Sure, the latest initiatives from the Teslas, Apples and Googles of the industry tend to dominate the tech news space — and with good reason. Still, the tech titans aren’t the only ones bringing innovation to the sector.
In an effort to highlight up-and-coming startups, Built In has launched The Future 5 across 11 major U.S. tech hubs. Each quarter, we will feature five tech startups, nonprofits or entrepreneurs in each of these hubs who just might be working on the next big thing. Read our round-up of San Francisco’s rising startups from last quarter here.
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If you grew up watching Harry Potter movies, you might remember the Weasley’s clock which showed the general location of every family member via a system of moving spoons. While not powered by magic, one Bay Area early-stage startup is offering something similar to us muggles. Vestaboard is a mounted messaging board that can display messages of up to 132 characters and is changeable from virtually anywhere.
Vestaboard founder and CEO Dorrian Porter got the idea for the sleak, minimalist board while traveling for work. He wanted to be able to communicate with his family in a way that wouldn’t fade into the background of endless phone notifications. Inspired by Vesta, the Roman goddess of hearth and home, Porter came up with Vestaboard, an artfully designed messaging board that users can change the display of from free mobile and web-based applications.
“Vestaboard creates spaces that build human connections,” Porter told Built In via email. “The digital age has left people looking down at their phones, consumed with countless notifications and endless scrolling. Vestaboard gets employees, customers and visitors looking up from their phones for moments of inspiration and information.”
The $2,995 board has multiple uses from keeping families connected across distances to flexible restaurant menu displays.
“We have one customer who has enabled his children to send messages across the Atlantic Ocean to their grandparents in London every day. Through Inspire Community, our program in which we donate one Vestaboard for every 100 sold, a military mom who sustained memory loss in combat uses Vestaboard to recall and share important information with her family,” Porter said. “Using Vestaboard for special celebrations like birthdays, jokes and riddles, dinner menus and welcoming guests are all ways we love to see Vestaboard put into action. Many of our customers have demanding careers and love finding fun and inspiring ways to connect with their favorite people at home or at work. We designed Vestaboard for them.”
Vestaboard has grown a lot since its launch in 2020. This February, the company launched Vestaboard+, an optional, paid software that allows customers to curate and automate content from a growing library of over 200 channels. The software also integrates with third party applications to display information like stock quotes, the weather, sport scores and news. It also has a “Now Playing” feature which can pair with Sonos or Spotify to share currently playing music.
In June, the company also release Vestaboard White, a limited edition take on the company’s sleek, black flagship product.
In the future, Vestaboard plans to shift from a pre-order model to an inventory-based model, likely sometime in the next few months. By next year, the company hopes to start research and development on its second, more economical display.
Vestaboard also continues to grow. It is currently hiring for its engineering and sales teams, according to Porter.
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