The 10 South West startups judged by crowd-funding initiative Crowd10 South West to be the most promising have now been chosen. Each startup will now receive 1-1 support in building a strong crowd-funding proposition to help raise up to £150K to grow their business.
“A successful crowdfunding campaign is not down to luck, it is down to preparation”
Of the 10 finalists, half were aspiring tech businesses, including apps that help your health through breathing, interactive smartphone guides for festivals, an app to manage co-working spaces, and a GPS tracker for people who suffer with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
There was strong competition to get on the scheme. As Kirsty Ranger, Founder of IdeaSquares and initiator of Crowd10 (pictured left), explains: “A successful crowdfunding campaign is not down to luck, it is down to preparation.
“The startups we have taken through to the campaign stage have attended workshops and have received one-to-one training sessions in finance, business planning, PR and marketing over the past three weeks. It has been a gruelling schedule and they have all worked extremely hard.”
It was during this preparation process that the 10 startups to progress to the next stage were chosen. As Kirsty adds: “Our ten finalists operate in a wide range of sectors and are representative of the diverse business community that operates in the South West region.”
You can meet the finalists at the Crowd 10 showcase being held in Bristol on 1 June.
What’s it like being involved with Crowd10?
We caught up with one of the lucky finalists, Rajdeep Maan (pictured right) who is a cofounder of Esole, which is planning to provide shows with GPS trackers to help you keep track of loved ones who have diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Esole has used research that shows that patients will often leave the house without a tracking pendant, but are programmed since birth to put their shoes on before leaving the house, so placing the tracker there can provide a much more natural tracking solution.
“It is now obvious how much work goes into a successful kickstarter and how much preparation goes into it”
Raj tells us that “eSole is very excited to be part of crowd 10″. He adds, “It has been a fantastic learning experience on putting together a crowd-funding campaign. All of the team members who are part of Crowd 10 are very knowledgeable and helpful.”
He was also surprised at what was involved. His most interesting discovery was “how much time and preparation goes into a crowd-funding raise. From seeing them online and reading about them in the news it often seems that a Kickstarter is posted and it just goes viral and gets over funded. In reality it is now obvious how much work goes into a successful kickstarter and how much preparation goes into it, to ensure that is successful and gets over funded.”
And the finalists are…
The full list of all the ten Crowd10 finalists can be seen below:
Apps4arts: a simple and affordable platform that allows multi-venue festivals to self-publish their own interactive smartphone guides.
Breathe Sync: an app that helps its users improve their health and wellbeing by teaching them to breathe in sync with their heart beat, leading to stress reduction and increased productivity.
Coherent: a tailor made web app which makes managing and administering co-working spaces simpler. It also connects co-workers.
Esole: an insole fitted with a GPS tracker for people who suffer with dementia and Alzheimer’s and have a high propensity to get lost.
LUX: a rewards app that connects fine dining enthusiasts with high quality local restaurants. Users collect points when dining out which they can then redeem for rewards.
The Chocolate Bear Kitchen: a pop up restaurant and events company, providing an inclusive dining experience by catering for a wide range of dietary requirements and preferences on the one menu.
Ice Cool Box: a chilled ready-to-drink champagne gifting service. The uniquely designed box keeps the bottle cool and holds flutes in the lid so that recipients can sample their bubbly upon delivery.
Local Vets: a community of independent, locally owned vet practices which aims to offer greater brand reach to its members and allow them to compete with larger, corporate vets.
Fro Sister: a range of all natural hair care products for curly hair which offer a safer, healthier alternative to hair relaxants traditionally used to tame the frizz.
This Mum Runs: an organiser of social runs, running courses and coaching for mums, open to runners of all abilities. Runs are planned to fit around the children’s schedule.
Good luck to you all from TechSPARK!
Help from the tech community
Crowd10 has been made possible thanks to a variety of people from the tech community in and around Bristol and Bath. It is sponsored by Invest Bristol & Bath, FD works and Rocketmakers. The campaign is also supported by Dirty Design, Simpleweb, Webstart, TLT, DeskLodge, Shooting Star, Engine Shed, Enterprise Nation, JamJar Print and Close Range Films (not to mention TechSPARK!).
You can follow the 10 startups journey at the Crowd10 website or on Twitter here: @crowd_10. And if you are interested in meeting the finalists you can sign up to go to the Crowd 10 Showcase on 1 June or email abby@ideasquares.com for more information.
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