Protechting Startups are bringing innovation in areas we can all relate to: the protection of people and their belongings, service, health and savings. Sohow are these teams building the tools that will change our daily routines?
This is the first of a series of three blogposts updating you on the latest developments of the startups in the Protechting startup accelerator program by Fidelidade/Fosun and Beta-i.
A lot of progress has been made so far in the program by the teams but the most important part still lies ahead as we’re just two weeks away from the final presentation. Mário from CleeBeen Technologies, Bart from Ectosense and Ridhi from Noxidity joined us for a quick status update on their learnings and milestones.
CleenBeenTechnologies aims to resolve one of the most predominant problems in hospital environment: bacterial/superbug and MRSA infections through an IoT technology that provides real-time information about the levels and hygiene processes at any hospital. By using CleenBeen’s solution, hospitals will contribute to a better infection controlled environment, reducing the resulting diseases (even deaths) and the associated maintenance costs.
Their initial focus was on hospital’-s’ bathrooms, where they applied their sensors to see if the hygiene steps we’re being followed correctly, controlling for example the time the water tap was open, if people dried their hands and if they had flushed the toilets, between many other metrics. But we all know how speaking with potential customers can radically change the way you build and implement your solution: Since they started talking with the head of the Infection Control department at the Beatriz Ângelo Hospital in Lisbon, Dr. Carlos Palos, they realized that instead hygiene control in bathrooms, their main focus should be the medical rooms where the patients are in direct contact with doctors, nurses and other staff elements.
Definitely extremely valuable feedback that most of times only experts can give you.
The CleenBeen team was “lucky” to have met Dr. Carlos Palos as one of the Coaches assigned to the Protechting program –as soon as they met each other they knew that implementing a pilot at Beatriz Ângelo Hospital was the next big step, and they’re working on the final legal issues to start the pilot.
Their main challenge right now is to “teach” their algorithm to learn the five steps for hand-Hygiene made by the World Health Organization (WHO), the fifth being the most tricky one: How to control the hygiene process of somebody who enters a medical room, without having close contact with the patient but who still needs to clean his hands before leaving the room.
Ectosense leverages mobile technology to measure and analyze the user’s sleep quality in their home environment. Analyzing the user’s heart rate using third-party devices as well as recording other inputs gathered through your mobile device, the app determines the presence of disturbed sleep in a similar way the physician would do it.
“Lisbon is a nice and cheap city to live in and the main reason we applied was the sponsors because they’re right in our industry and also the direct-level access we have with experts through Beta-i and Fidelidade/Fosun. That in any other way would be really hard to reach.”
Again, expert feedback at Hospital da Luz was one of the key moments of the program since it allowed them to validate the features they had planned and start defining what to prioritize. They also had a really relevant time with Marcelo Lebre, Lead Developer at Faber Ventures, who help them structure their IT architecture.
Noxidity, a new Internet-of-Things enabled (IoT) technology that predicts and facilitates the maintenance of corrosion, is now focused on interviewing larger companies to gather as much input as they can while developing the prototype.
For example, many of the utilities companies have sub-power stations in remote locations that easily corrode. With Noxidity’s technology, the companies will be able to keep track of the corrosion levels in real-time from their offices, saving money and time. The team also secured a really relevant advisor, the President of the European Federation of Corrosion, Dª Fátima Montemor.
In Lisbon Ridhi found a growing Startup ecosystem, where people and businesses genuinely want to help, high quality talent is easy to find and where the quality of life is a tremendous plus point.
With two weeks to go and so much work to get done the pressure on the startups is rising but their contagious motivation and drive will definitely boost a killer presentation on the final day. Freddie Mercury would clearly define the goal for these two last weeks: From singing “Under Pressure” in the middle of the show to a “We Are the Champions” overwhelming performance in the end.
What does managing music artists have to do with investing in Tech Startups?
Regarding talent, can we look at music artists the same way we see entrepreneurs?
“I think the common denominator and the one word is ‘hustle’”
Troy Carter made his name in the music industry, promoting Hip-Hop artists and concerts and he was the one to discover and launch Lady Gaga’s career. Later on, he started to apply his learnings into the tech industry, early investing in Startups like Uber, Lyft, DropBox, Warby Parker and many more and creating his own fund, CrossCulture VC.
Here is a 20-min enlightening talk between Troy Carter and Mark Suster (entrepreneur and VC) about the ability to “spot, nurture and mentor talent”, the relevance of conquering the first users (“The first 50 super fans”), how to go after the product/market fit, the importance of a narrative in marketing and the role luck plays in success.
The video was originally posted at Mark’s Blog Both Sides of The Table, where you can read all the highlights from the talk.
Even though there are inspiring stories about successful entrepreneurs that pivoted that persevered on their startup’s mission while nobody else believed them, listening to your users feedback, iterate and test is a basic cycle to achieve the so desired product/market fit.
Nowadays, we can see and hear the word “pivot” on everything that is startup-related, maybe a little too much. The word coined by Eric Ries represents a necessary attitude towards building something that users really want, however it should be done carefully and strategically: You should neither be scared of letting go your initial idea nor run to change everything at the first negative feedback. Test, measure, rethink and plan your iterations.
The fact the word “Pivot” is so easily pronounced kind of gives us the wrong perception of a quick and painless step on a Startup’s normal routine. Far from it:
“I love the result of our pivot. I also love the idea of pivoting. But I have a problem with the word “pivot.” The action sounds surgical, near-instant, and tidy. The actual experience is nothing like that.
Instead, our pivot was more like a weeks-long trudge through a fog of confusion that took lots of hard work and hard choices to emerge from.”
Continue to read Eric Larson’s “What It’s Really Like to Pivot a Startup” experience, also take a look on Eden’s struggle (initially an “Uber for Tech Support”) after being funded, and tell us your point of view or share other stories about pivoting you might know about.
There’s no doubt a Mentor can have a crucial role on a Startup’s way to success. Within the strong Lisbon Challenge network, there are three Core Mentors that will help and guide every single team from day one to the final pitch, covering these main areas: growth, product, tech and investment.
“It’s tempting to be focusing only on building your product/company during the program, but you should also focus on learning as much as possible, and try new things. Also, accept that many of the things you hold for true are actually hypothesis that you need to validate, and LC is the best place to do it. Lastly, be focus, be constant and show up, keep the involvement high.
My role is to push the teams to break the ice with their users and potential users, to help them go and talk with people, and build their own lean process for prototyping, testing and learning as efficiently as possible.” – Nicholas Mandelbaum.
Nicholas Mandelbaum – Former Entrepreneur and Development and Design Manager, Nicholas has more than 8 years in product design and management. He gathers a deep experience and a strong intuition into the right approach to deconstruct a problem and work on an effective user-centred strategy to solve it, always with a focus on UX/UI, innovative thinking and effective design.
Pedro Falcão – Currently Managing Partner of LC Ventures, the first global hands-on, accelerator investment vehicle based in Portugal. He counts with a solid background on managing funds and analyzing investment opportunities, that make him an expert in funding, pitching to investors and to what it takes for a startup to be investment-ready.
Fred Oliveira – Full Stack developer and UX designer, he was the first TechCrunch employee, a former 500 Startups mentor, Entrepreneur and now working at 1776, a global incubator based in Washington. As a Startup Advisor his focus areas are User Experience, Design, Development and Scaling.
“Mentors can help startups in many ways. On one hand many of the problems and struggles are common to many startups and mentors can surely help the startups address them in a better way.On the other hand, startups can lookup to mentors as someone with whom they can be totally open, being never afraid to say the wrong thing or to expose their weaknesses.” – Pedro Falcão
Once again, from the four corners of the world hundreds of Lisbon Challenge applications arrived at our HQ in Lisbon.
For days in a row, some of the most influential entrepreneurs, investors and mentors around were kept in a closed room, while carefully analysing each startup to see who would get the Golden Ticket for this Spring’s Lisbon Challenge.
Ok, maybe they got to step outside every now and then, but it definitely was an extremely difficult process. So, with this in mind, we would like to thank all the teams that applied and congratulate the selected ones – just remember to be in shape for your first training day next Monday.
So, without further ado, we bring to you the 13 teams who will be joining the Lisbon Challenge Spring 16:
Cryptopay United Kingdom
Cryptopay is a bitcoin digital bank that allows to manage the everyday bitcoin needs (buying, selling and storing) along with the traditional banking services (payments, ATM withdrawals, FX conversions) in a cheaper and faster way than traditional high street banks.
Eat Tasty Portugal
Eat Tasty connects home cooks and people ready to buy homemade food with an app that manages an hyper-local network of cooks, customers and suppliers. Everything is controlled from the ingredients to promoting competitive prices and making sure the Home Chefs receive their deserved income.
Fresh Land Denmark
Fresh.Land is an online B2B trading platform between farmers and retailers. It replaces 3-5 middlemen, delivering freshly harvested produce from tree to store in days rather than months. It also grants farmers twice the price for their produce while providing retailers with higher-quality produce at lower prices.
Homcut France
Homcut is a platform that allows to easily find, choose and book a professional hairdresser and bring him at home or office, fully equipped and at the same price of a salon.
Infraspeak Portugal
Infraspeak allows companies responsible for large (or dispersed) infrastructures and maintenance services providers to excel at facility and asset management, through their software. It increases the control and productivity of the costumers, reducing bureaucracy, risks and costs.
Moyupi Spain
Moyupi turns children’s drawings into unique toys, through a 3D printing technology and a team of artists, boosting the children’s creativity and bringing them back to the playground.
MyWineTour Estonia
MyWineTour is like a personal wine expert, tour organizer and navigator teamed up in a Mobile App to recommend well-suiting wineries and personalized wine tasting tours according to a user’s taste and other preferences.
RealLife English Brazil
RealLife English’s platform connects English teachers and courses to anyone that wants to work on their English fluency, through an instant face-to-face video chat.
Rnters Portugal
Rnters is an online community platform where both rental companies and individuals can rent any personal item to other users in a safe way. It is a sharing economy facilitator.
TeamOutLoud Portugal
TeamOutLoud is a social app for companies with a powerful employee recognition system that allows to increase employee engagement.
Tripaya Portugal
Tripaya makes it easier to plan a trip or vacation by helping travelers to choose a destination based on interests and budget.
WeRoll Portugal
WeRoll promotes group-storytelling through an app that creates private Rolls for each story, where any user involved can add pictures in real time, contributing to a feed that gives a real sense of the whole story.
Wonderoute Portugal
Wonderoute is an online platform that enables travelers to request tailor-made travel guides to locals.
With such different areas adressed and highly motivated hustlers, this edition promises to be thrilling so don’t forget to keep up with the news – a lot can happen in one week.
to have met Dr. Carlos Palos as one of the Coaches assigned to the Protechting program –as soon as they met each other they knew that implementing a pilot at Beatriz Ângelo Hospital was the next big step, and they’re working on the final legal issues to start the pilot.
