New VUB spin-off pushes software innovation into higher gear

Florian Myter, co-founder of weave.ly: “Eighty percent of new or innovative software projects fail within a year. This is due to the fact that a working version of an innovative software product is required before it can be thoroughly tested. This is expensive and time-consuming. With weave.ly, you can test before launching.”

Weave.ly, founded by two former PhD researchers, Florian Myter and Jesse Zaman, is a spin-off of VUB’s Software Languages Lab, headed by Prof Wolfgang De Meuter. It builds on Zaman’s PhD thesis, in which he developed a platform that allows people without coding skills to quickly build web applications such as mobile apps by clicking “software building blocks” together using visual drag & drop components, without having to write a single line of programming code.

The spin-off has now adapted this technology to solve two problems at once. Zaman:

“With weave.ly, companies can now develop prototypes without having to program, and therefore at a fraction of the normal cost. Moreover, weave.ly prototypes automatically track a wide range of usability metrics, such as click heatmaps, eye tracking, time-on-task, time-on-page, etc, providing invaluable insights and feedback regarding the validation of the new digital product.”

Prof De Meuter: “Thanks to weave.ly, innovation and software development is no longer reserved for the happy few with coding skills.”

The spin-off was set up with the support of the Vice Rectorate Innovation & Valorisation and VUB’s IOF (Industrial Research Fund) Council. During the research phase, the software platform was further developed with support from the Agency for Innovation & Enterprise (VLAIO) and Innoviris. Weave.ly is a Start It@KBC start-up.

Contact

Florian Myter

[email protected]

0496 44 61 19

^{VUB Software Languages Lab}

^{The Software Languages Lab (SOFT) is a research lab within the Computer Science Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. It was founded in 2009 and studies the design, implementation and application of programming technology to support the software engineering process.}

^{VUB Vice-Rectorate Innovation & Industry Relations
The mission of the Vice-Rectorate Innovation & Industry Relations is to create a positive impact on society through the valorisation of scientific research. Its operational and multidisciplinary team, VUB TechTransfer, aims to connect the university’s research expertise with society and industry, with its partners VUB Foundation and Crosstalks.}