CX platform takes home inaugural Start-up Pitchfest title

With new solutions and services to meet the needs of any CX practitioner, the CX start-up space is thriving.

To showcase some of the most talented and forward-thinking start-ups in customer experience, on 28 June CX Network’s Start-Up Pitchfest streamed to computer screens around the world, as six leading start-ups battled to be named champions in their field.

The online event specifically focused on the B2B technology space and, of all the hopefuls that entered, six start-ups made it through to the final round where they each presented a live, 10-minute pitch to a judging panel of CX experts.

Their pitches were judged by Andrae Kirkland, senior program manager at Twitter; Henriette Jehnert, executive director and head of multichannel contact center services at UBS; Iain Langridge, product and customer experience lead at Amazon Games; Luigi Meschini, head of accelerator funding at The Accelerator Network; and Joshua Tye, CSSGB, CDTP, senior customer operations lead for Cash App.

Reflecting on the event, Tye said: “The Start-Up Pitchfest 2022 was a place where energetic innovation found a home among CX enthusiasts. There is neither a better place to pitch, nor a better way to evaluate a business.”

The start-ups

Each of the six finalists presented a B2B tech solution with the potential to have a dramatic impact on CX leaders and their teams.

Experience-first company Hude Design addresses the disconnection between CX and the digitalization of processes and business functions. Founder and design director Nazim Iqbal took the stage to explain Hude's UX philosophy and why digital transformation must be experience-led.

Putting employees in the CX driving seat, Autopilot Reviews combines a traditional CX tool with an Online Reputation Management Module. The solution was presented by co-founder and CEO Misa Chien.

Former Vodafone executive Yannis Markoulidakis, demonstrated how his start-up, CX Median can leverage machine learning to address the limitations of the NPS framework as a true measure of CX performance.

In a development that could signal the end of the customer survey, OCX Cognition showcased how predictive analytics is the future of customer sentiment tracking. 

Meanwhile, Ania Rodriguez, founder and CEO of JourneyTrack, pitched a solution that she created with the input of Fortune 500 companies. JourneyTrack allows CX professionals to understand, track and prioritize CX, offering customizable template maps with multiple views for CJM, as well as persona mapping and collaboration and admin functions.

And Jonathan Hawkins, co-Founder and CEO of Anthrolytics Ltd, pitched his digital empathy venture, which specializes in predictive behavioral analytics – a new way of combining data and behavioral science to understand and predict human behavior.

Lang said of the caliber of entries: “Diving deep on a great group of CX start-ups, was exciting, and picking one winner was difficult. It’s not hard to see success in all their futures. I walked away really energized that there are exciting new companies who are solving significant challenges in the CX industry.”

The winning pitch

After each pitch the founders were put through their paces in a live Q&A and at the end of the session, OCX Cognition was named the winner of CX Network’s Start-Up Pitchfest 2022.

The firm’s CEO, co-founder and Pitchfest presenter Richard Owen, said of the win: “OCX Cognition is honored to be recognized as the winner of the 2022 Start Up Pitchfest. It was particularly exciting for us that such a well-respected group of CX experts embraced our mission of solving the single biggest CX challenge – lack of quality data and insight – through a shift to predictive analytics. We were all incredibly impressed by the quality of the other entrants and there is little doubt this is a great time for innovation in CX.”