How nature have inspired different technologies 🦇

#6 2023 | Sparkmate

How are you and your teams doing? 🤘

Here’s what we’ve put together for your weekly Spark News:

• First 100 Users launches V2 🏆

• Grammarly for developers: Meet Kodezi 🚨

• How nature have inspired different technologies 🦇

• Could (autonomous) cable cars beat traffic congestion in cities? 🚡

• Give the Spark is back: Featuring innovation expert and multipreneur Guillaume Rolland 🎉

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💙 NEWS FROM OUR MATES

First 100 Users launches V2 🏆

What were some of the things you did when you launched your product? How did you find your first few users? Whether you’re a first-time, or second/third/fourth time founder, you’ll know that finding your first 100 is the most important - and there are countless ways to achieve that.

So our mates at First 100 Users worked hard on compiling aaaaallllll the different ways to do so, and have recently launched their V2 to include:

• Even more, actionable ideas (from submitting your product to Startups.fyi, setting up an affiliate scheme, running giveaways, to starting a community)

• Step-by-step instructions for each

• Browsing ideas by channel

• Over 150 tools (mostly free) that you can already use

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🤸‍♀️ FUN PRODUCT WE LOVE

Grammarly for developers: Meet Kodezi 🚨

Grammarly fixes written languages, Kodezi fixes programming languages.

While most code editors include indicators of where codes break/need fixing, trust us - they doesn’t come close to what this can do, especially with the help of AI.

(Like asking ChatGPT what’s wrong with your code and how it would format it instead)

So actually… it’s Grammarly on steroids, for developers 😂

Features:

• Generate Code

  • Generate code from text, input a project question or create an entire function all in seconds!

• Debug code with detailed explanations

  • Kodezi doesn't just fix your code for you, it tells you why it’s wrong and how to prevent future bugs

• Optimize your code for optimum efficiency

  • Reduce unnecessary lines of code and syntax to ensure a clean end results.

• Translate code to another language

  • Swap from one framework or language to another in an instant, without losing context.

• Generate your code documentation

  • When writing code, commenting and explanations are crucial for future maintenance.

• KodeziChat

  • Generate, Ask, Search, Code Anything in your codebase with KodeziChat. Your personal AI coding assistant!

Who it’s for: Developers 👩‍💻🧑‍💻

Price: FREE ⭐️ until you need more of their advanced machine learning models - in this case pricing starts at US$6.99 per month!

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💭 TECH FOOD FOR THOUGHT

How nature have inspired different technologies 🦇

We’ve seen how the most innovative solutions have been inspired by pure phenomenons in nature - through weathers, plants, fruits and especially animals. This is called bioinspiration, and us humans have been doing our best to try to replicate it or use it as part of our solutions.

Here are a few you’d love:

👀 Navigation

• Inspiration: Bats

  • Bats, although completely blind, can wander using echolocation. They emit sound and ultrasound waves, then monitor the time and magnitude of these waves to create three-dimensional spatial maps of their surroundings

• Implemented on: Sensory navigation in modern cars

🧲 Attaching

Inspiration: Burdock Plants

Plants use the burrs of burdock plants to hook seed pods for animals and people to spread them over wider areas - they are attached with small hooks that lock with small hoops in soft materials.

Implemented on: Velcro

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🌱 TECH FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Could (autonomous) cable cars beat traffic congestion in cities? 🚡

We’ve all probably imagined the future of traveling - thinking it’s probably through sitting in crazy fast capsules in tunnels (like Musk’s Hyperloop?) and getting to our destinations in minutes. Well, we’re probably still quite far from that - but this cable car concept sounds like a prototype of it!

Transport design studio Half Company created a city-wide proposal in Bulgaria to use these capsules to bring people to their destinations. Unlike usual cable cars, it would use static cables and have them move along tensioned steel ropeways - so each unit can travel freely to different routes. Passengers would just need to select their destination, and wait for the next available capsule to arrive. How cool would this be?

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💥 WHAT’S ON @ SPARKMATE

Give the Spark is back: Featuring innovation expert and multipreneur Guillaume Rolland 🎉

Aaaand we’re back with another speaker we know you’ll love: Guillaume Rolland!

From 16yo, Guillaume has:

• Tinkered and built an innovative perfume diffuser prototype in his garage

• Became the first French person selected for the Google Science Fair global competition

• Ran Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns to raise $500K.

Then, founded his startup "Sensorwake":

• Built 3 successful products, including the smell alarm clock

• Launched products across Europe and US

• Have been noted as one of the 15 inventions that can change the world

• Raised €1.6M

• Partnered with renowned players, including Disney

• Awarded by global innovation prizes (CES Innovation Awards, WIPO, Google…)

• ACQUIRED by Maison Berger Paris in 2019

Today:

• Guillaume leads Innovation in the emosia group, which includes companies Maison Berger Paris, Bougies la Française, Ambiances Devineau and BLF Private Label.

So what is it like going through journeys of building hardware products, as well as launching and growing them?

Get all your questions answered in this #firesidechat on 1st March (Wednesday), 18:00-19:30!

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