Decision Making App MirrorMirror Shortlisted For Accenture’s 2017 Innovation Award

How would you describe MirrorMirror in a few words?

MirrorMirror is an award-winning social media app & community for sharing images with your friends, family & the world and getting votes on which your network prefer. With MirrorMirror you can get feedback on almost whatever you choose (fashion, lifestyle, fun, etc). It’s basically social A/B testing for whatever you choose.

What inspired you to create the app? How did it all start?

I was watching my partner and her friends compare potential outfits on WhatsApp to wear for a night out and noticed that while it was helpful to call on your friends for opinions, there was no definitive answer – just a lot of noise. I thought about how I could create something really simple to use, whereby you gave two options and your friends voted on which one they preferred. It had to be simple, social, safe and have a familiar feel.

I’d also seen that people were keen to share their looks on social media but were too often open to being trolled or spammed and wanted to make it a safe environment where people felt they could ask opinions without fear of being bullied. It was for this reason that you can’t comment on MirrorMirror posts, only vote.

Daily life is full of choices, from what we eat breakfast to what we wear for a night out. MirrorMirror makes it easy and fun to share dilemmas, choices or simply to get a general opinion. By using a percentage based voting system, MirrorMirror also provides a solution to group decision making, such as where to meet, putting the end to arguments about where to meet or what to do.

Are you using MirrorMirror internally? How does that affect the viewpoints of the development team?

We do use MirrorMirror for certain design aspects, and of course for our own personal use. What we use it most for from an internal point of view is working out what we need to do to improve it so others businesses will use it as their A/B tester of choice. We want MirrorMirror to be the go-to comparison service (not just an app) for anything. What if a company was deciding on a new logo and wanted to poll their employees. All they’d need to do was ask MirrorMirror. Or imagine if a speaker at an event wanted instant feedback without having to count hands or use an over complicated method – MirrorMirror is the logical solution.

MirrorMirror has been shortlisted for Accenture’s 2017 Innovation Award and was chosen by TheNextWeb for their Class of 2017. Considering you launched your startup only in February this year – how do you explain the attention you’ve gotten so far? In what ways will it impact your future path?

I think to be recognized by the likes of Accenture and TheNextWeb shows that the tech community can see we have a great product. We also picked up the Platinum Award for Social / Lifestyle app in the Best Mobile App Awards and have got some pretty cool press too – which helps as an introduction – although we’d love MirrorMirror to be part of the constant conversation.

Generally, everyone that sees MirrorMirror ‘gets it’ immediately. They love the simplicity of it on the surface but at the same time understand the huge potential it has as a community and commercial platform. MirrorMirror is currently only a fraction of what we envisage it as, so we hope people to continue to follow our story – it’s going to get much more interesting!

Recently Facebook made the decision-making startup Swell (Ed., and their chatbot Swelly) their official partner. How do you handle competition and what makes MirrorMirror stand out of the crowd?

Funnily enough, just two weeks after MirrorMirror hit the app stores Amazon announced their own service ‘Outfit Compare’, which on the surface had a similar premise to MirrorMirror. What ‘Outfit Compare’ lacks though is the social aspect, as instead of asking your friends or the community you ask a faceless Amazon ‘stylist’, which makes it somewhat of a dead end.

The ability to compare two things together naturally isn’t a unique idea in the world and of course, there are going to be other people doing something similar elsewhere, but the key is how you execute it and what else you make possible. MirrorMirror may just be an app now but like Swell, we also plan to develop our bots, there’ll be a desktop version and we’ll be working with media partners to help create a content tool.

The way MirrorMirror I think really stands out though are our monetization methods and possibilities for brands. While other apps rely heavily on intrusive AdMob ads (Wishbone, for example, shows a video ad every 15 seconds), MirrorMirror has a single banner space on the homepage. The possibilities for brands though are significant. Currently, MirrorMirror will post a selection of items every day, depending on the post when you vote on something, you then have the option of ‘buying it now’, which will refer you to the relevant online store.

What is the biggest challenge that the company has faced up until now?

Sadly on the eve of the soft launch my co-founder Silas, unexpectedly passed away after contracting a rare and aggressive form of meningitis. As well as my partner, he was also one of my closest friends and people that I admired most in the world. I think of him constantly and still find the fact that he’s no longer with us incomprehensible.

Emotionally his absence has left a huge void in my personal life, but also in the achieving the initial level of success we’d earmarked to achieve, due to the lack of professional and financial input. It’s meant I’ve had to learn a lot of new skills and wear more hats than I would’ve liked, but I believe that this has made me far stronger as an entrepreneur and as a person in general. It’s also made me even more determined to continue to carve a legacy he would be proud of.

Without the budget we had planned, we’ve therefore had to build awareness and the community almost solely through organic. The fact that we have received the support from users, press, and award, I think proves that when we do start securing the levels of investment we need to truly propel MirrorMirror into people’s line of vision, word will spread very quickly and positively.

What is the most memorable moment throughout the history of MirrorMirror?

The moment MirrorMirror hit the app stores was bittersweet, as it was the culmination of months of hard work but sadly the person that was responsible for a lot of that wasn’t there to celebrate it with. Rather than celebrate the arrival of the app, myself and some of his friends instead raised a glass to his life. It was a tough decision to release the app just a couple of days after his passing but it was the one I have no doubt he would have fully supported.

Subsequently, the attention we’ve received from the likes of the press and the award nominations (and win) has definitely been rewarding. Without wanting to sound like a teen idol receiving an award, it really is about the fans, and the love for the app that our users have shown has been particularly gratifying. We’re going to make sure we reward their support with continuing to improve the app and their experience.

If there is one thing you could wish for in improving the European startup ecosystem – what would it be?

Perhaps my personal experience is a little different to others, as I had to navigate a significant part on my own, but the landscape can be a little disorientating at times, particularly when you’re looking for answers. A central online European hub would definitely be of use that helps you work out what is relevant and what is unobtainable.

At the moment there’s a lot of information out there, of which sometimes can lead you down the wrong path, particularly with regard to funding and loans. Amsterdam actually has a pretty good resource run by the council for startups, although it was only as a result of attending TheNextWeb Conference that I became aware of it.

I think in that respect that’s where it could be improved. While people tell you that the information is out there, you often are sent to the wrong location, get duff information or simply can’t get a straight answer (I don’t know how many times I was told one thing by one party, only to be corrected by the next). Increasing the visibility and making it easier for a new business to concentrate on, it’s business rather than admin would be of benefit to everyone I’m sure.

What’s one piece of advice you can give to fellow founders for their startup?

There’s a lot of tips and advice floating around out there that has been said a million times, but I think one area that is sometimes overlooked is how your friends, family, and network sometimes have the ability to make a difference. When you have limited resources calling on your connections for a favor or two is essential. Chances are you know a lot of people with a lot of different talents, so go through your network and write down what they’re good at and what they could maybe help you with. If like me, you’re lucky enough to have a lot of international friends, this is also a great benefit if you have a product that needs to be translated into multiple languages.

When you reach out to people though be prepared for disappointment. Some friends will be more than happy to support you, others will promise things and then never deliver or just go off the map. One thing I’ve personally learned is that it’s the people that you least expect that help you most. People have their own lives, responsibilities, and commitments, so the key is not to get annoyed with the people that let you down, but be grateful for the ones that help you. And of course, return the favor when they need a hand. Or as Bill & Ted so sagely put it “Be excellent to each other”.

_________

Sharing is caring!