Founders always ask why we invested in a startup, so I always want to try and give some clarity. Sometimes you can go searching for a particular company to invest in and other times they find you.
Jargon dominates our daily lives when every startup you meet with is using some form of AI, NLP, Machine Learning, Deep Neural Networks, Deep Learning, CNNs, LSTMs etc. Admittedly as a non-technical, I can’t personally verify most of what I’m being pitched, especially at the pre-seed/seed stage. This is when industry experts, fellow investors and pilots can be very useful.
One specific area that I’ve been particularly interested in is Machine Vision, which would be the eyes of any proverbial robot, if all the jargon above could metaphorically be different parts of the brains. And I’m fortunate enough to be friends with one of the leading VCs Evan Nisselson of LDV Capital who focuses on investing in deep technical people, building machine vision businesses.
A warm intro from a trusted friend, advisor and expert.
I’ve met with a few dozen machine vision startups trying to tackle various problems, some bigger than others. After vetting a few, I would send them over to Evan for his thoughts/feedback that always proved to be very insightful.
A few months back Evan sent over the deck for Uizard and conceptually alone I was interested (which I’ll expand on later) but I knew at least from a team and expertise background they had to be quite special. So we set up a meeting (vid chat as they’re based in Copenhagen, Denmark).
Great technical and well rounded team
We always try to make sure that the early founding team covers most of the needed business roles so they can get as much done as possible in house. The four co-founders are comprised of three technical and one business, which at this really early pre-seed, still in Alpha, about to launch their beta stage is very helpful.
The three technical co-founders, who have Computer Science Master’s degrees have specializations that makes each of them complementary rather then redundant. One focuses on full-stack engineering and customer-facing tech, one focuses on cloud, infrastructure, and devops, and the other focuses on machine learning and computer vision.
BIG idea and aligned vision
Having experienced this problem first hand, building apps/websites myself and investing in many too, this is something I wanted solved. I had seen and met with a few startups trying to create better applications, drag and drops / DIY but none as simple as uploading a picture and magically here is the code and working prototype. Check out some of their research here https://uizard.io/research
The company is still at a very early stage (pre-seed) but a technology like this has to exist in the future:
- Wireframes and storyboards are standard for most development processes. The ability to quickly try out a prototype and iterate I believe will lead to better UX/UI.
- So much time is spent coding different iterations of very similar designs to see which look and feel the best. By significantly cutting down that redundant work, it will free up everyone to spend more time on other aspects of the project.
Less Coding 💻 = More Iteration Cycles 🚀 = Fostered Innovation 💡
This was our first international investment as we continue to expand our network. The company is based in Copenhagen, so I first met Tony (CEO) in person a few weeks ago after he gave an amazing presentation at Evan’s LDV Vision Summit. We chatted for a bit and I only got more excited about Uizard’s potential. In return as a good New Yorker, I gave him a few recommendations for the best pizza and bagels in the area. Who says investors don’t add value?
Just like how 3D printing changed the hardware development process, is how Uizard’s technology will change the app development process. I can’t wait for the release of the public beta at the end of the year for everyone to try.
*You can read their Techcrunch launch coverage here https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/21/uizard-raises-funds-for-its-ai-that-turns-design-mockups-into-source-code/
**They’re hiring too! https://uizard.io/career
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