London based Start-up, What3Words, is making the world’s population visible by giving everyone everywhere an address.
Company: What3words
Sector: Software
Location: London
Regions Covered: Global
Founded By: Chris Sheldrick and Jack Waley-Cohen
Are they rocket scientists? No Chris is a music events producer and Jack is a TV quiz master
Who are your major backers? Angel investors including the founder of Shutl
What’s your track record? Chris began his career at IMG before moving on to set-up CS Music in 2003. In 2011, he founded Live Music International and the two companies managed the logistics, production and artist booking for large-scale live music events around the world for over a decade.
Jack spent eight years heading up the operations division of translation company Lingo24. During that period, the company grew from five home-workers to more than 150 staff on four continents. His passion for quizzes saw Jack launch QuizQuizQuiz, the UK’s largest quiz events business. Immediately prior to What3words, Jack was involved in the creation of Property Detective – a service to help people make better decisions about moving home.
What do they say? What3words is a global grid comprised of 57 trillion 3m by 3m squares where each square has been pre-allocated with a fixed and unique three-word address. It means that everyone, everywhere now has access to a simple and usable address.
What does this mean? Poor addressing is costly and annoying. It hampers the growth and development of nations, ultimately costing lives. We can change that.
How could your company change the world? Around 75% of the world suffers from inadequate addressing systems. An address means that the four billion unaddressed people around the world can now be visible. They are able to get deliveries and receive aid; report disease and to exercise many of their rights as citizens because they have a simple way to communicate where they live. It means that in remote locations, water facilities can be found, monitored and fixed; and schools, refugee camps and informal settlements can be managed. It means micro-finance can scale and local business and e-commerce can grow. In countries with advanced systems, a precise and easy address means people don’t get lost, packages are delivered more efficiently, utilities are managed and businesses get found by customers.
Who do you compete with? There are a number of alphanumeric location systems (Mapcode from Tom Tom for example) that use a combination of letters and numbers. None have had any significant success due to their complicated nature and usability issues.
Who should be worried? Those competitors of businesses around the world who are already adopting and offering their customers three-word addresses.
If you could choose any investor globally, who would it be? Our ideal investor would have an interest in improved location communication for the companies they already invest in – such as e-commerce, logistics or travel firms.
If you could poach any member of staff from any company in the world, who would it be? We already have an impressive advisory board including representatives from the United Nations and Medicine Sans Frontiers. But there is always space for the right people to help us change the world.
