Sensor City talks to Busby
Busby, started its life at Sensor City back in 2016 and having recently received 7-figure investment from Liverpool City Region’s Angel Network’s, we wanted to know more about the personal safety app that has taken the outdoor health technology market by a storm.
Sally Bloor, Head of Marketing at Sensor City, met with co-founders James Duffy and Kirk Ryan earlier this month to find out more about the team behind the tech and what the future has in store for Busby.
Q. Who makes up the Busby team?
James: “Kirk, Barry, Roger and myself make up the founding team. All of us live in Woolton, which has been really helpful during the pandemic, with us all living nearby to one another. We now have 16 developers, four in sales and soon to be two in marketing so it’s growing quite quickly considering there where only four of us before covid hit.”
Q. How did it all begin and what inspired you to launch the Busby app?
James: “Barry. He had a really bad cycling accident near Liverpool John Lennon Airport around 6 years ago and it got us thinking – ‘How can we detect incidents, get help to people quicker than ever before and, in the future, what else can we do around safety and technology’. It all started from there really. Now we’ve got world-first, patent pending, products and a list of exciting opportunities with corporate clients.”
Q. How has Sensor City helped support Busby so far?
Kirk: “Sensor City has helped us connect with the universities and local businesses, both of which have helped drive success through joint collaboration and research opportunities.”
Q. How has Busby fared throughout the Pandemic? Has it had an impact (positively or negatively) on business?
Kirk: “We were very lucky as Busby remained in high demand. With daily exercise suddenly becoming the highlight of most peoples day, many still performed outdoor health activities and, perhaps more than ever, needed the capability to share their safety status with friends and family.”
Q. What are your growth plans for the next five years?
James: “We want to make Busby as widely used as possible by integrating it into partner apps across the world. We want people to think or know of Busby as ‘the app for protection’, so we’ve got some fairly big plans.”
Q. What future tech innovations are you excited about?
Kirk: “We’re techies at heart, so faster, higher bandwidth connectivity is always a plus. We’re also excited about the maturity of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions for the prediction of future trends and providing us more informed business decisions.”
Q. Are there any other Liverpool-based tech businesses that we should watch out for in the future?
Kirk: “No, we’re the only ones you need to keep an eye on. Just kidding – There are so many great tech companies out there and a thriving eco-system developing with Liverpool, that it would be unfair for us to name any one in particular!”
To find out more about the Busby app, visit: https://www.busby.io/