Welcome to the fourth episode of the Elevator Pitch series 5!
Every week we publish a 30-second pitch from our Elevator Pitch winners.
These startups, chosen by a panel of expert judges for their potential to change the world, join an alumni group that includes the likes of YPlan, Hassle, import.io and Glow, and have to-date raised more than $86m.
In this series we took the founders on a ride unlike any other for the most exciting pitch of their lives.
Bump into your friends
With the goal of getting you to take your eyes off your phone and start bumping into your friends again, Sup’s iOS 9 app enables users to automatically see if friends are nearby, or puts them on your digital radar, so you can Sup, Sup Voice or text them if you want to meet up.
Founder Rich Pleeth took more than 70 flights last year and knew his jet-setting friends might be around, if only there was a fast way to locate, message and potentially see them while on the road.
Friends in high places
As of September, the company is backed with a $1.1m seed round from the Innocent Drinks founders through their JamJar fund, along with The Collective Elevator, which invests in products specifically aimed at 21 to 35-year-olds, Force Over Mass Capital, Jim Mellon and Wahanda founder Lopo Champalimaud.
Pleeth has his sights on London and New York, and will use the cash to build a presence here.
He will be hoping his pedigree as a former Googler and ex-CMO marketer at GetTaxi, now Gett, will stand him in good stead to learn from the failings of Google Latitude, as well as put to work some of the taxi app’s location-based lessons.
Another chat app?
Pleeth has stepped into a space that is already home to the likes of Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat, Twitter and Tinder, even age-old emails, to name a few communications tools at your fingertips.
Will a focus on enabling, or avoiding, the serendipitous make the difference for the London-based startup hoping to make ‘Sup’ the greeting and verb we wish we didn’t love to use?
The Elevator Pitch is gratefully sponsored by KPMG, Knight Frank, Natwest, Taylor Wessing, Propel London and Lendinvest