When you hear the word “startup,” the first vision that comes to mind is often of a scrappy budding business revolving around a single product or idea. Each individual startup is seen as an underdog, fighting a chasm of circumstances that would smash it to pieces should one thing go wrong.
Some of these companies start out with unconvincing ideas but understand how to grow rapidly, while others have the right ideas but the wrong mindset to achieve their goals. It’s definitely a feat to be remembered when a startup reaches the billion-dollar valuation mark, but there are a few startups that have either completely disrupted the industry they’re operating in and a few more well on their way.
These disruptive startups took the standard business model and tore up the blueprints. They dictated their own way of doing things to the benefit of the consumer and subsequently, the complete detriment of their competition. They’re the “go-getters” from which success emanates. Although some of these “disruptions” are rather simple, they address crucial issues and bring concepts to the table that somehow make people want to use their services, as opposed to everyone else’s.
We all know the story of Facebook and how it undid the work of Myspace and Friendster by recreating the social networking model in its own image. Android, in its early years, did the same for mobile operating systems, after the iPhone was considered too elitist for a mass-market smartphone platform. It’s a cycle that up-and-comers often take part in - bringing out-of-the-box thinking into a terrain dominated by established businesses unable to keep up with the rapid technological advances relevant to their field.
The world might be ready for yet another ‘unicorn’ startup: that mythical company that will change the way we do things, earning their billions in the process.
Here are seven up-and-comers that are destined to make their own enormous dents in their respective industries:
1. Webydo
The “software as a service” (SaaS) model of cloud computing has taken the world by storm, offering a vast array of possibilities for service providers. The newly revamped professional design platform Webydo has taken advantage of this model and turned it into something that serves professional designers at an unprecedented level.
The “no code needed” approach is taken literally in its interface. The design-centric platform offers an unparalleled degree of freedom for design professionals to plan, create, and publish their clients’ websites. Its integration of management tools also makes it ideal for web designers and agencies that need to bill clients.
Webydo might very well become the go-to platform for web designers, especially with minds such as the Yo App and Singulariteam founder Moshe Hogeg backing the company and seasoned startup professionals Shmulik Grizim and Tzvika Steinmetz at the helm.
2. Pandai
Operating in China, Pandai offers something that most banks around the world cannot: it facilitates private lending between individuals. In China, people often place an emphasis on savings, which leads them to have some quantity of surplus money they may wish to put to use in a way that turns it into a productive asset. Pandai helps them connect to people who want a quick loan in a way that does not endanger them. China looks down on traditional offline private lending, which has led not just to disappointment, but also to death sentences.
Traditional banking has helped keep the world economy flowing, but it can sometimes refuse to serve people who need loans but don't meet traditional loan standards. The logical conclusion is to fill the micro-loaning gap with services like Pandai.
3. PawnHero
Pawnshops have gained an unfavorable reputation because of their incessant haggling and the need for visitors to make on-the-spot decisions. Pawnshop owners make their living by trying to keep the customer interested and offering low appraisals. PawnHero does away with this uncomfortable dichotomy by moving the entire transaction to the internet. Operating in the Philippines, PawnHero lets customers upload photographs of their items for an appraisal. This gives the customer the time to evaluate other options and determine what is best for them.
In emerging economies like the Philippines, PawnHero serves a growing role that other pawn shops may have difficulty competing with. Its lower interest rates just put icing on the cake.
4. Project I/O
The intense computing power of smartphones has made life very interesting for many people, but perhaps the most important benefits are healthcare-related. Project I/O is a mobile reconstruction technology that maps surfaces and accurately estimates their sizes.
One of their applications can help people capture their shoe sizes to help them in the process of ordering shoes online. While that may not sound like a very healthcare-related issue, their “Anaken” offering may beg to differ. Project I/O’s Anaken lets doctors scan an amputee’s remaining limb to help them determine the size of a prosthetic application. A process that used to require a large amount of training and calculation is now almost as simple as taking a selfie.
5. Pager
Patients often dread sitting in the doctor's waiting room. It’s stuffed with outdated magazines, a television stuck on one channel, and a magical effect that makes time tick by more slowly. What if you could do all of that waiting at the comfort of your own home?
The folks at Pager have thought of this and resorted to a traditional approach to medicine that has not been seen in many decades: the house call. Pager is, in almost every sense, the “Uber” of medicine. Patients can simply open up the application, request a visit, and expect a doctor within two hours. Currently, Pager works only in New York City, but its concept may be an inspiration for similar services to appear in other cities around the world.
The “self-driving car” or “driverless vehicle” recently came to media’s attention because of Google’s success in making a bona fide proof-of-concept of the technology. Tesla might also come up with a model that operates under this framework. Perhaps even more intriguing is Mercedes’ prototype for a self-driving truck.
Autonomous vehicles present a thrilling opportunity for people with debilitating handicaps to once again take control of their destinies by giving them a means to transport themselves without needing to use their bodies. Even for people without handicaps, the added awareness of autonomous vehicles may eventually reduce the amount of accidents that happen on the road, thereby saving lives.
7. KnowRoaming
For decades, roaming rates have been the bane of every frequent traveler’s existence, burning through countless wallets in a fit of rage. Your only options were to either buy a prepaid SIM card from the country you were visiting or forego making any calls home altogether.
KnowRoaming presents an alternative that reduces the impact of roaming costs by connecting you to lower-cost cellular networks automatically. The hardware takes the form of a sticker you apply to your SIM card, which will activate itself as soon as you travel outside of your country.
Projects like those above have flipped their industries by moving faster than any competition or filling a void that everyone missed. Just like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Uber have changed the industry in their beginnings, these startups are also starting to change the way we look at other industries. The world over the next few years will look much different thanks to startups like these!
