With demo day fast approaching – we are really excited to showcase all the great work our startups have been doing during cohort 2. Due to COVID restrictions, cohort 2 has not been able to take place from our innovation Lab in Newport.
However, that doesn’t mean we’e cancelled demo day! Our cohort 2 demo day will take place Friday November 13th and 13:30.
You can register for demo day here > https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lab-by-transport-for-wales-cohort-2-virtual-demo-day-tickets-125021355239
Cohort 2 is producing some fantastic ideas and solutions. We want to shine the spotlight on each start-up that is helping to innovate Transport for Wales Rail.
Today we’re introducing you to, Window Seater.
Who are Window Seater?
Window Seater connects rail travellers to the stories outside their window, providing high quality geolocated multimedia content which links all the fascinating stories along your route – and it works offline. There are a million guides for destinations, we are the guide for the journey.
Their Background
Window Seater operates in travel, tourism and technology. There are currently three of us at Window Seater and we are very much in start-up mode, having launched our Beta in 2018 for a few of Thailand’s most popular rail routes. The results were positive, so we’re looking to scale by improving our product, processes and marketing through the Transport for Wales Lab programme. The Window Seater team brings together a wealth of experience in UX; product development; online content; innovation management; marketing and tourism.
USP
Window Seater is the only product offering high quality, GPS-connected multimedia content for railway journeys across the world. No mobile app within their space is currently doing B2C audio/AR guides for worldwide rail journeys. They take full advantage of what the latest mobile devices can do to professionally curate content and deliver it in the best way for passengers who can be entertained and informed about their surroundings on journeys.
Foundations
Window Seater is run by Pete Silvester, Richard Edwards and Marcus Allender – travellers who met while living in Myanmar (Burma) in 2016. Back then Pete was working on an early version of Window Seater, an ethos and an idea for an app that he first dreamt up travelling by train in France, desperate to know about the landscape flashing by. Meanwhile Rich was learning Burmese and telling digital stories in Yangon, and Marcus was building an online travel guide and bookings website for visitors to the country. Together they pooled their excitement and experiences to launch Windowseater.com, a home for mindful travel and compelling, high quality audio storytelling.
Meet the Team
Pete Silvester – co founder, content development and strategy Pete has spent his career trying to figure out how the world works. Trained as an economist and social scientist, he worked for the World Bank, the OECD, and the United Nations. He began starting his own businesses in 2012 in Myanmar when he founded a consultancy and the country’s firststartup accelerator. The idea of Window Seater came to Pete while sitting on a TGV in France on his honeymoon, and he hasn’t been able to put it down since. www.linkedin.com/in/petesilvester Richard Edwards – co-founder, product development Richard has spent over 15 years devising, managing and delivering product, websites, content, social media projects and video work for nice organisations, broadcasters and NGOs. As a BBC Producer Richard commissioned £450,000 worth of interactive games for BBC Bitesize, the BBC’s flagship educational resource, and managed a team of Assistant Producers and Researchers. He followed this with work at the humanitarian NGO CARE International as their Digital Manager and is also proud to have worked with the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) during three international appeals, managing their social team and content flow. Richard brings a passion for UX, a Google Analytics certification, knowledge of how to optimise user journeys for conversions, plus lived experience of the realities of running content-driven sites. www.linkedin.com/in/richardcedwards Marcus Allender – business development Marcus has 20 years of experience in international marketing, PR and tourism business development. In 2019, Marcus planned, fundraised and executed an historic 21,000km Singapore-London overland trip, The Last Overland. Previously, he founded and sold Go-Myanmar.com – an online travel business which provides comprehensive information and bookings services for visitors to this fast-growing destination. It became Myanmar’s most popular travel and bookings site, attracting 3,500 visitors per day and over 20,000 sales per year – with zero advertising spend. Marcus is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Marcus is responsible for business development at Window Seater. www.linkedin.com/in/marcusallender
Why was TfWL a good fit for Window Seater?
Window Seater has been under development since 2018 and has been beta tested across some of the most popular routes in Thailand. The TfWL programme will allow Window Seater to get a much better understanding of the rail industry and how Window Seater can fit with its operators and customers. This will come with the helping hand of TfWL/TfWR that is looking to invest in fostering innovative tech startups.
What does TfWL Hope to Achieve Working With TfWL?
“At the end of the 11 weeks, we hope to be in a position to roll out an MVP which Transport for Wales customers love using and see value in. On the programme we are looking forward to getting access to a knowledge base that seems tailor made for developing our product – industry knowledge, product development and direct access toTfWR customers. We hope to get fresh thinking (and a dose of constructive criticism!) through the TfWR and Alt Labs teams, as well as other programme participants. And we believe this is a golden networking opportunity, principally with TfWR and its partners, but also across the UK and internationally through Keolis Amey. ”
Follow Window Seater
www.windowseater.com www.linkedin.com/company/windowseater www.instagram.com/windowseatertravel www.twitter.com/window_seater www.medium.com/@windowseater https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEyj2mKXw3bt5rWQcllys-g
