Author: Oliver Jones

Proposal Tip of the Week

Some very exciting news in this morning about one of the companies we raised money for last year. BIG news! Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to disclose anything yet, so will have to announce when permitted in a later post…so watch this space.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve all been on tenterhooks waiting for the second in my series of 52 quick proposal tips. The wait is over…

Tip #2 “What Itch do you Scratch?”

Last week’s tip recommended grabbing investors’ attention by starting your pitch/proposal with your company’s most impressive achievement or traction metric to date. But what next? read more

Success Story: Reward Gateway acquires Yomp

Yomp • Engaging People • Rewarding Wellness from Yomp on Vimeo.

Yesterday Techcrunch posted an article announcing that Reward Gateway had acquired gamified health startup Yomp for an undisclosed figure. Techcrunch mention the £200k seed round that Yomp filled last year, but neglect to mention that £150k of that came through Angel Investment Network (the whole SEIS allowance) !

But that’s of little importance. Our investors are over the moon at such a rapid ROI. As you would be. The figure hasn’t been disclosed yet, but our £150k went in at a valuation of £1 million; and we’d expect someone of the calibre of Reward Gateway to be able to acquire for £3-5million. By that reckoning, our investors are getting a 3-5x multiple return in just over a year. read more

How a good first impression can make you more money and your users happier

This week I wanted to share with you a great little article about user onboarding. While it’s primarily useful for web-based companies, there’s an important lesson in there for anyone who cares about driving success.

In brief, the article demonstrates that the most effective way to increase user retention, is to focus on onboarding – that first day or week in which a user is experiencing your product for the first time. By focussing on this ‘handshake’ moment not only will you retain a higher percentage of users/customers in that first day/week, but there will be a knock-on effect from this in the subsequent days/weeks; with the result that your churn will be significantly reduced across the entire user lifecycle and your revenues will have increased accordingly and significantly. Even though you only made changes at the start of the lifecyle. read more

Festive Wisdom: Why pop-up restaurant sensation Grub Club is having Christmas with Airbnb

Experiential marketing has proven to be a cost effective, authentic and powerful way of growing your brand. For the uninitiated, “experiential marketing” is a strategy that encourages engagement from your target demographic by encouraging them to play an active part in the evolution of the brand. In other words, you give them an experience that makes them feel part of your brand. It’s a great way to create loyalty and evangelism for your business.

Co-founder of London-based restaurant startup, Grub Club, Siddarth VijayaKumar, shares how experiential marketing worked for them in this article for TechCityinsider including how Grub Club has been collaborating with Airbnb for Christmas… read more

Latest Success Story: Restaurant Reservation App Uncover acquired by Velocity

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we helped Uncover, which went on to become the UK’s premier restaurant reservation app, fill their seed round. In fact it’s only been 16 months. But on the back of their extraordinary year since launch they have now been acquired by Velocity, the world’s leading international digital hospitality service, for an undisclosed figure.

9 months after launch Uncover had gained 135,000 users and was partnered with 350 of London’s high-end restaurants (incl. Alain Ducasse Restaurants, Coya, LIMA, Restaurant Story, Taberna do Mercado, and The Clove Club). In that period it was recognised by Apple as its “Best App” on over 10 different occasions for its immaculate user experience. read more

Back-to-Basics: How to Start a Startup

Even though i’ve been in the startup business for a while now, when i stumbled across this infographic by Funders and Founders, it reminded me how useful it can be to glance back at the basics once in a while. In an increasingly fraught and complex world, it is not only extremely helpful, but also motivating to step back and see the workings of the bigger picture; to catch sight of the wood for the trees. Details are important; but occasionally we can get bogged down in them.

As every successful person ever will tell you – if you get the basics right, the rest will follow. read more

Latest Success Story: Numecent announces $15.5M Series B Investment

Cloudpaging leader, Numecent, have just raised $15.5M in series B funding bringing their total investment accrued to approximately $38M.

We first encountered Numecent back in 2012 when they approached us looking for seed funding for their cloudpaging technology concept that enabled native Windows applications to be delivered from the cloud. We were impressed by the fact that Numecent’s clients would have no need to download or install any software on a PC at all; and, applications would be delivered 20-100x faster than a conventional download. read more

The Biggest Reason Startups Fail

Ask a sample group of people why startups fail, and, assuming they have a vague understanding of the modern world,  they’ll give you a host of different reasons. Misfiring team. Poor product. No market. No business model. Delusional founder etc. And undoubtedly, they are all true depending on the circumstances in which the particular startup failed.

But there is a root problem to many of these problems. And it’s a simple one: a lack of tracked data, or perhaps simply a wilful ignorance of it. Data is the only means of empirically measuring the performance of your startup and building good practices upon proven foundations. In other words, tracked data gives you actionable insights where you would otherwise be guessing. Build upon what you already know to be true and your chances of avoiding ultimate failure will be much greater. read more

Latest Success Story: what3words Gets £2.5 million Series A Funding Led by Intel Capital

Over the course of the last year we raised £600k in seed funding for one of the UK’s most promising tech startups, what3words. If you haven’t heard of them yet, you’ll want to watch their video (below) to get in the know about the extraordinary developments they’ve made in geo-location technology, mapping the entire planet into 57 trillion 3m by 3m squares, each with its own three word label.

On the back of the successful seed round, what3words has gained significant traction including contracts with leading geographic information system providers. Their success piqued the interest of Intel Capital who alongside existing Angel Investors have filled a Series A round in the region of £2.5 million. read more

A Pocket Guide to How Investors Think

Understanding how investors think is an essential tool for every entrepreneur. Only when their thinking processes have been demystified can you attempt to negotiate with confidence.

This infographic, visualised from investor Paul Graham’s famous essay “The Hacker’s Guide to Investors” by Anna Vital from Funders and Founders, is your pocket guide to getting inside their heads.