential housing gets built in concentric circles around the campuses; restaurants and service...

Startup No 194 - #StartupRealities 2020 series LiveMediaCourt is a US reality TV channel that specialises in broadcasting live court sessions in which genuine judges and juries decide on reported fake news and media allegations cases. Claims made in mainstream media can be brought to a LiveMediaCourt judge for trial. The sessions would be broadcast unabridged if not dealing with sensitive issues such as terrorism charges or child abuse. CEO QUOTE "LiveMediaCourt is not a 'Judge Judy'-type exercise. The judges are real, not 'make believe real'. This is where it makes a big difference. Because it is a real court, anyone who lies in court risks perjuring themselves and ending up in jail. So people who often spread fake news on TV would think twice before they repeat a fake claim in one of our courtrooms." - said LiveMediaCourt founder and CEO Livio Medici-Cortez . Courtroom in Japan (Image source: Wikpedia )

Startup No 193 - #StartupRealities 2020 series EducationHubs is a university education services company which helps cities develop as global education hubs by promoting cooperation among the universities in the city to market themselves jointly using the city brand as the platform. To finance such projects, the company negotiates grants from city governments to finance the joint delivery of university courses. Thus, every student at a participating university can take up to three courses for free at three other universities in the city (funded by the local government). This promotes cooperation among the institutions and also creates an affinity with the city among students. CEO QUOTE " Nothing can beat a positive experience. When a student takes three courses at three universities that are not even their main alma mater, they are experiencing the life and culture of four institutions. Isn't this amazing!? This is how people develop a loyalty to the city, whether this is Barc...

Startup No 192 - #StartupRealities 2020 series StardomCatapult is an international coaching school that specialises in preparing candidates for elite scholarship and leadership programmes around the world, including Rhodes Scholars (at Oxford University), Schwarzman Scholars (at Tsinghua University), Fulbright Scholars (worldwide), World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Shapers and WEF Young Global Leaders. CEO QUOTE " School and university teach you the basics in life. But to really excel in your career, you need an extra nudge or push. We give you this nudge and connect you to alumni of these programmes who coach you how to join them yourself. " - said StardomCatapult founder and CEO Stan Catapoulos. Trebuchet catapult (Image source: Wikipedia )

Startup No 191 - #StartupRealities 2020 series  DefinedAcquisitions is a real estate intermediary which deals only in properties that have distinct and clearly defined geographical characteristics: for example islands, coastal strips of land, mountain peaks, or entire river valleys. CEO QUOTE “ The world is becoming more and more digital. Soon everything will be verifiable via blockchain, including property titles. But what happens if the entire blockchain ledger gets wiped out by a computer glitch or an Internet virus? We’ve seen many bitcoin investors lose their wallets in such freak accidents. This is why we want to play safe. We only invest in properties that can be pinpointed on the map and easily identified in the real world when looking at the landscape. Any property that has clearly defined natural boundaries would meet our requirements .” - said DefinedAcquisitions founder and CEO Defoe Acquilla.  Photo of Taal Volcano and Lake, Philippines (Image source: Wikipedia ...

Startup No 190 - #StartupRealities 2020 series  TwoBecomesOne is a PR, coaching and personal branding company that helps the “ No 2” in an organisation or business become “No 1”. For example, TwoBecomesOne could be hired by US Vice President Mike Pence to challenge US President Donald Trump for the top job (for his remaining term in office). CEO QUOTE: “ We are definitely not backstabbers. More like uplifters. ” - said TwoBecomesOne founder and CEO Twopac Onur .  Netflix series (Image source: Wikipedia )

Startup No 189 - #StartupRealities 2020 series  BlogPeerReview  is an online media company which subjects blog posts to peer review by fellow bloggers. For five dollars a piece, the company gets five experienced bloggers to read a blogpost and leave a meaningful comment each. The blog reviewers post all their comments in public and are free to make critical or positive comments as long as they have read the post once. The blog author who pays for the service gets engagement and feedback, which help improve the reach of the blog as well as the quality of writing, argumentation and topic selection. CEO QUOTE " In the world of social media, we are all shouting at the top of our lungs but hardly anyone would hear if all we do is leave scattered comments across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Blogs are a different matter: they are targeted communication channels. My company helps these channels grow into rivers, and helps these rivers connect. We are the Fiverr of the blogosphere!...

Startup No 188 - StartupRealities 2020 series  PhotoPlatforms is a city branding and promotion company which installs free viewing platforms at major urban landmarks to allow tourists and visitors to have photos taken of them at the respective attraction. Some of the platforms are permanent structures, while others are temporary ramps that can be moved in and out for the tourist season. The location of the photo platform is optimised to allow the best angle, sunlight and exposure for a quality Instagram photo that the tourist would not hesitate to post on social media. The platforms are user-friendly for taking selfies as well as for having photos taken by others. CEO QUOTE " In a world of social media, we let tourists and visitors do the advertising of the city. All it takes is to have a nice photo taken of you and, say, the Eiffel Tower, and then posting it on social media. It is guaranteed that social proofing and social jealousy will make at least several of your friends, acqu...

Startup No 187 - StartupRealities 2020 series  EntrepreneurshipScore is a rankings company that compiles an annual ranking of the world's 1,000 leading entrepreneurs and calculates a separate entrepreneurship rating to anyone who requests this service. The #EntrepreneursRanking is similar to the ranking of tennis players and is based on a range of factors in the following categories:  - profitability of one's startups/scale-ups;  - value of owned company stakes, shares and assets;  - dividends and salary income received;  - funding raised from investors and venture capitalists (VC); and  - positive media exposure during the year. The company shortlists fewer than 2,000 entrepreneurs globally for the Top-1,000 #EntrepreneursRanking and compiles the ranking free of charge for the ranked individuals. On the other hand, the #EntrepreneurshipRating is based on similar factors but is a paid service open to anyone. All ratings are made public once compiled and ran...

Startup No 186 - StartupRealities 2020 series MetaphorGenerator is an artificial intelligence (AI) company whose machine learning software reviews text and generates possible metaphors to accompany the text. The programme is particularly useful for enriching new literary works with novel metaphors. While generating the metaphors is entirely computer-generated, human input is needed to shortlist and select the most relevant and useful metaphors for inclusion in the author's text. CEO QUOTE "Imagine a story that talks about the buzzing sound of your dishwasher when turned on. Our MetaphorGenerator will come up with interesting metaphors to go with this scene: perhaps the dishwasher is a metaphor for the busy life of a corporate executive, while washing dishes by hand would symbolise the more relaxed career of a teacher. After all, a teacher puts in a lot more personal touch in educating children - just like someone washing dishes by hand puts in personal touch and effort."...

Startup No 185 - StartupRealities 2020 series GardenPackaging is a garden architecture company which wraps entire gardens and lawns under a giant tensile awning to reduce the intensity of sunlight in the summer and create an artistic visual effect. CEO QUOTE "I was inspired by environmental artist Christo Javacheff  and architect Frei Otto to start this company. Christo and Jeanne-Claude focused on wrapping famous landmarks in their art installations. While I thought: 'Shouldn't someone democratise this beautiful mix of art and architecture and bring it to the people?' This is how my company was born: by the people, for the people!" - said GardenPackaging founder and CEO Garda Packer . Tensile canvas structure in a Park (image source: Wikipedia )

Startup No 184 - StartupRealities 2020 series BeachPorts is a port infrastructure developer which produces temporary ramps that allow using sandy beaches as port quays to load and unload containers on boats. The boats then connect to containerships moored offshore. The ramps can be rolled out and rolled back on demand and allow coastal cities and tourist resorts to connect to global trade flows without requiring a permanent port and without damaging scenic beaches. CEO QUOTE " We help preserve nature while keeping businesses running and trade flowing. That's why we deserve the Nobel Prize for the Environment, which has yet to be created. " - joked BeachPorts founder and CEO Beatriz Portolese . Sandy beach (image source: Wikipedia )

Startup No 183 - StartupRealities 2020 series OpenSEZ is a real estate and industrial park developer which creates and operates Special Economic Zones (SEZ) on greenfield sites. The SEZ have the backing of national governments and offer preferential tax treatment, autonomous rule of law, subsidised healthcare, free education and free internet for all residents and employees in the SEZ. Key geographical areas of interest for the company are unpopulated border zones along the coast of Africa, so that each SEZ straddles two jurisdictions. This creates a healthy internal competition between the two national sections of the SEZ, which are run autonomously and often under different rules and legislation. The SEZ also aim to be self-sufficient in energy (generated by solar panel farms in the vicinity) and water (produced using new energy-efficient osmosis desalination technology). CEO QUOTE "Our company's name is OpenSEZ but we are popularly known as Open Sesame! We create miracles o...

Startup No 182 - StartupRealities 2020 series InHouseSkunkWorks is an innovation and startup accelerator company that helps established corporations launch and manage their own corporate accelerators for startup projects in their industry, unimpeded by corporate bureaucracy. The company's slogan is "We Try Out Your Crazy Ideas". The company uses a standard template accelerator structure (a white label / original equipment manufacturer OEM-type format) and adds modifications depending on the project. The name is inspired by the original Lockheed Skunk Works . CEO QUOTE "Some people think our name comes from the Ali G Indahouse movie. No! We are for real! The best way to describe what we do is to draw an analogy with Rocket Internet: we create a scalable fail-safe project execution environment where it is safe to iterate and pivot business models and innovations." - said  InHouseSkunkWorks founder and CEO Inna Skundberg. The original Skunk Works in Palmdale, Cali...