Tell us about your business: What do you do? What did inspire you to start? How the idea did came about?
We reward people for simply telling us about the things they love and for engaging with digital updates from relevant, local businesses.
people.io is a marketplace that allows you to license your data and attention to relevant, local businesses, and be rewarded for it. We help cut through the clutter of digital advertising to create a better and more rewarding experience between consumers and brands. Most importantly, our users will always own their data – so if they leave, the data goes with them.
I’ve spent more than a decade working in advertising, envisioning the future of consumer engagement through innovative platforms, technologies and experiences. It’s fair to say, I’m obsessed with improving the consumer experience in a digital world. The current interpretation of people.io came in a rare moment of downtime. An idea that I had been playing with for a few years, but could never quite tie together, one day just clicked. months later, here we are, about to launch.
What is unique about people.io? How do you try to disrupt the industry?
Actually, our aim is to be the world’s first non-disruptive start-up. I mean, since when did anyone like being disrupted? We want to help create a better digital experience that puts a person in control of how, what and when brands can communicate with them. By giving a person control, we can build a greater level of trust and therefore better engagement with the brands they actually want to hear from. In return, a user of people.io is more inclined to convert into a customer of the brand.
What were the biggest obstacles launching the start-up and how did you overcome them?
Time and people. It takes time to build a great team to deliver a great product. Luckily I was able to draw on a network of brilliant people I’ve worked with over the years and we’ve hit every deadline and target so far.
Why did you choose Shoreditch to launch your start-up?
We are proud to launch and be based in Shoreditch. The Shoreditch community is curious, tech-savvy and short on time. They’re digital natives that realise the value of the data they have and they’re keen to find innovative ways to capitalise on this. On the flipside, as high-value early adopters they are notoriously hard for brands to reach, and as a result, brands are often willing to pay a premium to talk with them. people.io bridges that gap and by giving a user control over which brands can engage with them, along with the price they must pay to do so, it creates a fairer value exchange for the consumer.
What does the future has in store for your company?
In 2016, we’re going to expand to similar regions across the UK and EU and then see where the journey takes us!
Social links:
Website: http://go.people.io/readmore
Facebook: https://facebook.com/peopleio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/people_io
