Smoobility:  Instant access to your files on any device.

Many times I found myself in underground or in a plane unable to read my documents stored in some cloud storage services, or if I didn’t bring my laptop home I just couldn’t mail those presentations I had been working on.

It’s sometimes difficult to access and use your documents as your would like, specially in the multi-device world we live in today.

I had the opportunity to interview Christophe Cubat and Jorge García-Luengo, who propose a solution to that problem: Smoobility.

Smoobility is a platform that helps multi-device owners organize their digital world, and access their documents seamlessly from any context, even when they find themselves offline.

How does Smoobility work?

Smoobility lets its users organize the documents they have located in different devices and cloud storage services so they can keep a unique organization across their digital world.

It also makes all those documents available from any device. We achieve this by using a predictive engine that identifies the most relevant content according to the user’s needs, preferences and habits. It decides which files the user will need and downloads them to the device in advance, so the user can always access the document he wants, even when he’s device can’t access the network.

What is your business model?

The users need to make a subscription to the software. Initially, we will charge a monthly fee, however, the business model is evolving and this will be adjusted accordingly. We are more focused on the value proposition at this stage of development, and charging the customers is mainly a way to validate your service.

How long have you been working on this idea?

Christophe had the idea during his PhD obtained in 2005, but the context was not ready at technical, social and business level. With the raise of cloud computing and multi-device owners, the time had come to fully develop the idea, and one year ago Christophe decided to commit at 100% to Smoobility.

In the spring of 2013 Christophe was looking for a co-founder to take in charge the Business Development. As a result, Jorge joined Smoobility four months ago, and both are working together to build up the enterprise.

What role do the members play in the company?

Smoobility is a project with two heads:

Christophe, CEO and CTO, PhD in Computer Science, is in charge of technical strategy and product development. He participated to the FittingBox startup creation where he was software architect. Then, he was Innovative Bid & Program Manager in Thales for four years, running collaborative innovation projects for the European Commission with international partners.

Jorge, Chief Business Development Officer, MBA from IE Business School, is responsible for business and development strategy. He has worked in Real Estate and Banking industries as well as a Consultant for SMEs and startups.

In your opinion, what are the most important personality traits to be a successful entrepreneur?

Christophe: Humility, listen to other people and be open to criticisms. Knowing that you’re not perfect is important. We need to be confident, but not egotistical. Be flexible to adjust to new information and changing circumstances, but with a clear vision of what you want to achieve.

Jorge: Balanced, sense of balance between being a visionary person and a good listener. Having the ability to see what others cannot see and maintain clear focus as well as the capacity to listen what others are willing to share with you, and learn from.

Who is Smoobility target market?

The target market is e-professionals and knowledge workers. This professionals work in different environments, in their clients office, at home, in their own office, with partners, and they value their time expensively. They also use at least three devices, they value the mobility that comes with tablets and smartphones, but they prefer their laptops and desktops to accomplish certain tasks.

What is the stage of project now?

We have a prototype.  We launched the beta in July and we’ll be including more control groups in the Beta in September. The high fidelity MVP will be published for public distribution in October.

What have you learned from your experience as entrepreneurs?

Christophe: We have to be able to identify our strengths and weaknesses and focus on which you are really good. Learn to delegate. It doesn’t mean losing control.

Jorge: To find a partner with compatible working way. In startups, you expect that good things happen every two months, so you need a team that works well and pace of startup. You have to believe that things happen; you must have resources to do them.

Next steps…

• Grow the team by including two software engineers.
• Validate the version, which is coming out in September.
• Launch Friends & Family in October.

Contact:

contact@smoobility.com