In the best tradition of Estonian startups, Estonian accelerator Startup WiseGuys has announced the list batch of teams via TechCrunch today. Here are the brief descriptions of the startups. I wonder if their pitches will change much by the end of the program.
Monolith (Croatia) is an advertisement platform which uses augmented reality. For example, if a pedestrian passes by a Monolith billboard, he can see him- or herself, except for on the video he/she will have a branded beer in his or her hand (enough of gender neutrality). Cool, but here is food for thought: make sure the platform differentiates between adults and children!
Faver (Germany) offers personal recommendations for your city: your friends and influencers will curate this for you. My friends curate that now by asking if I want to tag alone via Facebook or email. Is this too complicated?
Like A Local Guide (Estonia) Locals are supposed to do all the hard work reviewing city attractions, so that the tourists will have most fun. A word of caution: sometimes locals despise tourists and would rather have their peace and quiet in the city, although this may apply to extreme situations. So it is likely that mainly businesses will be adding content. And another word of caution: MyGuidie from Poland has been discontinued yesterday.
Wellbeing In the City (UK) a social network which aims to help its users balance their life styles in the city. When I lived in London (a city in focus, it seems) my life style was not balanced. An alternative solution I thought would be to move out of a city and into remote village in Northern Germany. I still do not have a balanced life style. It is interesting that the company was founded in 2010 and has already secured “Future 100 Award for emerging social enterprises”.
Monday52 (Ukraine) its co-founder Max Ischenko has previously created a popular online community Dou.ua. This Ukrainian website offers web developers an opportunity to discuss their experiences with a particular employer. His new venture is about providing a platform for employees to rate their employers, and a place where one can get job recommendations based on those ratings.
WappZapp (The Netherlands): Yet another personalized remote for Internet TV based on the mobile phone.
WeatherMe (Estonia) applies its very localized weather forecasts to farming. The founders appeared to focus their efforts since their generic “very precise weather forecasts” during one of the Startup Sauna Warmups. Next, they may team up with Croatian Farmeron.
1Knows (Estonia) the startup awards badges for acquiring new knowledge, by which it aims to gamify elearning.
