Have you noticed a huge gap between consumer and business apps on your phone? Consumer apps are beautifully designed and easy to use, while business apps are just plain hard to use.
A European startup is developing a series of B2B apps designed to be mobile-first, as mobile phones have become the primary computer for most people. And they call their company Mobile First Company.
When you download an app from this company, you can create an account from your phone (which isn't always the case with B2B apps) and expect to be able to do everything from the device in your pocket. Too many companies offering B2B tools treat mobile apps as companion apps or second-class citizens.
But the European startup doesn't want to replicate Salesforce, Asana, or Workday on mobile. Instead, the company will focus on small and medium-sized businesses and he plans to address their needs with one app at a time. Small businesses don't need complex enterprise software solutions. You need one app to perform a series of tasks very well.
The Mobile Fast Company also has lots of ideas, including building an app for creating quotes, tracking expenses, and even just managing inventory for your workshop or small warehouse.
“The idea actually is to build a series of applications. It's not an all-in-one app, so that's the main difference between us and other players. People are afraid of technology, so we're building a series of applications. ,” co-founder and CEO Jeremy Goillot told me.
The first app to track inventory
Ignacio Siel Brunet, co-founder and CTO of this new project, previously worked as VP of Engineering at Pomelo, a Latin American fintech infrastructure company with 200 engineers.
While Siel Brunet is experienced with the needs of large enterprises, we've also seen that B2B apps don't work well for small businesses. “I know how to help big companies solve big problems. But on the other hand, I had this problem with my family. They run a furniture company, but , we have problems with things like invoicing and inventory management,” he told me.
Many small businesses rely on consumer apps to meet their needs. “They use Instagram as a showcase, WhatsApp as their CRM, and their personal bank to manage their finances,” Goirot said. “Our DNA is to keep this B2C-style application easy to use and mass-market appealing, while at the same time solving problems.”
Mobile First Company's first app is Amoa, a mobile app that tracks inventory. For example, many repair shops utilize spreadsheets to track the number of spare parts they currently have in stock. But workers don't typically spend their workdays in front of a computer.
With Amoa, you can open the app, add parts by scanning barcodes, add other information like pricing details, and start using the app as a source of truth. If you pick something up from the shelf, you can remove it from Amoa and move on.
Even if you don't sell products, managing inventory can be useful. For example, if you're a wedding photographer, you might want to inventory all your camera lenses and equipment so you don't forget anything. Similarly, nurses want to make sure they have everything they need before driving to their first patient.
Act like a mobile gaming company
Amoa may or may not work. The idea is to develop, ship, iterate, and retire ideas that don't work so The Mobile-First Company can focus on the most promising ideas. In our discussions with the founders, it felt like we were talking to a casual mobile gaming company rather than a B2B software company. The company plans to eventually monetize its most promising apps with premium features that can be unlocked with a paid subscription.
That's because the startup's CEO, Jeremy Goillot, already knows a thing or two about product-market fit, having previously worked as head of growth at spend management startup Spendesk. He was his fourth employee at the French fintech company that quickly became a unicorn.
When he left Spendesk, he spent his time traveling and observing technology products and how they were used outside of Europe and America. He “traveled a lot to Africa, from Nigeria to Ghana to Kenya, because he wanted to see other types of products.” He also traveled a lot in Latin America,” Goillot said.
“And we were also impressed by other types of companies. We're big fans of Indian companies, Zoho is one of them. We're also big fans of Traina, which is a Colombian company.”
Since its founding in December, The Mobile-First Company has raised €3.5 million ($3.8 million at current exchange rates) in a pre-seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Emblem. The company is announcing this round today. A number of angel investors also participated in the round, including Xavier Niel (Kima Ventures), Thibaut Elzières (Hexa), Jean-Baptiste Hironde (MWM), and Rodolphe Ardant (Spendesk).
Now, the company wants to move quickly. “Towards the end of the year, our goal is to release six applications to try, try, try, try at this high rate to really upgrade the company's knowledge,” he said. said Goillot.
“We can build an application in two weeks. We can bring in thousands of downloads a day,” he added. So let's take a look at how long it will take for Mobile His First His Company to ship an app that you will actually find when talking to small business owners.