Near-Life is Bolton's Top Startup of 2021

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

Hey Hackers! I’m Mike Todd and I’m the CEO and Founder of Near-Life.

First of all, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the HackerNoon community for recognizing us as the winner of:

The Top Startup in Bolton

HackerNoon Reporter: What does it mean for you to win this title?

There’s been huge development and development and change in the Greater Manchester region over the last two decades - but Bolton, specifically, has faced its own set of challenges. This town has a history of creativity and innovation that we’re proud to be part of and we want to play our part in the revitalization of the area.

How do you or your company intend to embrace the responsibility of this title in 2022?

Continuing to do what we’re doing. We want to push on with the work we’ve started to make Near-Life a leading player in the world of interactive and immersive content. We stand by our founding ambition to be the first interactive video and VR authoring tool for everyone.

What are some of the goals you’re looking forward to accomplishing in 2022 (whether it be through company initiatives or your personal journey)?

We’re looking to raise investment this year to take us to the next level of our journey. We have already have users all over the world but we want more people to understand who we are and how we can improve the way content is created and shared. We are still only at the foothills of what interactive video and interactive VR can offer.

After participating in this journey, is there anything that you would like the HackerNoon team to know?

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. You’re constantly trying to communicate your belief to others. Not everything is plain sailing. But it is a rewarding struggle to try and create and build something that you feel can make a difference in the world.

What is something special about you or your company that you’ve rarely had the chance to properly share but really wanted to? (Give this one a proper think, I’ll know if you didn’t!)

We’re very much rooted in the idea of democratising creativity - empowering our users on their own journey of innovation and creativity. We came from a creative content background and were always inspired by the idea that creativity is part of the human condition, something that we all benefit from. We think our interactive authoring tool has the potential to make the world better at communicating. Ambitious, I know.

What are some concepts you wish people knew more about?

Interactive video and immersive content is still an emergent space. We spend a lot of time trying to share an understanding of the value it can bring. If people already knew more about that, we’d spend less time making the case of the concept - and be able to fast forward to helping explain why our solution is the best and how it can save time, money, effort - and improve results!

Is there anything else you’d like me to know? It can be anything.

If you, or anyone, is interested to find out more about what we do at Near-Life…you can sign up for a demo or free trial at any time!

For more information:

Read the FAQs about Startups here or here. To see all of the winners you may visit this site, pick any city and view the name that appears at the top. Or follow this account for posts with the list of names released over the course of the week of February 14, 2022.

Thank you to all of our sponsors! We truly appreciate your contribution to the tech world and thus the future!

Startups:

Blockster, Brex, FreeCodeCamp, LaunchDarkly, Coil, Udacity, Udemy, Vercel, Asia Pacific Transgender Network, Bybit, Everscale Network