Being a founder of a tech startup is exciting, but there’s one thing that’s been a bit of a challenge for me: explaining what I actually do. We started Stomio, a company that helps other companies run beta tests for their hardware products, but when I try to explain it to friends and family, their eyes usually glaze over. Even after five years, my wife still says, "what you’re building looks cool, but I still have no idea what your company does!"
This got me thinking: if the people closest to me don’t get it, maybe I’m not explaining it in the simplest way possible. So, I decided to try something different. I sat down with my 10-year-old kid to explain what I do. And you know what? It worked! Now, I’m sharing that same explanation here, so everyone can understand what Stomio is all about.
Imagine you just got a cool new gadget, like a smartwatch, before anyone else. But before the company starts selling it to everyone, they want to make sure it works perfectly. So, they ask people like you to try it out and tell them if anything doesn’t work right. This is called beta testing.
Beta testing is like giving a product to a group of people to play with before it’s officially released. These people use the product just like they would if they bought it themselves, and then they tell the company what they liked and what needs to be fixed.
Now, why would a company want to do this? Let’s say you’re playing a new video game, but you notice that sometimes the game freezes, or a character gets stuck in a wall (that actually happened to us playing Zelda!). That would be frustrating, right? If the company had let some people test the game first, they could’ve found these problems and fixed them before everyone else started playing.
The same thing goes for gadgets. If a company skips beta testing, they might end up selling a product that doesn’t work well, and people will be unhappy. But with beta testing, they can find and fix problems, making sure their customers are happy when they finally get the product.
Here comes the tricky part, at this point my kid understood the what and why about beta testing process but thought that I we do run the tests for our clients :D so I had to iterate, simplify and explain:
Running a beta test sounds simple, but for companies making smart gadgets like watches, home assistants, or fitness trackers, it’s a lot of work. They have to keep names and addresses of all the people testing the product, ask them about their experience (collect their feedback), and make sure they fix all the problems before selling the product (launching).
This is where Stomio comes in. Stomio is like a special tool that helps companies organize all the steps in a beta test. It makes sure that everything runs smoothly, from sending out the product to collecting feedback from testers.
So, that’s what I do! I created a tool that helps companies make sure their new gadgets work perfectly before they start selling them. By explaining it to my 10-year-old, I realized that sometimes, the best way to make something clear is to keep it simple. Now, I hope that after reading this, everyone can understand what Stomio does!
Ibrahim Menem
Co-Founder