The Start-Up Series will next open for entries on 01 September 2020 A message from Worth Capital: Monthly competition to be paused in light of Coronavirus outbreak. Leave your details to be reminded when entries resume Henry Williams June 2, 2020 2 min read During these challenging times caused by the Coronavirus outbreak, we have decided to pause our monthly competition until September.The Start-Up Series has been running since October 2016 and has seen £4.3 million being invested into the winners so far. We have made the decision to pause the competition until September because:Although much of the process is digital, the most important part of the process is the half day ‘deep dive’ we have with each of the finalists (later on in the process). These sessions give us a chance to delve into the proposition and strategy with the founding teams and see if there is the chemistry to create a successful relationship. Without these face to face meetings, we wouldn’t feel confident to be making an investment decision.We need to concentrate on supporting the businesses we already have in our portfolio through the challenges they are facing and will continue to face over the next few months.We, and the investors that trust us with their money, need more clarity about the many economic and social impacts of Coronavirus before making any investment decisions.It is likely that any business seeking funding also needs to work out what the impact of Coronavirus will be before finalising any investment.Please leave us your contact details here and we’ll drop you a reminder when we re-open in September. We look forward to reviewing your entry then.Until then, please stay healthy and best wishes for growing your business.Hayley, Paul & MatthewWorth Capital Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
Bird: The Start-Up Series winner at the forefront of making innovative sustainable eyewear "We have an ethos of creating, not competing - because this is where real innovations are born and new ideas really stand out." Henry Williams January 11, 2022 6 min read Founders: Edward, Paul, and Lawrence BirdCompany: BirdDescription: Sustainable wooden sunglasses and ethical eyewearWebsite: https://birdsunglasses.com/ Can you tell me a bit about your business background?“Our founding team comes with a varied business background. I (Edward) founded the business with help from my two younger brothers in 2017 and up to that point had been leading one of the biggest education charities in the South West, alongside being a professional drummer and TEDx event organiser.“My co-founding brothers Lawrence and Paul both have business backgrounds in digital design, branding and illustration. Lawrence is well known for his brilliant branding and design skills, and has worked with international brands all over the world. Paul is the Director of Elixel, a digital creative agency. In 2018 Paul was named tech personality of the year and has helped establish Plymouth as a digital hub on the Tech Radar map.”Where did the idea for the business come from? Was there a moment or experience that made you feel a need for it?“I come from a creative family where everyone’s got skills in designing, making, tinkering with new ideas – for as long as I can remember, my brothers and I have wanted to turn one of our many creative projects into a business. I’m a drummer and had been working on a product idea for drummers in 2015, which was my introduction to the wonders of working with wood and other sustainable materials. I carried the learning from this project and saw a gap in the market for sustainable eyewear that was both beautifully designed and made.”What is the business’ USP?“Bird’s mission is to create eyewear which not only looks good, but does good, too. We create beautiful eyewear using sustainable materials, including FSC-certified wood, repurposed aluminium, and recycled packaging. Every pair purchased brings solar light to families in Malawi, Zambia and Uganda through their Share Your Sun partnership with SolarAid.“I knew right from the beginning that Bird was going to be a purposeful business. Our ‘Share Your Sun’ partnership with SolarAid came together very quickly, we pitched the idea to them and they loved it. This partnership is really unique and through the work of SolarAid, we can closely track the impact from our sales and the difference it makes. We’re proud to be the only sunglasses brand to have a solar connection. We recently worked out that in our first year of trading, we personally helped over 1,000 people in Africa in this way. This has been a real reason for celebration for our team, to do what we envisioned.”What has your experience with raising funding been like in the past? Had you ever tried to raise funding for this business (or another business) before entering the Start-Up Series?“We originally launched our brand with a small crowdfunding campaign in 2017, which was hard work at the time, but really successful. We were shortly after featured in Forbes, The Mirror and The Independent which gave us a huge profile boost as we started out.“Working in the education and charity sector meant I was used to raising funds through grants or benefactors, however this funding round is the first time any of us had embarked on any larger scale institutional investment. We spend a lot of time researching and putting our pitch deck together, and even longer pulling our complete business plan together. It was worth the effort and really helped us think about our strategy and purpose.”Why did you enter the Start-Up Series competition?“The Start-Up Series felt like a good fit for us. We liked that the platform was accessible and open to many types of businesses and it was clear that there was wide range of companies in the portfolio. This indicated to us there was a good level of experience and support across industries, just what you need for building a brand on and offline.”How did you hear about the competition?“We heard about the competition through the BAA network.”How did you find the application process?“The process was straight forward, though we spent a good amount of time thinking through the questions and applying ourselves to the context (something we would recommend to anyone answering questions like this).”How did you find the ‘deep dive’ with Worth Capital?“This was super helpful. Meeting with Matthew and Paul gave us the chance to turn those online answers into real life – revealing more of our personalities, products, back story and future plans.We came away from the deep dive with a mountain of useful ideas to think about, many of which we’re now outworking as we begin to scale.”How do you feel about winning the competition?“To win anything is encouraging, and for us this was the culmination of years of hard work, planning, refining and believing it was possible. So to be named as winner and receive investment is a monumental success for us. We’re very grateful to be in this position, because as brothers we’ve always wanted to work together, so it’s something of a dream realised.”A lot of businesses entered – what do you think made your business stand out and win?“We have an ethos of creating, not competing – because this is where real innovations are born and new ideas really stand out. We spent a lot of time creating the brand, taking our time to think things through and get the products right. In 2019 during our first year of trading, we won Frame of the Year at the Optician Awards (which is like the Grammys for eyewear). We were up against frames from huge international brands, but we like to think our frame stood out because we were doing something new and taking bold steps in a different direction. We hope this is the same reason for winning this competition.”What stage is the business at currently?“We’re now establishing a full-time team and bringing in experience where it’s needed. Bird HQ has opened a new office in Exeter and we’re getting busy creating, testing and building the foundations for growth.”What do you plan to use the Start-Up Series investment for?“Being able to implement a full-time team with support is a huge step for our capacity and productivity. We’ll be introducing augmented reality for customers to try-on frames on our website, along with some important streamlining of systems and opening new marketing opportunities.”Finally, what’s your ultimate vision for the business?“Our frames are designed for individuals who want to change the world and look good while doing it. Bird Sunglasses is committed to creating beautiful, thoughtful, ethical sunglasses that look great and do good.“We want to create a movement in eyewear and for Bird to be at the forefront of making innovative sustainable eyewear alongside making a difference through our Share Your Sun project. We’re thankful to be in this position and very excited about building the brand.”The Start-Up Series is open from the 1st to 14th of every month, giving one startup the chance to between £150,000 and £250,000 of equity funding. Enter here!Click here to enter The Start-Up Series Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
Five Dot Botanics: “Start-Up Series is critical to our business success” The high-performance skincare product with just five ingredients that's aiming to become a leading global brand Henry Williams February 6, 2020 5 min read Company: Five Dot BotanicsDescription: High performance, semi-premium, skincare, with only five ingredients in each product, minimal & sustainable packaging and a gender-neutral brand and target audience.Founders: Zaffrin & Brian O’SullivanWebsite: fivedotbotanics.comCan you tell me a bit about your business background?Zaffrin: “I am a TV lawyer by background. I have spent most of my career advising companies on how to make money from their intellectual property. I have always wanted to build a brand.”Brian: “I trained as a scientist but moved to finance a long time ago. however I always thought I would be around innovation.”Where did the idea for the business come from? was there a moment or experience that made you feel a need for it?“The idea for the business was inspired by the growing movement for clarity and transparency over the ingredients we consume or use in the products we buy. We started to look into our personal cosmetics and we were confused by the complexity and sheer number of ingredients listed in each product.“The beauty industry hasn’t needed to address this in the past, however transparency in beauty is on the rise and the best way to offer consumers transparency, clarity and control, is minimal ingredients. We could see this category was underserved and our aim is challenge the status quo to offer consumers a real choice about what goes on their skin.”What is the business’ USP?“We are a skincare disruptor. Our USP is that we innovate and make high performance skincare using only five ingredients in each product. This is a departure from the market norm in the beauty industry where consumers face 20, 30 or 40 ingredients in a product. Consumers now demand transparency over the ingredients they put on their skin and it is very difficult for traditional beauty businesses to do. The clean beauty and natural skincare space is growing and “minimalist skincare” is the next frontier. Five Dot Botanics is at the forefront of pioneering this niche.”What has your experience with raising funding been like in the past? had you ever tried to raise funding for this business (or another business) before entering the start-up series?“Our only experience of fund raising outside of the Start-Up Series was as finalists in a plant based investment competition, it was a bit like Dragons Den for vegans. We had previously applied to the Start-Up Series and were unsuccessful, but we hadn’t launched the brand and didn’t have any traction to show at that point.”Why did you enter the start-up series competition?“We entered the Start-Up Series competition to raise funds to enable us to scale our business. Manufacturing products is tricky and we needed to ensure we had enough cash to cover that as well as customer acquisition.”How did you find the ‘deep dive’ with worth capital?“The deep dive was a brilliant experience and incredibly valuable. It was an expansive conversation as well as detailed questions about our business. We came away with a whole notebook filled with questions, thoughts and ideas. The deep dive was about understanding our business as well as stretch testing our assumptions. It was a constructive and thoughtful discussion filled with a lot of curiosity, intellectual rigour and empathy.”How do you feel about winning the competition?“It’s been an incredible high to know we have secured the funds for the next phase of our business, we have ambitious plans so winning this competition will be critical to our business success.”A lot of businesses entered – what do you think made your business stand out and win?“The timing for Five Dot Botanics is right. The indie beauty market is huge and still growing, especially in the clean beauty and minimal skincare space.“We think that our branding helped us to stand out as well as our innovative high performance products. We also had evidence of traction, repeat sales and retailer interest. I think having ambitious plans for growth was also a factor.”What stage is the business at currently?“We are 6 months in, we have had good direct to consumer sales and we are starting to see a nice trend of repeat purchases. We have won our first beauty industry award for our innovative eye serum. We have a number of retailers in place (more are interested) and we are now about to start marketing our brand in earnest. We have some exciting plans ahead.”What do you plan to use the Start-Up Series investment for?“Manufacturing and marketing.”Finally, what’s your ultimate vision for the business?“To disrupt the status quo in beauty, offer radical transparency and become the leading minimalist skincare brand globally.”The Start-Up Series is open from the 1st to 14th of every month, giving one startup the chance to between £150,000 and £250,000 of equity funding. Enter here!Click here to enter The Start-Up Series Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
TradeSmart: “Start-Up Series win has allowed us to focus on making the best possible product” The payment solution that helps tradespeople get paid on time is aiming to become the lifeblood of every construction business Henry Williams February 6, 2020 5 min read Founders: Phillip Daneshyar, Robert Gallagher & Richard FleemanCompany: TradeSmartDescription: A secure escrow payment solution to help tradespeople to get paid on time, whilst protecting their customers.Website: tradesmartuk.comCan you tell me a bit about your business background?Phil: “I set up a health-tech start up whilst at university. From there I sold a licence to a med-tech firm in California and worked with them as a product manager/entrepreneur in residence for 18 months, eventually launching a dehydration diagnostic test which took less than 60s to estimate if a patient was at high risk of dehydration.”Richard: “I’ve been an electrician for over 7 years, after completing my apprenticeship I set up my own business that had 7 employees with healthy turnover. It’s my experience in the industry that led me to the idea behind TradeSmart.”Where did the idea for the business come from? was there a moment or experience that made you feel a need for it?Richard: “Rob (co-founder and cousin!) and I were discussing one of my customers, someone had me do work for them and then refused to pay, in the end it cost me over £20,000. It was at that point we decided to find a solution to the problem.”Rob: “Yep, something that was important from day 1 was to create a company that would stop exactly this kind of thing happening to small businesses. It’s always sore to know that happened to my family member but we’re proud to have taken that experience and find a solution to it.”Phil: “I’ve been friends with these guys for years and when they approached me with the idea behind TradeSmart, it was instinctive to me that this was a solution to a very big problem.”What is the business’ usp?Phil: “Trust. TradeSmart creates trust between both parties by automating paperwork and payments for tradespeople and their customers.”Richard: “Traditionally, there has always been a grey area when it comes to tradespeople and customers working together. Usually, it is around payments and quality. TradeSmart makes that grey area black and white by securing payments and automating crucial paperwork, making the entire transaction clear to both parties.”What has your experience with raising funding been like in the past? had you ever tried to raise funding for this business (or another business) before entering the start-up series?Phil: “I’ve raised private angel investment before and found the process difficult. It’s hard to find investors with an appetite for early-stage companies, and terms are often complex or unfair. The Start-Up Series was straightforward, a clear application process and a fast decision. Exactly what you want from an investment round so you can focus your time on the business.”Why did you enter the start-up series competition?Rob: “Quite simply, we needed to raise capital and we knew we had a strong application. The format of the competition gave us the best chance of showcasing our team and actually having ourselves heard by potential investors.”How did you find the ‘deep dive’ with worth capital?Richard: “The process was very personal and it felt like Paul and Matt really wanted to understand the business and who we were, as well as get a sense of how we could work together.”Phil: “What I liked most was that we walked away from deep dive thinking ‘even if we don’t win the competition there are several key ideas in that came up in the deep dive itself that will benefit us’. So it really was a valuable experience in that sense.”How do you feel about winning the competition?Rob: “So excited and relieved. It finally puts us in a place where we can focus on making the best possible product and delivering to our customers, rather than spending our time selling a vision to investors.”A lot of businesses entered – what do you think made your business stand out and win?Phil: “I think it was our team, we’ve got an outstanding team that includes a PhD from Cambridge and someone who has 7+ years of experience in the industry we’re working in. It’s the perfect mix of experience, technical ability and business acumen needed to build this product.”What stage is the business at currently?Richard: “We’ve just recently launched the business and are running paid trials.”What do you plan to use the start-up series investment for?Rob: “To fund the business to product-market fit, so basically, the money will be spent on sales and development.”Finally, what’s your ultimate vision for the business?“Our unified vision is that TradeSmart is the first thing a tradesperson looks at in the morning and the last thing they switch off. We want to become the lifeblood of every construction business. Helping them succeed.”The Start-Up Series is open from the 1st to 14th of every month, giving one startup the chance to between £150,000 and £250,000 of equity funding. Enter here!Click here to enter The Start-Up Series Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
VeeLoop: The Start-Up Series allowed us to turn our vision into reality "The best feeling for an entrepreneur is when someone puts their money on you, because it means they fully believe in you, your ability to deliver and in your product" Henry Williams September 9, 2019 7 min read Founders: Randa Bennet and Patricia Salume Company: VeeLoopDescription: An online payments approval system so kids can shop safely onlineWebsite: www.veeloop.comClick here to enter The Start-Up SeriesCan you tell me a bit about your business background?“VeeLoop is an online payment method that helps kids and teens shop online safely and keeps parents in the loop. The parent retains control of the purchases and protects the child’s personal data.“The way it works is simple: the teenager fills up a basket on their favourite retailer’s site, selects Pay with VeeLoop at the checkout, puts in the parent’s email and sends basket to the parent. The parent reviews it in their own time and chooses what to approve and purchase for the child.“VeeLoop is the first and only service that does this!”Where did the idea for the business come from? Was there a moment or experience that made you feel a need for it?“There was this phenomenon in our house where my teenage daughter was always asking me to pay for items she chose online. She would follow me around the house with a laptop in my face or send me broken links and screenshots of random products without a shop name! Naturally, she always chose the busiest moment to ask, when I was making dinner or putting her younger sister in bed. It was frustrating for both of us.“I thought to myself ‘why can’t she send me the basket and I can do it in my own time? After the kids are in bed and I have a cup of tea in hand, she will have a much better chance of getting what she wants!’“I started doing some research and speaking to parents. I found many faced the same problem and there wasn’t a solution out there. So I decided to create a virtual loop for the family so the kids can feel independent shopping online whilst the parent gets visibility and control – that’s when VeeLoop was born.”What is the business’ USP?“VeeLoop is revolutionising the way teens shop online! It solves the universal problem of how young people can shop online safely and without their own payment card. It is the first and only service that allows kids to send their basket to a parent to approve and pay.“As the first payment service of its kind, VeeLoop does not have direct competitors – the nearest alternatives are pre-paid cards for children. The main difference is that, unlike pre-paid cards, with VeeLoop parents don’t have to wait until after the transaction to see what is being purchased. Instead they approve or reject all items, opening up conversations about value for money and what is suitable. The other main benefit of VeeLoop is that the young person doesn’t enter their own details on a retailer site – which could lead to fraud or data-misuse, especially if they choose unverified retailers. With VeeLoop the young person’s data is not shared with the retailer.“Following the introduction of GDPR, retailers are also running a risk processing data when under 16s shop online with a pre-paid card or using their parent’s card. By integrating VeeLoop, the retailer provides a trustworthy solution for young people and parents, at the same time protecting their revenue and brand.”Why did you enter the Start-Up Series competition?“We did a lot of research into investors and were really attracted by the infographic The Start-Up Series published about its investments. We were particularly interested in the demographics and that 33% of their winners were female which is a lot higher than the national average of 2% funding going to female founders.“This was important for us as we do feel the impact of the low investment in female founders. In the past there have been meetings where as soon as we walked in, we felt certain assumptions were being made due to our gender. At the time we applied to The Start-Up Series, my co-founder Patricia was six months pregnant. So, although we knew that wasn’t going to stop us, we needed investors who could see beyond our gender – and the bump!“We also found the competition process really fair because you don’t need an introduction – as long as you have a good business opportunity and can articulate it well, everyone has a chance.”How did you find the application process?“The application process was straight-forward, it wasn’t overly complicated and drawn-out, and we always knew when we would get a response from Worth, which is hugely helpful.“It was also a staged process so when we had to provide more detailed information, we knew there was interest from the investor and that it was worth spending our time on it. After the application had gone through, we got a half hour call with Paul to address questions they had from the application which sent us through to the deep dive.”How did you find the ‘deep dive’ with Worth Capital?“The deep dive was fantastic. It really gave us time to explain the business properly without feeling rushed. We had time to have detailed discussions about different areas of the business, explore ideas we had about where we are going and how we wanted to move the business forward and get Matt and Paul excited about VeeLoop.”How do you feel about winning the competition?“The best feeling for an entrepreneur is when someone puts their money on you because it means they fully believe in you, your ability to deliver and in your product.“To win this competition was a fantastic feeling, knowing that all our hard work and sacrifice to that point had been worthwhile and that we now had the chance to turn the vision into reality.”A lot of businesses entered – what do you think made your business stand out and win?“Lots of previous practice and a great opportunity!“It was only through doing so many applications, pitches and hearing ‘no’ several times that we were able to develop and refine our proposition to give the best possible pitch.“In terms of the business, we immediately clicked with Matt and Paul because they understood the gap in the market that we are addressing, and they saw the potential for a digital solution to engage with this young tech-savvy audience.”What stage is the business at currently?“In order to grow VeeLoop, our focus is on partnering with more retailers and making it as easy as possible for them to trial and adopt our solution.“We are integrated with e-commerce platform Shopify and currently have five Shopify retailers on board. We also have Europe’s largest online beauty retailer Feelunique.com, and two other retailers going live in the next month. We have recently completed our integration with another ecommerce platform, Magento, which opens up a massive number of potential retailers for us to work with. These integrations mean that retailers using those platforms can install VeeLoop in a matter of minutes!“To grow our user-base, we are working closely with our retail partners to encourage parents and kids to trial the service. A recent promotional campaign with popular streetwear brand justhype.co.uk was very successful, giving us valuable insights and exposing our service to a large number of families.”What do you plan to use the Start-Up Series investment for?“We are using this investment to stabilise and enhance the product in order to continue our growth. The investment allowed us to hire dedicated developers to focus on the product, improve the customer journey and enable integration with more ecommerce platforms and retailers.“In addition, we are raising the profile of VeeLoop with both retailers and families, so we have allocated some of the investment to sales and marketing.Finally, what’s your ultimate vision for the business?To become the primary global safe payment method for kids and teens. VeeLoop will be the name for kids’ virtual money, and our button will be on every online shop selling to kids & teens – from food delivery to online gaming. We want to keep the parents in the loop so they can guide their children in the ecommerce world.The Start-Up Series is open from the 1st to 14th of every month, giving one startup the chance to between £150,000 and £250,000 of equity funding. Enter here!Click here to enter The Start-Up Series Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
Bedfolk: the Start-Up Series gave us expert external input as well as the funding to implement our business plan Nick and Jo James, founders of luxury, ethical bedding company Bedfolk, are investing in their product range as they look to become the UK’s leading bedding brand Henry Williams September 9, 2019 5 min read Founders: Nick and Jo JamesCompany: BedfolkDescription: High quality, ethical beddingWebsite: www.bedfolk.comClick here to enter The Start-Up SeriesCan you tell me a bit about your business background?“Jo and I have been working together for many years in one form or another. We’ve sourced mid-century furniture from antique fairs and sold it online, renovated properties, and more recently – just before launching Bedfolk – worked together at a luxury furniture business. We’ve always enjoyed working together and had a passion for interiors, so starting our own business in the homeware space was in some ways a natural progression.”Where did the idea for the business come from? Was there a moment or experience that made you feel a need for it?“Bedfolk was primarily born out of our own frustrated experience as shoppers. We’ve spent the last five or six years moving between and furnishing flats and houses, and bought a fair bit of bedding along the way. Compared to most other products we sourced, buying bedding was always a confusing, uninspiring and expensive shopping experience.“Considering how much time we spend in bed it seems crazy how difficult it is to confidently buy good bedding, and so we figured that there was a gap in the market for a brand that helped to simplify the shopping experience and offer premium quality bedding at a reasonable price.”What is the business’ USP?“The simplicity of our shopping experience, and the value for money that we offer.“Most department stores and traditional bedding brands offer tens or hundreds of choices when it comes to bedding. Most bed sheets look the same on the shelf and so it’s very hard to differentiate between them in – the choice can be paralysing and certainly doesn’t instil confidence with consumers.“At Bedfolk we only offer three styles of bedding – Relaxed, Classic, and Luxe. They’re all the same price, made from the same high quality long-staple cotton, and are woven responsibly in the world’s leading mills, with the difference between them being in the way they look and feel – which is ultimately what’s important to customers.“This streamlined product offering also means we have less money tied up in stock or spent on storage which, combined with our direct-to-consumer business model, means we sell our bedding at a fraction of the cost of traditional retailers.”Why did you enter the Start-Up Series competition?“We liked the fact that this was ‘smart money’. As well as the investment that comes with winning the competition, we’ve gained a director with real life business experience who gives us a great deal of insight and strategic input.”How did you find the application process?“Straightforward. As with any investment application there’s a fair bit of information to provide, but it all made sense and was simple to submit. After the initial application the next step was the deep dive in London which meant the application process wasn’t at all drawn out.”How did you find the ‘deep dive’ with Worth Capital?“We really enjoyed it. It was informal and very much a two-way conversation, which was a big contrast to some of the other fundraising conversations we’d had.“Regardless of whether we’d got the investment from Worth Capital, we got lots of valuable insight and constructive feedback on what we were doing.”How do you feel about winning the competition?“Ecstatic! We’re so excited to have the funding in place to start implementing our business plan, as well as all of the expert external input that comes with a Worth Capital investment.”A lot of businesses entered – what do you think made your business stand out and win?“The simplicity of our proposition and how it was in stark contrast to the way the bedding market currently operates. And the fact that we had some initial traction in the form of sales, press coverage, and customer reviews to prove that the brand and product was resonating with our target audience.”What stage is the business at currently?“We launched in May 2018, so we’re a little over a year old. It all started with Jo and I packing orders in our dining room cum storage unit, but our sales are growing quickly and so we are now building our team and behind-the-scenes infrastructure to keep pace with, and get ahead of, demand.”What do you plan to use the Start-Up Series investment for?“We’ll be using this investment to fill out our product range, refine the Bedfolk brand and customer experience, and to build on our current marketing activity.”Finally, what’s your ultimate vision for the business?“Our vision is to become the UK’s leading bedding & comfortable home essentials brand by designing a curated range of premium quality products, that are responsibly made in the world’s best mills and sold at an honest and accessible price.”The Start-Up Series is open from the 1st to 14th of every month, giving one startup the chance to between £150,000 and £250,000 of equity funding. Enter here!Click here to enter The Start-Up Series Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
Weekly10: Entering the Start-Up Series was quick, simple and transparent Weekly10 founder Andrew Roberts says the business is on track to become the world's preeminent employee engagement tool after making key hires with Start-Up Series investment Henry Williams September 9, 2019 6 min read Founder: Andrew Roberts Company: Weekly10Description: Employee engagement platformWebsite: www.weekly10.comClick here to enter The Start-Up SeriesCan you tell me a bit about your business background?“I have spent the last 15 years working across a range of industries with a focus on software and product development. Having graduated in computer science from Warwick University I spent seven years working at Deutsche Bank in London as a software engineer and project manager.“Since then I have led software teams at The Hut Group, TE Connectivity and CommScope. In my most recent role I was head of strategic software engineering at CommScope where I led a global team focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.”Where did the idea for the business come from? Was there a moment or experience that made you feel a need for it?“Weekly10 originated from my frustration with ‘traditional’ approaches to people management in large corporate organisations. Typically, managers and employees would participate in annual performance reviews and employee surveys. I found both of these processes ineffective ways to motivate and engage staff with organisational goals and strategy, furthermore they were often disruptive and time-consuming and seen as nothing more than tick box exercises by the majority of staff.“In my management role I began experimenting with approaches to allow employees to reflect and align their goals as well as celebrate success and share challenges. I started using a ‘weekly’ check-in via a calendar invite and found my staff were providing information and feedback that you just wouldn’t get from a performance review, survey or one to one.“This was the basis of my ‘Weekly10’ idea – 10 minutes every week for employees to reflect and share details of their week, whilst at the same time focusing on the next.”What is the business’ USP?“Weekly10 is an employee engagement platform designed to increase the motivation, performance and well-being of staff. Weekly10 has three key USPs when compared to other employee engagement platforms:“Firstly, Weekly10 is focused around a simple feedback ‘process’ which is easily accessible via web, mobile or workplace platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams – we want Weekly10 to be enjoyable to use, not a time-consuming task.“Secondly, Weekly10 is based around transparent feedback between employees and managers. Evidence shows a weekly catch-up is the most effective way to exchange feedback, and by removing anonymity, managers are empowered to build a better workplace culture through embedding constructive feedback as part of the everyday conversations.“And finally, because Weekly10 is a continuous feedback and goal setting tool we are able to gather real-time insight for management on the health of their organisation. Our analytics platform uses Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to estimate workplace sentiment and provide trend and predictive analytics of employee well-being and performance.”Why did you enter the Start-Up Series competition?“The format and approach of the competition really appealed to us. The initial application was straightforward, and the timeline and process were transparent, something which was not the case with some of other competitions we looked into. It was also great to know that regardless of the end result we would receive detailed constructive feedback on our application.”How did you find the application process?“We found the application process quick and simple. The initial round was basic information which was all covered in our standard pitch deck. The later rounds required much more detail, but all of this was readily available in our business plan – and the process allowed a great deal flexibility in the way we provided the information.”How did you find the ‘deep dive’ with Worth Capital?“Our deep dive with Paul and Matthew was a highlight of the competition for us. During the four hour meeting not only did Paul and Matthew get a good understanding of the business, we received detailed feedback and insight based on their extensive business experience. Co-founder Alistair and I came away with some great ideas on how we could refine both the product and our business model, which regardless of whether we won the competition would give the business a real boost.”How do you feel about winning the competition?“Winning the Start-Up Series felt great – after the deep-dive discussion with Paul and Matthew we were really motivated to work on some of the ideas generated during the meeting – so we were keen to get started! It was also great validation for our young business that we had come through a fiercely competitive competition and received the backing of such an experienced team.”A lot of businesses entered – what do you think made your business stand out and win?“When we started Weekly10, we made a number of decisions which help differentiate our product from competitors. Our approach to transparency is a shift away from traditional anonymous feedback which has really resonated with a growing market. We believed this, combined with the fact we had a platform ready to go offered an attractive proposition to investors.”What stage is the business at currently?“Weekly10 is now scaling up following investment. Since the beginning of 2019 we have grown our customer base significantly and added customers from the legal, finance, manufacturing and professional services sectors. We have recently signed up our first customers in mainland Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the US and are attracting customers from competitors in the employee engagement sector.“As well as scaling up our targeted marketing activities we are rapidly developing the product to further enhance our analytics and machine learning offerings to complement our core platform.”What do you plan to use the Start-Up Series investment for?“We have already hired two new staff off the back of the funding including a head of people science and senior software engineer. The funding, access to Matthew’s network and advice has really brought forward the growth of the business and has allowed me to scale my own activities and focus on growing the business.”Finally, what’s your ultimate vision for the business?“Weekly10 can become one of the world’s preeminent employee engagement tools. Combining a habitual process with detailed insight helps employees engage with their organisation whilst providing management with real insight into employee well-being and motivation.”The Start-Up Series is open from the 1st to 14th of every month, giving one startup the chance to between £150,000 and £250,000 of equity funding.Click here to enter The Start-Up Series Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
Vitrue Health: The Start-Up Series will help us improve the quality of life of millions of people The business aiming to provide the global gold standard assessment for treatment of any musculoskeletal condition was able to build its technical and clinical teams as a result of its win Henry Williams September 9, 2019 5 min read Founders: Shane Lowe and Alex HaslehurstCompany: Vitrue HealthDescription: Develops technology to assess patients with musculoskeletal difficultiesWebsite: www.vitruehealth.comClick here to enter The Start-Up SeriesCan you tell me a bit about your business background?“We’re a team of physiotherapists, scientists and engineers developing technology to empower clinicians to more accurately assess their musculoskeletal patients.“As founders Alex and I both come from technical backgrounds. She has a masters in mechanical engineering from Cambridge and has worked in a wide range of medical technology fields from MRI magnets to point of care diagnostics. I have a PhD in prediction of functional health based on motor function and have worked in computer vision for human motion capture and blood diagnostic devices.“Together with our team, we’re developing advanced digital health technology to detect, assess and predict issues with patient musculoskeletal health. We’re currently part of the Techstars 2019 accelerator program and are preparing to launch our product in the coming weeks.”Where did the idea for the business come from? Was there a moment or experience that made you feel a need for it?“The business idea came from a conversation my co-founder and I had with a mutual friend. She’s an occupational therapist and was telling us about the difficulties she faces in her job. As engineers, we were naturally interested in what technology was doing to help.“We were completely blown away to find that the most advanced technology available to her day to day was the stopwatch on her phone, despite the fact that arguably her field of medicine has one of the biggest impacts on a patient’s quality of life.“This is naturally a hugely complex problem. However, as a team we have all the required expertise across the broad range of fields required to fix it.”What is the business’ USP?“Vitrue develops technology to assess patients with musculoskeletal difficulties. Anything from recovery from hip surgery to a torn ligament.“We do this by tracking a patient’s body movements during an assessment by a physiotherapist. The type of body tracking technology we use has been around for years (in fact as a team we’ve worked for the world leaders in the area).“However tracking the patient’s movement is only the very first step. The real value comes when you develop software to interpret this raw data into information that is clinically actionable and that can easily be explained to the patient to engage them in their own care all while fitting into existing clinical practice. That is extremely difficult to do and it is Vitrue’s USP.”Why did you enter the Start-Up Series competition?“Knowing Paul and Matthew and their expertise gave us confidence that they would provide valuable insights and support outside of purely the finance, which is key when choosing an investor.”How did you find the ‘deep dive’ with Worth Capital?“We’ve had several in depth conversations with Worth and always found them extremely useful. Though as a digital health company we have different challenges to many startups, the Worth team have an amazing ability to help us break them down into similar issues as any other business with associated ways to tackle them. Our meetings with Worth have always been a really helpful way to do that.”How do you feel about winning the competition?“Of course we are ecstatic to have won the competition. We founded the company to improve the quality of life of millions of people living with musculoskeletal conditions. This competition was a key step on the road to doing that!”A lot of businesses entered – what do you think made your business stand out and win?“We’re solving a massive, complex and rapidly growing problem. This is hugely exciting, but you also need a huge amount of drive and the right expertise to win backing – we’re a young but highly experienced team that have the advanced and varied skills we need to do it across areas like biomechanics and computer vision that uniquely place us to solve this issue and really make us stand out.”What stage is the business at currently?“We are preparing to launch our first product into the market with some elite physiotherapy and health screening clinics in the next couple of months. We’ve already signed up some of the UK’s leading providers and are in the process of expanding that launch group.”What do you plan to use the Start-Up Series investment for?“This investment allowed us to grow our technical and clinical teams to the point we needed to launch our product. We’ve already brought on some amazing engineers and a fantastic Clinical Lead.”Finally, what’s your ultimate vision for the business?“Ultimately our goal is to provide the gold standard assessment for treatment of any musculoskeletal condition anywhere in the world.”The Start-Up Series is open from the 1st to 14th of every month, giving one startup the chance to between £150,000 and £250,000 of equity funding. Click here to enter The Start-Up Series Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
Air & Grace: from SEIS funding recipient to £1m turnover business Now available in 40 UK independents, Startups.co.uk caught up with shoe brand Air & Grace, which received SEIS seed funding via Worth Capital Henry Williams February 14, 2019 5 min read We last spoke to you in 2016. How has Air & Grace developed over the last two years? Any major milestones reached?The last two years have been transformative on every level. When I look back I can hardly believe how far we have come. Two years ago it was pretty much just me.Now we have a team of three full time and four part time and we’ve out sourced our distribution as it was becoming way too much for us to fulfil all the orders in house.Our sales reached over £1m for calendar year 2018 and we are now profitable. As well as the growth in online sales, Air & Grace is now stocked in over 40 of the UK’s best independent boutiques and is the best performing brand for many of them.We’ve won a few awards too including Stylist Live’s best Independent business and the Footwear Friends award for innovation. And the patent for our Tender Loving Air comfort technology (the hidden wedge that makes our shoes incredibly comfortable) has been published in UK and Europe. USA is following soon.What did you invest the initial competition funding in? The funding allowed me to get Air & Grace to market. When I won Worth Capital’s competition, I had a sample range which had exhausted all my personal funds. I needed to be able to buy stock and launch a website.So, I used the investment to get the website live and buy the range of shoes I had created. Shoe making is very expensive and set up costs for lasts, knives and molds were significant.What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced and how did you overcome it?I’m not sure I can name just one! It’s fair to say I have faced more than my fair share of challenges. Finding the right manufacturing partners was the biggest hurdle in the early days. The way we make our shoes is different to traditional methods. It’s not easy, but it’s what makes them extremely comfortable.It was difficult to find a partner who shared my vision, and who was willing to go through the many rounds of sampling required to get the product to our high standards.Shoe manufacturers don’t like making samples and our products take around a year to develop. It was a barrier to entry. I’ve now found great manufacturing partners in Portugal and Spain who have faith in what we are doing and fully understand the business model.The other challenges are time and money. There’s never enough of either! My one single biggest piece of advice is “know your numbers”. Cashflow is always a challenge, once you come through the start-up phase, then there’s the growing phase.Similar struggles – but the figures get bigger! We’ve had some really difficult times in the past when finance options fell through, but I did whatever I could to make ends meet. At one point we pulled everything back to basics, moved out of our office to save costs and I did absolutely everything myself until things turned around. I was working around 100 hours a week. You have to be flexible and resilient to keep going. Up until very recently I sacrificed my own salary to be able to invest every penny back into the business. I’m glad to say the strategy has paid off, the business has grown, as has the team and I finally got my weekends back.How have you use bloggers and influencers to build your brand? Social media has been instrumental in the growth of Air & Grace. Luck was on my side for once as we started at a time when this was a relatively new and effective way to raise brand awareness.We were also lucky that the brand was picked up by a variety of influencers who introduced us to their audiences for which I will always be thankful. Instagram in particular is a very supportive community, especially for independent brands.For us it has always been a totally organic process, I either met or was contacted by influencers who liked what we were doing. We didn’t have the budget to pay for posts, but we could gift and because as there is a genuine love of the product people are happy to feature us.There is some controversy around gifting, but I would say that it is an essential part of a start-up brand’s journey. Our USP is comfort – so it makes sense to get authentic reviews. The influencers who feature Air &Grace have complete editorial control and their views are 100% genuine.In 2017 we launched our first design collaboration with Zoe De Pass from Dress Like A Mum which was a huge success. We asked Zoe if she’d like to design her shoes of dreams and she jumped at the chance. We created two limited edition ranges together and both sold out. There are some more exciting collaborations in the pipeline for 2019.What’s next for Air & Grace? Lots! We are full steam ahead with re-launching our boots category. The first styles have had an incredible reaction and there are more to be added for the Autumn season.I’m working on the holy grail – comfortable heels. Our styles take around a year to develop as we go through many rounds of testing and we’re trialing to ensure they are as comfortable as possible.We’re launching a new website, welcoming new stockists, and we have a very exciting new design collaboration. We like to keep ourselves busy!To win equity investment to either launch or grow your start-up, enter the Start-Up Series today. Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.
The Start-Up Series in numbers – 2 years of the UK’s largest seed funding competition Since launch in October 2016, The Start-Up Series has had over 1,940 entrants and more than £1.78m in equity seed funding has been invested in 12 winners Henry Williams December 7, 2018 3 min read The Start-Up Series is now two years old!The inaugural competition in October 2016 saw online property rental platform RentalStep win the funding. The Liverpool-based start-up went on to scoop a share of a £2m prize n the Treasury’s rent recognition challenge.Since then we’ve seen more than 1,940 entrants from all over the UK, and chosen 12 deserving winners who have received a collective £1.78m in equity seed funding.And although London has produced the lion’s share of entrants, one of the many things The Start-Up Series can be proud of is attracting small businesses from all over the country. Only a third of the competition’s winners have been located in the capital, with at least one winner in nearly every major region. It just goes to show that you don’t have to be in London to access amazing business opportunities.The South West (388), the Midlands (190), the North West (124), are responsible for the next highest numbers of entrants. While Scotland and Northern Ireland have been home to 66 and 11 entrants respectively.Entrants were on average 38 years old. Entrants over 40 were slightly more likely to be selected as winners. Age is no barrier to success; however, experience is attractive to investors.70% of the entrants to the Start-up Series are male and 30% are female. However, a disproportionate number of winners (33%) have been female. This in comparison to the general population where only 27% of entrepreneurs are female (according to an analysis of Companies House data by Finder.com in January 2018) and men receive 86% of venture capital funding.By sector, retail businesses have been the most successful, followed by hospitality and tourism, and property and construction. But The Start-Up Series doesn’t favour any particular sector. What this shows is that businesses from any industry have an equal chance of succeeding. Whilst entrants classifying themselves as technology businesses represent a significant majority, none of these have so far won the competition – although all the winners have some level of technology within their operating model.The Start-Up Series winners so farThe 12 winners so are:Fair minded rental start-up RentalStepVegetarian hot dog brand Not DogsBaby nutrition brand ItsyAlcohol-free wine and beer brand OutfoxConstruction materials marketplace Builders BayOnline ‘sleep well’ marketplace MYZA18-35s travel club TribeOn-demand subscription service Blow Dry PassAccommodation switching booking site Nightly.travelCustom motorcycle helmet product Moto TattooInsulated concrete form product UNiBLOCKMoving home packing supplies retailer The Moving Home WarehouseThe Start-up Series is a monthly competition that gives one business a month the chance to win up to £150,000 in equity seed funding. It’s open to UK businesses that have been trading for 21 months or less, with less than £200,000 in gross assets.You only have ONE MORE DAY to enter November’s Start-Up Series! Enter here today. Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Henry Williams Content Manager Henry has been writing for Startups.co.uk since 2015, covering everything from business finance and web builders to tax and red tape. He’s also acted as project lead on many of our industry-renowned annual indexes, including Startups 100 and Business Ideas, and created a number of the site’s popular how to guides.