"When nearly all customers touch-points are going digital, every brand is going to have to become a software company". From, "Velocity: The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital" by Ajaz Ahmed.
Be Unconventional and Live
Watching a recent presentation by Bonin Bough, the VP-global media and consumer engagement at Mondelez, he ended this energetic pitch with one message, "Consumer brands need to innovate their conventional marketing approaches or they will die". He reiterated this warning at his recent Advertising Week keynote. Working with startups is the best way for consumer packaged goods companies to do so - get involved and don't miss out on the vast talent, innovation and unconventional energy that startups have.
Why 'B2Brand'?
Shouldn't we go find the next Google? The next Instagram? What about another Angry Birds? They're creative, they use tech, no? Well, no.
Our investments from Collider12 will be unashamedly 'B2Brand'. The startups will have some smart, creative technology that help the big brands in a big way. This is what we know and these are the startups we'll help grow.
Like others we believe in B2B, but more so we believe that what the UK does so incredibly well is creativity joined with scalable technology. The investors and brands know that the UK does this better than anyone else - we understand the people, the technology and the potential. For their part, Notion Capital's investments will typically be £1m - £2m and they're confident of deal flow. "If you are an entrepreneur setting up a B2B business in Europe there aren’t that many VCs that are active. There isn’t anyone else with the ‘laser’ focus in that area that we have,” Jos White said.
With Jos and others having 'laser' focus at Series A but you need the seed round. Rose comments, "Being creative with technology that can help Brands is what England does so well - London is the home of creativity and there are incredible opportunities here right now - we can help from the crucial early stage and beyond, so if you're a tech 'B2Brand' startup get in touch with matthew@collider12.com".
Only the Creative use of Technology will survive
Last Friday I went to the Wall Street Journal's excellent TechCafe, which set up stall (so to speak) in The Bookclub, Shoreditch for three days of free talks, panels and inspiration from the tech industry's leading figures.
Friday was Government day and Ben Hammersley, the Prime Minister's Ambassador to TechCity, talked about the future of technology (he has recently written a book, "64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then"). In a wide-ranging interview Ben talked about the impossibility of shutting down the Internet, the new Digital Government and the benefits (or otherwise) of Modafinil.
[slideshow]
The theme that struck me most was his views on Moore's Law and that in the future much of the 'skilled' white-collar jobs will be automated by algorithms in the same way that the blue-collar jobs have been. No one welds cars by hand anymore as that can be put in a flowchart and automated by algorithm and Ben's point was that the same will be done for white-collar job - just see what Watson is doing for IBM. For example Watson can diagnose patients within 50% accuracy of Doctors. With Moore's Law it's not difficult to see that the accuracy of Watson will increase and surpass many Doctors diagnosis in not many years at all.
All this lead to Ben saying that it's the 'black-collar' workers, as he put it, who will win through. These are the creative types - the people who can conjure up the technology, solutions and products in ways that simply can't be reproduced by a flow-chart and therefore algorithm. This is Collider12 is looking for - we want technology that will scale but we want the creative solutions that mean the people, the team, are the differentiator and the reason you will also win.
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