Breaking News: Whichit has been selected to take part in 365^x Business Accelerator.

Image credits: Sarona Space

Written by: The Whichit Team

We are incredibly proud to announce that Whichit has been selected for the 365^x Business Accelerator, launching in Israel.

The 365x Accelerator is a business enhancer that prepares Software and IoT startup companies for exponential growth. Surrounded by talented executives and entrepreneurs, startups have the possibility to sharpen their business, product and technology, while accessing an international customer and distributors network to affirm solid traction towards scalability.

The selection process was based on three criteria, product, innovation and traction. The chosen startup had to offer a software based or IoT product with disruptive innovation or cutting-edge technology, as well as an initial traction with pilots or customers. We are pleased to say, Whichit matches all of them.

Backed by three global leaders, Microsoft, Prodware Group and Tech Data, the program will take part in the city of Kfar Saba, Israel, for six months. Whichit will be assigned an experienced coach in sales and business development that will help strengthening the company’s strategy and roadmap and structuring the product, technology and organization to work at scale and sustain exponential growth. In addition, this period will have frequent market feedback, global customer reach and tight support to reach actual business agreements with customers and partners. Generate sales, close reseller partnerships and reach the required traction to fit the criteria of “Series A Round” investment.

Since crossing the Product Market Fit threshold at the end of 2017, Whichit has seen an exponential trajectory of growth focusing on the UK and EU markets that has laid foundations for continual growth.  Delivering innovative marketing and advertising solutions to tier-1 brands and advertising agencies, enables them to better engage with their audiences, convert traffic into revenue and gain actionable insights. This program is a great opportunity to extend Whichit commercial operation and company growth.

Together with Whichit’s innovative and proprietary technology, a machine learning profiles users in real time based on their preferences, offering a more personalised approach to marketing and advertising, positioning itself at the forefront of its field and gaining a key business advantage in the market.

In July 2018 the company release a new and improved version of its flagship platform ‘Whichit for Advertisers’, a SaaS platform that caters to the SME and SMB markets. It enables advertisers to seamlessly create interactive commercial content, create and manage commercial campaigns on multiple channels including Google’s Display Network, where Whichit is part of an elite that are 3PAS certified by Google, social networks and programmatically.

In the past few years, Whichit has won several awards. In 2015, the company won The Sirius Programme by the UKTI, Pitch@Palace 4.0 People's Choice Award, and Facebook Startup of the Year EMEA 2015. In 2016, Innovate UK Smart funds TSB Project. The year after, Whichit was included in The Leap 100 2017 List and won two awards by Finances Online, Rising Star and Great User Experience.

Our Story; From Startup Nation to Great Britain

Jonathan Gan
Founder & CEO

It’s been four years since we landed in London. Three young professional Israeli entrepreneurs, with a big idea and nothing else. Four years we worked every day, fighting to survive in the startup juggle, searching in the dark to find the golden cup in the local market. Sometimes we see it, even holding it for a while, enjoying those small victories in the endless and cruel start-up journey, and then going back to work, putting our full energy in our venture, with the belief that one day we’ll enjoy the fruits of our labour. In a nutshell, this is our story.

Don’t Worry, Everything Will Be Fine

As an Israeli I can say that this is one of the most used slogans. It would be an understatement to say that it is not one of the smartest. You’ll quickly find yourself in a situation in a wise man would never dare enter. But on the other hand, from my point of view, it is one of the chromosomes that an entrepreneur must have — to dare.

At Tel-Aviv airport with just a trolley, waiting for the flight to London, April 2014

We started with a bunch of guys, a lot of help and support from friends, working to develop a crazy idea I had. With a basic version that looks like… well… basic and just few months into the project we won the Sirius Programme of the UKTI. A UK government program that choose around 60 startups worldwide, offering them to relocate to the UK and develop their startup in the local market, with a small grant, a 3 months accelerator program and an office for a year. You, just need to leave your home, your family, your friends, your network and build your start-up in a new market. The rest is up to you.

Five minutes, that was the time it took to make the decision. We are moving! In just a couple of months we sold the car, the motorcycle, ended our apartment leases. We packed the whole house into boxes and stored it all in a long-term warehouse. Bought tickets on a low-cost flight and went to the airport with just a trolley and five boxes to be sent in a week’s time. Don’t Worry, everything will be fine.

The British Paradox

A business card. The basic information that represents you and your business. A small piece of paper that every business person has. It took four and a half months to get one in the UK.

In order to have a business card, you need to have a normal local phone number so people can contact you. In order to have a normal UK phone number you need to have a contract with one of the telecom suppliers. In order to have a contract with one of them, you need to have a local UK bank account. In order to have a UK bank account you MUST HAVE a local home address, with the original council tax set to your name. But in order to rent a flat in the UK you MUST HAVE a bank account. But in order to have a bank account, you must have an address… I call it the “British Paradox”.

That was one simple example, out of many, that represents the basic most simple and obvious things in life for a local resident, are a struggle for the foreign person, like us. Add that to the life of the entrepreneur and you just start to imagine the number of hurdles we needed, and sometimes still need, to overcome on a regular basis. Sometimes people, mainly in potential investor meetings, asking me why it took us a few years to get to where we are, like building a start-up and in a foreign country should be in the blink of an eye … I always hold myself from explaining all the reasons, because if you never ran a marathon with no end point in the middle of the desert and with no water, you’ll never understand the feeling of an entrepreneur.

The Team is Everything

That’s what every investor will tell you, that’s what every entrepreneur will testify. And I can say the same. Most of the start-ups that failed, the core team was the main reason. Whether it was an internal dispute, the team wasn’t strong enough or not fit to the role. The core team is the heart of the start-up’s success.

Galit (Creative Director); Yarden (CTO); Jonathan (CEO)

Throughout the years, many employees passed through our company. We always kept our team small, professional and highly motivated, in order to keep the company, lean, effective and efficient. But the core team was always there. Each of us have our own specialty, and our own individual personality. Together, we complemented each other and bolstered our strength.

Along the way, I noticed that we literally taught ourselves almost everything we know today in the start-up world and in our industry. Yes, each of us have rich experience and knowledge in our domains from past roles, and all of us are holding advanced degrees from top universities. Yet, just with a crazy idea on a power-point, we found ourselves dealing with new technologies, new markets, new materials, new tools, a new country, a new network, new everything. We challenge ourselves to learn on the go; planning, building, trying, testing, failing and then again… and again… and again…

A start-up is not about the idea, its all about the execution and execution is made by the team.

Small Victories Its All You Need

Building a B2B technology start-up from scratch it’s like the David and Goliath story, but this time there are a lot of them and you’re more like a baby-David. Trying to go through the massive corporate doors, proving your product in a competitive market where big tech companies dominate the market and thousands more are jumping from all over, trying to bite the cake, and then the long and clumsy sales cycle. While all this time you’re looking to survive your basic existence with investment and trying to manage hundreds of administration and operational tasks to keep the machine going on. You and just a several team members.

But it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the small victories along the way. Those are actually the most important, as they are the light-bits for the entrepreneur. The orange peel trail in a long and bumpy road. Those small victories reflect that you’re on the right path. Indicate that you’re still alive.

Whichit. Startup Introduction 2017

A year after we landed in London, we won the ‘Start-up of the Year EMEA’ by Facebook, later on the year we won the People’s Choice Award at Pitch@Palace by the Duke of York and we won the Innovate UK R&D Funding Award with a £250k grand to develop one of our algorithms.

As we were determined and consistent with the concept of the idea, playing with the product definition, testing different angles and messages to the target market, we have been able to hit the golden point of the start-up — the Product-Market-Fit. From that point the target market started to convert and became clients, the conversations became deals and revenue and the search mode turned to growth.

It was like in the Matrix movie, when Neo saw the Matrix. We then knew and saw the perfect formula. What we need to do, how and where. It’s not the end goal and no champagne will be open just yet. We still have a long ride in front of us and the odds are still against us, like any other tech start-up. But we have been able to overcome another step on the way to the cockpit, enjoying the small victories along the way.

To be continued…

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Whichit is an interactive commercial content platform that enables marketers and advertisers to increase user engagement, open new revenue streams & gain user-related insight. The company has an innovative technology that profiles users based on their preferences and uses machine learning to provide bespoke commercial incentives in real time.

The company is working with top agencies and brands and based in central London.

Breaking News: Whichit is shortlisted for SLINGSHOT@SWITCH Startup Challenge 2018

Written by: The Whichit Team

We are very proud to announce that Whichit has been shortlisted for the ‘Media & Advertising’ category at SLINGSHOT@SWITCH Startup Challenge 2018, in Singapore.

This competition gives promising startups a platform to showcase their technology and business ideas, gain early exposure to investors, corporates, industry leaders, mentors, media, and tech-savvy early adopters. It takes place during Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology (SWITCH) and is powered by Startup SG, an initiative by government agency Enterprise Singapore, who are also the national standards and accreditation body.

The application process started in July 2018, where all 1,300 applicants went through a rigorous selection process that reduces the participants to 60. This resulted in Whichit being selected to proceed to the next stage.

The event starts on 14th September 2018 with a 3-day workshop before the next round of the competition starts on the 17th for 2 days.  This climaxes with the grand final that takes place on 19th September 2018. Prizes include investment grants of up to SGD 200,000, free office space, and fast track entry on to growth and access programs.

Since crossing the Product Market Fit threshold at the end of 2017, Whichit has seen an exponential trajectory of growth focusing on the UK and EU markets that has laid foundations for continual growth.  Delivering innovative marketing and advertising solutions to tier-1 brands and advertising agencies, enables them to better engage with their audiences, convert traffic into revenue and gain actionable insights. This competition is a great opportunity to extend Whichit commercial operation into the APAC region, which is a high growth market for the digital eco-system.

In the past few years, Whichit has won several awards. In 2015, the company won The Sirius Programme by the UKTI, Pitch@Palace 4.0 People's Choice Award, and Facebook Startup of the Year EMEA 2015. In 2016, Innovate UK Smart funds TSB Project. The year after, Whichit was included in The Leap 100 2017 List and won two awards by Finances Online, Rising Star and Great User Experience.

In July 2018 the company released a new and improved version of its flagship platform ‘Whichit for Advertisers’, a SaaS platform that caters to the SME and SMB markets. It enables them to seamlessly create interactive commercial content, create and manage commercial campaigns on multiple channels including Google’s Display Network, where Whichit is part of an elite that are 3PAS certified by Google, social networks and programmatically.

Together with Whichit’s innovative and proprietary technology, a machine learning profiles users in real time based on their preferences, offering a more personalised approach to marketing and advertising, positioning itself at the forefront of its field and gaining a key business advantage in the market.

Contact Whichit for more information:
Name: Jonathan Gan
Tel: (UK) +44 7939 84 7711 , (IL) +972 3911 9909 [#1]
Email: gan@whichit.co
Website: https://whichit.co/

Whichit for Advertiser’s next generation: designing to delight

Galit Gan
Co-founder & Creative Director

Here at Whichit, we believe that our user’s success, is our success. Since the launch of ‘Whichit for Advertisers’ platform in mid 2017, we've been working hard to make sure our customers continue to enjoy using the system. We wanted our user’s feedback to be at the heart of every new version we release, therefore the user-centric design approach means we understand our customer’s need and prioritise it.

User-centred design creates the opportunity for a business to design together with individuals who use the product or service they are offering enabling them to truly understand who their users are and what they need. By that, this design provides a common language for all types of users, no matter their profiles and characteristics.

Understanding our users

 
In our case, the product is a platform that gives marketers the ability to create interactive ad units that leave lasting impressions and generate high traffic volumes, in order to engage better with their audiences. To do so we needed to establish a common language for the diverse individuals that use our platform. These days, creating an ad unit requires expertise (design teams, web developers etc). Whichit for Advertisers’ concept is to make advertising easier and intuitive for everyone, not only for experts, and the platform’s user experience should support and reflect that.

“In the commercial world, it is common to make the mistake of prioritising business goals over those of the user. Our earlier product versions included as many proudly-developed features as we could, just so the users could ‘see everything we have to offer’. Taking out the guess-work and personal opinion was important for the new version. We’ve learned to analyze every touchpoint that our customers have with the product and matched their user-personas with their exact needs and goals. User-centred design should be implemented throughout the customer experience to make your product more efficient and satisfying, which eventually leads to increased sales and customer loyalty”

— Galit Gan, Creative Director & Co-Founder

Whichit for Advertisers’ concept is to make advertising easier and intuitive for everyone, not only for experts, and the platform’s user experience should support and reflect that.

User-Centred Design by Whichit

Today, we are very proud to announce the launch of our new and improved ‘Whichit for Advertisers’ platform, which is based on understanding our users’ needs, tasks and journey. We have also included new features for them to create beautiful interactive commercial ads their audience can't resist.

Here are some examples of how we’ve implemented the user-centred design in our new version:

1. A Creation Guide:

We believe that anybody can create interactive ads and run campaigns without depending on a designer, so we've included a step by step guide, with a checklist of tasks, that need to be completed before moving to the next stage.

With 'Whichit for Advertisers' our users can create interactive commercial content in minutes.

2.  New Features:

Polls and Surveys can be created in minutes with Whichit. We've made that process even easier by eliminated a number of steps in the creative process, by implementing new layout and tool bar when designing a post.

For example, users are now able to drag and drop an image from the library to the creative unit and apply a ‘drop shadow’ on the text overlaid on the image for each answer.

3. A commercial offer to support each user persona:

We identified four personas which all have different needs and goals when engaging with their audience.  Those who:

1. Want to attract audiences to a website/landing page

2. Want to reward audiences with a coupon/offer

3. Want to collect emails and other 1st party data to keep in touch with audiences

4. Want to create memorable experiences for audiences and for them to share their post to social but are not interested in offering something in return.

By implementing a unified language all users can relate to, rather than overly technical marketing and advertising terms, they can easily select the best option to achieve their campaign goals.

'Whichit for Advertisers' offers our users four Engage Cards with different Call to Actions based on their goals.

4. Touchpoints with target audiences:

Whichit’s ad unit can be distributed across multiple online channels. Instead of listing all the options, we ask our users what their marketing campaign’s objectives are: Do they want to engage with audiences on social media channels? or would the like to attract audiences from a new target market? This ensures they only see the relevant types of campaign that match their objectives.

Our users can choose different campaign objectives that best suit their marketing goals.

5.  A new and simplified user-flow:

Learning to use a new system is always challenging and time consuming. In the new version of ‘Whichit for Advertisers’ we’ve simplified the on-boarding process by only presenting features that are relevant to the user’s progress, keeping them informed about their progress at every stage. For example, a user will only be able to navigate through to advanced functions after completing the basics, as getting their too early may cause confusion.

Elliott Saray, Senior Developer at Whichit says that alongside a series of technical improvements, the new version of the SaaS platform also boasts a myriad of user experience enhancements.’. He adds that having completely redesigned the ad creation process based on user feedback and analysis, our users will now find an easy-to-use, unified design language carefully crafted by the Whichit Team.

“The simply and intuitively designed system takes matters of user experience into utmost consideration, allowing our users to create and distribute interactive commercial content at an even quicker pace than before by following a simpler journey.”

— Elliott Saray, Senior Developer

Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoy the new and improved ‘Whichit for Advertisers’!

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About the company:

This web-based tool makes it easy for brands and publishers to create image-based polls and surveys that help them gain user-related insights, their preferences, desires, what makes them tick, and more. With the interactive content platform - 'Whichit for Advertisers', marketers and advertisers can easily create Interactive Commercial Content in minutes and launch it across multi-channels: on the brand's web pages and blogs; social channels like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat; native mobile and in-app; ad-networks; and publishers web pages. Once they attract their audience, Whichit’s users can reel them in with unique “Engage Cards” that deliver crisp and significant call-to-action messages based on their audiences’ answers and their goals.

Whichit named EMEA app of the year by Facebook’s FbStart

This week has brought us the captivating F8 conference which is held by Facebook. Intended for developers and entrepreneurs, Facebook’s event – which takes place in San Francisco – is designed to help those who build products and services centred around Facebook’s website and groups.

Facebook recently launched FbStart, a program designed to help early stage mobile start-ups build and grow their apps. FbStart provides start-ups with an exclusive community, worldwide events, and mentorship from Facebook, and up to $60,000 in free tools and services. This year Facebook began selecting the most successful start-ups from its program, in order to host the annual App of the Year Award.

This year Facebook selected five Apps to be awarded the FbStart’s App of the Year, broken down in regions around the world. Whichit was honoured to be awarded FbStart’s App of the year for the regions of Europe, Middle east and Africa. The awards were selected from over 400 entries, narrowed down to the top five apps within the FbStart program in which entries were judged on four key properties: growth and engagement; expertise and design; efficiency at scale; and leveraging the Facebook platform. The panel of judges consisting of six experts; three senior level executives from Facebook and three industry experts such as a Partner from leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz made their final decisions just over week ago ready to be bestowed on the final day of the F8 Annual Developer Conference. They recognised the best and most innovative mobile apps to emerge from the FbStart program which has helped showcase Whichit’s potential as an emerging platform.

Innovate UK 2014 | Why I Chose The UK To Internationalise My Business

This week lays host to the UK’s leading innovation event, Innovate UK 2014. Bringing together an audience of more than 2000 people over two days and putting them in front of 200 world’s leading speakers to discuss ways to help grow your business, covering vital funding, support and presenting a vast amount of high powered connections. With attendees from research base, to government, business, as well as UK and international investors from 30 overseas markets, this really is the best event dedicated to networking with leading innovators.

Whichit’s CEO Jonathan Gan joined a panel of successful entrepreneurs to discuss why the UK is the best location to internationalize your business. The UK is currently located at the top of the list as the world’s leading location to both set up and grow a business. It provides the much required direct access to the European market, built up of the international environs of over 830 million people. 

In the 40 minutes, a creative discussion took place between these industry leaders, bringing forth thoughts on the advantages of the UK market over others, the types of support you can receive here as well as the money oriented challenges you may face and the reasons why London is the economical hotspot of the United Kingdom, leading more businesses here over any other mainland locations.  

Jonathan Gan discussed how the UK is the world leader in eCommence, which is the sector that Whichit belongs to, as it is located at the center of the interaction between finance and business, making it the hotspot for brand and financial growth. Furthermore, with the cultural variety the UK holds, it allows for fast growth, as you can target a strongly diverse group of people in a small geographical space. For those you cannot directly reach, it is located within such a time zone that it allows for international contact within the business working hours.

All this came together to pin point what the UK holds in terms of leverage to help further expand your business. Programs created by the UK government, such as the Sirius Programme, combined with the startup support activities of Innovation Warehouse and the Accelerator Academy, provide startups the ultimate environment to take your idea to the next level.

Whichit Founders at Innovate UK 2014

The sector was Chaired by Philip Salter, Director of The Entrepreneurs Network, the panel was made up of Dmitry Aksenov, Chief Executive Officer, FinGenius, Tim Brown, Founder, Three over Seven, Greg Fitzgerald, Carbon Analytics, Henrique Olifiers, Co-founder, Bossa Studio and our very own Jonathan Gan, CEO of Whichit.

Click here to see a video of the full discussion