The power of voice - our startup cashew

Collider's 2.0 programme is specifically designed for later stage marketing, advertising and commerce tech startups with product market fit. We are happy to have completed our selection of five amazing startups that we will introduce in this series. We will talk about their innovative solutions, their biggest successes, and what they get out of the hands-on scaling support from Collider.

Cashew was the first to join this new programme, they are at the forefront of voice advertising, helping publishers and skill developers to monetise voice. Check out their website here: https://www.cashew.ai/

Cashew offers interactive voice ads on smart speakers such as Alexa; a new ad format built specifically for voice. So instead of only listening to an ad the customer now actively engages with it. This interactive engagement with the customer delivers outstanding results and cashew outperforms digital ads 3:1. The startup came up with four different ad types - traditional product ads, reward-driven ads, quiz-based ads, and functional ads. Additionally, impressions, engagements, and actions of users are tracked immediately and provided.

One of their biggest successes was winning and launching the first virtual voice tour of a destination, which is Abu Dhabi. This audio experience allows the user to experience the destination from the comfort of their own home. Each tour is unique since the user can choose between different paths on what to discover in Abu Dhabi. The full experience takes several minutes, and guides the user through cultural wonders, nature spots, and restaurants. You can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbtKnqNy-bg&feature=youtu.be.

So, why did cashew join Collider?

“Collider focuses on marketing and advertising, and we were keen to set up an office in the Netherlands. The crackteam added value by helping us out in areas where we have little expertise; it is like having a full board of experts helping you in the initial phases of company development. By posing the right questions they nudged us in the right direction, while allowing us to find our own stance. Having Collider on board really helped us to get our company set and running and launching our business in the Netherlands.”

Their vision for the future is to see voice and voice assistants becoming common in all areas of our lives. Cashew’s founder can see a world where smart assistants are a crucial part of our daily life, providing an experience that no other device can offer. It is a real joy to help the advanced startup and we are excited to see their outstanding vision of the future come to life.

Collider Alumni startups Frenzi and Threedium merge!

This week Collider alumni Frenzi Media and Threedium started operating as one company.
It was a love-at-first-sight moment once they joined forces to collaborate on their first joint activation back in March 2018. Ever since the two teams were working together in total sync for all major breakthroughs. Here is a list of what they initially built together since 2018:

APOEL FC
Neutrogena
Elite Crackers
Sainsbury's Wine Finder
X2 BMW AD

The philosophy and culture remained conjuring throughout and as a landmark moment in both of the companies short history there is decided to merge the two entities together. The strategic approach was rather simply. Frenzi Media will bring a strong advantage on the commercial side of the company, whilst Threedium will continue pushing the boundaries on the tech side.

“Frenzi Media is excited to complete the merger with Threedium to pursue our mission of optimising online buying experiences for brands and fulfilling our common ambition of Democratising 3D Web Technologies to everyone ” Frenzi Media founders, Mike Charalambous and Kyriacos Kyprianou commented.

The main goal has always been – and remains – to bridge the gap between expectations and reality online and help create more lifelike online shopping experiences.

Frenzi Media was part of the Collider UK Class of 2017 and Threedium was part of the Collider UK Class of 2018. Threedium also spoke on the Demo Day 2018 of Collider Amsterdam.

Top tip lessons learnt from multiple accelerators

Having worked in accelerators for the past six years, I've seen a hell of a lot of startups, and I've learnt some top tip lessons from one to another. But even though the startup vertical has varied completely, I've quickly learnt the lessons are very similar. So similar, I thought I'd summarise...

Life at Collider

Collider has just had some huge changes, and with a programme that’s always on so we never have to turn promising startups away, I’m really excited to see what the future holds. Really, it’s the perfect time to join.

We’re also tackling the corporate innovation world in a very different way – rather than a consultancy based, tell-us-your-challenges-and-we’ll-scout-the startups-to-fix-them method — Collider is about relationships and growth.

Having most recently come from a cyber security accelerator where most of the startups tech, due to the nature of that industry, sat across many verticals, the idea that these MadTech companies are disrupting a very specific industry with very specific challenges creates its own unique obstacles.

We’re not just here to offer business support to startups, but to provide meaningful connections to customers who are crying out for innovative solutions. This industry is being disrupted based on the consumers needs, and not just because.

I’ve spent the past few years working out what makes a good startup, and what makes a great one. With applications open for the first cohort of 2018, let’s see what impressive MadTech businesses we can find.

How to become an angel investor

Becoming a successful angel investor should not just be reserved for a few. You'd be awesome at it.

And to prove just that, we gathered together a group of the seasoned and the new to hear from Collider’s multiple-time angel Richard Fearn, and Super Mentor who led Unruly’s exit, Marion Bernard.

And now we’re sharing it with you.

Enter a community, don't go it alone.

As an investor, you need to pick the right companies – obviously, so why risk everything to begin with when there's a whole ecosystem out there looking to help you.

As Richard said, accelerators can solve problems before said problems kill a business. That's for sure a comfort to investors.

Your time is more valuable than your money.

If you're looking to invest, you'll likely have some pretty useful skills – so why not share them? Work out how you can add value to your companies, which actually might not be what you think.

Get good at being patient.

Once you invest, don't expect it to pay for itself within a year or two (or even five). You're playing the long game, so make sure you follow the company through from the start.

It's not just about investing for returns.

Really, there’s so much more than that. Make sure you allow yourself to enjoy the journey as you'll be surrounded by some of the most innovate startups and investors. It's quite infectious, really.

Check your record.

Learn the lessons from your track record; and if you haven’t got one, learn from those that do.

Amplify you.Position yourself in the market as you would with anything else.

Position yourself in the market as you would with anything else. Amplify what you can bring to get on the cap tables you want to be on. Amplify your value.

It really isn't just about your money, and the best startups will know that. They'll be looking at your connections, too.

It’s about your exit too.

Do your best to work out where you might like to follow on, and what would have to happen for you to not. Remember, you’ll likely get most of your money from just one or two exits.

5 ways to make voice technology work for your business

The future of voice and its impact on customer success, experience and engagement is one you need to start working on, and fast.

As part of #ColliderPredicts, our latest series of events exploring the most cutting edge tech and how that can, and should impact your innovation, we started with voice, and what that could mean to you.

Collaborating with Unruly and their incredible Connected Home, we were joined by voices from Amazon, Matchbox Mobile and Barclays to discuss the next steps for corporate innovation where this is concerned.

Here’s our top five moves we think you could start working on now, thanks to one hell of a special panel* and a room full of high flying corporates who are already thinking “what next?”

1. Offer something substantial.

Voice will be successful for your corporate if you offer real value, otherwise you’ll risk diluting its proposition as a meaningful engagement.

Work out where you can find that meaning for your audience.

2. Don’t offer in isolation.

Avoid becoming too obsessive with voice being the next cool but weird thing — look at it as just another platform like Instagram was to Facebook.

Going forwards, your strategy needs to include voice, but not just voice. It’s another channel to tap into.

3. Get your business prepared early.

Don’t wait until you need to include voice within your strategy. Get the backend of your tech ready to integrate, even before you’re ready to use it.

4. Remember the interaction will be different

The user interface and experience with voice is entirely different to the majority of other technologies we currently use on a day-to-day basis. That means you can expect a different kind of interaction.

Think about how that could impact you.

5. Honesty and TRUST matters.

For voice to be truly successful, we need to have trust in the technology — especially as our homes are incredibly sacred spaces.

It’s up to the businesses using voice in innovative ways to make sure these experiences are truly valuable, and not just there for the sake of it.

*With thanks to: Simon Gosling, Futurist, Unruly Matthew Calamatta, CTO, Matchbox Mobile Chris Chabot, Technology Evangelist, Amazon John Cooper, VP of Mobile Payments Innovation, Barclays Andy Tait, Co-Founder and COO, Collider

And a huge thank you to Unruly Media for hosting us in their incredible Connected Home. What a space.