Part of Cisco’s National Virtual Incubator network, IDEALondon offers the perfect environment for Cisco BIG to give the UK’S brightest tech start-ups the support they need to take their business to the next level. Here, I chat with Jacoby Thwaites, Founder of IDEAL resident SPARKL, about the company and the team’s experiences in the incubator.
MS: It’s great to talk to you, Jacoby. Firstly, tell us about your company and what Sparkl does.
JT: Our company was founded in 2012, and IDEALondon has provided us with the opportunity to develop our business product SPARKL. We have a team of four full-time engineers, a board, and the support of the greater Cisco BIG team. SPARKL helps financial services organisations solve their compliance and regulatory problems, particularly when it comes to transactions. It ensures that data is being used correctly by recording everything that occurs within a business transaction in detail, guaranteeing a complete audit trail. It also speeds up the development, testing and deployment of apps. It can take around six months for a banking app like a mobile payment facility to come to market because of security issues and problems with validating the technical architecture. SPARKL bypasses this by making the infrastructure more transparent, secure and auditable.
MS: Have you been enjoying the IDEAL experience?
JT: We arrived in October 2013 in the first intake of start-ups, and I can’t over emphasise how great the experience has been for us. On a fundamental level, being in a tech hub like this means that you’re cutting costs immediately – being sponsored by Cisco means we don’t pay for our desk space, which is a huge outgoing for any start-up, especially in London. We’re given access to all kinds of things like meeting rooms, printers, and state-of-the-art Cisco technology that enables us to be more productive and efficient. You name it, it’s provided! That’s not all there is to it, though. The mentoring side is hugely valuable – Cisco assigns two full-time mentors across the program, and their responsibility is to help SPARKL and the other business at the hub to succeed. UCL and DC Thomson also hold mentoring, networking and education events, which are really useful.
MS: Do you think IDEALondon has opened doors for you?
JT: Definitely – it’s presented us with lots of opportunities. We’ve been really open to everything and have actually discovered that sometimes the introductions we thought wouldn’t be particularly useful have turned out to be really valuable! The sheer range of support, training and introductions we’ve been exposed to has made the whole experience extremely beneficial.
MS: What are your key priorities at the moment – are you working on anything exciting?
JT: Yes – we’re focused on securing a use case in the banking sector, so we’ve been doing lots of marketing for that – we’re in geek overdrive at the moment! We’re also developing a mobile consumer version of our product, called MySPARKL. Due to launch in December, this app works to connect the Internet of Everything and really lets you mix things up… things like switching the lights on when you’re close to home, texting you when the space station is overhead, or syncing contacts between your Android and your iPad – anything you can think of. We will soon make MySPARKL an open-source solution, which means anyone will be able to create MySPARKL services that benefit themselves, the business they work for or just everyone!
MS: What advice would you give the next intake of start-ups at IDEAL?
JT: The main piece of advice I’d give would be to embrace the opportunities that are offered to you. It’s not always easy to know which opportunities will be the most useful to you – and you’re likely to be surprised – so engage with everything Cisco and the other sponsors are offering. It’s an incredibly worthwhile experience, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
MS: Glad to hear it! Thanks for your time today Jacoby.
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