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 this Start-Up is fixing property maintenance with AI
😡 How creating a fake competitor can get your message across
💼 An AI talent agent helping you get candidates and roles you actually want

✨ Last week’s most clicked link, was this link taking you through to NatWest’s £100,000 equity-free pitching competition.

Happy hustling,

Rich

🎤 Opportunities + Events

🌷 DFF Ventures have just raised fund 3 to back software that is highly defensible and touches the world at the Pre-Seed stage - get in touch here!

🎤 The OnStage Demo day is back for another season, with 350 of the biggest funds in the world in the audience, including a £10m fund of their own - apply here!

🕊 Earlybird have just raised a new €360m fund to back Founders in emerging tech between Pre-Seed and Series A - contact the team 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

📝 Product Marketing Manager, Skillvue
🎥 Director of Brand Marketing, Vapoura Rum
🎨 Product Designer, Pearl Social

👕 Vinted hits €8bn valuation following big secondaries sale. Sifted

🧑‍💻 Lovable launches vibe coding app on iOS and Android. TechCrunch

🍏 Apple loses bid to pause App Store fee changes as case heads to Supreme Court. TechCrunch
 
💸 LemFi to invest £100m in UK as it relocates to London. UKTN

Meet NOAN: The Intelligent Operating System for Founders

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Ready to leave chaos behind? Discover what your business can do when it runs itself. 

We’ve partnered with NOAN to offer readers 20% off the first 3 months by using code #UNCENSORED20

Try it now, or book a demo here

Have you ever seen a business create a competitor in order to make themselves look better? That’s exactly what Wise did, and I think it’s genius!

Wise clearly have a deep understanding of the problem they’re solving for their customer, and they’ve really driven that home in this advert. Over 90% of people read left to right, so they’ll read the left advert first and be reminded of how frustrating sending money abroad can be. After they’ve read that and felt frustration, the Wise branded ad on the right swoops in as the hero and shows the reader that there’s a solution to this frustration.

Personally, I think this is a masterclass in creating the perfect environment for your message to land with prospective customers.

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.

Meet Clera: your AI talent agent for finding roles you actually want. Clera gets to know what you’re looking for over iMessage and WhatsApp. It surfaces roles you’d actually be excited by and makes direct intros to relevant companies. You hear about good opportunities without spending hours searching and applying.

🚀 PropServ: Fixing Property Maintenance with AI

In an industry weighed down by inefficiency, missed calls, and endless back-and-forth, PropServ is bringing clarity and speed to property maintenance. Founded by Sam and Charlie, the company is building an AI-powered triage platform designed specifically for letting agents, property managers, and build-to-rent operators across the UK.

At its core, PropServ handles one of the most frustrating parts of property management: maintenance requests. Tenants can report issues through an AI phone line, web app, or mobile app, and the platform’s agentic AI triages everything end-to-end. That means false alarms, duplicate reports, and simple fixes are filtered out automatically, while real issues are routed to the right contractor with the right context. The result is less noise, faster resolutions, and significantly reduced operational strain.

Built on Clear Roles and Trust

Sam didn’t build PropServ alone. He was introduced to his Co-Founder Charlie through a mutual connection, and what started as a three-person founding team quickly evolved into the two of them.

From day one, their roles were clearly defined. Charlie focused on the technical side, while Sam led sales and commercial strategy. That clarity removed friction and allowed both founders to move quickly. As the business grew, so did their responsibilities - Charlie stepping into a broader operational role, and Sam transitioning into CEO as the complexity of the company increased.

Early Traction: Starting with a Different Problem

Interestingly, PropServ didn’t start as a maintenance platform.

The original idea focused on helping people moving home gather quotes for removals and furniture - a problem Sam had encountered while working in interior design. That concept gained traction quickly, even landing large estate agency clients and generating revenue early on.

But despite that early success, something was missing. The product wasn’t solving a problem deeply enough. That gap, identified through real customer interaction, ultimately led to the pivot into AI-powered maintenance triage.

Scaling: Listening, Then Positioning Smartly

Two things drove PropServ’s growth after the pivot.

First, they listened closely to their early customers. One specific request, giving tenants a direct way to report issues and adding more control over the process, fundamentally reshaped the product. Instead of building in isolation, they let customer needs dictate direction.

Second, they positioned PropServ as an enhancement, not a replacement. Rather than forcing property managers to adopt entirely new systems, the platform integrates directly into the CRMs they already use. This removes friction, avoids double data entry, and makes adoption far easier.

That decision, to fit into existing workflows rather than disrupt them, has been a major factor in their traction.

Funding: Backed by the Right Signals

PropServ raised a £330k founding round led by Jenson Ventures, but what stands out is where the early capital came from.

Some of the first investors were actually customers - agencies and contractors already using the product. That’s one of the strongest validation signals a startup can have: people not only using what you’ve built, but willing to back it financially.

The business also had an advantage many early-stage startups don’t - it was generating revenue from day one. That meant the raise was about accelerating growth, not simply staying alive.

The Reality: Constant Small Failures

Unlike the typical “one big failure” narrative, Sam describes the journey as a series of small, constant challenges.

Running a startup at this stage means juggling product, sales, hiring, fundraising, and operations all at once. The difficulty isn’t a single defining moment, it’s managing continuous context switching and ensuring small problems don’t turn into large ones.

Key Lessons: Speed, Hiring, and Workflow Fit

The biggest lesson is simple but often ignored: move faster than feels comfortable.

If something isn’t working, whether it’s product, pricing, or people, fix it immediately. Waiting for certainty is a luxury most startups can’t afford.

Another key insight is around hiring. Founder-led sales works early on, but it doesn’t scale forever. Bringing in commercial talent earlier than feels necessary can unlock the next phase of growth.

And finally, in B2B, especially in industries like property, success comes from fitting into how customers already operate. Trying to force new workflows creates friction. Enhancing existing ones creates adoption.

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…