The past ten years really have flown by! We’ll always be indebted to Wayra and O2 for helping us to save retail customers from 4,313 years, 10 months, and 17 days in physical queues using our Virtual Wait Line System.
Where did it all begin?
I still vividly remember attending the O2-sponsored Isobar Create London Hackathon which would change mine and co-founder Fraser Hardy’s lives. I was fresh out of university and hoping to start a business. At the time, I had no idea what a hackathon actually was. When I learned that it’s an event where designers and developers come together to code ideas in a short space of time, I had a serious case of imposter syndrome. I had some very rough photoshop skills–would I be good enough to attend the hackathon?
Someone from the event reassured me that I should attend and directed me to a Facebook group, which is where I connected with Fraser Hardy. I needed a developer; he needed a designer. Unluckily for me, my cover was blown almost immediately at the hackathon as I fumbled about on Photoshop. Somehow, I’d catfished my way to a co-founder.
Eventually, we came up with a working prototype. We had some strong commercial ideas for an app that would allow theme park visitors to virtually queue using their phones, which is why we settled on the name “Team Rollercoaster”. And what a thrilling ride it’s been to get here.
To say it was a surprise that we won the hackathon would be quite the understatement. It had quickly dawned on us that we were the only team during the pitch competition without an existing product–just more of my terrible visuals in a slide deck. In retrospect, we won the hackathon because we presented our solution through the eyes of the consumer, a tradition we’ve very much run with ever since. It never occurred to us to focus on anything other than how our product helped the customer and I believe that made our solution more relatable.
A couple of months later, we were in for an even greater shock. Telefonica accepted us into London’s first Wayra business accelerator. As I once told The Times, “It was Wayra that taught us how to build and run a profitable business.” Over the course of our nine-month stint in Wayra, we got to network with industry experts, develop our business acumen through masterclasses, speak to dedicated mentors about our business strategy and find incredible investors. For two recent university graduates, this type of corporate support was pivotal.
Directly after our nine-month in Wayra, O2 trialed our queuing product as an alternative to their pre-existing clipboard and pen queuing process. In turn, the trial turned into a contract and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Marking 10 years in business
It was truly a full-circle moment when Chairman of Six Nations Rugby, Ronan Dunne, recently did Fraser and I the honor of speaking at Qudini’s 10th birthday party. Ronan played a fundamental role in the early days of Qudini. He was the CEO at O2 during our hackathon and Wayra days–which is to say, he’s behind everything we’ve achieved. Over the years, Ronan and our many supporters at O2 and Wayra, have given Qudini the guidance we needed to become the Retail Choreography software market-leader.
Ronan Dunne, former CEO at O2, sharing some kind words about Qudini’s journey.
Why I recommend applying to business accelerators
Getting accepted onto an accelerator program is the business equivalent of winning a golden ticket. To my mind, accelerators offer many invaluable opportunities for entrepreneurs just starting out. For example, you can network with retail leaders, create a support network with other start-ups and pipeline development.
I am certain that Qudini is only as successful as we are today because of the invaluable insights we gained during our time in the JLAB, WEVE (previously NUMA) and Wayra accelerators.
What We’ve Been Up to Since
Since our time in these accelerators we’ve been building a suite of solutions that help enterprise retailers to better manage (or as we say “choreograph”) all their customer and colleague activities in a single device. Our current Retail Choreography solution suite includes solutions for:
- Appointment scheduling for in-store and virtual services
- Event booking for in-store or virtual events
- Clienteling and knowing the customers walking into your stores or bank branches
- Virtual queuing customers waiting for service
- Improving the click and collect pickup experience
We’re so proud to have helped our clients create some incredible results including a: 40% increase in foot traffic, 33% transaction value increase, 70% reduction in no-shows, 62% reduction in walkouts, 27% reduction in staff services times and significant resource cost savings.
