The potential to integrate information from various tools or products and gain significant insight is nothing short of unlocking a miracle. Bloch.Tech is a stellar new startup with an ingenious solution that addresses the problem of merging information from various tools with their very own nifty platform. We speak with Courtney Robinson of Bloch, to give us an overview of how their platform works and the importance of prototype testing before launching a product. Read on!

What inspired you to start Bloch.Tech? Tell us the story.

When I started contracting as a developer, I found that I needed various tools to manage the administration of a company. I quickly found individual online tools to help make my tasks relatively easy. However, not all of them provided the ability to export CSV files and there was still some manual work involved with the ones that did allow an import/export.

After asking around I found that many others I knew had the same problem. I wondered how much effort it would take to build a tool that provided seamless integration.

I built a tool and after 2 months I had a working prototype. After showing it to others and getting positive feedback, I decided that it was worth building this product for others to use and the Bloch project was born!

Give us an overview of how the Bloch platform works.

Bloch is now centered around its cloud App store. This app store allows any third-party developer to build applications in whatever language/framework they want, package it into a Docker container and make it available for use through the Bloch platform.

What’s more, version 2 of the platform has been built to enable more use cases. We’re providing what’s currently being called “function as a service”. FaaS is a great enabler for IoT and more use cases that we’re building for.

With these features we’re eliminating compatibility issue altogether, it is now easy for any app on the platform to import and use data from other apps.

Will AI and IoT be powerful drivers that shape the future of cloud apps and tech in general? Share with us your thoughts on the same.

Without a doubt, AI and IoT will greatly influence the next decade of computing. The Bloch team has been working towards creating a platform for what we’re calling the Hyper Cloud.

Working in your own field, with your own data can yield decent results but a having yours or some else’s IoT data being pulled into and applied in your AI applications opens so many new doors.

With the adoption of IoT smart home devices on the rise, the possibilities are endless as we can suddenly combine what every device learns and produce data from various sources.

Should app building startups invest in prototype testing of their products? 

It is important to invest in prototyping as it enables you to quickly understand whether your ideas have worked or not; the benefits of prototype testing are immeasurable in some cases. It saves spending more time building something only to realize that it was the wrong way of doing it.

Testing helps to strengthen that one fundamental decision that is detrimental to the project. The downside to some prototypes is they end up being “throwaway” versions.

What are your future plans for Bloch?

We’re planning to make Bloch a comprehensive development platform where any application that can be hosted on third-party services can be built. We’ve already begun working towards enabling machine learning apps under the FaaS model.

We will integrate with existing big data technologies such as Spark, provide better support for IoT use cases and more. In our next update, we’re planning to provide a UI modeling tool as part of the app store.

Why did you choose a .TECH domain name? 

The .Tech domain captures what we want to communicate to our customers without us having to say too much. We are a technology company, the tech we build and provide is very focused on bridging the gap between consumers and developers and we think having a .tech domain says all of this.

For us, it also represents something new. App consumers won’t always know that .Tech is a valid domain extension so when they see our domain or visit us, we think it carries that shine that comes with a new product you’ve bought. And to the less tech-savvy, it seems somewhat futuristic.