hyScore.io

Why did you found your start-up, what problem are you addressing and how do you solve it?

Nowadays, it is essential to structure content such as large amounts of text and data as efficiently as possible and make it available for further (automated) processing and monetization. We faced this challenge in previous projects in AdTech, publishing and content syndication and did not find a good solution to get the job done a) economically and b) with the data and insights we were looking for. Many companies are still hiring students, interns or other employees to get the job done - or have given up trying to manage the huge amounts of data. Some try to develop their own expensive, time-consuming solution, which is not their main focus. hyScore is an independent, cross-industry provider of innovative Natural Language Processing (NLP) solutions combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI). With the flexible hyScore solutions, texts, websites, audio and video can be analyzed in real time. The technology can be individually trained and adapted to specific requirements. With hyScore, large amounts of text/data can be analyzed 100% automatically and valuable insights can be provided for further use and processing in more than 20 languages. Saving high expenses, reducing investment costs and risks, fast and easy proof-of-concept and accelerating time-to-market and thus earlier revenue are some of the additional benefits associated with our services.

How did you come up with the idea of founding your start-up?

A discussion over a cup of coffee in "Katies Blue Cat" café (Berlin) between Michael and Lucas was the starting point.

What is special about your business model, what do you do differently?

We are something of a "B2B+2B" business. This means that we work more as a partner for our customers, providing the part they need to improve and enrich their product or, moreover, to create the bridge to automate processes. We are a business enabler with some generalist or individual customized natural language processing solutions. From the very beginning, we have not worked within traditional hierarchies and rules. We have created an open working environment that allows our employees to work independently and decide for themselves how they do their work. This includes where, when and how everyone works at hyScore. Everyone is committed to the development of the company. This makes us more flexible than others and helps our customers.

What has been your biggest success so far?

Besides convincing people how important and useful our solutions are? A big success is that we, as a company that is not yet so well known (e.g. like IBM), win direct pitches against other established companies. This shows us that we are on the right track. We are constantly developing our products and solutions.

What is the next challenge for you?

The biggest challenge is still to gain more awareness of what hyScore can do for your business/product and how we can help avoid high investment risks to automate processes on the fly. That said, we are delighted to have achieved the title of Startup of the Month.

What have you learned so far?

a) Always do your own research. b) Ask, ask again and... maybe ask again until you have put all the pieces of the puzzle together to offer a solution that really solves the customer's problem and helps manage expectations and fulfill requirements. c) Be bold and start from the beginning to position yourself as a premium solution provider. d) Learn and improve. And then repeat it!

Where did you meet?

A long time ago in Berlin... to be honest, we've known each other for years. We met here and there during our business life, where we each worked in different companies. Then - one day - quite by chance, we worked for the same company. From this circumstance, our history and "team chemistry" came the idea to develop hyScore in our spare time. Later, after talking about our ideas, receiving positive feedback from our personal networks and directly acquiring our first customer who was willing to pay to use our service, we founded the company.

Where do you see your startup in 3 years?

Our technology will be used to analyze content from every country in the world. In 10 years, our technology will be used by everyone...

If an investor gave you 500,000 euros, what would you do with the money?

The 500,000 euros would enable us to finance further product development so that companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple would like to use us.

Who would you like to have dinner with and why?

As a team, we share many interests and would therefore have dinner with the following four respected personalities from very different fields to discuss the future:

• Warren Buffet (investment idol)
• Noam Chomsky (godfather of computational linguistics)
• Kevin Feige (miracle mastermind)
• Cixin Liu (Chinese and rising science fiction star)

Extra: The name "hyScore.io"

We were looking for something that reflected what we do. The company name is associated with our earliest prototype for a generalist solution of our hyScore|analyze product. Among other valuable information, we extract weighted keywords from each text. The weight or score value reflects the importance of the keyword in relation to the text. The higher the weighting or score value of a keyword, the higher its importance in the context of the overall analysis. So we had a "high score". Since we are also computer and console gamers in our spare time, we thought that might be a bit misleading and high was shrunk to "hy", which some translate as "Hey! or Hello!". Thus the name "hyScore" was born. As we offer our NLP solutions via API services, the ".io" domain was ideal and stands for "in" and "out" for us. Text in, result out.