Two North Carolina entrepreneurs are measuring success by the second.
Ben Hardison and Camden Conekin, co-founders of Padeo, are working to improve website loading times for various websites through predictive analytics and pre-loading technology.
When it comes to loading times, seconds matter. Even a few-second delay drastically increases the chances a user will leave the page. According to the Padeo team, a two-second load time can mean upwards of 90% of visitors bounce.
That can be devastating for smaller businesses trying to grow their online presence.
Hardison and Conekin recognized the problem while working on various web development projects throughout their school years. The high school friends turned business partners started looking into load-time solutions for their clients. “If we could deliver all the files to the user before they ever requested the page, [the content] would always be instantly available.” Conekin told Hypepotamus. “That started our idea of making testable predictions about how someone is going to navigate a website.”
Such predictive analytics starts to recognize website traffic patterns so that the page can preload files, images, and other key resources.
Democratizing & Improving The Web
Padeo, short for Predictive Analytics for Documents & Embedded Objects, was designed to be as accessible as possible to non-coders. “If you’re an independent WordPress blog or a high-tech marketing firm in New York, you can use Padeo.”
Most major websites today rely on content delivery networks (CDNs), or a series of geographically dispersed servers to help deliver web content faster. But, as Conekin wrote in a recent blog post, CDNs have their limits, particularly if most website traffic is coming from one local area, if a website isn’t highly trafficked, or if it has a lot of dynamic content on pages.
While competitors exist in the website optimization space, Hardison added that “nobody is applying predictive analysis to pre-loading in a way that smaller businesses, local businesses with smaller websites can really access.”
Padeo’s single-line of Javascript is installed in a similar fashion to Facebook pixels or Google Analytics code, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes.
Padeo has used an “agency-centric” model to grow its customer base and “offers tools for agencies to be able to manage your client websites, reach out and see how different clients’ websites are performing.”
On top of improving load times, Conekin sees an opportunity to bring high-speed connections to more people.
“If you’re in Texas and the infrastructure goes down or if there’s a hurricane in the Carolinas, bandwidth can go out very quickly,” added Conekin. “By predicting the resources that need to be pre-loaded over a throttle bandwidth connection…we’re offering a way for everyone no matter what their bandwidth abilities to experience a high-speed connection.”
That could have big implications down to the road in rural locations or other places with limited access to high-speed internet.
The team has had one private investor to date but told Hypepotamus they are considering funding opportunities to help grow.
The duo is also working on several other ventures, including a marketplace for designers and developers and a VR project with NC State.
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