I’ve worked at a number of companies developing mobile products since the technology began, including Psion (now Motorola), Three, and INQ (now closed). I also worked alongside Facebook in Palo Alto, California, in 2007, leading the first integration of the social network into a phone before it had its own dedicated team. The experience opened my eyes to a new way of working: rapidly building and testing, always measuring results, and learning fast from failure.
The idea for Quikkly came to my business partner, Fergal Walker, when he read the in-flight magazine on a plane. It was full of calls to action that were impossible to act on. There were Facebook and Twitter logos on pages that didn’t link to anything, and QR codes – scannable barcodes that contain information about the item to which they’re connected – that he knew would do something, but he didn’t know what.
A seed was planted. There must be a way to retain the simplicity of a QR code whilst enabling humans to take instant action in any app, only using wireless if needed.
Quikkly is a platform for creating custom scannable shortcut codes that allow people to instantly connect with each other, and things, without any searching or typing. Scanning a Quikkly code removes the hassle of searching and reduces the number of steps to get a result. Our technology has been designed and built in-house and we’ve raised £1.5m in seed funding from venture capital and angel investors.
We fleshed out a basis for the business, built and tested a prototype and filed our patents. We carried out market research and realised that it could be a significant, scalable business opportunity.
We quit our corporate jobs and went all in with our start-up. We had both been managing big international teams in innovative companies and instantly realised that to get a start-up from zero to one, you have to become good at lots of different things overnight. There isn’t anyone to delegate to so you need to regularly learn new skills – and fast.
One of our biggest challenges was overcoming the stigma associated with QR codes. They have a bad reputation with consumers who don’t understand or like them – and brands, many of which faced problems managing and tracking them.
During our first year, we spoke to potential customers and investors, and did our best to refine our offering based on lots of different viewpoints. In the end, we relied on educated guesswork and tried various things to see where we could get traction.
We aim to improve customer engagement using scannable shortcuts – for example, allowing users of payment apps to scan a code on a phone screen instead of having to exchange bank details. For retail companies and brands, the code will allow users to scan and buy their products 24/7 from packaging, window displays or adverts.
Starting a new business is full of challenges and puts pressure on all aspects of life. An entrepreneur friend had already warned me that he had been forced to choose between his business and his marriage. I had that in mind when my wife suggested going back to work after taking a couple of years out to be with our children. While she had always intended to return to work, I knew that the timing was driven by the fact that I was earning a fraction of what I had been previously.
People often tell me that what I’m doing is amazing. But it strikes me that they also think that it’s mad to be doing this in my 40s. Many think that starting up isn’t a real job; it’s more a way of life. You learn so much, so quickly. Now, when I work with other businesses, I can give advice on how they could and should be doing better.
Recently SnapChat launched its own custom scannables, Snap.Codes, which allows users to instantly connect with other people and brands. This proves our theory that if a smart scannable code is implemented well and designed to be obvious and instant, consumers will embrace them.