River City Labs recently announced the official launch of a novel chain-swapping startup Bandy Flip as part of its three-month CUA Sponsored Entrepreneur Program.
Now available to download on the App Store, the Bandy Flip app plays like a game and allows you to list and ‘chain trade’ belongings with other users. Items go into a shared trading pool so you can indirectly swap items with other users, meaning the ‘valuation’ of listed items is subjective and based on want and need.
Co-founder of Bandy Flip, Dan McCarthy, explained, “The app gives users the power to trade their items up in value incrementally with no limit to how many trades that can take place. The more flips in the chain, the greater the value of the final settled item. Think ‘one red paperclip’ but from the comfort of your couch.”
Dan commented, “BandyFlip has been a long but incredibly rewarding journey and we are excited for our Brisbane Launch Week.”
“The greatest takeaway from River City Lab’s Sponsored Entrepreneur Program so far has definitely been the peer learning. Working with around 20 other people in a room who are all in similar stages with their start-ups provides an incredible forum for a small business experience. There are some who are further down the line than we are, from whom we are taking in everything we can, and others who are a little behind where BandyFlip is currently, for whom we can provide our own opinions, thoughts and advice. It’s an extremely unique and fast-paced environment to be part of,” Dan added.
How is the Sponsored Entrepreneur Program going?
Bandy Flip is one of five start-ups currently working on developing their business ideas as part of the CUA Sponsored Entrepreneur Program. The start-ups joined the latest round of the program in February and receive full-time membership at River City Lab’s Fortitude Valley co-working space, as well as structured mentoring and access to training and networking events.
The other four start-ups selected for the Sponsored Entrepreneur Program, include:
- Kapiche: An international award-winning Advanced Analytics company that facilitates organisations, both large and small, in managing their enterprise using the Kapiche automated unstructured analytics platform.
- Methodic: Provides ‘big-data’ solutions to turn big data into directly actionable insights, enabling enterprises to market more effectively to their client base.
- My Ice Box: An ‘online legacy’ platform that allows families to store and manage their personal facts and information, including insurance policies, bank accounts and estate issues.
- SportUPs: Makes it easy for individuals to play team sport without the need for a team. SportUPs provides the friendly teammates so members can just enjoy playing.
General Manager of River City Labs, Josh Anthony, commented: “I love that River City Labs gets to be part of Bandy Flip’s official launch. It will be great working directly with them over the next couple of months to accelerate their reach and growth.
“We are over a month into the Sponsored Entrepreneur Program and all the teams are performing really nicely. Their progress is testament to what can be achieved when you have a group of very committed and collaborative entrepreneurs working towards a similar goal,” he said.
CUA’s General Manager of Business Transformation & Technology, Sue Coulter, said Bandy Flip was an innovative and unique idea that could have applications across numerous different settings.
“It’s exciting for CUA to be part of shaping a range of innovative ideas and helping them launch their businesses,” Ms Coulter said.
“The five start-ups are all very different. But each of them has the potential to help strengthen online and offline communities, provide practical solutions to everyday consumer issues or provide businesses like CUA with new tools to better utilise our data and connect with customers.”
Check this out for more on how Bandy Flip works.
