THIS WEEK IN WAYRA LONDON
Week commencing 16th June
Last week saw some really high value interactions between Wayra startups and the Telefónica UK Business and Marketing teams, organised by Abby. Sessions were productive and engaging, and feedback from both sides was overwhelmingly positive. We hope that this successful format will be repeated many times in the future.
This week we are hosting the directors of the European Academies, and the Academy is getting a much-needed facelift - check out the new astroturf floor in the Zuckerberg room!
This week we are hosting the directors of the European Academies, and the Academy is getting a much-needed facelift - check out the new astroturf floor in the Zuckerberg room!
IN THE ACADEMY THIS WEEK
Alternate finance week
This week we put the spotlight on alternatives to raising VC finance. On Monday, Paulina Sygulska from Grant Tree will be introducing the basics of grant funding, Darren Westlake from Crowdcube will speak about crowdfunding, and Lennart Hergel will provide enlightenment on the subject of social investment. These introductory sessions will be followed up with drop-in sessions on Tuesday (crowdfunding), Wednesday (social investment) or Thursday (grant funding).
The planned session on angel investment has had to be deferred, and will be rescheduled for a future date.
The planned session on angel investment has had to be deferred, and will be rescheduled for a future date.
Peer Review Grp 1 - Mon 2:30pm
Please get slides to Kat by 1:30pm at the very very latest
No Pain Point sessions this week
Scheduled Pain Point sessions will not be taking place this week. They will resume after Bootcamp.
VC Pitch Slam - Friday 2:30pm
Stefan from Profounders Capital and Natasha from Piton Capital will both be attending this week's VC Pitch Slam. The teams that will be pitching will be announced imminently.
UX /UI sessions with Rob Porter - Friday
Rob Porter from Telefónica will be in the Academy on Friday to run UX/UI sessions with a small number of teams. We will be selecting the teams that will work with Rob on this occasion, but the opportunity will be rolled out more widely over the coming weeks.
Europe and Global directors of Wayra in the Academy
Directors of the European Academies will be meeting in the Academy on Tuesday and Wednesday, and all teams will be delivering an extended elevator pitch to them on Tuesday afternoon at 5:30pm.
On Thursday, we will be hosting Gonzalo Martin-Villa, the global CEO of Wayra, and all teams will deliver a brief pitch at 3pm.
This is a great opportunity to promote your businesses to some very influential people, as well as a chance to make a really good impression of the London Academy. Please help us to keep the Academy looking at its best during the week (keep the kitchens under control) and bring your A-game to the pitches.
On Thursday, we will be hosting Gonzalo Martin-Villa, the global CEO of Wayra, and all teams will deliver a brief pitch at 3pm.
This is a great opportunity to promote your businesses to some very influential people, as well as a chance to make a really good impression of the London Academy. Please help us to keep the Academy looking at its best during the week (keep the kitchens under control) and bring your A-game to the pitches.
Pitching to Wayra Europe Directors
Tuesday 17:30pm
Pitching to Wayra CEO
Thursday 15:00pm
Juan Cadillo (Telefónica Ventures) visiting on Wednesday
Following on from last week's very successful interactions with Telefónica teams, Juan will be in the Academy on Wednesday morning, and will be introduced to six of our startups: Cloudwear, GeniusMatcher, iNovar, Yoyo, Passive Eye, and Geneix.
Events in the Academy
Speaker Series: Secrets to my Success - Wednesday 6pm
This event, run by Global software company Sage, will be hosted in the Academy on Wednesday night. It will feature three of the UK’s leading tech start-ups (Sage, Swiftkey & moo.com) talking about how they were inspired in business, as well as Wayra UK team OpenDesk, who launch their crowdfunding campaign on Wednesday. The event is free and refreshments are on the house - sign up via eventbrite (link below) if you'd like to attend.
Blue Ronin event - Thursday 6pm
Wayra UK alumnus team Blue Ronin, who make digital tools for the construction industry, are holding an event in the Academy on Thursday evening. The event itself is very industry-specific, but it will be rounding off in time for the England-Uruguay football match starting at 8pm, which will be shown on the big screen in the Agora.
The World Cup at Wayra
Predict results with Sqwiz's world cup app
The founders of Wayra UK teams Sqwiz and LevBet have pooled their expertise to build an app for world cup predictions. Follow the link below, like Sqwiz's Facebook page, and get predicting!
Go easy on the Spaniards
They are likely to be in low spirits, so be generous on hugs and perhaps avoid wearing too much orange in the Academy this week.
PEER REVIEW RESULTS (Grp 2)
Earnt earns top spot
Congrats to Joe Leese from Earnt, who topped the Peer Review charts on Monday. Earnt is a mobile advertising platform that allows brands to reward user achievements inside of existing health and fitness apps. Joe is aiming to launch Earnt with at least one partner app in the coming fortnight.
1. Earnt
2. Skim.it
3. OpenDesk
4. Cloudwear
5. LevBet
6. The Busking Project
7. Living Indie
8. Pocket Explorers
9. Represent
10. Passive Eye
11. Lobster (absent)
12. Virtually Free (absent)
1. Earnt
2. Skim.it
3. OpenDesk
4. Cloudwear
5. LevBet
6. The Busking Project
7. Living Indie
8. Pocket Explorers
9. Represent
10. Passive Eye
11. Lobster (absent)
12. Virtually Free (absent)
TO DO THIS WEEK
We will have lots of influential visitors in the Academy this week. Help us to promote you to them by providing your wall poster and promotional slide a.s.a.p.
2.5 min Pitch deck
If you want to use slides for your pitches on Tues/Thurs, you need to get them to Kat by the end of Monday. These will be run as PDFs so please don't include animations or videos.
Promo slides
We've been running these as a loop on the TV - and they're looking great! A few teams are still missing though, and we need to have something for everyone by the time the Europe directors arrive on Tuesday.
Wall Poster
Again, we want to have all teams represented on the wall by Tuesday, so please get you wall poster to Kat asap if you've not already done so.
Details for Bootcamp
Please complete the Google spreadsheet if you haven't already (link below)
FROM THE TEAMS
The return of Paperfold
After spending the last few months in the US, hobnobbing with the bigwigs, the Paperfold team will be back in the Academy from Monday. We look forward to hearing all about what they've been up to.
Songdrop
Wayra UK alumnus team Songdrop are featured as download of the week by Tech City News. Songdrop streamlines music services into one app, letting you listen and combine all the music through it.
Minicabit
Resident alumnus team Minicabit successfully closed a £150k crowdfunding round last week, and were also featured by T3 as one of the top three taxi apps, behind big hitters Uber and Hailo.
GoCarShare
Resident alumnus team GoCarShare successfully closed a £75k crowdfunding round last week, and their app is now live in the app store.
OpenDesk
Wayra UK team OpenDesk is launching an already-popular crowdfunding campaign on Wednesday. In the meantime, they have been busy making really lovely custom-designed desks for our meeting rooms - 12 hours from design to delivery!
COMPETITIONS
Intel business challenge europe
Deadline for applications is in June and you need to be under 35 to apply. Follow the link for more details.
European Youth Award
Deadline for applications is 1st July and you need to be under 30 to apply. Follow the link for more details.
BULLY AWARDS 2014
Deadline for applications is 1st September