Midstage Startup Momentum

One of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that all of us should make an effort to live healthier lives. One company that’s trying to make that easier for people is Kafoodle, a UK-based food-compliance company. Kafoodle works with commercial kitchens of all kinds, from bars and restaurants to schools, hospitals, and care homes. The company’s goal is to make the planet healthier by gi...

Finding success as a tech startup is difficult enough under the best of circumstances. But when you base your business around blockchain technology and mix in the uncertainty of cryptocurrencies and a global pandemic, things become even more complicated. Yet, LuxTag has been able to find multiple verticals to serve and create positive momentum moving forward. LuxTag co-founders Rene Bernard and Je...

Drone technology has already changed the way humans interact with the world around them. Further research and development continue to make strides with new innovations. One company to come out of that research is Emesent, which has developed technology that allows drones to fly beyond the line of sight of humans where there is no GPS to guide them. Emesent co-founders Stefan Hrabar and Farid Kendo...

It’s estimated that after receiving seed funding, roughly half of midstage startups will fail to reach each subsequent round of fundraising. That means only a small fraction survive long enough to raise a Series C or D. But why are so many startups losing momentum in the midstage and struggling to survive? There are a lot of reasons why this happens, but on the bright side, there are just as many...

Video platforms are everywhere nowadays, and that’s a trend that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Livepeer is hoping to build open video infrastructure for the world using blockchain and open-source technology. It’s a lofty and ambitious goal, but Livepeer has already started to make headway. Livepeer co-founder Doug Petkanics joined startup coach Roland Siebelink on this week’s episode...

One of the first lessons all founders learn is that it takes more than a good product to build a company. For example, there are a lot of confusing legal documents that startups need to get off the ground. Fortunately, Capbase is around to help founders who can’t afford a high-priced lawyer with the legal side of starting a company. Capbase CEO and co-founder Greg Miaskiewicz joined Roland Siebeli...

Some estimate as many as 75 billion new devices will come online in the next five years. This is where tech startup Latent AI enters the equation. Latent AI is helping developers build AI models, specifically ones that can be used on edge devices. Latent AI co-founders Jags Kandasamy and Sek Chai joined Roland Siebelink on this week’s episode of the Silicon Valley Momentum Podcast. In addition to...

They say that slow and steady wins the race, but how many tech startups succeed with a patient approach? Cash management startup Neo is a shining example of slow and steady winning the race. While waiting two years for regulatory clearance, Neo built a huge customer base before they could even sell. Now they are poised to reap the rewards. CEO Laurent Descout and Chief Product Officer Emmanuel Ant...

If you’re a fan of sci-fi, you’ll expect robots will one day rule the world. Thanks to tech startup Mobot, we’re a little closer to that day. The young company is changing QA for mobile apps by using robots to test apps in ways that imitate the way that humans actually use those apps. Mobot founder and CEO Eden Full Goh joined startup coach Roland Siebelink on the latest edition of the Silicon Val...

The pandemic has been terrible for the restaurant industry. But that hasn’t stopped tech startup Superb or its founder and CEO Zaedo Musa. Superb is a guest experience management platform that created the first OS for restaurants. Despite this being a tough time for restaurants, Superb has found great traction and is being used by restaurants worldwide. Zaedo joined mid-stage startup coach Roland...

The growth of the Internet has been nothing but amazing. Since I sent my first email from a unix terminal in 1992 (using ‘vi’!), we’ve seen the Internet over 50 billion (!) new “things” connect. With people using so many IoT devices and facing cyber-security threats, it’s more important than ever for networks to be properly managed. That’s where Milan-based tech startup Tanaza comes in. They provi...

Scaling operations is the biggest challenge any business will ever face. With so many things changing, it helps to have automation tools that you can control. That is precisely the pain point being solved by Alessio Alionco and his startup Pipefy. Unlike other workflow software, Pipefy is lightweight and geared toward non-technical users. It helps manage requests from stakeholders and make individ...

Think about how easy it is to send a text message compared to making a phone call or sending a letter via snail mail. Well, what if text messages could be used by consumers to pay bills or companies to converse with customers who owe money? That’s precisely the use case addressed by startup Everyware. Using technology originally developed to help hotels and resorts communicate with travelers, Ever...

On the surface, there doesn’t appear to be a close connection between farming and modern technology. But Milan Dobrota and his startup Agremo are starting to change that. Agremo uses AI technology to analyze aerial imagery as a method to help in crop production. Agremo’s technology can be used for any crop and addresses a huge lack of data that is useful for crops and agriculture. Milan spent time...

It’s always great to talk about startup success stories. But what about those startups that have great potential but are still struggling to get on track and find a path to success? There is still a lot to learn from startups like Knowable, an audio-first learning program that launched in 2020. While Knowable has big goals and strives to make a meaningful impact on the world, it is still in the pr...

Blockchain technology continues to change the world in new ways. Tech startup Data Gumbo is one of the latest examples of that. Data Gumbo uses blockchain technology to create a network of smart contracts for industrial companies to automate their vendor management. By doing so, Data Gumbo vastly reduces supply chain friction while also bringing trust into an area severely lacking it. Date Gumbo C...

For most startups, creating one product, finding the right market for it, and turning it into a profitable business is hard enough. But what if you were doing the same thing simultaneously with two different products? That’s the challenge for the co-founders of Greendeck, who created a price optimization engine for retailers and are now working on a platform called Cliff.ai that tracks all busines...

It can be a beautiful thing when new technology coming to the market creates opportunities for startups to do something useful with the data and resources available to them. That is exactly what founder Jakob Muus and his startup Tracks are doing. Tracks uses the telematics systems inside trucks all across Europe to measure the cost of CO2 and look for ways that drivers and fleet owners can be mor...

Do you play the games you like best—or the ones that have been marketed to you the hardest? This is a huge problem in the gaming world. FRVR is hoping to fix a broken system by helping gamers play the games they’ll enjoy the most while also helping game developers reach their audience better.  FRVR co-founders Brian Meidell and Chris Benjaminsen joined Roland Siebelink on this episode of the...

Are you satisfied with modern voice technology as we move into 2021? Otto Söderlund, the CEO and co-founder of Speechly , still sees a lot of shortcomings in the technology. That’s why his startup has developed technology that performs speech recognition and natural language understanding in real-time. In other words, Speechly is doing things with voice technology that the big players in that spac...

In the startup world, there’s no substitute for working with the right co-founder. That’s exactly what Henry Bennett and Paul Loram have found in one another. The two have worked together on multiple startups over the past 15 years. Their latest venture, YourWelcome , is a POS tablet for rental properties that enable property managers to sell their own services, moving short-term rentals into a sp...

Whether you love working with them or not, spreadsheets are a part of doing business. Spreadsheets are the most commonly used type of software in the world with literally billions of users. Fortunately, the days of boring old spreadsheets are over thanks to Yannick Rault and his startup Sheetgo . With Sheetgo, users can ask the question, “What else can I do with my spreadsheet?” They can create wo...

Are you still sending Word docs into Docusign? Thanks to Contractbook , legal tech has been taken to the next level with contract lifecycle management. Contractbook helps SMBs to automate everything related to their legal documents. In fact, the company sets out to make its users feel like legal professionals. Contractbook has already made great headway in this sphere and has huge ambitions to hel...

Do you ever wish AI could handle some of your company’s project coordination and free up team members to do their best work? Well, it’s 2020, and all of that is possible with Forecast . Co-founder and CEO Dennis Kayser describes Forecast as “the ultimate power-up for project teams and professional service organizations.” With the help of Forecast.app, you can automate your busy work and better man...

Worldwide travel has come to a grinding halt during the ongoing pandemic. But the travel industry always bounces back after a setback, and it always comes back stronger than before. Helping to make that a reality is Redeam , a startup that connects travelers, operators, and re-sellers by bringing the same technology used by airlines and hotels to theme parks, attractions, and countless other touri...