I have recently come across crowdcube.com, a UK based company that enables the public to invest in new businesses. Entrepreneurs upload their pitch on the platform explaining their business idea , how much money they need and what they are prepared to offer in return. The public can then look at the investments available and decide whether they want to invest.
There are a heap of US versions of these ideas that have been around for awhile, the most famous being Kickstarter. I really do think these sites are really positive for entrepreneurs for the following reason:
1) Secure necessary funding. Ok, so it’s an obvious one! But, I have been in the situation where I require funding for an idea. I have sought investment from friends and I have also been on an accelerator programme that has enabled me to pitch to very wealthy investors. Nevertheless, in today’s financial age, investment is a struggle and further potential options to secure funding could be seriously fruitful. What’s more, small amounts of investment by a large number of people helps investment to become more feasible and possible as it is spread.
2) Develop a committed group of supporters. Shouting about your business idea to anyone who will listen, is vital, the more people who hear about your idea then the more you have a chance of people following you and supporting your idea. If a business can gain a number of ‘champions’ who will shout about the business on your behalf, before launch then this helps increase the chance of business success.
3) Reach potential ‘helpers’. Sharing your business through the likes of crowdcube really helps you to find like minded people who not only share your vision but who also have the vital skills that you need in order to make the business happen.
4) Provides a secure testing environment. I have had business ideas that I should not have launched. At the time I thought they were the best ideas in the world, naively and with the best of intentions. However, retrospectively, these ideas where not so good. If I had placed these ideas on the likes of crowdcube.com it would have enabled me to gauge feedback and wisdom from my potential customers and develop the business idea accordingly. This all important insight may have resulted in me not launching these businesses which could have saved a lot of pain, heartache and finances.
The nature of my first business, Tribewanted.com, was essentially crowd funded. Members of the public paid for their time on the island up front and it was this cash that was used in order to propel the business forward. We received a lot of criticism for this which left people wondering whether the whole thing was a scam. At the time, if Crowdcube existed I would have sought investors on such a platform. I remember, at the time, looking for a UK equivalent.
Crowdcube creates a safe environment for potential investors, it provides the credibility required to bring about the trust in order to invest and, if the full amount of investment is not raised then no money is taken from the investors accounts. Perfect.
One business has already secure 100% of their £75,000 required investment and you can read more about Bubble & Balm here. The only negative is that there are not a heap of businesses who are using the site yet but I am watching and waiting and when the right business comes along I shall invest, I shall become a ‘champion’ of the idea, I will offer my skills to help and I will tell you all about it right on this blog!
So, go take a look at crowdcube.com and if you invest in a business idea – let me know!
I read an article in the L.A Times this morning that, in all honesty, excited the heck out of me! Here is THAT article: MySpace owner preparing for a re-model
Yes, the article was about MySpace, the company that was sold for bagillions to Murdoch and was sold to Tim & Chris Vanderhook for a fraction of the price. Myspace, the social networking site that millions of people, like sheep, left and flocked to MySpace leaving it in the great big social networking bin in the sky. You know, Myspace, who now have Justin Timberlake as an investor.
Say what?! Exactly.
I recently wrote about Google and how they have had many a failed social networking sites before they got it right with Google+. You can read that life-changing (jokes) blog here: Blog about Google and how crap they were at social networking until they launched Google+ which now has over 10million users.
People love shiny brand new stuff, especially when it is talked about all over the web. New stuff + being talked about all over the web = lots of people getting on board with that new stuff.
MySpace is old, yeah. But, music fans still have their MySpace profile. Justin Timberlake brings an edge of coolness and these guys are well versed in the power of social media. All that is needed is one freakin’ good idea, some crazy, awesome, kick-ass content that will bring music fans back to MySpace and will re-invigorate a new passion for this social networking site. I just know it.
Of course, I have an idea that I would love to talk to Tim & Chris Vanderhook about. I would love to talk to them about the music based concept that I put together called Rock Control, which fell on it’s feet because of lack of investment. I don’t bagillions of their cash I just want to see if they believe in the potential of Rock Control, in the same way that I do, in the same way that Kevin Roberts Global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi did right here.
So, if you can hook me up with Tim & Chris Vanderhook then I will love you forever, not only that, a world of goodness will also come your way!
I have recently come across www.vyou.com which is a brilliant company with a genius idea. VYou enables the public to ask you questions which you can respond to via video!
Now, you may be shocked out how excited I am about this. To you, this may not seem like any big, brand new idea, in fact, you may be thinking ‘youtube‘. But, what is really exciting about vyou is the interface. As you can see below there is the video section of the individual who owns their ‘channel’ and then on the right hand side there are the questions that people have asked. A user simply clicks on the questions in order to see the channel owners response to the question. Of course there are safety features within this concept, including the fact that you can delete a users questions if you are not happy with what they have asked, before the public see the question.
What really excites me is that this idea is perfect for businesses who want to get close to their user base, owners who want to answer questions but cannot be on live video 24/7. This is a real neat way of providing an up-to-date FAQ’s section or an ask section. As someone who manages social media profiles for a number of companies this vyou is a perfect way to help manage a bran
Indeed, very shortly I am launching a new start up and I have already integrated vyou into the website!
Media used to be a top down thing, you could listen to the radio, watch TV or newspapers and the only time that you could share your voice on such platforms was when the gate keepers allowed you to do so – whether this be a letter to the editor or a radio phone in. Well, with the advent of the internet this has all changed and has significant and far-reaching consequences, consequences which I believe are greater than we currently understand.
Let’s take two contemporary cases:
The Murdoch Empire - Rupert Murdoch, as well all know, is a media mogul who is worth a cool $5billion. In no way, shape or form did anyone ever think that the foundations of this empire would shake and his media business would start to crumble, but it has and to me, this points to one thing… People are fed up of the way things are, with the way things have been and they want to see change. The internet provides a platform to voice these feelings, for good or for bad.
I am not making any startling revelation. We have seen the powerful results of WikiLeaks and we have seen the voice that the internet has become which has aided country-wide political revolutions. In Murdoch’s case the internet does not play any part in the revelation of the information. Nevertheless, people, in their droves hit the internet, tweeting, increasing their Facebook status and discussion on forums their dislike of the whole News of the World situation which resulted in advertisers pulling their marketing budgets, the public boycotting the newspaper and, ultimately, the closing down of the whole operation. A growing disillusion with the way that things are + the power of the internet to spread a message has resulted in the foundations of a worldwide media empire start to crumble = powerful consequences.
Google: The second media company that I want to discuss is Google. Google has traditionally been good at what it does, enabling people to effectively “search” the internet to find information that the need, fast. Google has launched a number of businesses that quite simply didn’t take off. Jaiku, a Twitter equivalent, launched by Google and subsequently failed, is one example. Google have always wanted to get into the social networking space and launched Google Wave, in an attempt to take a chunk out of the power and influence of Facebook.I remember speaking to Google’s PR team when Google Wave was launched and he was championing the impending success of Google Wave and how it was going to be adopted by future generations. Great idea, awesome ambition but the public did not take to it and ultimately it was closed down in August 2010.
Recently, Google went for it again and launched Google+, this time the public adopted the social networking site and within weeks it was announced that there was 10million users on the site. Some of the Google+ features have caused Facebook to panic leading to an announcement of an integration with Skype. The public are really going for Google+ and it has left Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin trying to raise their game.
The point that I am trying to make is that people have power and as people talk, share and engage online it brings about a confidence in others to share what they seek, what they think and what they feel. The News of the World ‘phone hacking case could only be held off for so long, people talk.
I believe that this is only the start. People are getting restless and fed up with the unacceptable behavior and now, more than ever they have a powerful method to share their views. Murdoch’s empire is only one foundation that is shaking, many more businesses will shake. However, at the same time, when the public get behind something, like Google+ they will do.
People are talking, about good and bad and the consequences of both are set to be significant.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Last week I wrote a blog entitled, What happened to thenerve.tv? which was Part 1 of an attempt to explain what has happened to an idea that I had been working on for some time. In Part 1 I explained that there had been some distance between two projects that I have worked on and I wanted to offer a reflection as to what had gone wrong in the hope of passing on some experience to other entrepreneurs. In Part 2 I want to share some learning experiences from a project that I have been working on called Rock Control (formerly known as VIP Band Manager).
Rock Control is an idea that I love, if I do say so myself. In essence, Rock Control was the concept that enabled the public to form and manage a band from scratch – from viewing auditions to decide who should be in the band, to choosing a song, developing a style and making all the major decisions to release one song into the charts around the world in order to see how well the band would do. The whole project was to be developed online and viewed as an online TV show (with the hope of getting an actual TV show out of it at the end).
Rock Control was a neat idea, we managed to get some seed investment, a place of the Difference Engine and even a flattering blog from Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi who explained that Rock Control “had the potential to become one of the most interactive TV shows to date”. Rock Control was launched as a website that enabled individuals to upload their audition with the social media sharing facilities for them to encourage their friends and relatives to vote for them. In a period of 6 months we have over 500+ auditions and over 6,000 people who had registered, which were incredible figures for a project launched with little financial support.
The key learning point from Rock Control is that a good idea needs to have a sound financial revenue stream before it can become a successful idea. Rock Control was launched and it was our hope that the momentum that we had gained would lead to investment and we had a pretty good shot at pitching the idea to some really good potential investors who each thought that the project was a great idea, we even had offers of investment, but, only on the condition of the agreement of the TV show which is something that we were pitching for but was not something that we could guarantee. Eventually, in order to get to the next stage we needed investment and we just did not have the money to take it to the next level.
Rock Control was a great idea which caught the imagination of a significant number of people. Nevertheless, we needed money in order to make it work. The experience of Rock Control has made me realise that in the future whenever I have a ‘great idea’ I need to find a firm, solid revenue stream for that idea, before launch, in order to make is a successful viable business. This is clearly a significant lesson for anyone wanting to launch a business.
Rock Control is not an idea that is dead in the water and it is still being pitched to various people, one day I hope to revive the idea and turn it into a success… we will see! For now I am working on another idea that has a very clear revenue stream and more on that to come soon.