TEAMS VERY RARELY LEAVE AN ACCELERATOR WITH THE SAME IDEA THEY BROUGHT IN.
Some ideas shift, some change entirely, and some teams leave altogether. Sometimes the effects are jarring, and it can all happen very, very quickly.
A month ago, Betarocket sat down with each of this year’s Ignite100 teams and asked them what they were doing. This week, we met up with them again to discover what’s changed.
In a series of articles over the next few days, we’ll be giving you the lowdown on each of them.
—–
Today, we’re looking at Bizpora, a platform which helps you find interesting people to meet when you’re travelling for business.
What you need to know:
Launched in London just over a year ago, Bizpora arrived in Newcastle after spending time on the Startup Chile programme. It offers business travellers the chance to meet interesting new people on trips, whether they need people to meet over coffee (or even to crash with). It’s just announced a feature which enables a user’s existing network to suggest people to meet in a given place.
How do you squeeze the most out of your business trips?
In a culture where every second needs to be filled with something, travelling for business can be a bit up and down. If you’re travelling to meet a client or attend a conference, the meetings themselves can be a rush. But how do you tap into the networks in the city you’re visiting, rather than spending the evening with a laptop and room service?
Bizpora is a startup which offers you the chance to meet people in the cities you’re visiting. It launched in Summer 2012 as StartupStay, which enabled entrepreneurs to find inspiring or useful business contacts to stay with a certain place. It’s now styling itself as a way to find the best people to meet in the places you’re headed, and get recommendations from your own network on who you have to see.
Co-founder Facundo Villaveiran says:
“You’ve put a lot of effort into a LinkedIn and Twitter profile. As you’ve made that effort in a lot of networks, we’re giving you a place where you can announce your trip and your network can come and help you.”
THEN:
Back in July last year, The Next Web covered an interesting new startup called StartupStay, which it described as “a kind of AirBnB for businesses”.
StartupStay was all about helping cash-starved entrepreneurs to find a place to crash in a new city, and meet great contacts in the process. The aim was that a startup founder in – say – Latvia, could ask for a person to host them in Shoreditch, and meet someone who could introduce them to valuable networks and maybe even become a trusted name in the contacts book.
The concept attracted users from more than 200 cities in 60 countries within the first five weeks.
Co-founder Fred Cabellero said:
“Business travel is expensive and tedious. We’re people-focused rather than commodity-focused. It’s more important that you stay with John rather than at John’s place. In a new city, you’ll benefit from a local, like-minded person who can connect you to industries and insights, but also provide advice about the city. Plus you can make friends.”
Since then, it rebranded to Bizpora and took part in the Startup Chile programme, in which startups develop in Chile for six months in exchange for $40,000, equity free. It’s also a member of TechHub London. So what brought the team to Newcastle?
Fred said:
“We reached a point where we needed to figure out what makes this community sticky. Being able to talk to loads of mentors and having that support was really attractive. We were actively looking for angel investors as well.
“One thing that really appealed was that some of our team work remotely in Dublin, so it was a fantastic excuse to get everyone together. There are substantial benefits in getting that time to work as a group. We’ve been able to have business conversations and arguments, and then go home and have dinner together. It’s been a great bonding opportunity and a chance to build a team as well as a business.
“London is the business capital of Europe and one of the top five cities in the world. Newcastle is different. It’s a smaller community and everyone knows each other. There are people to meet and opportunities to explore. To us, Newcastle is perfect. It’s near to London and Dublin, and it has the right infrastructure and staff.”
While the concept originated as a startup-focused service, Bizpora was looking at making it more widely available.
Pierre Lacave said:
“The main thing that keeps coming up is the smallness of the market. At the moment we’re startup-centric. That makes the market quite small, and entrpreneurs may not have a lot of money. So we’re moving to something broader.”
Facundo Villaveiran added:
“It’s a rollercoaster, being on the programme. We can see the same thing with a lot of the teams. You’re stretching your brain to the limits of creativity, and bonding with your team-mates. That’s the biggest value we’ve got out of this. It’s also encouraged us to start thinking about ideas to land in a bigger market.
“You have all these things that you feel like you need to do, and you’re constantly meeting with mentors here. But that’s why you’re on an accelerator. You’re here so that people can challenge you. We feel like we’re getting better at listening and talking to customers, and taking the good advice from mentors.
“Bizpora is focused on connecting people via the work that they do, whether they’re freelancers, change-makers, remote workers or entrepreneurs. But we’re moving slightly away from a more business-oriented approach to one that’s more informal, and focused on being young and passionate about your project and the work you do.
“More and more people coming out of college will be thinking about starting their own business. There’s a shift in behaviour happening, and we’d really like to be the platform for all these new folks to meet other like-minded people that help them make progress and help them feel inspired.”
NOW:
When we caught up with Bizpora, it was due to announce an important change to its approach.
That change was officially announced yesterday.
The most prominent feature on Bizpora is now the option to announce your trip in advance, search through suggested contacts in that place, and allow your existing networks on social media to suggest and hook you up with valuable contacts.
The change was coupled with the release of a new site, and the team says it was “well-received” by the startup’s 10,000 members.
While the “place to stay” angle is still part of the platform, Bizpora says that its time on Ignite100 has encouraged it to think about ways the platform could help business people, beyond just peer-to-peer accommodation. It adds the feature is “the first step towards facilitating meaningful connections across different vehicles such as events, co-working and more”.
Facundo says:
“We did a lot of customer interviews, to get out of the building and come face-to-face with our users.
“What surfaced was that staying with someone is just one of the experiences that delivers value to them. Overall it’s about meeting the right people in your next trip or the right people that come to your city. It’s about tapping into the opportunity to have a face-to-face encounter.
“One of the main ways people do that now is that they go on platforms such as LinkedIn in advance, and ask their network to recommend places to go or people to meet. So we’re going to enable you to announce your trip publicly to Bizpora members so you meet relevant people, but also to share that with your existing network on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They can offer valuable help with advice and introductions.”
So now a user can sign up, connect their LinkedIn account, and complete their profile. They’re then visible on the platform for users to search if they’re arriving in town, or just trying to find out more about their home city. If they’re planning a trip, they announce it using the box on Bizpora, and can search for interesting people in that city while they’re waiting for their own networks to chip in.
Facundo says the change enables the user’s existing network to “work for them a bit better”, rather than just focusing on search.
He says:
“We give them a vehicle which enables them to make the best of our network, and to get value as quickly as possible.
“If we’ve learned anything, we’ve become way better at customer development, as well as asking questions and getting answers from people. Otherwise it’s just you building stuff. You have to get out of the building and find out what the pain point is for the customer. A lot of that has been worked out through listening to the mentors and the talks.
“You discover you’re in a comfort zone when you’re building stuff, locked inside four walls. It’s all about facing that fear.”
To try out Bizpora, sign up for free at Bizpora.com.
Pictured in headline: Pierre Lacave, Facundo Villaveiran, Fred Caballero