💡Smart Things Cohort 3, Crowdfunding and Fantatics
💡Smart Things Cohort 3, Crowdfunding and Fantatics
This week, several deal announcements, the Smart Things Accelerator for IoT devices announces their cohort with 50% female-led companies, Tech Meetup + a plethora of events around the country, and we say hello to Barry Munro from Fantastic Fanatics.
But first, are you a Giver or a Taker?
The importance of giving and taking
By Robert Gelb
Building a successful startup cannot happen without favours. It cannot happen without advice, and people up and down the ecosystem, supply chain, investor-base – you name it – giving you time, intros, and generally being helpful. And as entrepreneurs we have to take advantage of what others are willing to give.
As founders, it's also important to give generously. Opening up your contacts to others, offering to help review someone's deck, or hear their pitch, or help them through a thought process. You never know what will help the most.
Be honest with yourself: are you more of a Giver or a Taker? Do you find it harder to do one or the other?
Sometimes we end up over-indexing on one of those - either giving too much or taking too much. Adam Grant, a psychologist, wrote a book called Give and Take and broke down people into 3 types: givers, takers, and matchers (tit-for-tat, or those who give-and-take).
Givers prefer to give more than they get, and pay more attention to what other people need from them rather than what they need themselves. They can be selfless and want to drop everything to help you out in any way they can.
Takers are focused on themselves and may help others, but only do so strategically when whatever they are doing outweighs their own cost of helping.
Matchers can still be strategic, but attempt to equally give and take. "I help you, so it's only fair you help me." An even exchange of favours.
Think of other founders or colleagues you know - who are the givers and takers in your network?
The interesting thing about all this is what Grant and others found to work the best in terms of success, and it might not be what you think.
Givers, especially when they are selfless, interestingly turn out to be among the worst performers in terms of success. Takers almost always perform above givers. Matchers, especially those who give that focus on others' successes often perform the highest.
So which are you? And if you don't like the answer, what are you going to do about it?
You can find Adam Grant's book here. Here's an interesting article that provides some prompts to help you reflect on which one you might be.
🌊 Updates
💡 Glasgow-based Smart Things Accelerator (for IoT devices) has announced its 3rd cohort of companies, 50% of which are led by female-identifying founders - they include Happy Leaf, Recoil Kneepads, Nano-Lit, Simplicare, Silver Lion, SenseCity, Siynsense, and Dragonflai. FS TS
🔒 Glasgow-based Pick Protection is crowdfunding for their first b2c device: the Pick Guardian alarm. It's halfway to its goal! Support here. TS
✍️ Edinburgh-based Manus Neurodynamica (neuromotor assessment products) raised £2.6m from Northstar Ventures, Par Equity, SIS Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, and Old College Capital. MTN LS
🔦 Edinburgh-based PureLiFi (using light to transmit data) will have its product deployed on US navy and coast guard vessels after a newly signed deal. TS
💷 Edinburgh-based Inicio.AI (Consumer SaaS for helping consumers simplify and manage debt), raised £500k. DIG SS
☀️ Edinburgh-based Snugg (Helping homeowners improve energy efficiency) has signed a deal with EDF in England and Wales to expand installer coverage. DIG
🧬 Edinburgh-based Lentitek (Lentiviral vectors manufacturing) raised £250k from Gabriel Investments, Apollo, Scottish Enterprise, and the University of Edinburgh. IN
🙏 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
📆 Runway looking rough and need some inspiration? John Li, founder of Vimcal wrote a great piece about how Vimcal was launched with 1.5 months of runway and how they really almost threw in the towel. They've just announced an AI tool where you paste in someone else's availability and it automagically suggests times for you to go back with. Awesome.
🎥 Vento is a simple tool to help you make screen recordings and easily re-record sections. No more dog barks forcing you to re-record that whole walk-through! They're offering a lifetime deal right now that looks pretty good.
🎨 Working on UX and need some inspiration? Check out Call to Inspiration to get quick examples of pop-ups, coach marks, drop-downs, empty-states, and more.
👋 A few questions with Barry Munro, Managing Director of Fantastic Fanatics
What's Fantastic Fanatics?
A sports based fundraising and cash-back platform.
How did you get involved?
We’ve always been passionate about sport and the catalyst behind what we are doing is that we got a little bit fed up of all the money circulating in the English Premier League. We initially asked ourselves how can we deliver a new revenue stream to every other sports club in the UK, with no cost to the clubs.
What's the problem you're solving?
The problems are spread across 2 areas, grass roots sport and professional sport.
Funding cuts, friction / limitations with existing platforms and demand for sport placing pressure on the system in grass roots sport.
Increasing wages / club costs, pressure on commercial departments to generate more revenue and increasing fan costs in professional spectator sport.
What's your solution?
We’ve created a sport-specific cashback platform where fans can support their favourite clubs simply by shopping.
Generates money for sport through everyday spending with zero cost to the sports club and the club member / fan.
We encourage fans to spend through rewards and incentives.
Seamless fundraising method through our card linked technology.
Drives footfall and web traffic to partners in retail, leisure and hospitality.
What current alternatives exist?
There are 1 or 2 cashback alternatives out there but they come with more friction, are not 100% sports based and are tailored more for the individual.
What does good look like in this space?
We launched our white label fundraising platform for grass roots and amateur sports clubs and have built many platforms for professional sports clubs in Scotland and England. We are also looking to scale and grow our business across the UK onboarding thousands of clubs and fans in the near future, with a view to building fundraising platforms for top flight club community trusts and foundations.
What do you need help with?
We are looking for investment to build a team and scale the business quickly but accordingly. We are confident we have a large and motivated available market out there, we just need a little help to capture as much of it possible.
How should folks get in touch?
You can email me or connect on LinkedIn
You can learn more about Fantastic Fanatics here.
📅 Events & deadlines
🇬🇧 Upcoming Innovate UK deadlines:
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
🇺🇸 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
💰 05/06 🗺️ Apollo Informal Investment Quarterly Meeting: Pitching and discussion for Apollo members and invited guests. Proposal submissions welcome. 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 of Bracken Grove) and running containers with zero vulnerabilities (Adrian Mouat of Chainguard), plus networking. MORE INFO
📜 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
☕ 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, 08:30 🗺️ Dundee: DigitalScotland: Tayside: Bringing together policy makers, business leaders, educators and community stakeholders to explore the opportunities and challenges of economic growth and digital transformation in Tayside. 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
🤝 10/06, 14:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Meetup: A chance to meet up with entrepreneurs in a relaxed setting to chat about your business. Get inspiration and share advice with founders. MORE INFO
💻 12/06, 18:30 🗺️ Inverness: Inverness Tech Meetup: Civtech 7, 8, and 9 with Jiveen MacGillivray and TBC, plus networking. MORE INFO
🧑🎨 13/06, 12:00 🗺️ Stirling: Marketing Meetup Stirling: A quick and insightful in-person meetup, open to all marketers, to share your experience and learn from others! 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
❓ 15/06, 09:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: How To Create An Effective Value Proposition: Marketing workshop to understand the importance of a solid value proposition and how to build it. MORE INFO
📯 19/06, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Pitch it to me: Casual evening of pitching to peers within Tech startups - practice your pitching and receive valuable feedback in a welcoming environment. MORE INFO
Deadlines
🎯 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
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That’s all for this week - have a great one!
Team 🔥Campfire