Colin Willis was a mentor on the original Difference Engine seed funding programme, and became a non-exec board member at Screenreach, one of its most high-profile alumni. As Europe's first £1m digital start-up accelerator programme ignite100 launches in the North East, he talks about the importance of mentoring-led programmes and what ignite100 could mean for the North East
“TRUST me. Your idea is worthless.”
This is the opening chapter of the book Do More Faster, which summarises some of the lessons learned from the US accelerator programme TechStars in Boulder, Colorado.
I have been asked on numerous occasions to sign confidentiality agreements or have pointless meetings where a person will not disclose their idea because it is so clever that it will make millions, and they’re worried someone might steal it.
You don’t invest in ideas – you invest in teams that can execute.
In the UK, there is not an equity gap but an execution gap. To quote from the book: “You can steal ideas but no one can steal execution or passion.”
As we know, in the North East we have passion – in fact, Kevin Mann from the region wrote the next chapter from this book, entitled Start with your Passion. With Amazon web services, Facebook, Google and iPhone, plus web tools that are available, you can do a lot with very little money and there is a lot of investment available for companies that can show traction.
I know from my own portfolio there are large numbers of venture capitalists tracking companies that show visibility in terms of user numbers, industry awards or profile on social media.
Remain lean until you get traction, then you need to decide if you need investment to get fat (scale) quickly so the established players do not just copy your proven idea.
Mentoring-led accelerator programs have been shown to improve the chance and size of success for start-ups.
By focusing on providing diverse mentoring to fill knowledge gaps and community to support and test new products and services, US accelerator programs have shown that they can greatly increase the chances of success (80%) as well as the size of success of start-ups (check out Airbnb and Sendgrid).
The Difference Engine – based on the TechStars model – run last year in Middlesbrough and Sunderland has also demonstrated this model can work here. For example, after running trials with Newcastle United, various UK retailers and international events, such as TEDx in America, one participant called ScreenReach is now operating in four countries within five months of launching.
The next iteration of the Difference Engine, to be called ignite100, will be based in Newcastle. It will have some great mentors, and with the £100,000 of investment in each company it will attract entrepreneurs from around Europe and maybe the US.
TechStars has seen 50% of its participants remain in Boulder and further develop the tech community. Importantly, the first of three success factors in creating creativity-centered cities is attracting talented people who stay.
Four years after the start of TechStars, Boulder is now viewed as one of hubs of tech startups in the US, along with Silicon Valley and New York.
My worthless idea is that Newcastle is recognised alongside London and Cambridge as one of the places for successful tech start-ups in Europe. If we work to together establish a support ecosystems and execute well we can make this a reality.