The Digital Business Academy Goes Live

  We like getting involved in interesting projects. Especially ones involving everything digital. It goes hand in hand with investing in some of the most innovative companies in the marketing and advertising (or Madtech as we call it) industry. And that’s where our news this week comes from.

TechCity UK has just publically launched the Digital Business Academy (or DBA) – an online portal for young professionals to gain the necessary skills to start, grow, or work for digital startups. They’ve partnered with UCL, Founder Centric and the University of Cambridge to bring you, yes you, the best content on everything from sizing up your idea to building your brand to mastering the finances of our digital business. The Guardian identified the UK will need 750,000 skilled digital workers by 2017. But when the number of computer science graduates is dropping, how does one fix this? By making education accessible. Oh, did we mention the courses are free in the UK?

How is Collider involved? We’re offering a ‘milkround’ to all graduates of the programme. Similar to a job fair, but less intimidating, these grads will benefit from access to innovative products changing the face of the marketing and advertising worlds – our alumni.

“The DBA is filling a skills gap in the digital industry,” Rose Lewis, our Co-Founder and ring-leader mentions. “The DBA helps with more than just coding: from community management to sales and marketing in digital, these are emerging job opportunities where the skill set is still undefined and underdeveloped. You won’t find a programme so accessible and with such high quality content elsewhere at the moment.”

That spare time this weekend you were going to spend watching videos of cats on Youtube? Why not learn how to market and analyse viral videos instead? Who knows, you might just get more out of it than those aww-spiring cat videos. Happy Friday!

When Applying to an Accelerator

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The application process is two-fold: the written questionnaire, and the interview. The written questionnaire is the application form on F6S you’ve been slaving over. The interview is when we’ll meet face to face. Here are some tips to help with the process.

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Written Questionnaire

Just as intimidating as a first date. Well, a virtual one.

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Check, Re-write it

Just as Daft Punk’s creepy robot says, check re-write it. The best applications have been edited by a trusted outsider. A good reviewer will make sure you’ve answered the question, breaking through your tunnel vision and taking your application to the next level.

Show me how

This is your time to shine. Investors know that putting their hard-earned cash into early-stage startups is risky. Every bit of supporting evidence that you can offer to investors decreases the risk of your business a little. How many customers have you interviewed? How many beta customers do you have? How much are brands already spending on products similar to yours? How quickly is the market growing? What is your track record in this field?

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Tell me your Problems

It’s all good fun to tell us about your business, how it works and where it fits in the market. But what makes it stand out is if you can explain the original problem. “Stand-out startups are those who can clearly articulate and amplify the specific customer pain-point that they are solving. They bring it to life and put the investors in the shoes of the customer,” so says Miles, our Startups Champion. Explain concisely and stay on point and you’ll have our attention from the get-go.

The Video 'Selfie'

Here’s where your personality comes through – it’s been nicknamed the ‘video selfie’. This is how we get a feel for you as a person, so let your personality shine through. Carl from LivingLens agrees: “The 1 minute video is key. Make sure you portray your drive, enthusiasm and stubbornness.”

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Interview Process

We like you already. That’s why you’re here for an interview. The hard stuff is almost over…

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Content: Know your Sh*t

Being prepared is of the utmost necessity. Come knowing your product backwards and forwards. Be ready to expand on your answers from your written application. Know your numbers, your competitors, your timeline inside out. Yes you’re a startup, but you’re still a professional.

We reckon you can cover everything off in 7 slides. Don’t make them text heavy, they should be presentation enhancers. Live demos are a no-no. Your tech will fall over. The internet will break. But do sneak in a screenshot or two.

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Style: Bring your Flair

When you’re presenting, keep it clear and concise. Only one person from your team should present, but make sure everyone is briefed for the Q&A. If you’re presenting, make sure you’ve rehearsed. A lot. You should be able to recite it in your sleep. Record yourself, practice in front of a mirror, or transcribe it.

Let your personality shine through. The beauty of interviews is the uninhibited communication – be confident and be yourself. Remember non-verbal communication plays a large role in your presentations, and we want to work with exciting and passionate people, not robots. Keep it real!

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Crowdfunding Complete for the Class of 2015!

It’s been quite a week here at Collider – never a dull moment! As the excitement from Ad:Tech London cooled down, it was time for the Collider team to pull together and begin filing through the applications for the Class of 2015. Applications for the programme are open until November 10^th, make sure you get your applications in before the deadline (and even share with your friends now)!

In other news, our Seedrs campaign has come to a successful close! As of Wednesday evening, only 13 days after launch, the marketing and advertising industry pulled together to collectively raise over £330,000! Investments ranged from £100 to £55,000 per person and over 60 individuals participated.

Investors of note include media guru Mat Morrison and CEO of Havas Media, Paul Frampton. Senior advertising executives from Ogilvy and WeAreSocial also invested in the Class of 2015. Some investors will further be actively involved in the mentoring process with the startups during the programme. They will also draw on industry connections and expertise to further supercharge the startups.

“The response from the marketing and advertising professionals has been overwhelmingly positive,” Rose Lewis, Co-founder of Collider said. “We’re encouraging them to invest in the future of their industry through startups, and they jumped at the chance.”

Each of the 10 startups will receive £50K in exchange for 11% equity. A hand-picked 5 of the 10 will receive £100K follow-up funding for a further 11%. Half of the funds from the Seedrs campaign will go towards the first round of funding and the other half will go towards the second round, with all of the investors’ money being distributed evenly between all the startups.

In short, high praise goes to the marketing and advertising industry! They took the challenge head on and took an active role in shaping the future of their industry through emerging tech - their efforts paid off! The Class of 2015 has a group of mentors and investors behind it this year who have an envious track record, with even more brands signed up to help transform these products by acting as first market validators (more on this later). Things are moving quickly – this year will be bigger and better and we’re waiting impatiently to getting this race going…

Why Collider? From our Startups

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"Being a part of the Collider Class of 2014 has been without question, the best decision and most rewarding experience of my career, and I would wholeheartedly recommend Collider to any start-up." – Carl Wong, LivingLens

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Here at Collider, we’re experts in finding that sweet spot between brands and marketing/advertising startups - or Madtech startups as we like to call them. We pride ourselves on bringing innovative founders in front of major global brands (real customers) to build a product people really want- to paraphrase Paul Graham. Applications for our January 2015 program are now open and we’re looking for you to join our Collider family.

We focus on three things: cash, coaching and connections. First off, the cash: This year is even bigger and better than we could have imagined. We’ve brought together even more angel investors from the marketing and advertising world, meaning more expertise and also more cash, for our startups. This year, we are now offering up to £150K funding per company. And, that’s just the starting point…

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"The support systems they put around a company is worth its weight in gold." - Sam Oakley, Stashmetrics

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"What is it like working with Collider? It’s like having an expert partner always with you. A year and half on, and we’re still getting value. It was probably the best months we have invested in our company."– Phil Mundy, Beem

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Next up, the coaching. We’re comprised of a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs with decades of experience behind their belts here to help you accelerate and fine tune your product. There are plenty of skills to learn as a startup founder, from pitching to listening, cash flows forecasting to product roadmap development. We’re here to help you learn. Feeling overwhelmed? Your dedicated coach works with you on a one-to-one basis for two hours every week throughout the programme- they’ll keep you focused from beginning to end. Over to you Carl:"Before Collider I felt that I needed an hour to explain what we offered, but now if I get 10 minutes with someone that's enough to listen and deliver a pitch.” And what’s more, there’s an even larger network of investors popping by every month to give in their feedback between workshops.

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“The mentoring process has been a fantastic accelerator for the business. It's much more about the being on our side of the table, partnering with us and working through the issues than a normal supplier/customer relationship." - Andrew Foyle, Miappi

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"The benefits for us working with Collider have been the introductions they've made to the brands and to get in front of people in those businesses. Ultimately you’ve got to listen what people are saying, listen to the advice that people give you and make your decisions out of that." - Iain Hagger,CampaignAmp

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Last but certainly not least, connections- this is where we don’t hold back. During our 17 week programme, we’re bringing you, the most innovative entrepreneurs and their game changing ideas face-to-face with the UK’s senior executives of the most influential global brands- think Unilever, Diageo and the National Lottery. They’ll be giving you first-hand feedback on your product and how to find that perfect product-market fit. Think years of research and testing boiled down into a few months’ time. We've done most of the hard work - just bring your game face and go-to attitude.

What’s next? You. Together we’re shaping the future of advertising and marketing to consumers, and want you to be a part of it. Not sure if this we’re the right fit for you? We’ve got some guidelines for the types of B2Brand startups we’re looking for this year. Need more info? Contact miles at collider. io he will be happy to answer all of your questions!

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“With Collider you can bring forward by months the time at which you start to generate revenue. That’s because of the brands that they introduce you to, and the high intensity of the Collision Phase - meaning you don’t make those time-consuming mistakes at the beginning.” – Stashmetrics

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Seenit takes The Next Big Thing by Storm

Was yesterday ever impressive! We started off with our speed dating event in the afternoon in conjunction with Unilever – over 20 startups and 60+ Unilever professionals all sat down to discuss how big brands can work with start-ups in the future. We even had a presentation from Marc Mathieu, Global SVP of Marketing for Unilever. After our speed dating session, we co-hosted The Next Big Thing- a showcase for the future stars of the marketing and advertising ecosystem. Eight start-ups from across London’s top accelerator programs pitched their hearts to a panel of four senior industry professionals from top UK brands Unilever, Diageo, Shop Direct and Havas Media. 3 minute pitches, 2 minute Q&A and audience participation via twitter made for some great feedback!

Collider’s own Seenit was the last company to pitch. Co-founder and CEO Emily Forbes captured the attention of every person in the room and left the panel speechless. The demonstration of how brands can engage with their audiences through crowd-sourced video footage had all eyed glued to the projectors. What an exemplary pitch she brought to the stage! Uproarious applause lifted the energy of the room and everyone was busy chatting and tweeting about Seenit post presentation.

After a quick deliberation, the panel returned to announce Seenit as the winner of The Next Big Thing!

“Ad:tech has been unbelievable for us, we’ve made some really great contacts,” Emily mentioned. Her team is also already preparing for the post-conference work. “It’s just the case of starting to build and continue to build the relationships of the people we have met today.”

Congrats again Emily on your team win and to all of the other start-ups who participated in the speed dating!