ekipa vs Houston

The global marketplace for software teams

ekipa is the global marketplace for software teams.

ekipa helps customers get their software projects done (or IT problems resolved) by matching projects/problems with best-suitable teams.
Importantly, teams are co-located, vetted and have experience (technology, domain, industry) in specific customer problems.

Ekipa addresses:
the outsourcing partner search problem (so far partners are sought with help of Google or own network),
partner quality check problem (teams are vetted) and
delivery risk problem (teams work in agile way where frequent delivery decreses the risk of the final delivery failure)

Tap into your pre-launch email list for valuable feedback and referrals, so you can launch a winning product.

Many startups pour time and money into building a product without first getting to know their potential customers. When the day comes to launch, they have no one interested in buying it. They may have a great product and no audience, or worse, they may have built something that nobody wants. Both can be fatal, but also avoided, by building an early audience and involving them in the product development process.

Houston is a simple audience engagement tool for pre-launch startups. Our product helps them build their waiting list with viral referral tools, keep their subscribers engaged with a drip email campaign, and learn from their potential first customers with email micro-surveys. As their email list grows and more subscribers share their feedback, our customers are able to quickly identify those that are potential interview candidates, beta testers, influencers, and customers.

What makes Houston different?
Houston is different in that it focuses on tapping into early adopter email lists for feedback and valuable insights. There are plenty of products available for email marketing, surveys and list building, but none that tie it all together in a simple solution for pre-launch startups.

What are micro-surveys?
Micro surveys are short, targeted and timely questions. While the typical survey is thought of as a long-form questionnaire with multiple questions to answer, micro-surveys are typically one simple question. In the case of Houston, we let users place a single question in each email to their subscribers.