Collider hits milestone with launch of fifth cohort

It's our birthday (kinda). An anniversary, of sorts. Well, a milestone has definitely been reached.

That's right... WE'VE JUST KICKED OFF COHORT NUMBER FIVE! And to celebrate, our network from across all years joined at The Courthouse Hotel in Soho to welcome in the fresh faces of our new startups.

Community is key and at the heart of everything we do at Collider; you sell to people, not to businesses, and so what better way to integrate into the MadTech world than getting to know our network full of brands, agencies, investors, startups and VCs.

A huge thank you to Microsoft Bizspark too, for sponsoring the event and for all of your help to our startups – you're awesome.

A Year of Collider: 2016 in a Nutshell

What a year. We’ve crashed, bumped, smacked, bashed incredible people with incredible businesses – it really has been quite the collision – or whatever cheesy pun you’d like to go for. But all jokes aside, 2016 has turned up some seriously exciting moments. Here’s our top 2016:

1. Collider’s very own first exit – Avocarrot

Mobile ad exchanger and Collider alumni, Avocarrot, sold to Glipsa Global Group back in September for $20 million dollars.

Avocarrot joined our first ever accelerator programme back in 2013 and didn’t take them long before they headed off to San Francisco to continue their journey, exiting in less than four years.

2. Seenit took the win at TechDistrupt London!

From 14 startups down to one, our very own Seenit was crowned Startup Battlefield champion 2016, winning £40,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup.

After presenting in front of multiple groups of VCs and tech leaders and with hours of deliberation, TechCrunch editors worked through the judges’ notes to narrow the list down to five, resulting in only one winner.

3. Collider to launch in Amsterdam

SERIOUS excitement in the Collider office when we finally announced our launch in Amsterdam!

With a booming startup scene and a huge wealth of incredible brands, Amsterdam was the obvious pick for us – we can’t wait to see what it’ll bring in the New Year.

4. Our 5^th cohort joined the Collider community

We handpicked the very best, new MadTech startups from around the globe, who have now joined the Collider family as our 5^th cohort!

We had a record number of applications this year from startups all around the world, and were incredibly impressed with the quality that came through the door.

Our final eight have now been picked, which we’ll be announcing in the New Year.

5. The launch of our Mentor Network

https://vimeo.com/collidergb/collider-mentor-network

Sarah Wood, Guy Weiynk, Zaid Al-Zaidy – just a few names you’ll find in our Mentor Network.

An exclusive offer to our scale ups, this isn’t ‘another accelerator’ with another ‘mentoring platform’ – instead, we hand picked some of the very best names in the industry and paired them up with some of our very best startups for an unbelievable mentorship experience.

And yes, back to that pun, but it really was a magical collision.

6. More startups reaching the one million pound revenue mark!

More and more of our alumni are reaching this milestone every month, with the first achieved midway through this year.

It’s been a blast, 2016. We’ll see you in the New Year with the official announcement of our new cohort.

Applications Have Closed: Now What?

It’s happened. Yes, the time has come – our applications have now closed. And honestly, we’ve been seriously impressed.

The quality this year has been second to none, and whilst that’s made things harder for us, it’s a pretty awesome problem to have.

It’s been a record year for us with well over 300 applications, even surpassing Ed’s ambition target by TWO – and so now we’re in the process of whittling it down to our top applications, with only 2% getting through.

We recently did a little digging into the numbers, countries and themes of applications this year and it seems the snippet that created the biggest buzz was that Brexit has made no impact on quality, numbers or location whatsoever.

But for those wondering what happens next, here's a quick rundown:

1. Startups will hear back from us with a yes or a no.

2. For those who get through will move onto screening.

These sessions are with Collider cofounders, Rose and Andy.

3. If they make it through that (WAHOO!) then it's time for Pitch Camp.

That's where we help startups clean up their deck before meeting investors.

4. In the meantime, our investors will receive some reading material on our top 20 startups.

5. Then it's Selection Day!

– or more commonly known in the Collider office as 'The Big one'. Each investor will have a vote and will be asked to nominate their top choices.

Want more information on the selection process? We’ve got that for you right here.

What Countries Are MadTech Startups From?

As we draw nearer to the application deadline for our Class of 2017 – and yes, we're pretty excited – we're once again amazed by some of the ideas coming through from MadTech startups. Searching for the very best in MadTech is our number one priority – in fact, you can see a little more about the processes we go through here, and how successful it's been here!

But have you ever wondered where the majority of MadTech startups are based? Is there such thing as a majority? Then wonder no more and check this out.

Here are the countries so far...

If maps aren't really your thing, then fear not – we can do lists too.

Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia.

 Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary.

India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Nigeria.

Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates.

United Kingdom, United States.

Startup Intellectual Property Tips and Tricks

Collider startups recently visited the London offices of one of our legal sponsors, Mathys and Squire, to discuss the world of Intellectual Property (IP). One super insightful session later, our goody bag to take home was a wealth of information, including the insights any startup should know, and how to build an IP strategy that works for you. Said goody bag fully digested and lots of our startups prepped ready to take next steps, we thought we'd summarise our key learnings – because it would be greedy if we didn't share, right?

What is Intellectual Property?

IP – intellectual property – protects the result of your creativity as an intangible asset (or property). It does not protect an idea alone, but the ‘physical’ embodiment of that idea. There are four main types: patents, trademarks, registered designs and copyright.

Having the right type of IP protection can help prevent others copying your inventions, the names of your products or brands, the design or look of your products, and the artistic works that you write, create, produce or record.

What can I do about it?

There are some basic steps you can take to develop an IP strategy that works for you:

Understand

Get to grips with how you can use IP to both protect your business and attract interest and funding.

What are you making; what are selling; what sets you apart; are you keeping records of who has created what and when – get your head wrapped around the basics of IP, and answer these questions as a starter for ten.

Identify

You now need to identify your core IP. Find where your value lies – is it the design, the brand, the unique technology?

Strategise

Once you've identified the elements you want to protect, develop a strategy for how you'll do that – is it a trademark, copyright, design or patent?

Plan how and when you will go about putting the safety net in place and capture it all in your overarching IP strategy, even if you don't intend to register your Intellectual Property until you have secured more funding.

Execute

Take the steps you are able to take immediately, and start planning for the future. Track your sales, inventions and progress, and although it might seem a pain, record everything.

Mitigate

Keep track of what applications are being filed and approved to help de-risk your IP – various portals and tools online can assist with this and look around to see what others are doing. Patents can be a great R&D resource - to stay focussed.

Why does it matter?

IP is all about protecting, but also creating value. A solid IP strategy and goals can demonstrate a level of understanding about your present and future that will satisfy an investor’s appetite, and adds significant value as you look to scale.

"We identified four possible opportunities [Mathys and Squire] felt were worth pursuing and reviewed our existing trademark protection," said Scoop Retail, one of Collider's Class of 2015 and attendees of this workshop.

"They really took the time to understand our business!"