Guest Post: Seenit

It seems today there’s an online dating platform for just about everyone. From the practical, such as glutenfreesingles.com, to the downright strange, zombiepassions.com. Hopefully your interest in these links hasn’t taken you away from this blog, so I can explain why I’ve decided to build this analogy. 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 Edward Pearse Wheatley, the Creative Producer at Seenit.

Having recently joined Seenit I’ve had the pleasure of immersing myself in the Collider  program. And many of our encounters funnily enough have resembled a dating site in some way.

Go back a month. I was in my first week with Emily and Max, the co-founders of Seenit, working from Google Campus and any café that would have us.  Trembling from our fifth cup of coffee of the day, Collider offered some respite to our caffeinated bodies by inviting us to the pub.

We met, in my case for the first time, with our fellow Collider members. Like all dates, it started with an introduction, followed by a few drinks, then if the conversation went well a plan to meet again. The beauty of this gathering was that it was a room filled with like-minded people, with a penchant to help out their compatriots through the teething stages of building a tech company.

This week, it was much of the same again. Only this time, rather than meet in the protective confines of the Collider nursery, we were set loose at Iris Worldwide’s ‘South by South East’ event. Waiting by our designated tables, laptops energetically looping brand demos and logos, we confidently strut our enterprises to a crowd that was quickly consuming copious amounts of tequila, courtesy of the hosts.

This was a goldmine for promoting our startups to the kind of people that could and would actually put the tech into practice.

My father always used to say that he was never taught how to be a father. Starting and running a new business, it can sometimes feel that way to. But with Collider, from the perspective of a young and budding salesman, we have a truly helpful guide through these early stages.

Guest Post: Cooala

After growing and selling a successful business in Switzerland over the last 15 years, you could say that I don’t need an accelerator for my new startup business. You'd be totally wrong. So far I have been in London for two awesome and intense months and I thought it was a good time to reflect on being part of Collider.  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 Mike Schwede, the Co-Founder & Biz-Dev Guy from Cooala.

Collider delivers direct access to senior marketing guys from big brands like Unilever and as the relationship is already established, their willingness to really help you is priceless.

There are great coaches which challenge you every week, which forces you to develop your business in a fast and focused manner. They made me realise it's all about the product market fit, which we were struggling with for a long time. But in the last two months we developed our business so much more than the six months before. Instead of writing about about the program or my own personal lessons, I want to write about my experience in UK from a Swiss perspective.

Governmental support Founding a limited company in the UK within 20 minutes online costs you £15, which was a great experience. In Switzerland you pay £1300 or more and do lot of stupid 'offline' paperwork. The websites like Companies House or  gov.uk are clear, simple, and help you to save time time instead of stealing it. The interest free loan we received from Creative England is helpful and an uncomplicated initiative to start your creative business. SEIS is such an obvious but powerful tool to catalyse the seed money market. Also, the UK has got an established and complete value chain for startups to grow their business, whereas Switzerland is 5-10 years behind, and even Berlin is still far away from this stage.

It’s all about goals It’s impressive how British people are focused in setting and reaching their goals. Most meetings with Collider and the brands are extremely efficient and clear. If something doesn't help to achieve their goals they just don’t do it. People express more clearly what they need, what they expect from you and what they think about your business. The Swiss mentality of 'everyone-feels-well-comfy-and-engaged' is nice but not helpful to really develop your business.

Sharing and Networking If you join a startup event you will run out of business cards soon. Everyone is interested in what you are doing, trying to create opportunities and to connect with other relevant people. It’s a hyper connected place.

London - the marketing brain Lot’s of corporate headquarters, the best agencies and so many people with a great marketing experience are in one place. Combined with an attitude of trying out things and seeing the potential instead of the problems, London is the best place to be in Europe for marketing driven startups like Cooala.

So don’t lose your time and come over!

Tech of Tomorrow at Internet World!

Collider will run their Tech of Tomorrow pitching programme at Internet World on the 18th & 19th June within The Market Place Theatre. 

Collider's Tech of Tomorrow @ Internet Worldprogramme will allow a maximum of eight startups to present their innovative tech products/services to a panel of judges and to an audience of over a 100 professionals across the two days.

On the Wednesday, all eight startups will present in front of the judges and visitors then on the Thursday the winner will be announced and get the opportunity to speak about their winning product/service in front of a live audience.

How to get involved?

Collider will select six startups from their accelerator programme with the remaining two places up for grabs by applying through http://www.f6s.com/techoftomorrowinternetworld/apply. We will work closely with Collider to select the best two applications to join the other six on the stage!

*Booking opens Friday March 14th. Deadline for submission is April 18th.

Think you and your business have a viable tech product/service to present infront of a b2b audience? The winning startup will recieve free publicity and marketing around their product/service as well as a professional video of their presentation to be used as you wish! Follow Collider for the latest news on who has been accepted@ColliderGB

It costs nothing to enter the Tech of Tomorrow @ Internet World Programme, only time & creativity!

For further information please contact Orlaith @ iwmarketing@ubm.com 

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About Internet World

Internet World, founding event of London Technology Week, is the only event that enables you to define and deliver all aspects of your digital strategy; from online technology, business fulfilment and infrastructure to connectivity, legislation and online security.

Internet World also includes Big Data Show and in 2014 welcomes longstanding US brand Interop, thus becoming the most comprehensive face-to-face event for those defining or delivering their organisation’s digital strategy.

As a visitor to Internet World you will benefit from a cutting-edge education programme, practical workshops, training and networking with your peers.

Register free here – http://www.internetworld.co.uk/collider_reg/

@iw_expo  #iw2014

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!

Guest Post: 3 Top Tips from Unrival

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 Hue Painter, the COO from unrival.

Riding the wave

As first-time startup founders, it’s the emotional journey that makes it memorable for us at unrival - Super highs, and of course those painful lows, that we often experience in the space of a week, sometimes even within one day (or hour!).

But it’s riding this wave that keeps us going. The biggest challenge we’ve found, is staying focused, when everything around us can seem to be in a constant state of chaos.

We’ve found that as a tech startup, you are a beacon for everyone wanting to give you advice on what you “should do” which can become overwhelming (advice overload).

So we’ve found surrounding ourselves with a small, trusted group of coaches and mentors, helps to keep us somewhat sane and on track. This guidance has hugely helped us to filter the noise. You could almost call it personal counselling.

But and there always is - with serious reflection over the journey so far, 3 key lessons/pieces of wisdom that we have learnt so far - LISTEN NOT PITCH, THINK BIG and FEAR.

LISTENING NOT PITCHING

The Collider process so far has provided an intense number of opportunities for us to meet, and engage very senior people from brands that we never would have had the chance of meeting – if not for the programme.

The immediate thought on meeting these people is “OMG, I have to tell them everything about what we do, and show them how great it is”. The lesson learnt here is, that we have two ears for a reason, as doing 2x more listening than talking - leads to a better result for all these meetings. Internally we now call this “don’t show up and throw up” – sorry if this isn’t a lovely visual.

THINK BIG

Definitely has been hard for us to digest, as you can have such tunnel vision and be so purely focused on solving the problem for one area that you miss the opportunity of widening the scope of your proposition. This is where talking to lots of people and listening can really broaden your horizon and actually uncover new concepts that you may not have thought of.

FEAR

It’s good, but make sure it doesn't stop you from taking risks. In the business we’re all in, we have to make tough decisions. The best piece of advice we’ve received on this is:

“Whatever you decide, as long as you can look back and for whatever reasons for that chosen path, you can be happy and confident in your choice at that time.”

The worst thing you can do is not make a decision because of the fear of failure.

So here we are in the middle of the Collider programme, and we can honestly say, we are excited by the next challenges that are most definitely going to be thrown our way. Bring it on!!!