For the most recent pitch night I attended, I had a welcome change of scenery: I was invited to join fellows from the London chapter of the Startup Leadership Program (and a few from Paris) as they pitched to an audience of investors, mentors and well-wishers at Deloitte’s HQ.

In no particular order, the pitches were as follows (the names link to the startup websites):

Selified

This FinTech business is making customer identity management as easy as taking a selfie and photos of relevant documents, combined with multifactor verification. They claim to be able to “verify people anywhere in the world in less than a minute”.

Selified certainly seems capable of streamlining and automating new account on-boarding, and reducing the time it takes banks and card companies to collect customer data for loan and credit applications. However, there are many similar solutions out there, and some, like Proviso, are already installed at major banks. So, the challenges for Selified include: demonstrating a valid USP (or maybe the combination of what it does?); working out a SasS plus transaction pricing model; and new client installations versus displacement sales.

Re-Imagi

Declaration of interest: I have been working with, and sometimes mentoring the team at Re-Imagi for the past year or so. (Hence my ticket to tonight’s event). So, I’ll try to be objective!

Re-Imagi describes itself as “enabling decision makers to unlock human capital inside their organisation through collaboration”. By harnessing in-house innovation, creativity and collaboration among employees (through the use of design thinking, employee engagement, and unique data capture and analysis) Re-Imagi was able to change the behaviour of 42% of participants at a global bank, within the course of a two-week programme.

From experience, one challenge for the team is describing the essence of the business – since it cuts across innovation, enterprise platforms, people analytics and design thinking. At its core, it acts as a prism through which to view a range of social movements that all companies are struggling with: e.g., the Future of Work, the Future of Ageing, the Future of Money etc. But key to success will be connecting with corporate champions who “get” what the benefits are, and are willing to embrace change and welcome some external input and perspective to their current processes.

0tentic8

A very topical subject, namely a blockchain-based solution enabling agricultural producers to access financial services, and provide more transparency on supply chains.

According to the founders, there are around 500 million farmers in the developing world who do not have bank accounts. The platform will verify each stage in the supply chain – from providing a digital ID for each farmer through to tracking end customer purchases.

Part of the goal is to give farmers a verifiable financial profile that can enable financial inclusion and access to bank services, as well as supporting “field to table” provenance.

Unfortunately, on the night, the presentation was a little unclear as to strategy and execution. It’s certainly a great idea, and one of a number of AgriTech startups looking to deploy blockchain technology along the food production, manufacturing and distribution supply chains.

Secret Sessions

Here’s a business that is aiming to turn the music industry on its head. In some ways, it’s an A&R agency for the digital age; in others, it’s a curated service linking artists, fans and consumer brands, that can potentially generate more revenue for bands (from sponsorship, content creation and licensing) than traditional record label deals or license fees from streaming services.

With backgrounds in video production, digital media and music distribution, the founders are well-placed to execute on their strategy. Secret Sessions is already working with some major consumer brands who want to connect with new artists who have established a core fan base via social media, a dedicated YouTube channel, and special live events.

As a part-time musician (and one-time recording artist myself), I recognise the changing economics of the music industry. The model has been totally disrupted by digital, and the days of multi-album deals with multi-million dollar advances are long behind us. However, I can’t help thinking that if the only way people can discover and connect with new music is via a branded advertising campaign, does it in any way compromise or impoverish the artistic merit of the content? In the 1980’s and 90’s, when household brands started sponsoring world tours by major artists, it generated a bit of a fan backlash – but maybe I’m just old-fashioned, and no doubt I’m not the target demographic.

Owlmaps

Owlmaps is targeting the enterprise SaaS market, offering their take on a knowledge management platform. Organisations need a way to identify and access “hidden” skills that lie within their existing workforce, and Owlmaps does this using a talent-mapping and skill-matrix tool.

It aims to provide a dashboard solution so that users can identify skills distribution, and skills in demand, as well maintain an audit of current staff. Owlmaps places itself at the intersection of enterprise content management, learning management and collaboration solutions, and has launched several pilots with startup accelerators, academic programmes and member-based organisations. The business model is based on tiered SaaS subscriptions.

There are a plethora of software solutions that address, in some way the problem of “in-sourcing” the right skills and experience, especially for new projects or ahead of planned restructures. These platforms are either part of “traditional” HR tools (what I sometimes refer to as “human accounting software”), project management tools, or ERP applications. No doubt, some organisations are also using their recruitment tools to maintain “current” (at the time of hiring) profiles of their employees. But they are often laborious to use and update, and the tools themselves become the process…

Owlmaps may need to demonstrate it can integrate with legacy tools, but it may also need to help end users (employees) understand what’s in it for them – maybe it can serve as a prompt to take some further professional development or skills training? I also wonder if Owlmaps needs to identify a specific industry sector, rather than trying to appeal too broadly?

imby.bio

I have to say that I really like the intent behind this startup – helping a new generation of urban gardeners connect with their back yards. It’s essentially a gardening app with some built-in smarts, that also acts as a channel to market for the retail horticultural sector, by enabling users to connect with and buy from suppliers direct.

A few of the app features seem so obvious when you think about them: take a photo of an unknown plant and get it identified; use your location data to get tips and recommendations on which plants to grow, and how to care for them; get reminders to water/weed/feed your plants. But why haven’t any of the existing gardening brands taken this market by storm? Apparently, this retail sector is very fragmented, with a large number of independent nurseries and garden centers, who rely on loyal, local customers. And many gardeners still like to use traditional printed seed catalogues from their regular suppliers.

The path to market is also slightly complex, since imby.bio is planning to work with local, offline communities to begin with, and offer the app for free (initially, at least). There are other market segments that could present opportunities (such as education, botanical gardens and parks, gardening clubs, even gardening magazines and TV shows), although the synergies between them are not entirely obvious. Plus there may be an opportunity to sell or license data captured via the app, although this is not a priority. But I applaud the vision, and an app that can help us to plant the right flowers to support our bee populations has to be encouraged.

Eligent

This is a solution born out of the founder’s personal need and experience – a multi platform task management tool for virtual collaboration within creative, digital and advertising agencies. The solution is designed to streamline the production process at each stage of a project, help co-ordinate better communication between teams (especially those working remotely), and track costs.

Also using a freemium and tiered pricing model, this cloud-based application already claims to have 100 active users across 20 teams. And with strong industry experience, the founders are pretty confident of their solution design. (There was also mention of a re-seller programme, although no details were provided.)

However, it does seem a crowded space, with the range of collaboration and project management tools seemingly growing by the month. And while I’m sure there are some unique aspects as to how the creative industries work, are they so really different? I myself have seen at least two other similar tools pitched before – Coin-Craft (architects), and Studio Ninja (photographers) – and in each case, the founders were adamant that their fields had specific needs that justified dedicated platforms just for their professions.

Capium

Capium is a suite of cloud-based productivity, client management and practice management tools for the tax and accounting profession. As part of the UK’s digital tax regime, everyone will need to have their own Personal Tax Account, and annual tax returns will be increasingly submitted online. So, Capium’s mantra is “making tax digital”.

In their two years of trading, Capium has secured 380 paid-for accounts with professional firms, representing 38,000 businesses profiles, plus around 4,000 freemium accounts (SMEs) being serviced direct.

So, rather like the successful Xero business model, Capium is recruiting accounting firms as their re-sellers and advocates. The founders also recognise that there are a range of new and existing competitors (with high, mid and low-tier solutions), but Capium is showing some impressive growth rates.

I’m not so familiar with the UK tax and accounting market, but my significant other is an Australian CPA and BAS agent, so I know what she likes (and dislikes) about each of the accounting platforms she has to use – meaning that no system is perfect, and each has one or more feature or function that is better than their competitors! Finally, even leading platforms like Xero, Quickbooks and MYOB have to build and maintain different versions for each market they serve, which can be an expensive operating model.

Taste Of Kenya

There was no doubting the founder’s passion and personal investment in this business – a project connecting coffee growers direct to retailers. Designed to offer growers a better deal and ensure they are paid in a more timely fashion, Taste Of Kenya is attempting to disrupt the existing supply chain by buying direct from Kenyan growers, and removing 5 levels of intermediaries to supply coffee retailers in the UK. Taste of Kenya pays at source at the time of purchase, and manages the processing, shipping and logistics.

Because of the competition, and due to their current limited capacity, Taste of Kenya has decided to target coffee retailers who want to source more ethically and more directly from growers. From four container shipments in the first year, volumes are designed to grow to 15 containers (240,000 kg) in year 3.

With around 30 farmers on their shortlist, and a target market of 200+ coffee retailers in London, I suspect that this may never be a business that can scale. But that’s OK (after all, weren’t we once told that “small is beautiful”?) as the business model and the social objectives are clear. Maybe the real opportunity will be in showing others how they can do the same?

Clikd

Clikd is a dating app with a couple of key features – first, it is photo-based; second, it allows users to set their own questions for prospective dates if they don’t want to use the built-in content. The founders describe it as “photo-social”. The pitch included a working demonstration, and it certainly looks like a lot of fun to use.

I’m somewhat wary of dating apps. I’m not the target audience, I’ve never used one, and I know that some investors dislike the business model – there’s the reputation risk, plus if the app is really good at its job, customers won’t be subscribers for very long, so there is considerable churn.

But, maybe it appeals to the social media generation, who are more comfortable using these tools, or who have different social attitudes. Certainly for people who have just moved to a new city where they don’t know anyone, such an app could help them meet new friends.

User adoption is key to success, and the founders have scoped an in-depth marketing and launch campaign. They have also formed a significant partnership with an outdoor media brand.

Adalys

This MedTech business is enabling smart medical data through patients’ profiles and unpublished clinical trial data, by structuring, analyzing and aggregating the growing volumes of medical data and delivering it to doctors, clinicians, pharmacies, hospitals, Big Pharma and health care groups.

Part of the goal is to make clinical trials more effective (by providing structure to the data, and making greater use of data analytics), and by allowing new data to build on existing and real-time data more easily, it should help take some of the data costs of current practices. The business model is based on SaaS subscription revenues.

With a number of trials and installations at hospitals, plus 700 individual patients on the platform, Adalys is connecting “clinical trials with real world data”. E-health solutions for managing patient records, resource planning and tracking prescription drug costs are high on most governments’ public health agendas. However, issues of patient privacy, low take-up among GPs and a lack of “incentives” makes traction challenging.

Or Du Monde

This was probably a first for me – a jewellery startup. Not only that, Or Du Monde claims to be the leading green jewellery business in France, by only using ethically sourced diamonds, recycling gold, and as far as possible using local craftspeople, to support its sustainable goals. Gold mining generates huge amounts of ore waste, and most people will be aware of the issues associated with “blood diamonds”.

The gems used by Or Du Monde are sourced direct from mines that have established appropriate working conditions, also enabling country of origin certification.

With a strong family presence in the industry, the founders probably knew their business better than anyone else in the room. But one thing that wasn’t quite explained was the B2C click and mortar retail model. From my limited knowledge, the diamond market is closely controlled by just a handful of companies, so I’m not sure how direct sourcing works. Also, on the retail side, there are obviously high-end luxury brands, and mass-market high street chains.

I’m guessing that Or Du Monde aims to sit in between, as a niche or boutique brand, appealing to a certain customer profile. The pitch made reference to the “branded jewellery” sector (representing 20% of the market, and growing), but I assume this involves intensive brand marketing and strong distribution networks – again, not much explanation, although the business plans to have 9 stores around the world by 2020.

Finally, because much of the business is made-to-order, they company does not have to hold large inventories, and more than half of the revenues come from online sales.

Checkit-Out

Quoting some research that 90% of buyers use online customer reviews, Checkit-Out is aiming to update this now well-established model. In fact, the founders believe that there has been “no evolution in 15 years”, and there is some suggestion that customer reviews are now a less trusted source. (I suppose search result rankings and paid-for SEO have distorted the market?)

Incorporating gamification and aiming for an “influent” audience base, Checkit-Out allows users to upload 1 minute videos of their restaurant visits, from the restaurants themselves. (This is the first market segment the founders are targeting.)

I wasn’t sure what the revenue model was – restaurants pay a commission on bookings or referrals made via the app? – and it wasn’t clear how or how often the video content gets updated. I’m also sure that some restaurants may not be too happy about diners filming their experiences and posting them online, while they are still dining – managers and waiters probably have enough to do coping with diners taking photos of every dish for their social media pages….

Finally, as with most user-defined and user-contributed content platforms, we tend to gravitate to the reviewers whose views and tastes appear to align with our own – understanding how that model works would be incredibly valuable.

Note: I’m extremely grateful to Steven Hess, Program Leader, and the team at Re-Imagi for inviting me to participate in the dress rehearsals, and to attend the pitch night itself. It was a very interesting and worthwhile experience, and noticeable that the program fellows had taken on board much of the feedback that myself and other mentors had provided at the rehearsals.

Next week: Tribute