⚡ How this Start-Up Fixed Chatbots

Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…

🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the Start-Up world this week
📰 This week’s biggest news stories in the Start-Up world
💬 How is this Start-Up fixing chatbots?
🎤 How taking advantage of popular events can help you go viral
📝 An AI tool that helps you prepare personalised meetings

✨ Last week’s most clicked link, was this link taking you through to our Start-Ups jobs board. If you’re looking for a Start-Up role, or looking to hire a Start-Up enthusiast, take a look!

Happy hustling,

Rich

🎤 Opportunities + Events

🧒 The Young Lives Innovation lab are looking to put up to £50k into Pre-Seed making an impact in the areas of Mental Wellbeing, Financial Hardship, Employment and Education, Personalised Care Pathways and Experiences of Diagnosis - Apply here!

🇺🇸 Kevin Jiang is looking to invest $3m into 3 different B2B AI Start-Ups based in Silicon Valley - find out more here!

💰 Y Combinator are now accepting applications for their Fall 2025 batch, with successful applicants getting $500,000 - Apply here!

We now have a community of thousands of Start-Ups and Founders, here are the hottest Start-Up job opportunities from the Innovators Uncensored community on our very own Start-Ups Job Board!

💼 Start-Up Jobs

✍️ Lead Product Designer, DevAlly
♻️ Onboarding and Support Engineer, SuperCycle
📱 Social Media Video Creator, Jupitrr AI

⏸ Start-Ups and VCs call on EU to pause AI Act rollout. Sifted

🤝 FinTech Bolt progresses its turnaround by landing Klarna as a partner. TechCrunch

🧑‍🎨 Figma moves closer to a blockbuster IPO that could raise $1.5bn. TechCrunch
 
📈 AI drives record share of UK Venture Capital investment. UKTN

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The much anticipated Oasis reunion tour is just around the corner, and the excitement amongst the public is HUGE! Aldi have taken advantage of this in a genius way.

Oasis are famously from Manchester, and if you’re not familiar with the Manchester accent, this one might not make much sense. If you say “Aldi” in a Mancunian accent, it sounds more like “Aldeh”, hence the sign in the picture above.

Aldi have very much jumped on the Oasis hype train and changed the name on the sign of one of its stores in the Manchester area to celebrate the reunion of the Manchester born brothers - and it’s gone VIRAL!

This tour is going to be massive, with ridiculous amounts of hype and media attention - how can you jump on all of this free hype?

Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our Start-Up community have recommended.

Pally brings together all your connections, across all your socials. Pally then researches everything they’ve ever posted online, and helps you: prepare for meetings, stay in touch, search your network, and much more.

Customerly: Fixing the Chatbot Experience, One Conversation at a Time

Most people have had a bad chatbot experience. The kind that leaves you stuck in a loop, frustrated, and ultimately closing the tab.

Customerly exists to fix that.

Founded by Luca and his team, Customerly is reinventing customer communication - starting with the chatbot. The platform helps companies deliver smoother, smarter and more human support, without making customers feel like they’re talking to a wall of automation.

In an age where customer experience makes or breaks a brand, Customerly is quietly becoming the secret weapon behind better conversations.

Building the MVP: A Long Road to Day One

Getting Customerly’s first version live wasn’t an overnight success - far from it.

It took a full eighteen months to bring the MVP to market. During that time, Luca tapped into his personal network, asking friends with websites to try out early versions. Their feedback became the product roadmap. It was slow, methodical, and completely user-led.

That feedback loop meant by the time Customerly was ready for a wider launch, it was solving real problems, not imaginary ones.

First Customers: Powered by Product and Word of Mouth

Customerly’s earliest traction came from pure hustle.

Luca leaned heavily on his network, getting the first customers to trial the product. From there, the product did the talking. Visitors would spot the “Powered by Customerly” badge on client sites and start asking questions. One happy customer led to another, and referrals quickly became their strongest growth engine.

It wasn’t flashy growth. It was intentional, steady, and built on real relationships.

Hiring: Start with Who You Know

Like many early-stage Start-Ups, the first hire came from within the founder’s personal circle.

The first employee at Customerly had already worked with Luca on a previous business, making the decision easy. From there, it was time to build an engineering team, which proved much harder. Finding great engineers meant trying everything: job boards, niche platforms, and outreach campaigns to get in front of the right talent.

It was slow work, but the right people eventually followed the right mission.

Founders Through Friendship

The core founding team didn’t come from pitch decks or Co-Founder matchmaking services.

Luca began building Customerly alongside a close friend, someone he’d been trading ideas and swapping learnings with for years. They’d been working on separate startups, learning in parallel, and constantly comparing notes. That natural trust made teaming up a no-brainer.

That friend brought in another trusted collaborator from university, and just like that, the founding trio was formed — built not just on aligned vision, but years of shared experience.

Funding with Just Enough

Customerly was bootstrapped from day one, and it started with just €4,000 in the bank.

That money didn’t go far, but it didn’t need to. Because alongside building the product, Luca and the team were already selling. They launched with a handful of lifetime deals which quickly brought in €65,000 in upfront cash.

That revenue allowed them to flip into a recurring SaaS model, and they’ve been cash-flowing the business ever since.

It’s a story of doing more with less, and proving that you don’t always need venture capital to build something meaningful.

The Bigger Vision

Customerly isn’t just building a better chatbot, it’s reshaping how businesses and customers talk to each other.

And while many tools focus on automation or scale, Luca and his team are focused on making things feel more human. Because better conversations lead to better companies.

Customerly is proof that you don’t need a flashy launch, a giant funding round or Silicon Valley buzz. You just need a real problem, a determined team, and a product that earns its place - one customer at a time.

Next week I’ll be highlighting another awesome Start-Up, as well as sharing all the usuals including funding opportunities, Start-Up news, plus plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.

P.S. Connect with me on LinkedIn…