New platform connects startups with potential partners

Object Astra helps people with a business idea find professionals with the skills and know-how they need

A new platform connecting startups with potential business partners has launched, spurred on by an increase in people taking the plunge to become entrepreneurs during the pandemic.

Object Astra is a platform designed to help people with a business idea find professionals with the skills and know-how they need to give them ‘sweat equity’.

In return, those people could go on to become co-founders or advisers, and have a stake in the business as it grows and becomes profitable.

The idea was born after self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur Christiaan Trahms found he needed certain skills and advice to get his own business ideas in motion.

He couldn’t find an easy way of doing it, and would instead ‘hope’ he knew someone who knew someone who might be able to help.

While he had been thinking of the notion for Object Astra for several years, it was only this year he finally launched it, after noticing more people pursuing their own entrepreneurial dreams while furloughed or after losing their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a study from Capital on Tap, more than 19,000 online businesses have launched since 23 March.

This includes retail and food companies with bricks and mortar offerings going online but also completely new businesses launching for the first time.

Once a business grows to a certain level, Object Astra can help guide it to the next stage of growth via, for example, using an incubator which can then help founders secure funding and build a minimum viable product.

The site costs £1 a month to use, and people who sign up to the platform can create a profile, submit their ideas and skills, and wait for prospective collaboration opportunities to roll in.