Interesting propositions I discovered in 2017

I’ve been keeping a list of the interesting propositions I discovered or referenced a lot in 2017 (although they weren’t necessarily launched this year). I thought I’d share as an end of year gift.

It’s in no way exhaustive or complete (or in any kind of sensible order); it’s just those that I’ve subjectively found most interesting, or have found most useful as inspiration or analogy in my work at KBS Albion.

There’s no AR, and barely a sprinkling of AI and blockchain (and no tokens). But there’s lots of re-engineering categories around customers and products disappearing inside services.

Money

• Yolt — the best of the app money managers, according to our product team — and it’s from ING!
• Moneybox — put what’s left at the end of the month into an ISA
• Betterment — modern retirement saving
• Salary Finance — payroll loans
• Clear — the UK’s first new clearing bank in more than 250 years

Blockchain

• Provenance — blockchain powered provenance throughout the supply chain
• CanYa — TaskRabbit but on a blockchain

Insurance

• WeSavvy — exercise to reduce your insurance premiums
• Jetty — makes renting in city easier (inc. insurance)
• Freebird — rebook disrupted flights (invisibly powered by travel insurance)
• Sure — episodic, everyday insurance
• Flock — PAYG insurance for drones
• Homelyfe — anti-gazumping insurance
• Tomorrow — the inheritance app (inc. life insurance)

Adjacent to insurance

• Farewill — modern will experience
• Hometree — modern boiler install experience
• Betterview — drone based property inspections

Alternative investment

• Stockpile — buy fractions of shares
• Glint — democratising investing in gold
• Neighborly — invest in civic infrastructure
• Invest Containers — invest in shipping containers
• Direct Airport Parking Investment — invest in airport parking

Health

• Echo — manage NHS repeat prescriptions
• Iora — holistic primary care powered by health coaches
• Prelude Fertility — helps people have healthy babies when they’re ready
• Ambrosia — transfusions of young blood to delay aging
• Zipongo — keep employees healthier through recipes, groceries and workplace canteens

Food / food retail

• Plenty — makes farming 130 times more productive
• Impossible — a plant-based burger that tastes and feels as good as meat
• New Crop Capital — a fund for plant-based food disrupters
• Cook Daily — delicious, trendy food (that happens to be vegan)
• Deliveroo Editions — Deliveroo providing ‘dark’ kitchens
• Ando — David Chang’s food delivery service
• Ritual — preorder to skip the takeaway queue at restaurants

Property

• Compass — modern home buying experience (inc. editorial)
• Homie — modern home buying and selling experience
• Nested — guarantees a fair sale price for your home
• Shed — pop-up flats in warehouses
• Loftium — pays the deposit on flat if you agree to continuously AirBnB a room

Retail

• StockX — a stock market of collectible sneakers
• Grailed — fashion marketplace, find high end designer items
• Brandless — unbranded ethical products all for $3
• Enjoy — experts come to deliver and set-up your tech

Cars / mobility

• Shift — enjoy.com for cars
• Virtuo — modern car rental experience
• TestDrives2U — brings any car to you for a test drive
• Cabin — luxury bus from LA to San Francisco

Fashion

• Asket — premium basics, developed iteratively
• Linjer — luxury goods supply chain, without the luxury good premium
• Thread — hybrid human + algorythm fashion advice and retail

Logistics

• Flexport — global shipping as a service
• Weengs — collects goods from you for shipping

Recruitment

• Apres — find jobs after a career break
• Smashify — next gen recruitment platform

Energy

• ohmconnect — get paid for saving energy
• Squeaky — SMEs can buy clean energy direct from generators just like Google does (I’m an advisor)

Tools

• Blockspring — plug together APIs inside a spreadsheet
• Stripe Atlas — set-up a startup in 5 days

Voice

• Lyrebird — create a digital voice that sounds like you with only one minute of audio
• Amazon Polly — text to speech a sa service

Third age

White Hot Hair — hair products for grey and white hair

Any zingers I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments. And please give me some applause if you find this interesting or useful.