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Venture companies face a large volume of tasks and the need to make decisions quickly daily, which is due to the specifics of such companies. Some tasks require a quick response with only employees. For others, it is necessary to select a tool from the technology field that can significantly improve the company's efficiency and avoid possible risks. Conventionally, they can be divided into websites and mobile applications, which equally solve the tasks set by the company. There can be many such problems because there is the factor of unpredictability, which a company must take into account when organizing the workflow of the whole team.

As a technology service provider, we have experience working with venture capital companies and know their challenges. We have compiled a list of the main ones that can be solved with a mobile app:

• Lack of information 

Venture capital funds often need more information about potential projects, industries, and trends. Finding potential projects is a responsible task that takes a lot of time. And knowing industries and trends will help a company stay one step ahead of its competitors and run its business more efficiently. Therefore, developing a mobile application can help collect and process a large amount of data quickly and efficiently, allowing the fund to make informed investment decisions. 

• Slow decision-making process

The decision-making process in venture capital funds can be slow and time-consuming. That is due to the slow pace of information gathering, analysis, and drawing conclusions based on the data. Venture capital funds have a tremendous amount of internal information. Analyzing it manually requires a considerable amount of time and people, which slows down the overall pace of the company. In this case, developing a mobile application will help automate the process of collecting and processing information, speeding up the decision-making process and helping reduce the time and money spent on this work. 

• Ineffective portfolio management

Venture capital firms have a lot of investments, and managing a portfolio can be a daunting task. You need to consider the total number of projects, their dynamics, and all changes to react quickly if necessary. Automating these processes will make it easier for a company to manage its business and take on new projects. In this case, you need an application that will track and analyze the effectiveness of each project in the portfolio and track its dynamics to help the company manage it more efficiently.

• Limited access to investors

Venture capital funds may need more access to potential investors and partners. Each new project requires significant investments. Therefore, venture capital funds must attract reliable funding sources. But this process also requires time and labor to analyze and select investors interested in a long-term cooperation. The app's development will help funds reach more potential investors, and partners will expand their circle of contacts.

The latest trends in mobile apps for investors and venture capitalists

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Ventures are directly related to investing in promising startups and, accordingly, in cutting-edge technology. To keep up with the times, tech-savvy investors are integrating mobile apps into the workflow of VCs. 

Typically, these applications include functionality to manage and track portfolio financials, manage business contacts and communications, analyze data, and predict investment success. Moreover, they can provide access to experts and industry leaders for advice and mentorship, which can help accelerate the development of startups and increase their chances of future success.

Here are examples of mobile apps used by VCs mostly:

• Mobile applications for productivity & collaboration

Business is only complete with communication with colleagues and partners. Many applications help to establish and maintain communication between all participants in business processes. They improve communication within the team, help receive timely information, and also help to strengthen business relationships with partners and clients. And that can increase efficiency and lead to new opportunities for venture-backed businesses. They can also help companies solve problems such as a lack of information about potential projects and investment news. 

The main objectives of such applications are to simplify the workflow as much as possible, to significantly reduce the number of emails for more critical issues, to automate the processes of searching and analyzing potential startups, and to create an environment for interaction between investors and entrepreneurs.

Usually, such applications include essential functions such as messaging, video conferencing systems, and social networks for professional communication.

• Networking mobile applications

These apps typically serve as a platform to connect entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders in the startup ecosystem. The main problem they solve is expanding the circle of investors and partners for the long term.

The main tasks of such applications are to provide users with a platform to communicate with others involved in the investment process, facilitate funding opportunities, and support the growth of innovative companies.

Talking about the specific functionality of such applications, we can include the basic set, such as profile and networking creation, according to users' business needs, event management by investment interests, content sharing, tracking investment portfolio progress with analytics and metrics, and protecting confidential user information.

• CRM & Automation mobile applications

This type of application is designed to optimize and automate sales, marketing, and customer service processes. They are of great help to companies when there is a problem with the automation of internal processes, such as investment portfolio management or information collection and processing. 

The main tasks of such applications are to optimize and automate sales, marketing, and customer service processes, improve efficiency and productivity, and provide information for data-driven decision-making.

From the general functionality, we can highlight the following: the ability to manage leads and information about them, automation of such tasks as sending emails and scheduling meetings, automation of marketing tasks, automation of customer service tasks (case management, chatbot support), the ability to track sales performance, the ability to integrate with other tools and platforms that are used by venture capital companies.

• Contacts Management mobile applications

These applications help users organize and manage their contacts, including customers, investors, partners, and other stakeholders. They will help companies that have certain problems with collecting and processing information about potential investors, as well as do not have an established automated process for working with partners.

The main tasks here are to help users organize and manage their contacts more effectively, improve communication and collaboration, and build stronger relationships with their network of stakeholders.

The functionality of such applications includes the ability to create and store contact information; segment their contacts based on various criteria; import and export contact lists from other tools and platforms; track communication with each contact, including emails, phone calls, and meetings; set reminders and receive notifications about follow-up tasks and collaborate with other team members in contact management.

• Company Research mobile applications

Venture research applications are designed to help users research and analyze potential investment opportunities. In other words, to help find new investment sources and opportunities for promising projects. If a company needs to invest in current projects or has the plan to expand investment capital in the future, an app to find such potential opportunities will be an urgent need.

The main tasks are to help users make informed investment decisions by providing access to detailed information and insights into potential investment opportunities.

The functionality of such applications covers the following list: the ability to access a database of companies that meet their investment criteria; select companies by various measures, such as stage of funding, revenue, and market size; conduct market research on specific industries and trends to help inform their investment decisions; and analyze the competitive landscape for each company; manage their investment portfolio, including tracking performance, monitoring news and events, and analyzing trends; users also can collaborate with other team members when researching companies, such as sharing notes and opinions.

Summary

Each venture capital firm is unique and has different goals, so venture capital software reflects the additional functionality built into it from the beginning. The key takeaway is that mobile apps and their customized functionality help automate the collection of investment market information, attracting funding sources through new partners, creating financial reports, and displaying them conveniently for the company. 

As the investing world becomes increasingly digital, apps can help venture capitalists do their day-to-day work optimally. There is also a high demand for mobile apps and other digital tools to minimize repetitive tasks, increase productivity and streamline the deal-making process.

All this is the basis for the company's effective functioning, and the data collected by the program is the basis for making investment decisions.

Telehealth, simply put, is some type of delivery. It helps to provide health care services when patients and health professionals are separated by distance via remote technologies. Telehealth uses technologies for the exchange of information for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and injuries for the patients. Live video conferencing, mobile health apps and remote patient monitoring (RPM) are examples of technologies used in telehealth.

It’s Healthtech time

Telehealth is improving the healthcare industry in many ways, the first of which is increasing its accessibility. Telehealth allows specialists to visit patients virtually from any place in the world by improving access as well as making a wider range of healthcare services available via telemedicine.

Today’s Telehealth environment consists of a global ecosystem of myriad digital solutions.  There are two alarming end-users trends that you should pay attention to when considering Telehealth design and solutions.

1. What doctors struggle the most with
2. What people looking for when they choose the healthcare providers

Providing virtualized healthcare to any place in the world is one of the best-known applications of telehealth. But the medical industry is using it in several other ways, including:

• Urgent help in distance. It can be a headache or sore throat. There are many medical complaints that aren’t life-threatening, but they need some professional attention. Virtual care services allow skilled health personnel to treat minor complaints, including providing appropriate prescriptions.
• Stay in contact. Qualified medical personnel can use messages, phone and video calls to follow up the patients after they are discharged from the hospital. This way, improves worker productivity from not having to take time off and travel to appointments and ensures each patient understands the importance and carries out recovery and treatment plans. Also, telehealth platforms can automate much of the communication process, including sending reminders to the patients.
• Updating online prescription. Telehealth provides the possibility to update online prescriptions even If you’ve been unable to get to your own doctor to refill a current prescription.
• Monitoring of patients with chronic conditions. For these patients, it is one of the best benefits of telehealth. Virtual care helps those who have mobility issues, mental illness, and other conditions that may prevent them from going to in person medical appointments.
• Facilitating care to rural areas. Telehealth is a great way to provide patients in places that are outside the current health delivery system with access to quality care. In the event of a medical emergency, telemedicine makes it possible to coordinate with specialists in other regions without wasting time to provide patients with effective treatment.
• Increased patient satisfaction. In addition to referrals, many patients assess and choose healthcare providers through online reviews. As such, you must have positive reviews that will attract new patients. Telemedicine helps improve patient satisfaction scores by providing convenience of care and reducing wait time. The providers have the opportunity to offer remote services to the patients and make it convenient for them to receive medical attention. Also, this process reduces in-hospital visits.
  

All right, let’s move on to the design

Telehealth platforms require a unique approach to service design. As you can imagine, it isn’t the same way, say, for a food delivery service.

Telehealth is not about technology, it’s about people

That’s a good reminder that you need to create space for telehealth that provides human connections and assistance. The healthcare industry is unique and complex, and it can be challenging to set up. Establishing fundamental principles to guide telehealth design will help us keep sight of the user experience and user journey throughout different healthcare systems.

In this article, we’ll highlight the important and unique challenges in the design faced by digital health companies and startups.

1. Research. To begin, you need a shared understanding of how you usually provide face to face care. You will need a solid understanding of the patient’s journey through your service.
2. Construction. Based on our research findings, you need to discuss them with your client. There is the moment when you draft innovative solutions and delve into user journeys. We identify the most promising ideas based on jointly developed options. Service design can be quite abstract. The main idea is to find key service touchpoints.
3. Strategize and develop Next, it is necessary to work with your clients to co-create a product roadmap and business strategy. Together with medical professionals, you develop an extensive plan of the envisioned telehealth design, listing interactions between users, new processes, and workflows. Also, don’t forget to define the physical and digital things that will be used. By the end of this step, you’ve created visual content and material to start the development process.
4. Taking it live. From our experience, we recommend turning digital and physical artifacts into minimum viable products (MVP).  MVP is essential to clinical trials. There is a product that has basic features and can be used to get feedback from the users.

After the main last modifications, it’s time for launch! At this stage, it’s important to provide testing to ensure that the envisioned workflow and interactions are happening as intended.

That’s it

To sum up, telemedicine is full of benefits for patients and healthcare providers. When people have had a taste of telehealth, they’re willing to continue using this convenient care option.

Telehealth’s future looks very bright, doesn’t it?

Also, it’s obvious to see continued strong growth and upgrade around devices, communication channels, telemedicine services, and telehealth platforms. Look for them to become increasingly user-friendly and convenient. As this happens, we can expect to see a resulting increase in users. After all, good design is the right way to improve engagement.

Designers will need to imagine themselves in both the patients’ and providers’ roles during the preparation for the start to create the design for telehealth. Every detail of a visit, from the method of scheduling appointments to the distribution of follow-up procedures, should be carefully planned to ensure the best outcomes and clear understanding.

We can expect to see digital pharmacies, virtual appointments, online triage tools, and remote monitoring gain in popularity. It may well become the new normal in healthcare.

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In today's world of IT technologies, cooperation with Ukrainian developers is becoming more and more relevant and promising. Ukraine is ranked as one of the world's top IT service providers and continues to hold that position.

Ukrainian IT market overview

Today, the Ukrainian IT market has positive growth dynamics, as Ukraine is a more favorable center of cooperation than other countries. Why is this so? It is due to our specialists' high level of education, scientific potential, the country's proximity to the European market, and favorable tax conditions. The close geographical location to Europe also ensures faster and more efficient communication between clients and developers. All this makes it possible to double Ukraine's export revenues in the next 4 years.

Currently, more than 200,000 Ukrainian developers work in the international market. That demonstrates the high level of qualification and professionalism of IT specialists who successfully work on projects of any scale and complexity.

In 2021-2022, the IT industry grew by 36%, from $5 billion to $6.8 billion in exports. Over the past three years, these figures have almost doubled, and the growth trend is quite stable. Despite the war and issues many IT companies face nowadays, the IT sector is still a driving force in the Ukrainian economy and continues to develop. 

The majority of IT companies today work remotely. But this does not prevent participants in the development process from creating digital products, being in touch with the client, and providing timely updates on the work done. During the full-scale invasion of the aggressor country, all Ukrainian companies have adapted to the new reality and are ready for force-majeure situations at any level. 

Our company did not disrupt any project over the past year and delivered all developed products to each customer. Moreover, our practical work resulted in the support of foreign customers who want to cooperate only with Ukrainian companies on convenient terms.

Development tasks that Ukrainian developers solve

Ukrainian developers today are among the most in-demand in the world. Through continuous development and training, top-notch IT specialists contribute to developing international products and participate in their launch and maintenance. They successfully solve many development tasks and problems, including:

1. Complex technical projects

‍Ukrainian developers have high technical expertise and can implement projects of any complexity. They use the most advanced technologies and programming languages, such as Java, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, etc.

2. Mobile application development

A significant amount of experience is available among Ukrainian developers in developing mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms using React Native, Ionic, and other technologies. They know how to create intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that satisfy users' needs. They also specialize in developing cross-platform applications that run on multiple operating systems, which can significantly speed up the development process and reduce project costs. 

3. E-commerce platform development 

Ukrainian developers also have considerable experience in developing online stores and e-commerce platforms. They are familiar with major CMS systems such as Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce.

4. Software development 

It is well known that Ukrainian developers create high-quality software. They know how to write code that will work quickly, efficiently, and reliably. They also have experience in various areas, such as web development, mobile development, artificial intelligence, and more. Ukrainian developers often use modern technologies and development methods such as Agile, Scrum, and DevOps to ensure high quality and fast development time.

5. Integration and maintenance

Besides developing new software, Ukrainian developers integrate it with existing systems and maintain them. They are ready to solve problems during the operation and ensure the smooth operation of the applications.

6. Cybersecurity

Ukrainian developers actively work in cybersecurity, providing reliable protection of information and data. They know how to protect applications from threats like hacker attacks, viruses, and other malware. And also use modern technologies and methods such as data protection, encryption, and authentication to keep software secure.

Advantages of cooperation with Ukrainian developers

Cooperation with Ukrainian developers today is one of the most advantageous options for companies looking for reliable and experienced IT specialists. Ukraine is one of the world's leaders in the IT services market, thanks to its talented and highly qualified developers capable of fulfilling tasks of any complexity.

• One of the main advantages of working with Ukrainian developers is the high quality of their work. Ukrainian developers have an extensive experience in various fields of IT. They follow the latest trends and use the most advanced technologies. Due to this, they can realize tasks of any complexity, including creating complex websites, mobile applications, software development, and much more.

• In addition, Ukrainian developers are known for their speed and efficiency. They strive to complete their projects on time without compromising the quality of their work. Ukrainian IT companies are also ready to provide flexible working conditions, including working in different time zones, which makes cooperation with them even more convenient and effective.

• One more advantage of cooperation with Ukrainian developers is their price competitiveness. Ukraine offers more favorable conditions for cooperation than other countries while maintaining a high quality of work and professionalism. That allows companies to save on costs without losing quality.

• ‍Flexible cooperation conditions are another advantage of Ukrainian developers. Many of them work remotely, which makes their services more flexible and accessible to clients from all over the world. That reduces the cost of organizing work with remote teams and the time required to find the right specialists. In addition, even remote communication with Ukrainian developers allows you to respond quickly to changes in the project and solve any problems that may arise. Also, communication with Ukrainian developers is in English, which facilitates interaction with customers from around the world.

Summary

Ukraine is one of Europe's largest exporters of IT services, with an excellent knowledge base, great motivation, and great opportunities. Despite the Russian invasion, Ukrainian IT companies continue to provide quality services, support the economy, and maintain a high rate of development and continuous growth.

Cooperation with the Ukrainian company is not only a guarantee of quality work but also support for Ukrainian businesses and Ukraine as a whole. Numerous IT companies survived difficult times and are gaining momentum in their activities due to the trust of international customers and the continuous work of the development team. 

Daria Lalaiants, CEO of Darly Solutions, met with Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons on 8th of September 2020.

As a member of YBC, the Ukrainian top closed community for young entrepreneurs, Daria shared insights about building IT business in Ukraine as well as how COVID impacted Darly Solutions and the industry overall.

The venue for the meeting was a 5 start hotel Kharkiv Palace which back in 2018 has been awarded as the best business hotel 5* in Europe conveniently located in the heart of the city, just a block away from Darly Solution office.

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