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As the title suggests, we’ve been here before. But, because we had such a good response to our last ‘Lifehacks from London startups’ piece, and because London seems to be bursting at the seams with great ideas, we thought we’d go there again. So here are five more homegrown startups that can help Londoners navigate through the day.
The knowledge hackers: Scenes of Reason
Picture the scene: You’re at the pub and someone is getting mouthy about the latest headline news. You’d love to get involved in the debate, but you just don’t feel you know enough. If only there was a website that broke the big issues down into manageable bites so that you could sneak off to the loo and get the lowdown before anyone notices. You guessed it… that’s what Scenes of Reason aims to do, publishing bite-sized videos, email updates and social posts that ‘decode the news’. Brain hackage for the busiest socialites.
The healthy food hackers: The Food Assembly
It’s easy to associate lifehackery with fast living – getting things done with minimum thought or effort – so it’s nice to find one that's more about helping you slow down, connect, and get the best out of life. This London startup helps you to order food directly from local farmers and foodmakers – worth supporting anyway – but instead of delivering it to your door, it delivers it to one of 700 food assemblies, where you can collect it while meeting similarly-minded folk in your area. Food and social life hackery all in one.
The number hackers: My Accountant Friend
There was a time when every person you met in a London pub was either starting a band or writing a novel. These days, it’s all about startups. And what do startups need beyond a great idea? Someone to sit in the background and grind the numbers. And that’s what these guys do. Ideal for London’s army of freelancers, you get a simple, cloud-based dashboard, a cool app that reads and files your receipts, and a friendly voice on the end of the phone whenever you need a shoulder to cry on, leaving you time to be an absolute genius. Accountancy hacked to comfortable smithereens.
The house hackers: 1roof
Based over at Bathub2Boardroom, the new home of the London entrepreneur, the chaps who started 1roof did so to help homeowners in a fix. Want to refurbish your bathroom/ convert your loft/ decorate your living room? 1roof acts as a kind of hand-holding service for those that don’t know where to begin, introducing you to tried-and-tested pros, helping you get the best price and then guaranteeing the work they do for you. Sounds expensive, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s completely free. Lifehackdom all under one roof!
The clothes-fresh hackers: Lavanda
Not just a cool-looking website and useful service, Lavanda must also hold the record for being the world’s most eager launderette. At the time of writing, they’re claiming a collection time of 24 mins, 17 secs, anywhere within Zones 1 and 2. A bag of laundry will cost you £12 to have it washed and ironed, and it’s guaranteed to be back on your peg within 24 hours. Need a shirt for the weekend? What are you waiting for? Laundry hacked, oh-so prettily, at the touch of a button.
Got a London-based lifehack you’d like to share with us? Drop @jonniewilks a line and we’ll see what we can do.
Get more lifehack ideas for startups here.