It's been a good couple of weeks since TechCrunch Disrupt Europe in London and now the hype as settled I can get to a top 5. This was a really difficult task to do as there were so many brilliant start-ups exhibiting at the conference without even mentioning those that made it to the Battlefield and those in the Battlefield Final. Anyway, this is my top 5 from across the two days. Oh, and there's no order to this top 5 - I couldn't decide.
1. Intelligent Energy
Although they're not exactly a start-up any more, I think they were an event sponsor or something, Intelligent Energy were showing off a really cool product called the Upp. It's essentially a portable phone/device charger that uses Hydrogen fuel cells rather than the traditional lithium batteries you would see in these kinds of things. Now of course you can't recharge a Hydrogen fuel cell as you would a battery from the mains so all you do is exchange your empty cartridge for a new one at hopefully one of many stockists around the UK, although there don't appear to be any at the moment. They reckon a single cartridge will last around two weeks once you've got in to a routine and of course depending on how much you actually use it. At the moment they're saying around five full charges.
Upp is certainly not the lightest thing ever weighing a whopping 620g in total but it does look nice and also has an associated app to manage the charging and tell you how much is left and where to get a new cartridge.
There's no official word on cost as far as I can tell but I'd guess at around £150 for the device and <£10 for a cartridge.
So, it's not quite the most convenient solution yet but I really see the potential in this and it's certainly cutting edge. Let's hope they get the weight down and number of charges up.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCJ287P7APY[/embed]
Find out more at BeUpp.com.
2. cloudcannon
These guys started off in New Zealand and have now moved to San Francisco - I guess there's not a big start-up scene in NZ. Their offering is really quite simple but delivers something really useful and that is editable HTML websites. It's essentially a CMS that at the moment seems aimed at freelancers who as you'd expect love creating and developing but hate doing the mundane content bits and trivial day-to-day updates that most websites need.
So as a designer you build a beautiful website in HTML and then your client can easily edit select parts from a WYSIWYG interface without breaking the website.
The company was started little over a year ago and consists of only four guys but they've already managed to raise $500,000 and moved to Silicon Valley. I think this company is really going to go somewhere.
Find out more at cloudcannon.com.
3.Mous
Time for another British start-up and this one is also in the hardware game. Although not quite as high tech as Hydrogen fuel cells their product is just as useful and simple.
Mous are just about to launch a Kickstarter campaign for an iPhone case that allows your Apple headphones to be integrated in to. This means you no longer lose your headphones, forget to take them with you and when you want to use them they're not in a tangled mess.
Personally, I tend not to use Apple headphones but apparently 70 something percent of iPhone users do so it makes sense for these to be the ones to fit. The case is quite bulky but feels very light and will be available in a number of different colours or you can mix and match colours to create something more distinctive and personal.
Their hoping to raise £10,000 in their Kickstarter campaign which is launching in 6 days on 8th November. They're also part of Virgin Start-up.
This product isn't going to change the world but I really do wish these guys the best of luck and I'm confident they'll more than exceed their Kickstarter goal.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tg8gJ_0B_4[/embed]
Find out more at mous.co and Kickstarter
4. PredicSis
Big data is a bit of a buzzword at the moment and there's so many companies out there offering a full spectrum of solutions and PredicSis are one of them. That sounds quite negative but I think this company are offering something a bit different and with the start-up mentality they can probably survive the inevitable downturn more than others could.
PredicSis are using Machine Learning to predict customer behaviour such as buying a product, switching providers etc.
This is a big thing for many businesses who are keen to better understand what their customers are going to do next so they can tailor their marketing around this.
They're based in Paris, France where there's a big start-up scene with lot's of potential customers and investors.
Predictive Analytics is a very promising area and is the future of big data as more and more companies have more data on customers they need a way to analyse it and predicting future behaviour really gives a tangible return which decision makers like to see. Once again, I can see this company doing well.
Find out more at predicsis.com.
5.Kinetise
Everybody wants an app but many can't afford the cost of development and this is where Kinetise comes in. Kinetise is a website that allows you to very easily create good looking and very functional websites in very little time.
They were demoing a number of apps at TechCrunch and one they had built was an almost exact replica of Facebook, this had been created in less than 24 hours.
The drag and drop interface will be very easy to use for most but don't forget that at least some technical knowledge is needed to develop any app and it's the same here. If you're developing a dynamic app you'll data sources for example.
Once you've created and are happy with your app you can download it instantly to your phone or tablet for testing and demoing. To publish the app you simply pay $1000, which is a fraction of the cost of a developer, and the app is sent to the app stores for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry, plus a version's available in Java for other uses. Of course, your app does have to be approved first to be published on certain app stores.
I think this is a really interesting platform and the possibilities are far more than anything similar that I've seen out there.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox2H-o5jX98[/embed]
Find out more at kinetise.com.
So that's my Top 5 from TechCrunch Disrupt Europe held in London this year. There really were so many interesting and amazing start-ups there and choosing a top 5 was really difficult.
What were your favourites? Comment below.
