One of our favourite Ted talks is Bill Gross’s The Single Biggest Reason Why Startups Succeed. Gross founded Idealab, an incubator of new inventions, ideas and businesses in 1996. Idealab has helped more than 100 companies - some were huge billion dollar successes, some companies they had high hopes for but they didnt succeed. He decided to rank the 5 factors he thought would matter the most to startup success across 100 Idealab companies and 100 other startup companies that had succeeded or failed. The results showed the no 1 factor was Timing. Read how the others ranked on our blog #ideaslab #timingiseverything #startupsuccess #howtosucceed 
Covid has hit the hotel industry hard. At the same time, most people believe that remote working is here to stay. DayBreakHotels is an Italian startup that helps customers book hotels online. CEO Simon Botto explains : “During lockdown — when people were at home and hotels had to close — we really felt the impact.” Now they are looking to turn empty hotel rooms and lobbies into office space to rent, giving remote workers a place to go as well as helping hotels make some money. The ‘smart working’ service, launched first in Italy and now in the UK, lets people book a hotel room for the day to use as their office. The startup has signed up 400 hotels and are averaging 300 bookings a week. Corporates are showing interest as they look to restructure their workplaces. Because of the high cost of corporate buildings, hiring a hotel room to work in is about 50% cheaper than the cost of a desk in an office. #workfromhome #workfromahotel #hotelstartup 
California based Miso Robotics have created a robotic chef, known as Flippy, who can grill burgers and fry chips. The robot is being installed in a restaurant in Chicago where it will be integrated with the restaurants ordering system, so the robot can get to work preparing a meal as soon as the order is taken. Each robot costs around $15,000 and should pay their way by saving their restaurant money. Reducing food waste and increasing the food preparation speed are two cost saving areas, but other benefits include improved food safety and the ability to redeploy employees to customer experience tasks rather than having to carry out dangerous tasks like frying. #robotstartup #restaurantstartup #restaurantrobot #Startup #Businessstartup #Startupbusiness #Startuplife #startupworld #Startupchecklist #Startuptips #Techstartup #StartupGrind #startupadvice 
Iprosurv support the construction industry by providing aerial inspections of buildings and construction sites using drones. Drone inspection is more cost effective and also safer than manned inspection and provide detailed data immediately without the need for any downtime. Iprosurv was launched by Rebecca and Shane Jones who realised the potential of drone technology in pioneering a new type of visual inspection service for businesses. In January they were awarded a 2 year contract to provide drone services to the Home Office, in particular to blue light organisations and emergency services. As Rebecca Jones says : “Increasingly we have seen deployment for major incidents on the rise through our existing partnerships in instances such as fire and floods and it’s not an uncommon for Iprosurv to assist the emergency services with vital aerial data insights whilst the pilot teams have been on site.” #dronestartup #drones #constructiondrones #inspectiondrones #businessgrowth #businesstips #microbusiness #microbusinessowner #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #businessopportunity #businessopportunities #businessowner #smallbiz 
The Small Robot Company @smallrobotcompany is an Agritech startup that wants to replace big tractors with small robots. The team have created small robots called Tom, Dick and Harry who plant, feed and weed arable crops autonomously, with minimal waste. Tom monitors and maps the crops. This precision robot knows exactly where the seeds have been planted, whether they have germinated and replaces them if they haven't. Dick is the biggest robot and uses electricity rather than chemicals to zap weeds. The robots collect data and use artificial intelligence to analysis to make decisions, such as which bits of land should be set aside and what to plant when and where to maximise yield. Robots are smaller and more agile than tractors so they don’t need to plough before they push the seeds into the ground. This stops the soil from being squashed - which improves the soil health and root growth without chemicals meaning 90% less fertiliser. As no tilling is needed 95% of emissions will be reduced. These small robots are saving chemicals and wildlife, protecting biodiversity. They definitely sound like the future of farming. #agritech #agritechstartup #farmstartup #robotstartup #farmrobot #biodiversity #cropplanting #microbusiness #micro #microbusinessowner #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurlifestyle #entrepreneurlife #leanstartup #leansixsigma #sixsigma #startup #businessstartup #startupbusiness #cowshedstartup #startuplife 
Many startups are trying to work out ways of automating restaurant tasks to help improve margins and improve food preparation hygiene during the Covid pandemic. Picnic have developed a pizza-making robot that can create 300 pizzas an hour to help struggling restaurants survive after losing so many of their sales over the last few months. Demand for the robot has been high as restaurants try to minimise food contact during its preparation. Picnic raised $5 million in a seed round in November and an additional $3 million from existing investors this month to help their commercial rollout of their pizza-making robot. The money will be used for product development, new hires and marketing. #pizzastartup #pizzarobot #restaurantautomation #restaurantgadget #restaurantrobot #pizzarestaurant 
Japanese gadget startup Load and Road have created a smart teapot, Teplo, which can adjust the way it brews tea based on the type of tea leaf and also the tea drinker’s physical condition. To make your tea, first you have to choose the tea type and then you must place your finger on the Teplo control panel. 6 sensors measure your heart rate, body temperature, room temperature, time of day, noise level and humidity and adjust the way it brews your tea to create the perfect cup. For example, in the morning, Teplo uses a higher temperature to brew the tea and creates a cup with more caffeine to wake you up properly! The device is so popular it sold out very quickly after launching at the end of August, but should be available again soon. #teplo #teagadget #teastartup #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurlifestyle #entrepreneurlife 
Cooper and Gracie is a cruelty free, plant based and environmentally aware Pet Product Startup with a mission to rescue 10 million animals. Craig Roberts founded @cooper.gracie.official when he became a first time dog owner and couldn't find any really natural and cruelty free pet products. This is a great example of finding a problem that needs solving and coming up with a great product to do just that that. The company has grown and now offers shampoos, supplements and products for itchy skin. #10millionrescues #cooperandgracie #catproducts #dogproducts #petcare #pethealth #plantbased #petsupplies #petgrooming #crueltyfree #crueltyfreebrand #naturalpetcare #natural #naturalproducts #organic #dogwash #petshampoo #madeinengland #dogsrock #ukdogs #dogsofuk #ukdogsofinsta #dogsofgreatbritain #petfoodstartup 
Wild One is a pet accessories startup which was founded as a one stop shop for stylish and functional dog products. Branding was extremely important from the beginning - they model Wild One on the camaraderie of dog walking community, encouraging dog owners to post original content on social media so that it becomes a community tool as well as a marketing and sales aid. Co-founder, Milani Chatani, found the hardest part of their first year was to stay focussed on their objectives and to avoid being sidetracked by the "shiny" opportunities which kept cropping up. The best part of the first year was the amazing feedback, photos and ideas that the dog owners shared with Wild One on their social media - all the product feedback and new product requests were a fantastic way to feed customer requirements into new product development. Wild One has faced similar challenges to many startups during the Covid-19 pandemic - including adjusting to working remotely. One advantage for them has been the increase in numbers of people adopting pets as this has increased their customer pool. #dogstartup #petstartup #petaccessories #startupsocialmedia #startupchallenges #startupcustomers 
The Zebra, an insurance startup based in Texas, has come up with a great perk for their employees - they encourage them to re-home an animal by covering the adoption fees. The Zebra CEO, Keith Melnick, wants to make sure any of his employees who want to can experience the companionship offered by an animal. He hopes they will also experience benefits in their quality of life and mental health. Office pets are said to boost productivity and improve employee happiness. They also encourage workers to get up from their desks to share some fresh air with their dogs. Pet adoptions have soared all over the world during lockdown but of the 250 Zebra employees, so far only 6 have taken up this offer. As far as we know, none of them have adopted an actual zebra. #startupperks #startupbenefits #startuppets #startupanimals #officepets #officedogs #dogadoption #petadoption