As one of the early employees of Huddle Simon Hill
learnt a thing or two about growing a successful business. Now he
has launched his own venture, Wazoku, aiming to help businesses
bring out the best ideas from staff, partners and
clients.
0-5 seconds: Sum your business up in a
sentence
Wazoku is an
idea management company; we provide tools for businesses to engage
their employees, customers and partners in the innovation and idea
development and evaluation process.
5-10 seconds: What's the business
model?
It is super simple. We charge £1 per user per month on a monthly
contract, starting with a free trial to evaluate the product and
realise the value any business can generate by making ideas in
their business collaborative.
10-15 seconds: Who are your
competitors?
There are a few businesses competing directly with us, including
Spigit, Kindling and Nosco, but to be honest in the mid-market and
at our price point we are fairly unique. We offer awesome
functionality at a really accessible price point.
15-20 seconds: What's your USP?
Innovation and ideas are the lifeblood of any business. We are
the UK's leading provider of SME idea management software. Our core
technology is about helping to generate ideas through challenges
and helping those ideas find the right audience through
recommendation algorithms, so that they get signed off and
actioned, all integrated with other leading tools, including Google
apps, Yammer and more to come.
20-25 seconds: How have you funded it so
far?
I sold my flat and put in what I could afford; after that we
took some money from friends and family as well as very early angel
investment to develop the proof of concept and get us out to
market. We are currently looking for a first proper investment
round right now.
25-30 seconds: What were you doing
before?
I was one of the early employees at Huddle where I ran the
business development team, signing strategic partners like HP,
Intercall and LinkedIn.
30-35 seconds: Where did the idea come
from?
The idea for Wazoku was the result of two ideas coming
together. One was an existing technology that was being used by my
co-founder's other business, Find Invest Grow. They had a simple
tool for capturing entrepreneurial business ideas that I felt could
benefit from a rework. I combined this thought with the observation
that the front end of idea generation (the most important part of
the process) was still very closed, non-collaborative and lacking a
decent delivery tool - and so Wazoku was born.
35-40 seconds: What's the smartest thing
you've
done so far?
That is easy. I went out and hired a team of people who are far
smarter than me to help build my vision and drive this
business.
40-45 seconds: What's the stupidest?
We invested a lot in the early days in some large early
adopters. It took a lot of our time, but it is not our core
market and it almost took us completely the wrong way
strategically.
45-50 seconds: If your business was a biscuit,
what would it be?
I think it would be an ice cream cookie sandwich. They are a
great idea - the kind of innovation we are fostering through our
tool - they are clearly the result of some great collaborative
working, and are fun for everyone.
50-55 seconds: Which idea are you a bit jealous
of?
I am a big fan of TaskRabbit as a business idea and the way it
is being built as a business. Collaborative consumption is going to
keep growing.
55-60 seconds: Where are you going to be in
12 months' time?
We are growing quickly, so in 12 months we expect to be
profitable and working with many of the world's most innovative
businesses of all sizes to capture and develop great ideas within
these companies.
For more information about Wazoku click here,
www.wazoku.com.
Follow Wazoku on Twitter, @WazokuHq.