Shared Experiences with Collider Alumni

"If you ask for money, you'll get advice. If you ask for advice, you'll get money." - Phil, Beem Class of 2013

It's been an exciting January here at Collider. We welcomed our Class of 2015 founders into the heart of London with an intense, invigorating and informative first month. To complement that, we had two alumni chat with them about their experiences with Collider, and generally growing a business from incubation to revenue generating during the second week. Super insightful, Emily from Seenit and Phil from Beem share their two-pence worth on how to make the most of the Collider programme - and any accelerator.

You'll get a lot of information over the course of the programme

But Phil from Beem wants you to remember advice is information provided by people in situations that worked for them - it may not work for you. One of your jobs as a founder is to strategically decide what is beneficial to integrate into your business, and what you need to throw to the side or save in your pocket for later. Our ring leader and veteran coach Rose explains the value of having a dedicated coach to your startup: "Ask us anything, especially if you are unsure of some advice you've received. Even if you think it is a silly question, we are here to help you break through the roadblocks and decide what is the practical advice that will take you further quicker and more efficiently."

Stay one Step Ahead

Especially when going to meetings. Collider can provide you with the connections, but it's up to you to bring your best foot forward. Emily suggests you go in with an agenda - what 3 things can I take from this meeting? In particular, when meeting with brands, start with the pain points this brand might be facing. As a startup, the feedback you'll get from asking a brand manager 'What are some of the struggles and challenges you face everyday?' will be much more valuable than feedback on your product straight away. Once you understand their problems, you'll be able to tailor your explanations to fit their needs.

Think about Fundraising

But focus on revenue. You have the opportunity to extend your runway through contracts with the brands we connect you with - make sure you take advantage of it! Keep building up your support network and it's possible to bootstrap your way through the slower periods. When Beem pivoted while in theCollider Class of 2013 programme, Phil mentioned that he began to focus on generating revenue as opposed to looking for funding rounds. Leading into their third year, Beem is looking for their next contract to continue growing.

Introducing: Burst

[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

**We will be profiling each company joining Collider's Class of 2015. Take the time to learn a bit more about them and keep an eye on what's to come over the next few months!**

[/spb_text_block] [spb_single_image image="13959" image_size="full" frame="noframe" intro_animation="none" full_width="no" lightbox="no" image_link="http://weareburst.com/" link_target="_blank" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="first"]

Who are you and what do you do?

Burst are the short-form social video specialists in video under 30 seconds. We help brands and agencies improve on their engagement with the mobile first generation through content creation and the world's first analytics platform measuring, benchmarking and reporting on brands' Vine videos.

Right now, brands are experimenting with short-form video content on Vine and Instagram but have no way of benchmarking their performance. We do that by measuring, benchmarking and reporting. Burst offers brands big data on little videos.

Who are your co-founders & give us one line about each of you!

Before recently being recognised as one of Business Insider's 30 most creative under 30 in advertising, Burst Co-founder and CEO, Mike Litman, was in a previous life, a professional tennis ball boy and poker player - he's used to juggling many things at once, as well as taking some risks and going all in!

Burst Co-founder, Simon Bibby, is a passionate communicator with a decade of PR and digital experience. He wants to make millions in MADTech and in the future, build a profitable tech business for social good that helps millions. He dreams about one day being able to buy his beloved Newcastle United football club and finally see them win some silverware!

Where in the world are your headquarters?

London, UK.

What excites you most about London (one startup point and one non-startup point!)?

1) London is a hot bed of entrepreneurial talent and a welcoming community of startup founders that keep driving us forward to always be improving.

2) The creative digital economy will be the lifeblood of great British commerce this century. London is the beating heart of this movement.

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="last"]

What insight (competitive advantage, new perspective etc.) are you bringing to the Madtech industry?

Both Simon and Mike have extensive in-house and agency experience of the social digital curve and the impact it has had on traditional communication practices. The explosion of short form video creation, distribution and quantification - are areas Burst believed are ripe for exploration and disruption.

We have customer centric values running through our culture code, having experienced customer pain points and worked with our market competitors to serve clients, not always to a satisfactory level.

We are clear on our position in the market and are on the path to enlighten our customers about the powerful value of micro-content.

What is one challenge you have had to overcome since beginning your journey?

In a short space of time, we have had to find the final piece of the founding team jigsaw, which is the lead developer, Janosch Oppermann. We now feel we have the perfect balance of business, psychology and science.

Tell us about how Collider can (and hopefully will) help you over the next four months.

Collider have assembled the very best MADTech minds in this space for the 2015 programme. Burst now has the funding, coaching and connections to accelerate growth plans for our unique micro-content analytics product.

Here's a funny fact you didn't know about us!

We met while both working in different areas of e-commerce for Argos in Milton Keynes back in 2008. We were introduced by Mike's then manager, who knew we both lived in the same apartment block close to work.

Our first social experience together was spending one Saturday holed up in Mike’s flat eating an entire box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and trying to beat each other at FIFA ‘08.

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

"Collider have assembled the very best MADTech minds in this space for the 2015 programme. Burst now has the funding, coaching and connections to accelerate growth plans for our unique video burst analytics product."

[/spb_text_block]

Introducing: Ignidata

[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]  

**We will be profiling each company joining Collider’s Class of 2015. Take the time to learn a bit more about them and keep an eye on what’s to come over the next few months!** 

[/spb_text_block] [spb_single_image image="13951" image_size="full" frame="noframe" intro_animation="none" full_width="no" lightbox="no" link_target="_blank" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="first"]

Who are you and what do you do? Ignidata provides brands with in-depth market research from a mobile survey integration based on a ‘pay with time’ model, while also providing a monetization option for digital media content providers.

Who are your co-founders & give us one line about each of you! Hugo Matinho – Is our tech ninja and mad engineer Pedro Vilela – Is our marketing guru and creative mind

Where in the world are your headquarters? Our headquarters are located in the beautiful city of London UK

What excites you most about London (one startup point and one non-startup point!)? London is a huge market full of opportunities London is a buzzing city full of interesting people

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="last"]

What insight (competitive advantage, new perspective etc.) are you bringing to the Madtech industry? We are bridging the gap between brands and consumers with modern ways of engaging an audience.

What is one challenge you have had to overcome since beginning your journey? How to explain our idea – the mom test

Tell us about how Collider can (and hopefully will) help you over the next four months. Collider can help us reach brands that otherwise would be pretty hard if not impossible to get to.

Here's a funny fact you didn't know about us! We are avid gamers and foodies.

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

"This is the perfect accelerator for companies who are developing a marketing tech solution as it allows startups from a very early stage to start asking global brands questions that will help us to develop a product with the exact specifications that the global market wants."

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/4" el_position="first"]

[/spb_text_block] [spb_single_image image="13954" image_size="full" frame="noframe" intro_animation="none" full_width="no" lightbox="no" image_link="http://www.ignidata.com/" link_target="_blank" width="1/2"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/4" el_position="last"]

[/spb_text_block]

Introducing: Storesense

[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

**We will be profiling each company joining Collider's Class of 2015. Take the time to learn a bit more about them and keep an eye on what's to come over the next few months!**

[/spb_text_block] [spb_single_image image="13995" image_size="full" frame="noframe" intro_animation="none" full_width="no" lightbox="no" link_target="_blank" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [blank_spacer height="30px" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="first"]

Who are you and what do you do?

Storesense tracks the movement of shoppers via their smartphones and use that data to deliver actionable insights to retailers. For example - how many shoppers leave the store without a purchase and what departments do they visit?

Who are your co-founders; give us one line about each of you! Jan Isakovič – Experienced product manager and motorcyclist Nejc Župec – Full stack web and cloud developer who loves chess and climbing Jaka Demšar – Data scientist who keeps bees

Where in the world are your headquarters?

Storesense’s HQ is in the picturesque capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana.

What excites you most about London (one startup point and one non-startup point!)?

We’re excited to start building our business in the UK. On a personal note, moving from a city of 300,000 inhabitants to London is definitely a big step and very exciting!

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="last"]

What insight (competitive advantage, new perspective etc.) are you bringing to the Madtech industry?

We are also shoppers who are often annoyed with ham-fisted sales approaches. Our product enables passive optimization of shopping experiences – that means that  the customers’ (and our!) shopping experience will improve from visit to visit without them having to do anything!

What is one challenge you have had to overcome since beginning your journey?

The world of retail is a very closed one – at least in Eastern Europe. Getting with touch with actual retailers at the decision maker level to develop and optimize our product was quite a challenge and one of the key reasons for our application to Collider.

Tell us about how Collider can (and hopefully will) help you over the next four months.

We are counting on Collider to help us improve our product by connecting us to brands and retailers – and of course to help us sell it! :)

Here's a funny fact you didn't know about us!

Our data scientist has a fun hobby: programming  algorithms that predict Championship cup footbal games. Hopefully we’ll have a new way of financing our startup soon :D

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

"The Storesense team is excited to have joined Collider because we believe it can help guide our next steps both when it comes to building our product and company and in helping us establish crucial partnerships with brands. As a startup from small Slovenia, we’re especially excited to start building our business in London and the UK in 2015."

[/spb_text_block]

Here comes the Collider Class of 2015

[spb_single_image image="13861" image_size="full" frame="noframe" intro_animation="none" full_width="no" lightbox="no" link_target="_self" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="first"] With the new year, we're bringing in the 'creme de la creme' of what Madtech has to offer for 2015. And that means nine new startups have joined the Collider family. Please welcome; the Collider Class of 2015! This year, the startups have travelled from all over Europe to join our growing family and it's bigger and better than ever before. Our founders have come from Australia, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, the US, and across London - and they're all here to make a dent in the ever growing and maturing Madtech industry in the UK.

This year, the startups reflect some of the growing trends in the marketing and advertising industries, including 'dark social', customer segmentation, enhanced social analytics and short-form video to name a few.

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="last"]

And to support our startups on their journeys we have over 12 amazing brand and agency partners - some of the biggest names in the UK, including Unilever, Diageo, Ogilvy Group UK and Havas Media UK. But no one can pinpoint the value of Collider better than our ring-leader, Rose:

“We are really excited about this year's cohort of startups - they reflect the current trends in Madtech and should offer our brand partners fantastic opportunities to understand, engage with and sell to their customers in new and innovative ways. Our startups will get the opportunity to pitch to some of the most influential marketing and advertising people in the UK and we look forward to seeing the benefits this will bring to the founders.”

[/spb_text_block] [spb_single_image image="13863" image_size="full" frame="noframe" intro_animation="none" full_width="no" lightbox="no" link_target="_self" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

THE STARTUPS

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="first"]

Brandvee is an audience development platform for media brands that finds, tracks and targets the most influential customers who drive conversion.

Hello, we're Burst!  We make big data from little videos and have built the world's first social video analytics platform which helps organisations understand how to spend more effectively on short-form video.

FindTheRipple is the influencers analytics platform that provides understanding, predictions and recommendations that drive highly focussed campaign decision making in real time.

Ignidata offers affordable, actionable, real time, global insigths in to millenials and other hard to get people by rewarding them with the content they love

Pixoneye  uses people's photos and videos that they have stored on their mobile devices in order to extract very clever data about them, completely anonymously. By understanding the user through their photos we are able to serve the right ad to the right user no matter what app they are using!

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="last"]

Powr of You  is a data marketplace where consumers and brands can learn and earn from each other. Our platform provides brands with a deeper understanding of consumers across devices, browsers, and social networks.

Real Life Analytics enables targeted advertising on any digital screen. Using patented visual recognition technology we can enable every screen to recognise who is in front of it and serve them exactly the right targeted content in milliseconds.

Storesense interprets customer journeys in traditional brick-and-mortar stores using passive Wi-Fi. Our advanced proprietary algorithms drive actionable retail advice - from low traffic zone warnings and optimal in-store advertising position suggestions to the best locations for resting areas..

SyncSpot  harnesses the power of entertainment to move people by offering exclusive content that can only be accessed once a customer is at a specific location.

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

Stay tuned for more in-depth info on each of the startups to come over the next couple of weeks!

[/spb_text_block]