StartupRealities

StartupRealities No 146 CounterAdvert is an advertising and media buying agency which specialises in helping advertising-platforms post their own commercials on rival platforms. For example, if Google wanted to advertise Google keyword search to B2B businesses on Facebook, it could target individual small business owners on Facebook with paid ads promoting Google advertisement. CEO QUOTES "Do you remember the famous case when Boeing bought 17 Airbus planes in 1999. They didn't do it out of charity. There was commercial logic behind you. In a similar way, we help one platform use the advantages of a competitor platform openly and legally by paying the latter for ads of the former's products and services. There is usually sound commercial logic behind such a move as different platforms have developed preferential access to different target audiences and distinct communities. All this comes with a second-order effect, however: these stories enter the news and become ne...

StartupRealities No 46 MembranePackaging is a next-generation TetraPak-type packaging manufacturer which has developed synthetic membrane packages for liquids and bulk products. The company's flexible membranes resemble balloons that provide optimal durability and volume-to-space ratio for packaging milk, orange juice, wine, flour, sugar and even construction materials such as sand and lime. When products are packaged into membranes, this leaves no empty space between individual items when loaded onto a truck/train/plane or when put inside a box delivered by Amazon or Alibaba. CEO QUOTE "MembranePackaging was inspired by the traditional plastic packages used in rural areas in emerging markets, where alcohol and flour are often sold in nylon bags. This is also how you bring your new goldfish from the pet shop to your home aquarium: in a plastic bag of water," said company founder and CEO Melvina Pecchio. "MembranePackaging has a B2B model of selling its packagi...