A warm hello from the new Head of Programme – Parul Bavishi

I’m pleased to be joining the Collider family. It’s only day 3 but it’s been an exciting few days so far. The application process for the 2015 intake is open and I’m eager to see which startups will make it through. At Collider, as Head of Programme, I will be taking charge of the programme delivery for this new intake. Perhaps I should tell you a little about me? Well, I started my career in management consultancy sitting in a police car, wearing a bullet proof vest, racing through the streets of London, scribbling notes on the processes involved in a 999 call – buy me a drink and I’II tell you more about that story. Later my love for literature took me into publishing where I helped set up a new business and worked as an editor, a publicist and also a publishing spy. But it was the work I did with the then startup publisher Quercus and tech startup Valobox that led me to wanting to dive in deeper to the world of startups. It’s a fast-paced, agile environment, and the hothouse of future tech. I love it.

Outside of work, I love books and music, and help manage a small folk band Little Sister Blue. On a few lucky occasions I've even been invited to sing with them. I’m a whisky aficionado but I’ve yet to find a better whisky than Glenmorangie.

More from me soon.

First Startup Conference in Manchester with Collider

Great Preneurs will be hosting the first conference about Manchester Startups on the 3rd of May at Techhub Manchester. The event will start at 10.30am and finish in the late afternoon. There will be five keynotes run by Martin Bryant, Editor in Chief at TheNextWeb, Ben Taylor, Co-Founder of Fatsoma, Tim Langley, CEO and Co-Founder of CANNDi, our very own Rose Lewis, Co-Founder of Collider, and Rupert Saul, Investment Manager at AXM Venture. Further three fireside chats will be held with Rormix, which has recently closed a seed, Moment.us (a Collider startup from 2013) and Formisimo. On the day, Growot, the winner of Startup Weekend Manchester, will be demoing its product, which will be launched on Kickstarter a few days after the event.

Great Preneurs aims to gather all the people who are involved in the Manchester Startup scene in a single day event in order to reflect on what has already been achieved and where we can go in the next years. The event is open to everyone and tickets can be bought at: http://greatpreneurs.com/conference. See you there!

Guest Post: Why I Love/Hate the Mum Test

I hate the Mom’s test.... oh no, actually I love it! Each startup will be writing a guest blog to share the highs and lows that come with being an early stage startup. This is your chance to get a sneaky peek into what it is like to be part of Collider and even grab a chunk of wisdom on the way.

This week’s is written by Carl Wong, the Director of LivingLens.

 So as we reach the end of week 4 of the Collider programme, it turns out that it’s time for me to write my first ever blog.  Now, I can talk for England (‘Yes we know’ I can hear you thinking), but articulating engaging, witty prose in the written form is something I struggle with a little.  Who know’s why?  Maybe you do indeed, but regardless, be gentle with me should you decide to critique these first tentative efforts...

Anyhoo, end of week 4, and I think I know how it feels to be a dog, or perhaps more appropriately, a mayfly.  I feel like I’ve done 7 months worth of thinking and decision making in these last 25 days.  Each day finishes with me wishing we all lived on Pluto  in order to get more done (length of time it takes for Pluto to complete one rotation on its axis 6 days 9 hours 18 mins), albeit we’d probably be a little more chilly.  Here are a number of words I have added to my game of Investor Bingo recently;  Hypothesis, Use Case, Roadmap, Runway, Stable Release, Power Users, Pivot (we’ll come back to this one!), Dev Sprint, Elasticity (really not sure about this one), MVP, Follow-on.  I’ve yet to have a conversation with anyone in the world of Collider were I haven’t got 4 corners and a granny shouting house outside of 3 mins....

So let’s talk about the Pivot.  When does a small change or re-positioning become the fantastical Pivot, and when does a Pivot become a mistaken wild goose chase up one’s derrier?  It feel to me that LivingLens, our earstwhile market research video platform, is well on its way to pivoting.  Our small idea has grown a crystalis and is transforming into a BIG IDEA.  It fills me with both excitement and fear thinking of the possibilities, and the challenges of making it happen, but its genesis can be found a few weeks ago at the damn blasted Mom’s test session.  The Mom Test is a book by Rob Fitzpatrick.  The general vibe is How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you.   ‘Don’t go after the sale, focus upon Product Market fit.’ They said.  ‘ No, no, no!’ I screamed (sort of) – ‘I’m this close to the biggest decision makers I’ll meet, and I will therefore MAKE them love my product!’ I also screamed sort of.  Well, Rose slapped me about, and Miles made me read, and after some internal mental battles, and a fair whack of practice, turns out I was wrong.  Very, very wrong.

I love the Mom’s test.  Fact.  You won’t find a bigger convert around.  It has helped us massively.  By letting go of the sale, and treating each meeting like some market research fieldwork to glean problems and opportunities, we’ve uncovered some ‘truths’ we didn’t know existed.  These new ‘truths’ have transformed our thinking, and are evolving our video platform into putting the consumer in front of anyone, anywhere, using any device, effortlessly reaching precise consumer insight film within moments.  Our service will become a product. We’ll crawl the web as well as your content, and we’ll package it all up in the funkiest UX you’ll see.

Read the book, and let go of the sale.   It may up with a pivot, but it’s the only path to true success!

Meet Our 10 New Startups!

We're incredibly pleased to be about to announce our latest £1 million investment in ten start-ups! Unlike other accelerators, we partner with brands such as Unilever, Bauer Media, and BBC Worldwide, to help digital media startups create a product that is market ready from the offset. During our 13 week Collider programme, the startups are introduced to over a dozen respected corporations, engage with a large network of investors, get assigned to relevant mentors, and learn how to turn their innovative startup into a profitable, sustainable business.

Marc Mathieu, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Unilever says: “Increasingly, having collaborative contact with startups is critical to bringing the outside in and infusing new thinking into our marketing. Collider is a great accelerator partner for Unilever and our work with them and the startups will no doubt help our brands continue to innovate in the digital marketing space.”

The Collider startups on the 2013/2014 programme are:

• Ad Venture: brings the power of the internet to TV advertising. Its proprietary technology allows broadcasters to serve their audience with adverts targeted according to the profile and interests of individual viewers.
• CampaignAmp: simply effective project management and analytics for marketing and PR campaigns.
• Cooala: a free mobile app for consumers which aggregates news, offers, photo streams and other brand content based on users’ brand interests.
• LivingLens: creates insight from consumer video. It puts precise consumer feedback in front of marketers and insight professionals with ease and speed.
• LovetheLook: automatically identifies and hotspots products in any web image and offers similar buying opportunities.
• Seenit: helps you to engage with your audience through the co-creation of video.
• StashMetrics: analyses social media behaviour, creates value from the voice of the crowd and connects brands with the things that matter to their audiences.
• Sponsify: helps your brand to reach a highly engaged audience on YouTube through native advertising.
• Sumo Insight: a mobile technology platform, bringing real-time and real-context to consumer insight.
• Unrival: unlocks new ways for innovative companies to easily identify unique sales opportunities and develop client relationships with inside information.

Rose Lewis, the co-founder and driving force behind Collider, comments:  “The Collider programme is unique as it is a win-win situation for both parties. The startups receive product market validation from potential customers by senior brand managers as potential buyers of the product, while large businesses can work with innovative young companies who can help them with their marketing and customer engagement.”

Collider was founded in 2012 and funds ten startups every year. Startups can start applying for the 2015 programme in the summer of 2014.

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dibbz join TIGA

Our Collider12 startup dibbz has been receiving some press attention for joining TIGA ( the trade association representing the video game industry).

Elliot Sochall, dibbz co-founder and CEO, said: “Since launch we’ve seen click-through rates of 30% with our reward format - this far exceeds the industry average for mobile banner ads which currently sits at 0.39%. As part of our model, we carry out a 50/50 split with developers, so they are often getting as much as £1 from brands for every single click-through that happens in their game or app. We are very proud to already be working with some amazing studios and indie developers, who together have an install base of more than 12 million.

As a London-based startup setting out to provide an innovative means of monetisation among mobile game developers, we were always keen to become part of TIGA. We want to be even more involved in the UK game development community and help both indie developers and established studios deliver a more rewarding experience for users and greater revenue for themselves. Our goal is to bring the best rewards to the best games in a way that actually enhances the experience for players.”

 TIGA, the trade association representing the video game industry has welcomed dibbz, a London based startup dedicated to helping developers monetise their games via real-world branded rewards, as its latest member. Dibbz’ industry-benchmarked iOS & Android SDK is designed specifically for mobile games, and generates revenue for developers by allowing brands to offer players real-world rewards in return for their in-game achievements.

Players benefit from a more engaging experience, with real rewards appropriately and unobtrusively integrated into the game. Developers benefit from top tier brand association, recurrent revenue and increased player retention. Brands benefit from click through rates 77 times higher than the industry average for mobile banner ads.

Notable games to have integrated dibbz’ SDK include 2 Player Reactor, the no.1 multiplayer game on Android, created by developer Cool Cherry Trees. Dibbz SDK utilises dynamic notification overlays and natural pause breaks, as chosen by the developer, to serve rewards to users, ensuring the continuity of the game experience. The rewards on offer are from globally renowned brands including Burger King, ASK, Zizzi, Subway and Garfunkel’s with more being added every day.

Dr. Richard Wilson, CEO, TIGA, added: “As the network for developers and digital publishers it is always encouraging to meet new members who are determined not only to help other TIGA members to be more successful, but who also have players’ interests at heart.

“Increasing the sophistication and sustainability of current monetisation methods is of huge commercial value to the mobile development sector. I look forward to seeing how the TIGA community benefits from dibbz’s ambitious plans and innovation.”