created by Alice Parsons /
Copywriter
We’re thrilled to announce that Simon Sansome, founder of the b4b-developed accessibility app Snowball, has been selected as a finalist for the 2023 Santander X start-up awards!
Simon pitched Snowball at the semi-finals in London, wowing the judges with his innovative app that allows users to rate and review venues for disability access. With tens of thousands of reviews integrated with Google Maps, Snowball is the largest database of its kind.
Out of 1,500 entrepreneurs, Simon is one of only twelve finalists to be chosen. This recognition comes on the heels of him being named one of 2023’s Shaw Trust Disability Power 100, which highlights the most influential disabled leaders in the UK. He took first place in the Digital and Tech category for his work founding and expanding Snowball.
We’re incredibly proud of Simon and our software development team for their hard work on Snowball. This is a major milestone in bringing disability access information to people across the UK and beyond, and we’re over the moon for Snowball’s role in creating a more inclusive world overall.
What is Snowball?
Snowball is the ultimate resource for venue accessibility. Showcasing reviews and ratings entered by users, it allows people with disabilities to know in advance if a venue can fully accommodate their needs.
Simon, a wheelchair user himself, first came up with the idea based on the challenges he faced when going out. He launched a Facebook page called Ability Access for people to share reviews on how well establishments met their accessibility requirements. The enthusiastic response inspired him to create an app to make this vital information even easier to find, which is when he brought in the talented software team at b4b to turn his dream into a reality.
What role did b4b play?
After Simon shared his idea with us, our software team sprang into action, holding brainstorming sessions to gather ideas for making the app a success. Next, we outlined how the app would function, built an end-to-end prototype, and passed the project to our development team. They constructed the app and a customer relationship management system (CRM) to go alongside it. Finally, we tested the app thoroughly and ironed out any bugs before submitting it to the app store.
Snowball was launched publicly in early 2022. Since then, it has amassed over 2,000 reviews and become a hit for how easy it makes finding accessible facilities anywhere in the world.
For more details on Snowball's development process, have a read through our full case study!
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