Qindle Ventures, also known as Q Ventures, is an initiative of Amsterdam-based Creative Consultancy Qindle, that works at the intersection of brand, innovation and technology. The venture initiative was born from a clear need in the international startup landscape and guides founders of high-tech startups in their journey to translate the value of their technology in the context of a market.
Proposition first, brand next
By working closely with the founders and acting as both a strategic and creative partner, Qindle Ventures helps reshape ideas and advanced technology into pitch-ready business propositions. While there are many templates, models and methodologies that can help startups in the early stages, they are merely passive tools that tend to distract from the main goal: building a solution to a problem (or in startup lingo; a product market-fit).
“Founders often approach us in need of a “better” pitch or a “nicer looking” brand, as a necessary checklist item to get to a product-market-fit, fast. However, to deliver these checklist items, a more fundamental piece needs to be solved first to be able to facilitate this. The real challenge is to create components across brand, tech and market, that add up to a single story.” Says Jasper van Eck, Strategy Director at Qindle.
Technology, brand and product are often developed in isolation and as a result, don’t add up. The approach of Qindle Ventures is focused on bridging these gaps in the early stages of a startup by connecting them with ‘Creative Intelligence’. The approach is based on years of experience in Silicon Valley and European tech hubs and combines a deep understanding of a startup’s business, technology and market (intelligence), and transforming that into a single story (creative).
The simplicity of which founders’ answers three fundamental questions – What are you building (Technology/product)? Who are you selling it to (Market)? How do you want to be perceived (Brand)? – varies from startup to startup. For some the technology is crystal clear, for others it is the target market. Having these sessions with the founders gives a clearer picture of where there is clarity, and more importantly, where the gaps are. Once this is identified, the gaps can be filled in and put together into a single cohesive proposition.
The Technology – Market Fit
When the brand and technology are clear, but there’s confusion about what to do with them; the focus should be on translating the value of a novel technology into propositions for new markets. This was the case with Foamplant, where a market expansion strategy was created for Foamplant’s unique, sustainable, flexible foam technology. By connecting Foamplant’s unique material characteristics and IP with markets that fit their business and strategy, Qindle Ventures delivered an end-to-end plan that helped them in their next phases of funding and growth.
The Technology – Brand Fit
If the technology and markets are set in stone, focus on building a brand that reflects the technology and respects the market. In the case of Databiomes, a nano-intelligence startup, this meant building a brand that stood out in highly crowded market of small-language AI Models, while also reinforcing their synthetic data diferentiator as part of it. In the end, Qindle Ventures helped shape their entire proposition, from shaping the way they look and sound to the clarity of their offering.
Similarly for the French startup Flex.AI, closely working together with the founders led to first capturing their AI compute proposition in a concise pitch to get funding. Since then, the pitch was built with (future) branding in mind, as it was an easy step to expand that into a visual world after the funding landed.
The Brand – Market Fit
When both the brand and the market(s) are set, it is necessary to take a different approach. As it is not possible to change the core technology of a startup, it is possible to reshape the technology into branded propositions that better fit specific markets. By extending, repositioning or even omitting pieces of the technology, brands can be propositioned in a way that better fits market needs. In the case of Asato, an AI-powered IT infrastructure management solution, the creative approach led to splitting their single solution into more tailored “propositions” per target audience.
The importance of an integrated approach
Throughout the process, finding the right story for the core of these startups leads the conversation. In the end, a startup’s success and the founders’ determination are tied to the hip, so finding a story that both resonates with them, as well as the audiences they’re trying to reach is key. By constantly bringing back clarity to the proposition, Qindle Ventures aims to provide a foundation for sustainable growth and lasting impact.
About Qindle Ventures
Founded in 2017, Qindle Ventures supports startups worldwide in strategy and creativity, helping translate their vision and technology into relevant market propositions. The approach is rooted in years of experience in Silicon Valley and various tech hubs across Europe. By working closely with founders and combining deep knowledge of technology and target markets with an international network, Q Ventures equips startups with the tools and insights needed to achieve global success.
About Qindle
Qindle is an independent Creative Consultancy that works at the intersection of brand, innovation and technology, that transforms business challenges into compelling real-world solutions. Guided by the principle of Creative Intelligence, Qindle transforms insights and context into actionable strategies and realizes impact with designed initiatives for success. Transforming business challenges into compelling real-world solutions.
