Startup Case Study: Yayzy

As a serial problem-solver with a vision to see the needs of our planet met, Mankaran Ahluwalia reached a pivotal moment in his career following the completion of his MBA at the SaÏd Business School, University of Oxford. This prompted the decision to combine his high-risk appetite with a passion for sustainability, ultimately leading to the creation of his startup, Yayzy.

Yayzy enables customers to track, understand, and offset their personal carbon footprint from within a mobile app. Using rigorous scientific methods, bank transactions and personal data, the app can precisely calculate every individual’s impact on the planet and provide guidance on how to manage it.

Though motivation and excitement about the company’s solution are key, Mankaran and his co-founders conducted thorough research before developing the app. Combining desktop research with the assessment of consumer needs and sentiment, the team at Yayzy investigated sustainability and consumer trends, climate reports, and ran an assessment survey. Within a few days, thousands of people had expressed their interest in a carbon-tracking app, which validated the need for Yayzy.

The team have always kept the customer at the centre of their product making decisions, creating a slack channel for early adopters which they could take feedback from. With the help of their supporters, the team built the MVP (minimum viable product), which they used to attract investment and attention.

“The job of an entrepreneur in the early stages is that of a detective, you’re constantly uncovering pieces of information that point out what is the right thing to do”

Business Models and Brand Image

The company started off by following a B2C (Business to Customer) model and built a mobile app that anyone can access. The team quickly realised that they needed to build trust with their users in order to access their banking transactions and calculate their carbon footprint. Therefore, they concentrated on building a robust security infrastructure, emphasizing privacy and building an aesthetic UX interface. Following this, the team eventually realised that the best way to scale was to switch to a B2B (Business to Business) model and provide their technology to fintech companies and banks. As a SaaS (Software as a Service) startup, Yayzy benefited from its B2C experience and managed to deliver a unique value proposition.

“We try to deliver the best outcomes regarding the calculation of the carbon footprint and then tell the user what to do about it”

After changing their business model to B2B, Yayzy established some significant partnerships with banks, fintech companies and cloud providers. Their collaboration with IBM allowed the company to enhance security and increase scalability.

Mankaran has also taken the time to establish a comprehensive brand image that consumers associate with a unique user experience, as well as a clear vision of sustainability. This may be why the app has won various product awards, such as Apple App of the Day, Product of the Year on ProductHunt, among others.

Community Building

Building a community around Yayzy’s mission was vital to developing a successful product. Therefore, Mankaran and his co-founders decided to crowdfund their project. This not only provided them with the necessary funds to build the first version of the mobile app, but also helped them to gain public recognition. When Mankaran appeared on the BBC to talk about Yayzy and their mission live, this also helped to gain significant traction in mainstream media.

Although Yayzy has angel investments, a celebrity investor and VCs from both Europe and the US, Mankaran believes that revenue is the best kind of funding a company can have, especially with a business model like theirs. Though startups are usually funded by VC money, sometimes it is better to prioritise slower but steady growth, along with bootstrapping.

When hiring and finding the right people for his company, Mankaran found this to be one of the biggest challenges he has faced. He considers finding the right talent incredibly important, and therefore, time-consuming.

“The early employees really set the culture and the tone of the organisation, which is incredibly important”.

The Yayzy co-founder considers the ecosystem of the University of Oxford excellent for fostering creativity and thinking outside of the box. From finding talent to engagement with the ecosystem, he considers the opportunities at the University priceless. For those interested in entrepreneurship, Mankaran suggests reaching out to experts in their fields of interest and talking to them about their experiences. He also recommends reading blogs and listening to podcasts about startup case studies or successful founders. However, his most important piece of advice is to just start and keep learning on the journey.

This case study was conducted and written by guest author