From a mobile app to help improve the dieting process to a citizen journalism project an eclectic range of startups presented at the Activate Tech Talent day
For a day I felt a little like Evan Davis, hosting the Guardian's answer to Dragons' Den, the Activate Tech Talent day where eight budding entrepreneurs battled it out to win the attention and praise of a panel of judges comprised of leading investors and journalists. The prize was not a cash investment, that the companies "so desperately needed" as Evan Davies would say, but instead the opportunity to present to a much wider audience at the Guardian Activate Summit. To get there they needed to convince the judges not only that their idea was a good business or charity but that it also had the power to positively change the world around us.
The talent day was held at the newly opened #guardiancoffee in Shoreditch, the heart of Tech City UK. The pop-up cafe sweltered on one of the hottest days of the year making everyone feel like they were in a literal dragon's den.
The runners-up
Alice Bonasio, a PR manager at a previous winner of the talent day, Mendeley, presented a new take on crowdsourcing, Crowdcelerate. Her business idea, still just on paper, is to connect entrepreneurs to service providers who would be willing to say provide web development or design skills for free in exchange for equity in a proposed new business. Crowdcelerate would take a 1% stake in the business for having connecting the entrepreneurs and the service providers together. The judges felt that while the idea was admirable, many entrepreneurs would be unwilling to publish their new business concept so publically before they had even started work on building a new product or service.
Tom Berman, a technologist and adventurer presented PicFit a simple to use iPhone and Android app to help improve the dieting process. Users would take a photograph of every meal they ate throughout the day and PicFit will attempt to analyse the calorie content. A graph would match user's calorie intake to their own pre-set targets. Tom argued that this provides a more personalised dieting solution than market leaders Weight Watchers and its points based system. The judges wondered what would happen if only half a meal was eaten and whether users would be willing to take a photograph of literally every single item of food and drink they ate a day but thought there was potential to license the app to food retailers or producers to use as a marketing tool.
Paul Joyce, the co-founder of GeckoBoard presented his company's hugely successful data visualisation and communications tool for businesses and governments. He argued that understanding every part of the data relating to an organisation allows them to make significant efficiency changes. Judging his entry was difficult for the panel of judges who decided that as a well established and well funded startup, it was unfair to judge his business in comparison to genuinely new startups.
Morgan Sowden, the entrepreneur in residence at Bebo founder Michael Birch's Monkey Inferno presented a compelling pitch of a new era of transparency in clothing production. The concept was simple, the introduction of QR codes on tags found on clothing. Scanning the code on the label with a mobile phone takes the user to a webpage containing all of the information relating to the factory that produced the garment. 'Made in Thailand' suddenly appears so vague. Monkey Inferno will launch the concept as a not for profit. The judges, while welcoming the idea, thought that Morgan Sowden's worthy idea wouldn't particularly benefit from an endorsement by the Guardian Activate Summit.
Emma Murphy, a Cambridge graduate with an extensive experience in the conservation sector presented her prototype app Jungle Fever. The game transforms the casual player into a jungle manager, helping conserve the environment and wildlife within their virtual world while making a genuine impact on the real world. A percentage of the revenue raised from the game will be used to fund the conservation of the rainforests in Borneo. The judges loved the concept but felt that it was too early to be presented to those attending the Guardian Activate Summit.
Paul Reeve, a software engineer presented his own app, Story. The app sits somewhere between apps like Instagram and Tumblr, allowing users to create mini 'stories' based on photographs taken by users. While the judges liked the concept, some were concerned that Paul hadn't heard of the fast growing Storify app and that it might take some time to gain critical mass. There is, rather confusingly, another app called Story that is currently available.
The winners
Daan Weddepohl, from Amsterdam presented his business, Peerby. Already having achieved critical mass in Amsterdam, Peerby offers users the chance to borrow items ranging from lawnmowers to digital cameras from their neighbours. In order to de-risk the process, and speed up the return of items, the borrower has to pay a daily insurance premium to Peerby, thus increasing the likelihood of the process taking place. Peerby also intends to generate revenue through 'product placement', in other words the camera you are 'borrowing' might actually be lent to you by the manufacturer to try before you buy.
The judges unanimously felt that Peerby was the best business proposition that we were presented although there were some reservations about the percentage of users who might leach, borrow but not lend. However, we felt that young, urban users would be willing to use this service as a means of connecting with the neighbours they had never spoken to. Indeed I sat through the presentation wishing that Peerby was live in London so that I could borrow some equipment for my small garden from my neighbours who I've barely even seen. The judges therefore believed that Peerby provided a social good, although clearly for the first world.
If Peerby helped the first world, then Libby Powell, the founder of Radar, our joint winner, provided a social good for communities across the developed and the developing world. This ground breaking charity helps locate, train and nurture a growing network of citizen journalists, often located in some of the least accessible and developed parts of the world.
Libby explained how over the last six months Radar has project "withstood the heat of two national African elections" and supported supported over 250 citizen mobile reporters to news alerts via SMS from their locations. Radar then turned these on the ground reports into mainstream news stories, working with the media for free.
Perhaps the most admirable part of Radar's proposition was the founders' practicality, having learnt how to manage these globally distributed networks, the charity earns revenue from consulting for a variety of organisations, charities and businesses including the British government.
Every single one of my fellow judges felt split on whether the team behind Peerby or Radar should win the right to present their concept to the main Guardian Activate event. Having decided that they each would appeal to different delegates, we agreed the only sensible option was to award the prize to both. That's something you'd rarely see on a reality TV show!
Benjamin Cohen is the executive director of Clarity.pr and a former Channel 4 News technology correspondent. He tweets @benjamincohen
Get more articles like this sent direct to your inbox by signing up for free membership to the Guardian Media Network – this content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.
Activate
Activate London
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds