March 2021 | Startups to keep an eye on

3rd edition of the 'Startups To Look Out For Series'

Hi all! 2021 is already flying by quickly, but it’s already become an exciting start of the year for startups.

This time I wanted to explore more unknown startups and some cool side projects I stumbled upon.

Once again, don’t forget to share the newsletter if you find it interesting!

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SparkPlug

SparkPlug is a sales gamification engine designed to motivate, engage, and incentivize highly-influential retail sales employees.

Retail can be mundane, especially without specific goals or just a simple KPI target.

What’s worked well, especially with younger employees, are concepts of gamification. I’ve seen it work for inside sales teams in tech, so applying this in retail is a brilliant idea.

You’re able to pinpoint whatever metric you want, and you can then launch a simple contest or either something commission-based. I think right now they’ve been specifically targeting the cannabis industry according to their website.

Pretty nifty idea!

StoryBook

With mental health and wellness being a significant talking point, especially during the pandemic, there are many startups looking to cover this. From a holistic point of view, Headspace and Calm are two startups that you may think of on these topics.

However, if you look deeper, there are many segments to cover within this space.

What StoryBook looks to cover is the kid’s section with a particular focus on sleep.

StoryBook is a startup that focuses on providing story-telling with a specific focus on massage. The goal is to relax and improve your kid's health conditions by helping them get to sleep easier.

What I think is brilliant is the specific focus on combining two elements that are both natural and not medication-focused.

Libirmood

Wow, what a nifty tool!

Someone recommended it on Reddit, and I checked it out, and it’s awesome. This definitely leans more towards a side project than a startup currently, but I still wanted to highlight it.

Basically uses natural language processing algorithms to process the context of what you’re typing as a query. Reading is something everyone should be doing, so this definitely helps!

Podia

Podia is like a more modern version of Clickfunnels. You can use it to help sell courses, digital assets, and more.

Its UI and UX are more intuitive, and I’ve used it to build my own digital asset library.

That being said, it’s still very early days for this New York startup as there are definitely functionalities missing from more robust tools.

However, from a look and feel point of view, it's definitely up there.

Bubble

Bubble is one of the most powerful no-code builder on the block. However, they’ve been around longer than you think.

This New York startup is already almost a decade old, yet it’s only now just becoming one of the leaders of the no-code space. Even though they had a vision so early in the turn of the decade, many VCs did not believe in that vision.

Today, no-code is all the rage.

What's unique about Bubble is its platform. It is so robust with how it works versus other website builders. It takes much longer to learn, but once you know how to use it, you can build applications that are simply not possible via other builders.

Give it a go, and you’ll know what I mean. 😊