🙌 EDGE, Reports & Lessons from Exited Founders
For those observing, we hope you had a restful bank holiday. This week: Lots of meetups, EDGE winners are announced, two big reports out on Scottish investments and the Glasgow tech scene, and two storied Scottish Brands partner up. We also hear from Charlie Winton from OK Positive.
But first, Rich Wilson shares some lessons he's learned from interviewing exited founders. Here's your weekly Campfire for Tuesday the 30th of May, 2023.
💬 4 Takeaways from Exited Founders
By Rich Wilson
I've been hosting a podcast, First Time Founder for the last 2 years. It started back in July of 2021 when we just got going with Gigged.ai and it began as a way to share the insight from the relationships I built over the last few years. We started focusing on founders who had been through one or two exits to really understand their journey. Out of the many interviews I've done, here are four takeaways and bits of advice from successful, exited founders that I'd suggest all founders take to heart.
First: Build an MVP, and don't make it perfect. It sounds simple, but it's something that trips up a lot of founders. They over obsess about a business plan or procrastinate over the perfect product or waste money building and not actually shipping. Keep it simple, use no-code, and make sure you're able to use it to tell the story.
Second: Experienced founders are really focused on asking the questions that they don't want to hear, and most are adhering to lean startup methodologies especially in the early days. They aren't waiting for business plans or accelerators or investors, they're speaking to at least 30, 40, 50 potential customers, they're taking feedback, they're iterating as they go, and then taking it from there to get investment.
Third: Leading on from the above, building in public is something that's common to successful founders I've spoken with (Colin from Float talks about this a lot in a great way). Sharing your company purpose, sharing what you're building, updating folks through Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc, especially all the works in progress, really gets people interested in the journey, which helps you to flesh out your proposition as well as develop supporters.
From our experience with Gigged.ai, we launched it in July 2021 after getting some funding from Innovate UK and building an MVP while we were in full-time jobs. We had a beta version that worked and wasn't fancy, but it got the job done and allowed us to get to 5,000 signups in the first 3 months. That then built up enough feedback from freelance focus groups to take it from there.
But while we were doing that, we bought cheap billboards, we were all over LinkedIn, we were really making sure we were building a brand while we were building the MVP. When we launched the beta we shouted about it. When we launched the beta version 1.0 we shouted about it. When we launched version 2.0 (the full enterprise version) again, we shouted about it.
The fourth and final takeaway that I've learned through the podcast is the importance of understanding the journey you're on and the idea of starting with the end in mind. Where do you want to be in 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years and then work your way back. Neil Logan from Incremental Group sharing his journey from founding the company seven years ago and exiting last year for £175 million and the understanding of the journey you're on really helps give you clarity of purpose.
This season on the podcast, we're doing something different and focusing on Scottish founders. Make sure you're subscribed to the podcast [here] and if you know anyone who'd make a great guest, let me know!
Rich Wilson is the CEO & Cofounder of Gigged.ai. You can find the podcast First Time Founder here
🌊 Updates
🙌 Scottish EDGE took place last week and 24 businesses each secured part of a £1.4m overall competition prize pool (grants + loans). Winners included Frontier Robotics (renewable offshore marine robots), Nooku (air quality monitor), Tuggs (insect-based dog food), Yaldi Games (meaningful games that inspire real-life activities), Rhyze Mushrooms (mushrooms from waste), Shasha Network (soft-skills platform for secondary students across Africa). Full list of winners 👉 FS
💷 Scottish Enterprise's report on equity investment has been released: £953m invested in Scottish companies compared with £754m the previous year. Number of deals fell from 424 to 407 (the lowest since 2018), uni spinouts received £235m up from £154m. Digital and IT deal participation was down 8%, fintech down 68%, tech overall was up 2%. The government still drove the majority of the deals (119), with the angel networks coming in second with 88 deals. PE & VC drove 87 deals, dropping 5%. DIG SFN
📈 The Glasgow City Region Ecosystem Report is out and looks at investment data for Glasgow thats accessible to anyone through their Dealroom offering (👋 Scottish Government - you should follow Glasgow's lead and fund this for the whole country). The report shows an 8% inrease in VC funding to Glasgow-based businesses and values the region's tech ecosystem at £3.4bn. FS DIG
⛓️ Can we save this as an NFT? Scottish Enterprise says Blockchain could grow the Scottish GDP by £4.48bn by 2030, and there are 60 blockchain-centric companies based in Scotland at present according to an industry paper. Worldwide, that figure is expected to be $1.2trn in the same timeframe. FS SM
🦅 Hotlanta is only a direct flight away: Delta announced daily non-stop flights from Edinburgh. The land of CNN and Coca Cola awaits you. TH
🌟 Edinburgh-based Chris Downie, CEO and co-founder of Pasabi (fraud detection platform) was in San Francisco this week and made news discussing the impact of fake reviews, which influence $152bn of online spending. Apparently we're told, his talk was ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SS
🥂 This is big: Two of the most epic and storied Scottish brands, known the world over and seen as the hallmarks of the nation have joined forces and announced the first outpost of a major retail empire catering to high-fliers and executive club members. TH
🤨 More founders please: Holyrood.com is out with an article talking about the circular economy. Lots of university and Zero Waste Scotland input, but nary a single mention of any of the companies that are building, innovating, and leading in the space (like Reath.id for example). Come on press folks, y'all can do better.
🙏 Asks & Offers
👵 Have a parent or grandparent who you’d love to preserve a memoir from? Get 20% off Storii’s AI Biography Rewrite Tool by using using code CAMPFIRE here. Also available on Amazon in the UK and it's prime-available.
👩🏫 A group of founders who aren’t satisfied with the current offering in Scotland for power-venture investor readiness are thinking about running a week-long sprint, specifically targeting companies who want to understand how to run international power-venture investment rounds, without the bs. 👉 I’m interested
🤝 Looking for a co-founder? Let us know and we'll post a blurb!
🎓 Useful finds
Another AI deep dive:
📓 Fancy an AI powered journal? Mindsera promises 'personalized mentorship and feedback for improving your mindset, cognative skills, mental health and fitness. A tall order but looks cool.
📽️ Don't have time for that 2 hour workshop you found online? YT Summary offers super quick summaries of YouTube videos.
🤖 An experiment: Google's Bard is its answer to Chat GPT. It's not as well known, however it, unlike ChatGPT, does have access to the internet. Just for kicks, we entered the following prompt for the above news updates to see how Bard stacks up against team Campfire. You tell us which one you prefer:
Ask:
Can you summarise the following news items in 2 sentences each, in a fun and relaxed style, pulling out the points that are most relevant for startup founders in Scotland?
Answer from Bard:
Sure, here are the summaries of the news items in a fun and relaxed style, pulling out the points that are most relevant for startup founders in Scotland:
Blockchain tech could add £45 billion to Scotland's economy by 2030. This is a huge opportunity for startups in Scotland, as blockchain is a rapidly growing technology with a wide range of potential applications. Think about how you can use blockchain to improve your business.
New investment platform for Glasgow shows the city is bucking the downward European trend for startup and scaleup venture capital. This is great news for startups in Glasgow, as it shows that there is still a lot of investment interest in the city. Get out there and start networking with investors!
Tech sees major growth in Glasgow startup ecosystem. This is a positive sign for the future of the Glasgow startup scene, as it shows that the city is attracting and retaining talented tech entrepreneurs. Get involved in the startup community and start collaborating with other entrepreneurs.
Edinburgh tech entrepreneur warns of impact of fake review epidemic at global US conference. This is a reminder for all startups to be vigilant about fake reviews, as they can have a negative impact on your business. Make sure you have a strong review management strategy in place.
Sustainability winners announced at Dezeen Awards. This is a great showcase for the innovative and sustainable products and services that are being created by startups around the world. Think about how you can make your business more sustainable.
Circular economy will change the way we interact with products and services. This is a major opportunity for startups that are developing products and services that are designed to be reused, repaired, and recycled. Get involved in the circular economy movement and start developing products and services that are designed to be sustainable.
I hope this is helpful!
*Editor's note - we WISH a tech sector could add £45bn to Scotland's economy by 2030, but unfortunately Bard still seems half-baked on that one.
👋 A few questions with Charlie Winton, Founder, OK Positive
What's OK Positive?
Mental health platform using AI to provide a hyper-personalised support for individuals and organisations
How did you get involved?
I experienced severe Mental Health issues in my first role in recruitment. It culminated in me hiding in the company toilets 3-4 times a day with panic attacks, using a mobile phone game to distract me. With every tool I found there was an obstruction and I had no clue of how to prevent myself from experiencing this panic.
So I wanted to create a platform where I could learn about all the psychological models and resources out there, bespoke to my moods and my interests. I wanted to create a way to feedback safely and anonymously to my company to avoid people leaving like I had due to my Mental Health issues.
What's the problem you're solving?
We realised there are three forms of mental healthcare available:
-preventative
-proactive
-reactive
99% of the world's solutions waited until you had a problem before you tried to solve it. We wanted to pre-empt triggers that caused severe mental health issues at an earlier stage for individuals and organisations so we could intervene at an earlier stage.
What's your solution?
OK Positive utilises machine learning and AI to identify and pre-empt triggers that can cause Mental Health issues enabling early intervention.
The platform provides real-time engagement, support and analytics that allow organisations to identify the root causes of staff turnover, sick leave and low retention rates. The functionality then provides both a communication and evaluation platform to measure the efficacy of company initiatives into wellbeing.
What current alternatives exist?
There are great resources and reactive support available (employee assistance programmes, mindfulness apps and employee engagement platforms) however they don't look at the preventative side of mental health and they don't connect individuals to their organisation effectively to collectively reduce the stigma around mental health.
What does good look like in this space?
There are two main areas of success for mental health platforms:
1. Engagement
2. Impact
We provide both an engaging platform for users with 61% engagement/retention (average is 30% for SaaS) and we provide measurable metrics to show both the efficacy of OK+ platform interventions and the support and initiatives provided by our customers to their employees.
What do you need help with?
We want to speak to more business leaders and HR/People managers to learn more about their wellbeing strategies and share resources and companies that can help support their organisation moving forward.
How should folks get in touch?
You can email me or connect on LinkedIn
You can find out more about OK Positive here.
📅 Events & deadlines
🇬🇧 Upcoming Innovate UK deadlines:
Net Zero Heat: Design Engineering Innovation Lab Applications close 31 May
Net Zero Living Digital Accelerator round 1 Applications close 7 June
UK-South Korea Collaborative R&D Round 2 Applications close 7 June
UK – Germany Bilateral: Collaborative R&D Applications close 7 June
Innovate UK Smart Grant: Jan 2023 Applications close 14 June
SBRI: Quantum Catalyst Fund Phase 1 and phase 2 Applications close 27 June
ARMD2 - Late Stage R&D towards net zero automotive futures Applications close 28 June
🙋 30/05, 17:30 🗺️ Glasgow: Find Co-Founders & Angel Investors: Inspiring Entrepreneurial event with Rajesh Kumar Plamth - Founder & CEO of TrackGenesis. MORE INFO
🤝 31/05, 19:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Entrepreneurs Social Club (ESC) - Edinburgh Startup Meetup: Monthly Entrepreneurs Social Club (ESC) gathering - skip the talks, presentations and lectures - in favour of going straight to the bar, where real connections are made! MORE INFO
☁️ 31/05, 19:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Open Tech Scene Meetup | Ask Me Anything | Cloud Engineers: Bring any Cloud-related question for our panel of experienced engineers - from decision-making to self-hosting, techniques and trade-offs, technologies to best practices, the floor is open to questions! MORE INFO
💻 01/06, 18:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Tech Meetup Glasgow: Talks on Salesforce (Varsha Salunke) and PHP (Chris D Brown), plus networking. MORE INFO
💰 01/06, 18:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Seed to Success: Understanding early-stage startup fundraising options: Panel event of experts as we explore the ins and outs of early-stage startup fundraising, from angel syndicates, crowdfunding and venture capital. MORE INFO
🇺🇸 05/06, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Approaching the US Market: Join delegates from the City of Mentor (Ohio) for advice and guidance on the best practices on approaching the US market, and what tools and connections are available to you. MORE INFO
🇺🇸 05/06, 14:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Approaching the US Market: Join delegates from the City of Mentor (Ohio) for advice and guidance on the best practices on approaching the US market, and what tools and connections are available to you. MORE INFO
👩 06/06, 09:30 🗺️ Glasgow: Scottish Women in Business June Coffee Meetup: This informal networking event enables you to connect, collaborate and chat with a diverse bunch of smart, driven women in business who are looking to do more, be more and give more. MORE INFO
💰 06/06, 13:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Barclays Funding Readiness Programme- Edinburgh Roadshow: John Spindler and Katie Lockwood will be visiting the Barclays Eagle Labs in person. This is to meet anyone who is interested in investment readiness advice. MORE INFO
💻 06/06, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup Edinburgh: Talks on Hyper Growth lessons from Slack (Amy Wallace) and TBC, plus networking. MORE INFO
☕ 07/06, 08:30 🗺️ Dundee: Unfiltered Dundee: Connect with members of the local tech community, the coffee and pastries are on us! MORE INFO
☕ 07/06, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Unfiltered Edinburgh: Connect with members of the local tech community, the coffee is on us! MORE INFO
☕ 07/06, 08:30 🗺️ Stirling: Unfiltered Stirling: Connect with members of the local tech community, the coffee and hotdesking are on us! MORE INFO
☕ 07/06, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: Unfiltered Aberdeen: Connect with members of the local tech community. MORE INFO
☕ 07/06, 08:30 🗺️ Inverness: Unfiltered Inverness: Connect with members of the local tech community, the coffee and pastries are on us! MORE INFO
🚀 07/06, 10:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Strathclyde Inspire: Start-Up Bootcamp: Do you have a business idea but need some help to figure out where to start? If that’s you, join us on for our Start Up Bootcamp! MORE INFO
👛 08/06, 14:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Build your customer base and increase your sales: Yekemi (Doqaru Limited) will facilitate a session to help you understand key sales competencies for long-term success, and how to use digital channels as sales tools with a focus on LinkedIn. MORE INFO
⛓️ 08/06, 16:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Build your first blockchain app on Polygon: Join us for an immersive workshop on smart contract coding on the Polygon network, led by industry experts Jonathan Else and Maciej Zurawski. MORE INFO
🚪 08/06, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Founders Open Day: Glasgow: A day for founders to get together, network, take part in fireside chats and explore what Eagle Labs and CodeBase can offer the community. MORE INFO
💻 12/06, 18:30 🗺️ Inverness: Inverness Tech Meetup: Civtech 7, 8, and 9 with Jiveen MacGillivray and TBC, plus networking. MORE INFO
Save the Dates
📜 07/06, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: [Investors] Series A and beyond – insights for investors & founders into the new BVCA Model Documents: in-person session reviewing the key changes to the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) model form documents for early-stage investments, and discussion points that are likely to arise in deals papered with the new model forms. MORE INFO
📜 14/06, 16:15 🗺️ Edinburgh: [Founders] Series A and beyond – insights for investors & founders into the new BVCA Model Documents: in-person session reviewing the key changes to the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) model form documents for early-stage investments, and discussion points that are likely to arise in deals papered with the new model forms. MORE INFO
Deadlines
🎯 31/05 🧠 The Great British Entrepreneur Awards nominations are open and close on the 31st of May 2023. MORE INFO
🎯 15/06 ♻️ MSIP Accelerator for companies building in mobility and decarbonisation. 12-week programme, based in Dundee. Applications close 15 June. LNC MORE INFO
🎯15/06 🧱 Product Builder programme from Barclays Eagles Labs: online programme to teach how to develop a digital product and then test, validate and evolve it using customer feedback. MORE INFO
🎯 20/06 📱 KPMG has opened submissions for Tech Innovator in the UK 2023. Initial heat will take place on 20 June to find a shortlist of innovators representing Scotland. Finalists UK-wide will be announced at Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon. MORE INFO
Are we missing your event or deadline? 👉 Submit it here!
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That’s all for this week - have a great one!
Team 🔥Campfire