Calling All Startups

Collider13 is coming to regions across England to find and accelerate the best startup’s!

Collider is a startup accelerator that provides money, mentoring and market access to young tech companies to help them achieve quick growth. We specialise in helping a select group of startups which operate in the B2Brand area. This means they have technology which solves the problems brands face, such as marketing goals, consumer engagement, or selling more stuff.

Our first programme, Collider12, launched earlier this year to great acclaim, investing in 9 of England’s best startups and developing technologies that helps big brands. Over a 3 month period they were introduced to over 20 brand and marketeers from brands such as Unilever, William, BBC WW and CBS. They were also extensively mentored by entrepreneurs who have all been there before, allowing us to help build some solid startups in the ad tech space.

The results speak for themselves – already 4 of the 9 have received more investment and 5 of them are negotiating commercial deals with the brands involved. Now, Collider13 is focusing on startups based outside of London.

If you are a talented team with a prototype or product that can help brands, come and talk to us and hear how we can collide.

• -Bristol: Tues 10th -  Weds 11th September, book your slot here
• -Manchester: Weds 18^th Sept – 3-5pm, book your slot here
• -More dates and locations to be added soon, so keep checking back!

Interview with Dibbz

Dibbz is a London-based startup that is making brand engagement in apps and games more meaningful than the regular old banner ads we’re used to. As one of the Collider12 startups, they are receiving lots of support and mentorship to help their thriving business along. To share what they've learnt, we caught up with Nick and Elliot, the co-founders of Dibbz. 1. How did you come up with the idea?

Nick: Elliot and I are both keen gamers, and we were just so frustrated with banner adverts on mobiles.

Elliot: It felt that mobile games were moving so fast but there was no decent way for the developers to monetise. Good games were getting played less because of the frustration over banner ads.

N: We met while completing our a Masters in Technology Entrepreneurship from the University of London, and shared this hatred of banner ads.

2. So you got the idea, but what was the actual push to make it? So many people have a creative idea, but it takes a lot of guts to pull it off.  

E: During our degree, we had the chance to pitch our idea to people in the industry. We also went to Match and Hack events to look for developers. So even while the idea was still floating about, we had the concept printed onto paper to demonstrate it to everyone we met.

N: This was in July 2012, and although we did meet people, no one seemed to really run with the idea. We don't blame them, we were so early it was ridiculous to expect anything else.

3. So how did you meet your developer?

E: In the end, a friend posted on Facebook asking for a developer and we found a great friend of a friend to make the first version of the demo. Unfortunately his parents got ill so he had to leave.

N: After this sad set back, we decided we would give ourselves a 3 month deadline to work on it full time, and then call it a day after that if it doesn't work.

E: Everything was moving so quickly, and having those 3 months to work solidly on it made all the difference.

N: We got through to Wayra as well, but we turned it down to work with Collider.

E: And we're both very pleased we chose Collider.

4. How has Collider helped Dibbz grow?

E: Having Andy Tait as a mentor at Collider has been an invaluable experience. He has been the truest definition of a mentor, and been such a  great help at events by advising us which ones to go and offering to make introductions.

6. What is the biggest landmark in the growth of Dibbz?

N: Our aim as always remained the same, so probably the biggest landmarks have come in our strategy. With help from Fiona, we decided to no longer make cold calls; we have so many connections from Collider, we have no need to anymore.

E: We were just focusing on games at first, because its what we know and love. However, when talking to an app publisher at an event, they asked if it could go on all games, and so we thought 'why not?' If the demand is there, why limit to games? That's a pretty big landmark too.

7. How do you keep maintain motivation?

N: We are relaxed about working hours, so to avoid the rush hour we tend to come to the offices between 10-11am, and then stay unitl the evening and go to networking events.

E: We really think this new modern way of working is far more productive than the normal 9-5.30 routine. We play games on Fridays, have an shared Spotify for the office, and hold regular debates about which is the best Star Wars. We always look forward to going to work, and even play games which each other remotely in our free time.

8. What's next for Dibbz?

• Be releasing IOS and Android soon
• Affiliates: burger king, ask Italian, vouchers
• Quotsta:
• Go to the app store to the download it
• Android Launching: 10-50million distribution, t player reactor
• Sods law developed on IOS, give data from the IOS

9. What advice do you give to other startups?

• Networking in startup events, likeminded scene
• intimate community helps each other out, very impressed
• Making intros, seeing new faces,
• Apps Junction, Mobile Mondays, Games Jams great way to meet games developers
• Like Hackathon but for games, gameathon
• LIUG, Google Campus host a lot, Games Developer Lunch
• Using twitter to contact developers as they are active on that

5. How did you expand your team?

1. Hired Piers, friend from School
2. Found Gurav, Prof in Computer Science, past in ad and was excited and asked to come in and pitch to make it an academic project
3. Already had an app in the iStore, entrepreneurial too, built the
4. IOS Developer, also designed all the SDK, built it and programmed it
5. Pivotal and fundamental to the app
6. Hired Piers, Jan, and Gurav in Februrary

Thanks Team Dibbz! keep up the great work and we'll check  in again soon.

Collider12 Startup Featured on Wired

One of our startups, Seeker Industries, has been featured on Wired as their Startup of the Week. Click here to read their interview, and find out what their biggest barrier to success is, and their best piece of advice.

Are You The Next Big Thing?

We have exciting news! Collider12 and The Bakery are partnering with ad:tech London to find 'The Next Big Thing'. This startup competition has been organised in partnership with ad:tech London, the interactive advertising and technology conference taking place on 11 & 12 September 2013.

The Next Big Thing is a nationwide competition to identify the startups that are creating the best technology to disrupt the world’s mass communications market. Known in their industry as “B2Brand” startups, the companies scrutinised in this competition will be developing products and services that help brands better engage with their consumers by meeting the challenges of consumer engagement, analytics, big data and data management or search.

B2Brand technology is a fast-growing industry segment in the UK. According to CB Insights, business-to-business companies account for 80% of the tech startups most likely to go public in the future.

To enter, startups must have been trading for less than two years and will need to submit applications to F6S before Friday 6^th September 2013. For more details, click here. 

Shortlisted startups will be invited to present their businesses at ad:tech London in September in front of an experienced panel of digital marketing investors and cutting-edge brands.

The competition champion will win the opportunity to pitch their technology to a Unilever brand and hopefully pilot their technology with Unilever.  They will also be fast-tracked to the final round of the selection process for The Bakery and Collider12’s next incubation programmes. In addition, the winner and two runners-up will be invited to a number of networking events and meetings with Collider12 and The Bakery investment and brand partners, enabling them to extend significantly their professional networks and gain access to potentially influential business contacts.

The judging panel at ad:tech London will include:

-          Max Benitz, Principal, Ingenious Ventures

-          Conrad Poulson, Head of Startup Business, Orange France Telecom

-          Matt Pritchard, European Digital Planning Director, Kellogg’s

-          Anu Shah, Director of Ventures, BBH Global

-          Chris Sponiar, Principal, Unilever Ventures

About Collider12

Collider12 brings together forward-thinking investors, cutting-edge brands and ambitious entrepreneurs working on new technologies that disrupt mass communications markets. In doing so, we develop a strong ecosystem in which ‘B2Brand’ startup companies can flourish and accelerate their growth.

What the startups have in common is that they target their products at businesses. For example, the startups might be focused on improving a brand’s external communications; increasing consumer-engagement; or delivering customer analytics.

About The Bakery

The Bakery is the place where the brand world and tech world meet. We exist to get the most disruptive technology to market quicker. We run a bi-annual accelerator program where we match the knottiest brand problems with the most disruptive technologies and get them to market in 8 weeks.

 About ad:tech London

ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition – a marketplace for buying and selling, a community for networking, a forum for exchanging ideas and an opportunity for contributing to industry trends and initiatives.

Ten annual events around the world focus on top-notch education through keynote speakers, topic-driven panels and workshops as well as showcase the latest products and services to help implement new knowledge and ideas. Attendees leave ad:tech with the tools and techniques they need to compete in an ever-changing world.

About Ingenious

Ingenious is a market-leading financial services group providing investment and advisory expertise operating through four divisions. Ingenious is one of the leading investors in the UK’s creative industries and was founded by its Chief Executive, Patrick McKenna in 1998.

Ingenious Ventures is the private equity division of Ingenious. Ingenious Investments offers a range of alternative investments spanning media and entertainment, sport and leisure and clean energy. Ingenious Asset Management Limited provides discretionary investment management and innovative solutions to the private investor. Ingenious Corporate Finance provides comprehensive advice on strategy across a wide range of transactions focusing particularly on the media, entertainment and communications sectors.

Guest Post from Moment.Us

Last week one of our startups, Moment.Us, held a private testing session at  TechHub Manchester. Fueled by pizza, music, and the chance to play with new technology, the testers scrutinised every aspect of the app and wrote all their thoughts down. These types of events are crucial to a startups growth, and so it's always worthwhile to reflect back on how it went, what was learnt, and what to do next time. Over to Ioana Craescu, the Marketing & Comms Lead, to tell us how it went. 

"Recently we had our second Private Beta testing session for the Moment.Us music app at our lovely office at TechHub Manchester. We’d like to thank again everyone for attending the session! The things that we loved the most were not only your enthusiasm and curiosity to play with the app, but also that this lead to great questions and great conversations.

The highlights of the afternoon:

• We had some time before we started the testing session to chat a bit with Bernardo, Niyati, Karen, Katie, Haider, Carys and Adam. Hope you guys will also keep us updated with your projects!
• We made a bit of noise in the office, but this is one thing that we love about TechHub – creative environment all the way!
• The Moment.Us team all wore for the first time the white t-shirts Fiafo made for us (thanks guys!)
• It was lovely to see Max, Vlad and Toni so relaxed, confident and communicative!!
• On the same note, the members of the Moment.Us team who talk a lot (who could that be?) welcome Max into the gang! Don’t ever interrupt your flow.
• We were happy to have David online from Toronto, even if he was conditioned by where we would take the flat screen to
• Thanks everyone for trying to be as critique as possible – we need  the things that you don’t like the same way we need the ones that you love!
• Thanks for being patient to go through some steps more than once
• Thanks for putting down on paper every detail that you found relevant (yes, Katie, even wondering if it’s your finger or our app). You’d be surprised to know how helpful that can prove to be!
• We appreciate that everyone asked us questions whenever they felt we could help with more information
• Thanks for feeling confident to share any idea about what features you’d like to see build in future versions (like radio stations from World War II – crazy, but neat!)

If you’ve enjoyed it, come again! You’re always welcome to stop by TechHub or drop us on email for a coffee downtown. And don’t forget to tell us that on Twitter or on our Moment.Us Facebook page with a Like, comment, share or however you feel more comfortable expressing it.

Soon enough we won’t be talking about testing sessions, guys! You’ll be able to download the app yourselves and your friends and, wow.. isn’t that exciting!? Don’t forget to Subscribe to our mailing list (you’ll find the form at the bottom of our website) to be the first who finds out when we release more exciting stuff.

Keep in touch

Ioana

You can see the original Moment.Us post and lots more on their blog, here.