"Standing Desk is OVER" l Pitch.tech EP 01

Name: "Standing Desk is OVER" l Pitch.tech EP 01
Duration: 12 min 44 s
Description: Pitch.tech is a startup competition hosted by EO and .Tech Domains, bringing early-stage founders building with disruptive technologies to the heart of Silicon

EO12:44Added Aug 31, 2026

Pitch.tech is a startup competition hosted by EO and .Tech Domains, bringing early-stage founders building with disruptive technologies to the heart of Silicon Valley. It is where bold startups on .tech domains get game-changing insights from top VCs.

Watch on YouTube →

Contributed by 刘嘉琪

Transcript

00:01welcome to pitch. Tech where Innovative
00:03startups showcase their technology in
00:05the heart of silon Valley we'll pitch
00:06their solution to a panel of esteemed
00:08investors hi I'm uh tah n I'm co-founder
00:12of storm Ventures we've raised seven
00:14funds for a total of $1.2 billion we've
00:17had 12 unicorns companies such as
00:19maretto Vado uh I'm John Willie so I'm
00:23now a three-time Founder I also teach at
00:25Stanford I teach cs22 24g which is one
00:27of the most popular classes in Stanford
00:29about building uh applications using
00:31large language models pitch. Tech is
00:33dedicated to highlighting startups that
00:35use disruptive Technologies to forge
00:37Innovations let's meet the innovators
00:39shaping the future of
00:41tech pitch. tech is where bold startups
00:44ontech domains get gamechanging insights
00:46from Top VCS Tech domain instantly
00:48signals you're all about Cutting Edge
00:50Tech and Innovation building a tech
00:52startup build it on dote
01:00good thank you guys this my journey has
01:04been from the UK all the way through San
01:07Francisco we're very grateful for the
01:09opportunity that that's that's come to
01:10us we're buzzed about this hi we're
01:13humble works I'm here to tell you about
01:15a problem that is costing the world
01:17around a trillion pounds my background
01:19is in sustainable design and renewable
01:21energy to help with this crisis I pulled
01:23together the team that I thought would
01:24be best fit to solve this there are
01:271.3 billion information workers around
01:30the globe that are sitting at their
01:32laptops hunched over as they're working
01:33remotely we're going to focus on 145
01:36million remote employees that are in the
01:39UK the EU and the US 88% of managers
01:43don't believe their remote work teams
01:45are working as productively as they
01:47could be here's how we solve this
01:48problem by moving during the course of
01:50the workday we can unlock 17% more
01:53productivity and drop sick days by 25%
01:56how do you move during the workday and
01:57stay productive we've built an ecosystem
02:00an Adaptive ecosystem fully sustainable
02:03sophisticated feels right at home or
02:04works at the office that allows you to
02:06move from position to position and stay
02:09productive it's all well and good as
02:10promising managers CEOs the 177%
02:13Improvement in productivity can we prove
02:16that yes we can 17% Improvement in
02:18productivity is captured by and measured
02:21using the humble Works app our goal for
02:23move to measure is to then create a
02:26report the reports going to be buffered
02:28and anonymized so individualized data
02:30isn't available but will be presented to
02:32a manager who then understands where the
02:35information or the work gaps are between
02:37him and his Workforce and at some point
02:40over the next year all goes to well all
02:42goes to plan we plan to create an AI
02:44manager to supplement and to possibly
02:46replace managers in some cases to have
02:49entire teams being managed through an AI
02:51dashboard and our Revenue model is to
02:54charge
02:55£119 per employee in year one employees
02:58will get the full humble work Suite full
03:00humble Works Suite includes the standing
03:02desk the workstation the Rochester and
03:05humble Works app to help you track
03:08movement as you progress from one point
03:09to the next year two will be the manager
03:12report that's now going to show you the
03:14granular data that we've gathered
03:16gathered in year one and give you live
03:18real-time feedback on how you're working
03:20and optimize your entire workday by year
03:23three we'll have the app the manager
03:26dashboard and environment scan used
03:29through the existing camera on your on
03:31your laptop by year three we're planning
03:34to take on the insurance industry it's a
03:38fragmented industry that needs work with
03:40our granular data that we've gathered
03:42and the root cause of the health issue
03:44being sitting down all day leading to
03:46all of the other issues will teach us
03:48exactly where those Health preventative
03:51indicators will come from this is the
03:54saving in year one compared to what
03:56people usually spend right now per
03:57employee right we will save employees
03:59employers 1,400 year 1 1,680 year 2 and
04:042,600 year 3 here's how we'll do that
04:06they're currently suspending around
04:08£750 per employee in health insurance
04:12loss in productivity and loss in sick
04:15days are all the mitigating points that
04:18we're going to bring to the market and
04:19Save in in all of those costs across the
04:21board can we do this can we pull this
04:23off with just the standing desk alone we
04:25generated a million in sales at the end
04:27of 2023 just the standing desk by itself
04:30and at that point we pivoted and decided
04:32movement was the bigger play at hand
04:34thank you for your time really
04:35appreciate it if you raise the money you
04:38said2 million uh what are you going to
04:41achieve and by when so in year one we'd
04:44like to build the um AI manager
04:46dashboard and the AI manager dashboard
04:48would take the data from year one and
04:50build an entire framework for how you
04:53should be working and all of that data
04:55is then going to be presented back to
04:56you as a full breakdown of where where
04:58you should be at the end of to we would
05:00like to have the environment scan built
05:03in well what I'm trying to figure out is
05:05if I invest today will next round be
05:09like a double or triple the price
05:10otherwise there's no reason for me to
05:12invest today right let's imagine you
05:14invest today in two years from now the
05:17data that we would have gathered from
05:18movement that nobody else is gathering
05:20from how people are working from home
05:22will put us in a position where the
05:23following round that we go for will be
05:255x what we're aiming for now just saying
05:28collecting data will be enough to get 5x
05:30the price that's to me like feels like a
05:31really different business where it's
05:32like okay let's spy on the SP spy on the
05:35employees like make sure that they're
05:36kind of like being productive and
05:37working we have uh desks that move up
05:39and down they are standing they don't
05:41use what you say and yeah and I think
05:43that well usually what typically happens
05:45is that uh you know we got the ones that
05:46have the the memory and everything like
05:48that you can just push a button it
05:50immediately go to the next setting
05:51pretty much every single person they
05:53either keep it up or they keep it down
05:55they're not moving it up and down you
05:57know all all the time I mean this kind
05:58of gets the other part of the problem
06:00which is like well like you're trying to
06:02change people's behavior yeah right and
06:04like it's going to be like oh and then
06:06you know how do you do it in another way
06:07that it's going to be like that it's
06:09going to be accepted by the by the users
06:11they going to be like you know is it
06:13like the nag screen that's going to come
06:14up and say like hey it's time for you to
06:17to to get up and walk around or is it
06:19like hey I mean because I think it would
06:21be if you just give hey I have the
06:23options of like putting my desk up or
06:26down I have options of putting it my
06:28laptop on know higher or lower uh I mean
06:31the the stuff that I've seen is that
06:32people I mean often people aren't aren't
06:34doing that which is I mean it's part of
06:36the root of the problem where it's like
06:37okay people have bad posture because
06:39they don't even realize like like
06:41necessarily they have they have this bad
06:42posture but then also like you don't you
06:44don't um you know it's challenging to be
06:46like the kind of Nag wear whatever
06:48that's going to be like oh well well the
06:50camera shows that you're slouching why
06:52like why why why don't you set up
06:53straight stuff so what what are what are
06:55your thoughts there brilliant question
06:56and I'm glad you all in fact the um the
06:58house we were kind of uh joining and and
07:01we're staying with um have a hack house
07:02and they have standing desks we have we
07:05all have standing desks we don't use
07:06them and in fact I'm I'm going to say
07:07something that's that's probably going
07:09to sound controversial but standing
07:10isn't the answer to go from sitting to
07:12just standing it's recently been proven
07:14that you'll burn a few more calories but
07:16it's not solving the problem which is
07:17why we pivoted in 2023 towards movement
07:20and towards creating behavioral change
07:22by benchmarking using the humble Works
07:24app once you understand where you are in
07:27context of a leaderboard cuz that that
07:29will be part of the next step and how
07:31you've performed the metrics that you're
07:34now playing with or the switches you're
07:35now turning up and down are going to be
07:37or the ones that are uh available to you
07:40is mood move and productivity so what
07:43our goal is is to show you over a period
07:45of time as a baseline here's where you
07:47are and after a few weeks it takes 21
07:50days and so what's the time period I
07:52mean like in terms of like hey I
07:53implement this like at what point am
07:55going to see the ROI our goal is to go
07:56into a company and to propose a 25% roll
07:59out to their work from home stuff right
08:01to find the teams that would be
08:03reluctant resistant or the teams that
08:05would jump on and say yeah I'm I'm up
08:07for this the early the early adopters
08:08all the way through the ones that can to
08:09be relaxant right and the app is going
08:12to set a baseline over three weeks it's
08:14going to set a Baseline and the the
08:16Baseline for that app would be here's
08:17where we are before the humble work
08:19suite comes in and allows us to move
08:21from position to position here's me
08:23sitting down hunched over my laptop like
08:25everyone else in those 1.3 billion
08:27information workers right
08:30and then three weeks later we introduced
08:32The Humble work Suite from that point on
08:35with within three months our goal is to
08:37show productivity Spike whether it's a
08:40few perc or goes all the way up to what
08:41we're promising at 17% there's going to
08:43be a marked difference in productivity
08:46so maybe we could talk about like what
08:48the current status is you know how many
08:50units are deployed how much data are you
08:52getting per month right now all that
08:54we've just completed the the the full
08:56build so the entire humble works is
08:58bootstrapped so built it from scratch
09:00and at the end of 2023 I pivoted away
09:03from just selling standing desks by
09:05themselves we focus on building the tech
09:07building the full suite and use the uh
09:11so you're right now in the process of
09:12getting the data and all that right now
09:15absolutely so right now in the process
09:16of Market penetration and and and and
09:18adops to encourage movement uh many of
09:21our some of the meetings are we just
09:23walking meetings we just walk around the
09:25block so that that's why I'm not sure
09:27this you know app or chair will would
09:29make a difference no of course see see
09:32imagine this as this point where
09:35nobody's done this before up until this
09:37point everyone's very easily said I'll
09:40spend £3,000 on a an expensive ergonomic
09:43chair that'll go up back will go in and
09:45that's it and nobody's really embraced
09:47this idea of what if we change this the
09:50the entire status quo if we change the
09:52dynamic and we we built this homogeneous
09:55way of working where all of my employees
09:57are now working in the same way if I set
09:59up an office I wouldn't allocate and
10:00just throw a budget out and say right
10:02you can have a sofa if you'd like you
10:03can have this sort of chair you more
10:04than the office would be fair sterile
10:07and look quite homogeneous with a
10:08similar setup along the way thank you I
10:10appreciate it I think today's Q&A helped
10:13me understand the gaps um the linear
10:16storytelling and um the presentation of
10:19the pitch that can then mitigate the
10:20gaps you would get towards the the Q&A I
10:23feel like I answer the Q&A as best as I
10:25could uh but possibly having more uh
10:29tangible and statistical U evidence at
10:32the Q&A would have helped because it's
10:35almost like you have your appendix ready
10:37and your appendix could then validate
10:38the rest of the the questions there and
10:40then so possibly having an appendix and
10:42helping shape the framing the pitch in
10:45in a structured order that would help
10:47the dot te is is just this absolute uh
10:51logical next step to have um a um an
10:56easy way for people to understand it's
10:58not a standing Des company anymore it's
11:01now a technology company and this is
11:03where we're going and dotech shortcuts
11:07that process or I imagine hopefully
11:09shortcuts that process are people going
11:12oh that's humble Works they do standing
11:13desks no they humble works. Tech and
11:17they must have a tech site to this what
11:19is that tech oh there's an app and now
11:22there's a manager report and now there's
11:24uh AI bills into it I found that uh uh
11:27the quantitative uh benefit
11:29to be a little questionable what I mean
11:32by that is uh uh um his product is just
11:36starting to get deployed right now and
11:39as a result he doesn't have a lot of
11:41data back yet and so he can't say
11:44because of his product we get these
11:46benefits instead what he's saying is is
11:49that uh if you do these kind of things
11:52like more Mobility you get these
11:54benefits and the product can do these
11:57things and therefore the product product
11:59will be able to provide and so I I see
12:02logically what he's trying to do and and
12:05if I him I would try to sell too when it
12:08comes to presentation I thought humble
12:10Works was by far the best presenter
12:13right that doesn't sound like an AI
12:14recommendation no that I mean like that
12:16because they was they called us because
12:18they called me that like your system is
12:21crazy customers don't like Dynamic
12:23pricing because it's like wait a second
12:24oh you got you got a different price
12:27than I got when I like when I went you
12:29know went went to for this or like it's
12:31you know there's a lot of backlash
12:33around surge pricing and like these
12:35these sorts of things which ultimately
12:37ends up getting a brand risk
12:42[Music]