by Lisa Devaney | 8 Oct, 2015 | Startup Spotlight
In the news this week here in Londontown, we have learned that the city has more multi-million-pound mansions being sold than any other city in the world, we are also hearing that our city is the most expensive place to live in the world.
So what if you are on a budget?
What if cheap eats and charity shops are more you’re style than big bling shopping and dining out for hundreds of pounds? Hey, guess what? There’s an app for that!
For Londoners on a budget, the app Frugl delivers on its promise to keep you informed about the best deals for entertainment in the expensive city. Download the app for free from the Apple App Store and begin to discover an affordable side to London. You’ll get to pick from events and happenings that are free, and up to £10, and select from categories of comedy, poetry, film and cinema, classes and courses, meetups and networking, talks and lectures, beauty, food and drink, kids and family, live music, nightlife, shopping and more. You can also book tickets through the app, and find the location of where you are headed with maps.
Frugl has gotten a good amount of press since launch happened in March 2014, including this article in Forbes. The startup received initial funding of a grant from the Technology Strategy Board (now called Innovate UK). At the helm is CEO founder Suzanne Noble, a 20-year veteran publicist and CTO co-founder Tikiri Hulugalle.
We got to catch up with both founders by joining them recently at TECHtoberfest, and had a blast of a time, all on a budget!
Suzanne let us quiz her further about Frugl, and here’s our Q&A session with her:
Suzanne Noble
Can you tell us the background of Frugl? When did it come about and why?
I’ve been a bargain hunter and a culture vulture since I was a kid growing up in London. Back in the 80s I used to run underground jazz clubs, spending every night handing out flyers, as that was the only way to get the word out. Now there’s so much going on all the time, it’s a challenge to find those under the radar events or great offers. That’s where Frugl comes in – giving event promoters and businesses a platform to publicise great value experiences for our users to discover.
So you set out to make an app for those looking to experience London on a budget. What was your interest in this low budget market?
Well, I believe that having fun shouldn’t be something that only the wealthy can afford. Anyone should be able to have a good time, to find great food/drink, clothes or events whatever their budget. I’m naturally inclined to want to save money whenever possible so Frugl reflects my own passion.
What kind of events and offerings can people find on Frugl?
From the start, I wanted to reach varied tastes and interests. Currently you can find free haircuts, meal deals, live music and comedy, workshops and much more. The basic philosophy of Frugl is that, provided it has a start/end time and there is at least one of something to be sold, it can be listed on Frugl.
Have you had many downloads of the app and can you share with us how many?
We’ve hit about 20k and, with our new marketplace on web and now iOS and Android too are looking to rev up our numbers over the next few months.
You know, there are a lot of event business models out there – can you tell us why Frugl stands apart from the competition?
We’re really trying to broaden our inventory beyond events. We know there’s a lot of apps out there but we know that when people think of Frugl, they think beyond events. That’s why we encourage businesses in the food/drink and health/beauty space to use us too.
Frugl is just for London now, but do you have plans to offer it in other cities?
Absolutely. Moving beyond London is definitely on the roadmap over the next year.
What are your top picks for Frugl things to do in London?
We love The Good Ship Comedy Club on a Monday night in Kilburn. It’s always fun and the atmosphere is great.
…
Thanks for talking with us Suzanne!
By the way, you can find Suzanne on Twitter at @FruglFounder and follow Frugl @Frugl.
![Startup Spotlight: Zealify]()
by Lisa Devaney | 2 Oct, 2014 | haimediagroup, Startup Spotlight
What is Zealify?
Zealify
Zealify is an online platform that wants to change the way we look for jobs. Normally, you’d apply for a job – and that’s it, right?
Well, Zealify goes one step further. It’s a job site that shows its clients the full picture before they apply.
Users can browse through images of the office, watch video interviews with current employees and read a detailed description about the company’s culture.
Hai Media Group had the pleasure of interviewing Lauren Hine, co-founder and CEO of Zealify, here’s what she had to say…
1) How would you describe Zealify to those who may not have heard of it?
Zealify seeks to change the job search process for junior level talent through showcasing the cultures of high growth, SME’s through online profiles. The profiles include photos of the offices, video interviews with employees and content about the company culture. Those who are searching for a job get to find out exactly what it is like to work for a company before they apply for a position.
2) When did the Startup begin?
The Startup began in February 2014.
3) Who are your target audience?
Our target audience are individuals who are between one and five years out of university, We are trying to cater to people who may have had some work experience perhaps in a large company, found it wasn’t for them and are now looking for a new challenge.
4) Why Zealify? What makes you stand out from all the other employment websites?
Unlike generic job boards Zealify allows users to find out what it is really like to work at a company. Other employment websites will bombard job searchers with messages about available positions with no thought into whether the job searcher will fit into the hiring company. Through the zealify platform, small to medium sized companies can stand out from other companies by showing visually the values that their team believe in. This allows potential employees to figure out whether they would be a good fit or not, with a far higher accuracy than a typical job board.
5) What fields do you specialise in?
Zealify only profiles high-growth Startups and SME’s. The companies are carefully selected based on their employee centric nature and good working environment. Generally fast paced, innovative companies are hiring for roles across a variety of fields which enables us to offer our users numerous positions in areas such as marketing, HR and software development.
6) How would Zealify know if it’s made it? (goals, achievements)
Zealify will know it has made it when it is the chosen place for starting a job search. We are working towards building a platform that has all the necessary resources in one place to help individuals succeed in a career they love. We regularly receive great feedback from our users commending Zealify for its personal approach to career advice.
7) What’s next for Zealify?
Zealify is going to start its second investment round. This money will allow us to expand our team. Through expanding our team we will be able to reach more people with our service and achieve our long term goal.
By Miamii Mansour
by Lisa Devaney | 19 Aug, 2014 | haimediagroup, Startup Spotlight
Since the rise of Instagram, photo apps have become all the rage! However, to move away from the mainstream — Trunx is definitely a relatively new photo storage app to shout about.
Hai Media Group had the opportunity to interview Trunx’s Marketing VP, Sandra Ponce de Leon, here’s what she had to say:
What is Trunx?
Trunx is a photo storage app that allows its users to snap, organise and store all their photos in a safe, private and secure storage vault for an unlimited amount of time.
The app works to free up storage on your smart device by uploading all of your photograph’s to Trunx’s secure cloud – allowing anytime, anywhere access to all your photographs and at your fingertips.
Users no longer need to worry about their device’s memory, as Trunx acts as built-in app storage vault.
How does SharedPix work?
This feature lets users share their photos with friends and family privately. And participants in the album are be able to view a live feed of photographs which the Album owner has shared.
Why Trunx? Where did the inspiration behind such a creative app spring from?
Jeff Chen
Jeff Chen is really the visionary behind the company – as an experienced entrepreneur and founder, he is always looking for imaginative solutions to problems.
He realized that his visual legacy was scattered on everything from digital cameras to social networks to mobile phones to old thumb drives and decided he needed one place where he could have access to every photo he ever took in a way that was very easy to find.
Given his experience with Maxthon – the worlds 6ths largest cloud based browser – he knew the answer was in the cloud. And thus came the idea for Trunx.
If you could give an elevator pitch to a prospective Trunx user what would you say?
Trunx is your entire photo collection accessible at your fingertips. Every photo you’ve ever taken – on your phone, your camera, etc. – without the hassle of multiple devices or services. Forget which hard drive that photo of your daughter on her first birthday is on? No worries, Trunx has you covered.
It looks like you have a number of great features that set you apart from other apps out there. Can you tell us what the top differences are from other photo apps? And, what sets you apart from the giant Instagram?
Our mission is to be the world’s largest visual memory bank. In order to fulfill on that promise, we have a commitment to our core values of trust, security, privacy, safety and ease of use which are embedded into the product itself.
We take the security of our users’ memories very seriously and use encryption on both the transmission and storage of data. We also have a hybrid cloud infrastructure in place that further protects our user’s precious memories.
Unlike Instagram, we focus on organization, storage and accessibility of your entire visual life. That said, not ALL of your photos are meant for sharing – some are private and meant only for you, or just a small group.
We have SharedPix which is a collaborative photo album for just sharing with friends and family. One perfect use-case might be a girls trip among friends that all took pictures on their phones and want to share, but at the same time don’t want to have those bikini pictures ending up on Facebook.
Other differences include our EchoPix feature which allows users to capture photos with sound, as well as the fact that we are offering unlimited storage until the end of September.
On average, how many users does Trunx get per month? Can you share this information with us at this time? Or, give a monthly average of downloads?
We’re not disclosing numbers at the moment but we’ve been growing at a steady and rapid rate – we’re very pleased with our progress.
Which tools did you use to help maximise Trunx’s user-outreach?
We’re big fans of SurveyMonkey which we use to send out surveys to our customers on a regular basis in order to find out what they love about Trunx and what kinds of features they’d like us to develop in the future. Mailchimp is our email platform, and of course we use social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Tumblr.
We also leverage our own product using SharedPix as a way to get the word out – we’ve been creating shared community of photo albums at a variety of events and festivals like Macworld, SF JazzFest, Outsidelands and others. We are also currently hosting a SharedPix contest called Share the Peace where we’re asking friends of Trunx to submit their pictures with a peace sign – one of our mascot Max’s favorite signs!
If you could give three top tips to an aspiring an entrepreneur with a BIG idea, what would they be?
1) Find the pain point first: what is the problem you are trying to resolve? Look at it from every angle and be meticulous in your examination. Once you have that you can verify whether these pains exist across a broader market.
2) Staying small and scrappy forces you to be creative and resourceful: it is always good to keep that mindset regardless of the funding situation – a lot can be done with a little!
3) Talk to your customers and prospective customers regularly and religiously. Not only do they provide great insight – i.e. just because it makes sense to you, does not mean your users will get it.
The only way to find out is to conduct testing and observe. It is critical to develop a relationship with your customers early on and bring them into your product and brand conversations. This makes for a valuable and dedicated user base that feels invested in your product and team
What future plans do you have for the company?
Our plans are to continue to develop the product and grow our user base. We have some exciting changes coming soon to Trunx that we can’t wait to unveil. As mentioned previously, our goal is be the world’s biggest memory bank, and we still have a lot of work to do to be able to fulfill that promise.
How do you see Trunx achieving them?
We’re committed staying in constant contact with our users and keeping them in the loop on new features we are developing as well as company direction. Following our own advice – we’re small and scrappy and need to be creative and unique to stand apart.
Can you give us a little background on your status as a startup? When were you founded? Who have you gotten investment from and how much? Please share what you choose with us on this front.
Lifetime Memori Inc, Trunx’s parent brand was founded in 2013 by Jeff Chen and Jay Shen. We are self-funded right now with no plans in the near future to take on any investments although that could change. Right now our focus is fully on our customers and making a beautiful, useful product that people love.
By: Miamii Mansour
than any other city in the world, we are also hearing that our city is the most expensive place to live in the world.
