STARTPO (Out of Business)

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of Randomend Records, a company in Munich that focuses on music.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STARTPO?

I am not familiar with social media, but our company needed an online presence. I talked with STARTPO about social media and how to sell ideas on the Internet. We want our website and Facebook page to show that this is a serious company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STARTPO provided an online marketing package that included helping us launch our website. I also had coaching sessions on how to use Facebook and Instagram. For example, someone from STARTPO taught me how to add content and select plugins. They did a great job within a short period of time.

How did you come to work with STARTPO?

I was introduced to the head of STARTPO by a common friend at a party. During our first conversation, he seemed open-minded, knowledgeable, and confident. He wanted to know about my concerns and was able to address them sensibly. He was able to offer a lot of interesting ideas about social media and promoting my company. I appreciated the fact that he did not mention money at first. I saw that he wanted to help and saw my problems as a challenge.

How much have you invested with STARTPO?

We spent $10,000 per project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve taken a short break since I have to collect content. As soon as I’m ready with my content, I can approach STARTPO and resume our working relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We don’t have a lot of feedback yet, but in two weeks we already had 130 likes on Facebook. I can see that the website and social media accounts are working.

How did STARTPO perform from a project management standpoint?

Our meetings are flexible and mostly done by phone. The meetings are on time and STARTPO is always prepared for them. They are accessible, and you can even call the head of STARTPO. If I ask for an evening or morning schedule, they try to accommodate my wishes.

What did you find most impressive about STARTPO?

STARTPO is a startup composed of younger people, and I like that. It’s a dynamic company with an optimistic attitude. They have energy, they are encouraging, and they make me feel motivated.

Are there any areas STARTPO could improve?

Sometimes, they are busy and have too much work, which makes communicating with them difficult. However, STARTPO deals with that in a professional way.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with STARTPO?

STARTPO is still growing and improving. I think having more people working with them would solve any problems with communications.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is vLendRight, a startup incubated by ValueLabs. We are in the FinTech space, and we’re trying to do something innovative in terms of creating a product in the automotive financing area. Our development is all in Bangalore, India. ValueLabs is a global IT services company and has offices in the US and Europe.

I work as a platform strategist. I’m responsible for the direction we take in terms of the strategy—the steps that we will take in defining the roadmap for the product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STARTPO?

We are a very small startup with only five key people. We’re looking at targeting companies outside of India—the US, Europe, and the UK. It’s very difficult for us to reach out to potential customers. We’ve had some positive response from potential banks, but we needed help from a PR agency.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope involved taking our content forward and getting validation for our content. The content comes from us. This is a traditional PR initiative but today everything is digital. Potential customers who might be interested in the FinTech proposition will read the content. We are providing the content and STARTPO is taking the concept forward on their portal and on their site, which is accessed by potential customers.

How did you come to work with STARTPO?

We were recommended to them by Open Bank—the innovation folks. We met up with them during one of our incubation participation sessions for a bank called NBD. It’s a large United Arab Emirates-based bank, and we won the contract for that bank, which was organized by the Open Bank team. They connected us with STARTPO.

How much have you invested with STARTPO?

That is confidential.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work or the impact of the engagement?

One promotional piece has gone out, and it has been widely accepted and liked by people on social media as well. I would call that a success.

How did STARTPO perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s a little early yet to say but feedback so far has been positive. Whenever we’ve reached out to STARTPO, the work has been done on the timeline committed. From that perspective, their project management has been fairly satisfactory.

What did you find most impressive about STARTPO?

The biggest comfort is that they understand the world of financial technology. That’s difficult because most people don’t understand the kind of change that we wish to deliver to our customers. They have experience in that space. The other players that they’re connected with are people in the same space as we are. The experience we’ve had so far has been positive.

Are there any areas STARTPO could improve?

As of now, I don’t have anything critical to say. Whatever we’ve asked for has been done. They’ve been fairly proactive as well.