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The Founder Roundup
Ethical Travel, Decarbonizing Diesel Generators & Email Made Easy
Welcome back to another episode of the Founder Roundup! For our American readers, I hope you had a great Memorial Day Weekend. For everyone else– I hope May is wrapping up nicely.
– Luke
“Take responsibility and be honest about the mistakes that you make. I've tried many things in the past with Plunk and failed with them, but just being honest and transparent with yourself and your customers allows you to move on and learn from your mistakes.”
Future Founders is the weekly newsletter for early stage founders and the next generation of entrepreneurs. Being an early stage founder requires constant learning. Level up with insights and tactical advice from startup veterans who have helped launch hundreds of startups.
Painted Circle
Redefining Social Impact Travel
Painted Circle recognizes the issues caused by mass tourism and the significant commissions charged by online travel agencies. With a mission to bring intentionality, inclusivity, and collaboration to the tourism industry, the startup aims to create a positive impact by partnering with eco-conscious and forward-looking businesses. By eliminating high commissions and promoting socially and economically conscious businesses, Painted Circle seeks to empower travelers to make a meaningful difference in the communities they visit.
Personalized Travel Experiences with a Purpose
Painted Circle offers a new philosophy on travel by connecting travelers with businesses on their platform in a personalized way. Traditional research for meaningful excursions can be challenging, making it difficult to find experiences that support the local economy and embrace inclusion. Painted Circle solves this problem by providing businesses with the opportunity to showcase personalized media and information. By doing so, travelers can have a true sense of the activities awaiting them and make choices that align with their values.
Enabling Businesses and Empowering Travelers
Painted Circle's strategy revolves around building partnerships with businesses worldwide and fostering organic growth. The startup encourages businesses to apply and enjoy the benefits of keeping the commissions they would have lost through online travel agencies. By creating specific landing pages on the platform, businesses can personalize their offerings, connect with customers on a deeper level, and highlight their commitment to inclusion and belonging. Through Painted Circle, travelers can access unique discounts and special offers, enticing them to support social impact-driven businesses and have authentic, memorable experiences.
[Through Painted Circle] the traveler ends up having a better experience from booking, to excursion, to end. Tour operators also benefit when they connect with us because we make sure that the traveler goes through their full booking experience in a way that is personalized and provides a positive social impact. Travelers won’t need to go through a middleman who’s not at all invested in the location or the business. We are like an updated version of the old-fashioned guidebook that travelers flip through to find ideal locations that are welcoming for all types of guests
Eco-Friendly Kapture Filters Make Diesel Generators Cleaner
Combatting Carbon Emissions with Kapture
The world still relies on diesel generators for energy, but Kapture is on a mission to decarbonize these environmentally unfriendly power sources. Founded by Raj Bagri, Kapture targets generators' high CO2 emissions, contributing to air pollution, especially in regions where power supply is unstable or non-existent. Raj's motivation derives from personal experiences with severe air pollution in India, where her parents live.
Revolutionary Tech for Cleaner Energy
Kapture has devised an innovative patented filtration system for diesel generators, employing non-toxic chemicals to capture carbon emissions. What sets Kapture apart is the system's end-of-life disposal; the spent filters can be safely discarded directly into the soil. The result: a sustainable, affordable, and scalable solution for carbon capture, preventing harmful gases from entering the atmosphere.
Strategic Growth and Market Validation
Initially, Kapture attempted to decarbonize buildings, but quickly shifted focus towards diesel generators upon understanding customers' needs better. The pivot was welcomed, especially by Tier 1 corporations seeking to reconcile their reliance on generators with eco-friendly commitments. Raj validated Kapture's concept with the market before seeking out Australia's top CO2 engineers to develop the technology.
Onward and Upward: Kapture's Momentum
The sustainable solution has sparked industry interest, with inclusion in the Startmate Accelerator and a nomination for the AmCham Alliance Awards. These strides underscore Kapture's global potential in transforming diesel generator usage.
We have developed a brand new method for carbon capture with breakthrough technology. We capture CO2 emissions with a first of its kind non-toxic and non-hazardous chemical solution. Once the filter is exhausted, we sequester the carbon directly into the soil. Typically with carbon capture, you need to collect the byproduct and either store it underground or a third party collects it and turns it into a new product. With our filters, you can discard it into the soil on site and it's stored permanently. It is an affordable solution, and it is also scalable.
Plunk: Your Email Solution to Streamlined Communication
Redefining Email Tools
Dries Augustyns, a 21 year-old developer at Microsoft, has built a platform that consolidates all facets of email automation: Meet Plunk. The platform is designed to serve small businesses, helping them expand their audience and enhance customer relationships via an accessible and comprehensive suite of email tools.
Developer-friendly Features: A Differentiator
Plunk has incorporated developer-friendly features based on customer feedback. These include libraries and packages designed to ease the process of creating email automations, enabling developers to set up new projects in less than five minutes. Additionally, for non-tech small business owners, Plunk has been built to simplify the integration of automations into websites and landing pages, boosting customer engagement and conversion rates.
Plunk's Unconventional Strategy and Success
Since its inception in June 2022, Plunk has hosted over 575 projects. Dries attributes the platform’s success to cold outreach, invaluable feedback from early adopters, and his “build in public” strategy showcased on platforms like Twitter and Reddit.
An Innovative Business Model
Plunk's business model is a game-changer in the email tools market. Unlike traditional pricing models based on the number of contacts, Plunk charges per email sent. This approach ensures affordability and better budgeting for small businesses, preventing hidden fees or unexpected costs, and paving the way for additional revenue streams.
What makes [Plunk] developer friendly is that a set of libraries and packages are designed for the platform... This allows developers to create new projects on Plunk in less than 5 minutes.
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