Dr Noah Bani-Harouni, CEO and co-founder of Zelvor, talks about the business development of the meeting management start-up in an interview. Zelvor uses advanced algorithms to automatically plan and manage appointments, enabling efficient and dynamic calendar management – the digital personal assistant for everyone. The software integrates seamlessly with existing systems such as Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook, providing a consolidated technology stack. Noah’s business idea was further developed through participation in various Startup Port events, among other things.
Startup Port: Hi Noah, could you start by explaining how the idea for Zelvor came about and what exactly your product does?
Noah Bani-Harouni: The idea for Zelvor came about during my time at EBS University of Business and Law together with my co-founder Nils Möller. We found the coordination of meetings – from coordinating with professors to the back office – very tedious and time-consuming. The existing solutions mainly focussed on external 1:1 meetings and didn’t make this process efficient enough, so we developed a calendar co-pilot. Our tool plans and manages appointments automatically, which saves an enormous amount of time. With Zelvor, appointments can be coordinated with an unlimited number of participants within seconds. The entire administration is automated right up to the execution of the appointment, which prevents scheduling conflicts or cancellations at short notice, for example. Zelvor makes what the personal assistants of partners at management consultancies do accessible to everyone.
Startup Port: How does your product differ from others on the market?
Noah Bani-Harouni: Most of the solutions we are familiar with are simple booking links that are geared towards 1:1 meetings – basically like booking a dentist appointment online. In contrast to these simple booking systems, Zelvor uses advanced algorithms to automate the entire calendar management process. This builds the user’s calendar to (1) match individual meeting preferences, (2) maximise uninterrupted work time and (3) balance mental stress levels by preventing sprawling back-to-back meetings and smart biobreaks. We offer an intelligent solution that not only schedules meetings but also manages complex calendars dynamically and efficiently – a smart end-to-end automation of calendar management where the user can take care of the important things in the office. Zelvor integrates seamlessly with existing calendar systems such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. This makes it easier for users to use without having to change their usual system.
Startup Port: What connections do you have to Hamburg?
Noah Bani-Harouni: I was born and raised in Hamburg and graduated from the Christianeum in 2014. However, none of us at Zelvor studied at a Hamburg university. We moved to the Hanseatic city to found our start-up because we found the Hamburg start-up scene to be ideal for our start-up. We are grateful for the support we have received here in the meantime.
Startup Port: Where is Zelvor currently based?
Noah Bani-Harouni: We work completely remotely, which suits our business model and gives us flexibility and dynamism. While I work from Hamburg most of the time, Nils lives and works from Wiesbaden. The rest of the team is spread across Germany and Europe. However, we organise regular team events where we all meet up in person – most recently in Frankfurt in spring.
Startup Port: How does Startup Port support you with business development?
Noah Bani-Harouni: Startup Port supports us in particular through the Startup Port events. The contact came about through Christine Tiedemann from the FH Wedel. A few months ago, we had the opportunity to present our startup and our ideas to a wider audience at the Pitch’n Ship event organised by PwC on the Alster and to further develop them constructively based on the feedback.
Startup Port: How many founders are there at Zelvor and how is your team made up?
Noah Bani-Harouni: We are three founders: I am the CEO, Nils is the Chief Revenue Officer and then we have someone else for the technical part. We come from very different backgrounds, which allows us to bring a wide range of skills to our start-up. Nils, for example, comes from Düsseldorf, studied at the Solvay Business School in Brussels and has extensive experience in sales and business development.
Startup Port: What challenges did you face during the start-up phase?
Noah Bani-Harouni: The biggest challenge was raising enough capital to be able to concentrate fully on the start-up. In the beginning, we financed ourselves, then we received funding from the IFB. We appreciate the support from Startup Port when it comes to pitching and networking. We are planning to launch a financing round by the end of the year in order to continue growing and scaling our product.
Startup Port: What does the future hold for Zelvor?
Noah Bani-Harouni: We are full of drive. The market for efficient meeting management is large and constantly growing – the response from the beta phase has been extremely good and we have many ideas for the further development of our product through dialogue with our customers. With our innovative approach and advanced automation, we are well positioned to take a leading role in this segment.
In the short term, we are planning the aforementioned financing round; in the long term, we want to make Zelvor the standard for efficient meeting management. Our goal is to create a holistic productivity software for meeting management. While we are currently still focussing on the planning and management of appointments, we want to gradually address other areas such as efficiency or the number of appointments. With Zelvor, we want to give the teams back as much valuable time as possible.
In addition, the AI/ML component is becoming more and more important in our product. Whilst we are currently learning a great deal about user preferences in the context of meetings held and their productivity and mental strain, we will be able to take the intelligence in our product to a much higher level in the future.
Startup Port: Thank you very much for these insights. We wish Zelvor every success!
Noah Bani-Harouni: Thank you, we look forward to the next steps!
