Just a couple of links to some of my recent work in the past month or so over at Richmond Inno:
A page of computer code can be a bewildering sight: an erratic jumble of words, colors and symbols made nonfunctional by the misplacement of a single piece of punctuation. Adults struggle to make sense of the apparent chaos, so how much trickier might it be to understand for young students? Codemoji, a Chicago-born edtech startup launching in Richmond this summer through Lighthouse Labs, says it’s not tricky at all. You just have to speak to kids in their language: emojis.
Imagine this: You're standing in the soap aisle, wondering whether to shell out an extra $2 for brand-name body wash or just go with the generic store version. The name brand is tried and true, but is it really any different from its less flashy cousin? It’s at that intersection between quality and cost that Richmond startup Brandefy is weighing in with a mobile app that offers consumers comparisons of generic and brand-name products.
“We’re no longer the coupon-clipping generation,” said Elisabeth Klughardt, Brandefy’s part-time logistics coordinator. “This is the way we do it.”
As the U.S. prepares to grapple with the “silver tsunami,” online caregiving platform Naborforce lets seniors connect with community members for rides, errands, light help around the house, or just a few hours of sipping coffee and chatting. “It’s like having a son or daughter on demand,” said Wilson, who envisioned the platform as a way to provide seniors with assistance they need to age in place, and also the compassion and companionship that bring joy to the process of aging.
Online farmer’s market startup Seasonal Roots touts itself as bringing food fresh to consumers from “dirt to doorstep,” but it’s a third element that makes that seamless transaction possible: the internet. “The problem with a farmer’s market is a farmer will come and never know if they’ll sell a thing,” founder Duane Slyder said. On the other side of the equation, customers never know if what they want from the market will be available.
To combat that uncertainty, Seasonal Roots provides customers with an online farmer’s market from which they can choose exactly what they want every week from local offerings of produce, dairy, bread, meat, honey and more, either through a membership or through a guest system of purchasing.