Revolutionising the visitor experience

Interview with early-stage startup Data Duopoly

Welcome back to our startup interview series! 

You might be already aware of this, but startups are kind of our thing. We love them. The idea, the buzz, the thrill.

We work closely with a local startup incubator called Falmouth Launchpad and are always interested in up and coming startups.

One particularly exciting startup is Data Duopoly. They are on a mission to revolutionise the visitor experience in any venue worldwide.

In this interview, you’ll get an insight into their startup journey, shedding light on their experience at Falmouth Launchpad. From their struggles to what we are expecting next.

Grab yourself a tea and kick back and watch this interview below or read the transcript 👇

Jump to a section of interest 👇

• Who are you and what is your role at Data Duopoly?
• Can you tell me about your professional background?
• There is a story behind every startup idea, could you tell me yours?
• Was there like a single moment that triggered this?
• Have you tested your idea to market to validate your idea? Did you take an MVP approach?
• How has the process been finding the right technology partner or team?
• What has been your hardest struggle starting up Data Duopoly so far?
• What exciting steps are next for Data Duopoly?
• What was your experience like with the Falmouth Launchpad programme? Was it worth it, Was it fun and how hard was it?
• What one piece of advice would you tell your younger self when you were starting up Data Duopoly?

Who are you and what is your role at Data Duopoly?

I’m Tanuvi Ethunandan and I’m CEO and Co-Founder along with Erin Morris of Data Duopoly. And we at Data Duopoly are on a mission to revolutionise the visitor experience in any venue worldwide. And what that means is that we were sick and tired of being stuck and bottleneck and queuing at the visitor attractions when everyone pulls out a paper map and sees a sign turn left and just ends up following the same set of people around a venue. So we thought there has got to be a better way and how can we bring the digital with the personal experience. So that is where our explore product range was created.

For the venue side, we wanted to provide the data analytics of understanding where the visitor is on a site and shifting people from the busy areas. With Covid, that became more important than ever to help the venues reopen safely and we are really excited to be expanding right now.

I’m Erin the other Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Data Duopoly, I’m in charge of product development, all the graphic illustrations and anything creative. 

Can you tell me about your professional background?

We both come from very different background and I actually studied at Falmouth University, doing animation and visual effects. My background is in 2D animation. I made a film in my final year and spent a year travelling around film festivals. I also won the best short film festival which was awesome. I wanted to stay in Cornwall after this and then I went off to join Falmouth launchpad, which is when Data Duopoly is born.

For my self, I am from a slightly different background. Not as creative. I actually studied economics at Cambridge University and then became a chartered accountant. I was working so hard for someone else and wanted to start up my own company. But I didn’t find a Co-Founder in my immediate friendship ground which is when I joined the Falmouth Launchpad programme this is where I met Erin and together Data Duopoly has been born and in two and a half years later we haven’t killed each other yet, so I think we are doing okay.

There is a story behind every startup idea, could you tell me yours?

For us, it was bringing together both our complementary skills together. I’m from a data-driven background and Erin is from a creative mindset. We thought about how can we improve the visitor experience and really create something unique and gamify. And what we didn’t want people to do is create something that is distracting from the physical environment but how can we complement it. That has really helped explore what was born, from hatred of ques and bottlenecks but also the need for the data and analytics of the venues. Something at the very core of the product is that all of the data collected is anonymous and we truly mean that. We only track a phone ID and we don’t know who you are. And we thought that this is very important. We want to give value to the visitors with their data being used in the form of exclusive discounts to move away from the busy areas and real-time information that they can use to make the most of their day out.

Was there like a single moment that triggered this?

So from Launchpad, I’m not sure how much you know about the programme, but they basically partner you up with industry partners and our partner was the Eden Project. So this is where we started and they came to us with a range of things they wanted to address and things they wanted to know more about. We then went away and came up with the idea. Once we built our MVP and had some validation, we thought this is something that can go not only to work in attractions venues, it could work outdoors, countywide and so in many different venues: airports etc. That moment for us was like yes, this is what we are doing and let’s get cracking.

Have you tested your idea to market to validate your idea? Did you take an MVP approach?

We had a trial with the Eden Project in 2019. We built out a basic MVP app that could be downloaded by visitors just to really prove that we could route and shift people around the site. We actually found that 33% of those users responded to monetary offers, which meant we can shift a third of the visitor population at any time. 95% of those also said that they would you the app again if it was offered at a different attraction. That was brilliant for us to get the validation, and then let’s get started to build the app out a bit more.

How has the process been finding the right technology partner or team?

This has certainly been an interesting one for us. While we are not technical founder I think it has been an advantage as we approach the problem from the experience side of things. We think of things in a very different way. But actually, we have had the good fortune to work with fanatics development agencies and contractors and we are really excited to actively be recruiting for three new developers to join our team and built the technical team in house. We are just going from strength to strength and have had a great technical advisor from the Launchpad programme who has helped us form a high-level technical strategy point of view and also investors that have played an active role in this.

What has been your hardest struggle starting up Data Duopoly so far?

With any startup, it is a roller coaster of emotions, so I think we normally find that we are doing really well, but doing slightly too well at that moment and then something happens.

As Tanuvi said it’s been a massive learning curve. In the begging when we first started up we didn’t understand of tech worked and how to interact with the development team. I had previous experience working with some sort of team but for film not for making an app. So I think that for us was the biggest struggle we had. And another thing for the MVP is that things do take quite a long time and you need to go through the iterative process. You test something you redo do it you go back you test something. I think that we maybe had in our head that it would be here and ready to go. Which is obviously never the case. 

I completely second what Erin said that had been a learning curve and a really exciting one. I think one thing to learn to fail often and fail fast. That first MVP build when we were doing the testing we really learnt. We almost had a sense of perfectionism about us, and we learnt to get it out even though it doesn’t look perfect right away. Then you can test it and make iterations earlier on. So I would say that is the biggest learning curve so far. In terms of challenges, I think for any other businesses we were thrown into remote working and we were such a social bunch and in the studio every day and had our catch-ups over tea and coffee and suddenly we had to adapt to seeing each other on the screens for about four months straight. So I think that was a big shock, but it also showed that we could work with a wide variety of people. Actually one of the great developers we are working with is in the Philippines and I don’t with if it was from the lockdown and embracing remote working, we would not have done that before. We would have wanted someone in the office. And equally using our technology to help during this pandemic has been exciting, thinking about what can we do as a small company. We might not have the biggest budgets but what we can actually do is use what we do for good, and that has been quite fulfilling. 

What exciting steps are next for Data Duopoly?

This is an exciting one I think. We have recently just closed our seed round of about a quarter of a million pounds which is really exciting. So for us, the next steps are recruiting our new team members and growing our team and have some exciting projects in the pipeline. We are currently working with visitor attractions and some fantastic partners at the moment. We are thrilled to be helping a university in the southwest helping their students return to campus safely. So in the next twelve months, it will be really exciting to see our explore campus range comes to light and is put into action. And then what we would love to do is work with as many venues as possible.

What was your experience like with the Falmouth Launchpad programme? Was it worth it, Was it fun and how hard was it?

I definitely think it was worth it. I joined with no previous business experience what so ever. Tanuvi had a bit more than me, but neither of us had set up our own businesses before. It was great to have the learning curve. I learnt a lot about business and accounting and how you raise money and investors and all that sort of thing. And I think Tanuvi learnt about the creative side of things, how we build products and how we design. So yeah I definitely think it was worth it. We got partnered together based on our skillsets and it obviously works because we are still going. And I think it was really interesting through the incubation process to work out who fits well with each other. You are partnered on your skills and your personality, but until you actually get into a room it can sometimes not work. So I think we have definitely pulled through and it was definitely worth it!

I agree with Erin completely. I have learnt so much from the program. You might not find a co-founder in your immediate social group of friends and that is not necessarily a bad thing but getting exposed to so many talented individuals with different skills set to yourself and being a part of the community is really exciting. There was a moment where Erin and I were going through our industry challenge and thinking what to do and had some internal team changes within the incubator and we really really looked at each other and said can we do this. And because we were in such a supportive environment we said let’s give it a go and that has been fantastic and we are here two and a half years later working with some fantastic partners and investors and really driving the business forward with some ambitious growth plans and I don’t think that would have been possible without that belief and support from the outset, from the tech community in Cornwall and also the incubator programme.

What one piece of advice would you tell your younger self when you were starting up Data Duopoly?

Not to worry so much, and just give it a go. The whole point of you joining Launchpad is because you don’t know what you are doing, and that is why you join, to learn and do your masters in entrepreneurship at the same time. So I would say yeah, be a bit easier on myself and just go for it.

Yeah I would echo those thoughts as well I think, definitely just go for it and don’t care what everybody else thinks, just try your best and fail often and fail fast, we all have the inability for perfectionism at least certainly I do, but actually, just be in an agile way, if it doesn’t work you can just move on rather than waiting until you think it is perfect. Because then a market may have moved on. Accept the fact that it is going to be a rollercoaster and you are going to have the highs and lows, if you can get a co-founder the number of times it been great to have someone to commiserate with or celebrate with keeps the momentum up and you can drive of each other in terms with energy levels. And it’s great to look at what we have achieved and how far we have come even though there we really low points and high points along the journey. And I think that you must remember that every day is not going to go great and every day is not going to go bad but there is going to be an amazing story in between and you have just got to enjoy it and do your best every day. I think that’s my biggest piece of advice, just go for it because if you don’t do it now there’s never going to be a great time to do it.

From my point of view, have a bit more faith that you can actually do it. It’s quite daunting when you go into a big room and people ask you what you do and what is your business and we have both felt that we might not good enough or at that stage yet. But if you tell people they are generally really interested or give you some advice or talk to this person, especially in the south-west everyone is well connected, and the more people you talk to the further you go really which is definitely what we have found. Word of mouth has been brilliant.