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Success for the ‘notonthehighstreet’ women
The Not Girls - Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish
The founders of Not on the High Street have enjoyed a successful first two years of trading, in which they have found themselves winners of numerous start-up awards. These accolades have included: Grazia O2 X regional winner 2007, Startups Women in Business; Young Guns 2008; HSBC Start-up Stars; Marie Claire 23 Women; Startups 100; The 50 Best E-Boutiques and MSN Best Shopping Website.
Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish have truly been unstoppable. Since launching in 2006, the site has grown from 100 businesses to over 750, selling everything from fashion to home ware, fragrances and jewellery. Funding has come first from Spark Ventures in 2007, and in August 2008, another 1 million pounds was raised from Venrex. At that time, the team was enforced with business development experts Giovanna Latimer and Serena Coulson, formerly of Advent. Founders and majority shareholders Tucker and Cornish built the site, driven by both a passion and a frustration. Read more
Internet TV: Lara Ankersmit of Telegraaf.nl (in Dutch)
Lara Ankersmit, online publisher at Telegraaf.nl, talks in SHE about the strategy of the most popular website of one of the national daily magazines. About 700.000 unique visitors a day read mainly headlines, the financial telegraph, gossip page Prive and the women channel. With Hyves she has developed a cross media strategy to increase the reach of the site to a younger audience.
SHE, (a programme of Blueshots) sponsored by Bizner Bank, features interviews with women entrepreneurs, female internet heroes and discuss marketing to women cases. It is presented by Marianne van Leeuwen of Sisteract and Simone Brummelhuis of TheNextWomen.
Microsoft and BigAmbition’s event for more Girls into IT has great results
December 2008, saw Microsoft and the not-for-profit job advice website, BigAmbition, collaborate on the BigAmbition Event – Girls in IT. Aimed at inspiring young ladies into a career in IT, the event has a mission to raise the profile of computer based professions, whilst dispelling the popular myth that IT is only for geeks. And it worked: When asked at the beginning of the event ‘would you consider a career using technology?’ 33% of the girls responded with a yes when first asked, however when they were asked at the end of the event 81% responded yes.
An impressive line-up of female speakers included Anouska Wilson of IBM, Naomi Climer of Sony, Cary Marsh of MYDEO, Helen Cook of SEEDA, Gina Fegan of SE Media Network and Hermione Way of Newspepper. The event began with a panel discussion in which the women explained what made IT fascinating for them, the paths they had taken and the decisions that had led them there.
Expert interview: 13 questions on Funding & Pitching (part 2)
Andrea Cockerton, founder of Mudhut Consulting, the Cambridge-based venture market consultancy works with entrepreneurs of both start-ups and more established SME’s on pitching for business critical investment or deals. For The NextWomen she answers questions on funding & pitching. This is part 2.
Is it true that you can better ask for more than you need than exactly the amount or less?
In my view you need to ask for the right amount of money for what you realistically – with ambition – believe your business can achieve and needs to do so. However, you need to be canny about the fact that market forces, economic trends, competition and so on and so forth can all impact on your targets. An investor needs to see that you are not blinkered and are considering all these things – that you are focussed but flexible. Having said all that, often companies do seem to underestimate exactly how much
money they will need…
Is there a rule for what an angel investor seeks as shareholding?
Not to my knowledge, but of course they are likely to want as much as they can get! Generally companies want to give away less, and investors want more than is on the table. Beware – if you have a ludicrous valuation, investors could well walk away without even discussing it. Be sensible and
get practical advice. There are many different ways how an investor valuates a business.
Is money more or less important than expertise?
They each have their value, and at times exceed each other in importance. But you can do without neither.
How many times should you pitch before you are successful? Read more
Expert interview: 13 questions on Funding & Pitching (part 1)
Andrea Cockerton, pitch for funding expert
Andrea Cockerton, founder of Mudhut Consulting, the Cambridge-based venture market consultancy works with entrepreneurs of both start-ups and more established SME’s on pitching for business critical investment or deals. For The NextWomen she answers questions on funding & pitching. This is part 1.
When should a entrepreneur start seeking finance? At what stage?
Definitely not when they’ve run out of cash!! Going to investors at too late a stage is a risky strategy. Better is to look at the long term objectives and aspirations of the business and plan the fundraising sensibly into this long term strategy. In terms of order, many entrepreneurs try friends and family first, then angels, and then VCs… not forgetting of course any grants or soft loans accessible on the way. Also – don’t underestimate the time it takes to secure funding. This can be anything between a couple of months and up to nine months, or sometimes even a year.
When an entrepreneur wants to raise finance, what should she prepare?
A business plan with a robust, efficient executive summary and well-considered financials, and a well formed pitch – which should be deliverable either in the form of a brief summary (elevator pitch), or in
terms of a detailed presentation outlining the full commercial opportunity the business presents.
What are the most important 3 things she should mention in her pitch? Read more
Rising female internet TV hero: Hermione Way
Launched December 2008, Techfluff.tv is the brain child of Hermione Way, journalist and founder of Newspepper.com and named one of the rising stars of the Spectator. Weekly instalments showcase entrepreneurs, start ups, answers to tweets, events and news – straight from the London tech scene and all with a little bit of fluff. And you can vote for het at the Shorty Awards.
The format at Techfluff sees Hermione reading the headlines as the beautiful news presenter, before morphing into Lara Croft’s younger sister as the News Raider in what’s hot and what’s not. Start ups then give escalator pitches lasting – yes you’ve guessed – the time taken to reach the top of an escalator. Sadly no entrepreneur has so far seen the virtue of running back down – not a good idea considering the team were politely asked to move along from their first film location in Leicester Square tube station. Finally the closing minutes are filled with answers to tweets, Facebook and YouTube questions from an expert of the week and a summary of upcoming tech events.
Ten minutes in length, episodes fly along with speeded up skits, delivering content with humour. Although still in the early stages the first four episodes have had an impressive line up of experts – Michael Smith, founder of Firebox; Mike Butcher, editor of TechCrunch, Read more
Deals: Emily Olson’s Foodzie raised 1 million USD
As the number of women funding their business startups with VC capital is increasing, but still low compared with the number of women starting companies and the number of funding deals, we are always happy to point out funding deals of women led companies. Last week, Emily Olson, chief-Foodie and co-founder of San Fransisco based Foodzie raised 1 million USD capital for her marketplace of specialty foods (sort of the Etsy of artisan food producers). Investors are Jeff Clavier at SoftTech VC, First Round Capital, and angel investors.
Emily pursued the idea and started the company as part of the 2008 TechStars incubator program, together with Nik Bauman (CTO) and Rob LaFave (Business Development+ Design). At Techstarts it basically meant for them that they got 18,000 USD (6,000 per founder) as seed capital to start a business and the chance to pitch their startup after a mentoring program to 150 angel and VC investors. In return Techstarts got 6% equity. Executive Director David Cohen said that Foodzie had the progress, passion, and dedication to get into the program, where last years almost 400 companies applied. Jeff Clavier, now an investor in Foodzie was one of the mentors of Foodzie in the program.
A video with Foodzie:
Organic Laptop bag with charitable vision
Melania J:Tote
Christmas is almost upon us, and what better to ask for than a bag that is not only stylish but also kind to the environment and with the strength of an Ox to cart your technical world around with you. Each week I seem to come across interesting solutions to the same dilemmas, but with a sustainable twist and this week it is the turn of the gorgeous Melania laptop bag from J-Tote.
Grazia have raved about it and Shiny Shiny claim to have drooled over it. Made of organic brown leather, the Melania has a detachable padded strap – perfect to take the load of a laptop – and wooden handles for when you want a chic bag with the carrying capacity of a cruise liner. Read more
Book review: Spare room start up – how to start a business from home
Spare Room Start Up – How to Start a Business from Home, is a practical guide for anyone who wants to become their own boss in the comfort of their home. Written by Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, the book covers three topics – business, lifestyle and technology – with lessons from both Jones and other business founders.
The book is friendly and personable, without the reams of information found in so many books of a similar title, but still with all the essential content. The aim is to prove that starting a business need not be stressful or expensive, and with a little hard work can be fit around a balanced home life.
See Jones in this clip, as she introduces her book Spare Room Start Up.
The best gadgets for a low energy diet
Having purchased the brilliant Holmes and Wattson after reading The Next Women article, you may have discovered that the office is full of power sapping technology essential to an harmonious office. Fear not. Rather than never use a laptop, kettle or light again, here are some simple gadgets that could lower your power demands. Perfect – smaller bills for both the bank account and the planet.
The Gadgets: IntelliPanel, Freeloader, Kettle, Leaf Lamp, Reee Chair
Plug Strips
Running an online business requires multiple gadgets – your home pc, modem, printer, scanner, fax machine etc. – but the office space only has limited plug sockets. The IntelliPanel Energy Saving Plug Strip – available with 8 and 16 sockets – not only powers all these at once, but will only supply power to accessories when the computer itself is switched on. What’s more, it switches any computers on standby off and itself only consumes 0.4W power in the process.
Solar Charging
For moments when a little extra battery charge is needed, try the Freeloader. Read more
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