⚡ How this Start-Up is Using Samurais, Evangelists and Influencers to Help Companies Win more Business

Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…

🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the start-up world
📰 The biggest news stories in the start-up world
📖 The start-up helping companies win more business!
🍓 How queuing helped this company reach new users
📝 The ultimate note taking assistant

✨ Last weeks most clicked link was this link to apply to join NatWest’s Entrepreneur Accelerator programme.

Happy hustling,
Rich & Gary

🎤 Events/Opportunities

🏆 Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is offering up to 50 Women in Innovation Awards to women entrepreneurs within SMEs across the UK. The winners will receive a £75,000 grant and bespoke business support. If you’re interested in applying, checking out their recent briefing event to learn more about the awards.

💸 Creandum has raised its seventh fund, a €500m fund to support seed and early-stage start-ups in Europe.

📈 Nominations are currently open for the 2024 UK Deloitte Technology Fast 50! Having been running for 27 years, the Fast 50 is one of the UK's foremost technology awards programmes, and each year they highlight the fastest growing tech companies in the UK. This is a great opportunity to celebrate your growth and get the recognition you deserve by submitting a nomination for the 2024 UK Tech Fast 50 awards programme.

🎤 London Venture Capital Network is hosting a Pitch Competition during the London VC Summit on 15 June 2024!

💼 Job opportunities

🎁 Senior Product Designer, GiveMatch
🖥️ Product Designer, Walking On Earth
🤳 Growth Engineer, Fanvue

🏙️ London has been named the best city in the world to create, develop and deploy technology, according to a new index. UKTN

🚗 Zoox, Amazon’s self-driving unit, is bringing its autonomous vehicles to more cities. TechCrunch

💵 Google has acquired Cameyo, a company developing virtualization tools to run Windows apps on ChromeOS devices, for an undisclosed amount. TechCrunch

🎤 Stability AI, the start-up behind the AI-powered art generator Stable Diffusion, has released an open AI model for generating sounds and songs that it claims was trained exclusively on royalty-free recordings. TechCrunch

📖 Flowla: Streamlining B2B Sales from Onboarding to Renewal

Flowla emerged from the need for revenue teams work better, close more deals, and streamline onboarding, especially when money is tight and business growth is slow. Flowla’s system helps businesses streamline complex B2B sales and customer success processes. It offers a suite of tools designed to consolidate collateral, tasks, and conversations in one accessible platform, making it easier for buyers and sellers to collaborate efficiently. With features that transform these processes into clear, digital journeys, Flowla not only organises but actively enhances the way revenue teams engage with their customers.

Strategic Customer Acquisition

Flowla’s initial customer acquisition strategy hinged on a deep understanding of their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), focusing on a specific industry known for its complex sales cycles. Leveraging personal networks and a strong LinkedIn presence, the team engaged in meaningful conversations, turning casual interactions into robust business connections. The strategic use of referrals through their VC network and crafting of pre-written emails for these referrals simplified the process, allowing them to expand their reach efficiently.

Their approach was to build genuine connections by identifying and nurturing relationships with three types of supporters:

Influencers: Who could make powerful introductions.
Evangelists: Who loved the product and spread the word.
Samurais: Ideal industry partners who could extend their reach into new markets.

This method, complemented by social proof such as user reviews and detailed case studies, helped establish credibility and trust early on.

Scaling Through Strategic Alliances

Flowla’s growth strategy involved leveraging the momentum from its initial success to create a buzz in the wider market. The launch on Product Hunt and subsequent social media strategies significantly raised their profile. By forming strategic alliances with influencers and other businesses, Flowla was able to tap into new customer segments and expand its market presence more effectively.

Key Lessons and Adjustments

From its early experiences, Flowla learned the importance of focusing on prospective deals with a high likelihood of closure and not being deterred by negative feedback. This feedback was invaluable for course correction and refinement of their sales strategies. One critical operational insight was the importance of cautious hiring—quickly parting ways with hires that didn’t fit, despite impressive credentials or expectations. Another key focus for the business was build what their customers wanted - rather than just thinking you know best.

Funding the Vision

Flowla transitioned from a side project addressing the founders’ own challenges in deal-making to a fully funded start-up. Initially bootstrapped and developed with close network testing, the product quickly showed enough promise to justify full-time commitment from the co-founders. Their fundraising journey in the summer of 2022 culminated in a $1.3 million round which included participation from four VCs, facilitated largely through warm introductions and existing networks, demonstrating the power of leveraging personal connections in start-up funding. They also used their own product (Flowla) to share their deck, materials and track how investors engaged!

Navigating Challenges and Setting Future Directions

Since starting the business Flowla has had to navigate a number of challenges. This has included navigating a market where buyer budgets are being increasingly scrutinised, making each expenditure a deliberate decision. On the flip side, the founder has always been very conscious about ROI and at times has felt overly cautious when deciding whether to spend more money e.g. on marketing. One early hiring mistake provided a tough lesson in trusting your own instincts after they brought on a new hire with great expectations (despite some warning signs during the hiring process), which ultimately lasted less than a month!

Reflecting for Future Growth

If starting over, the founders of Flowla would focus even more narrowly on specific niches and verticals, recognising that such specialisation can drive faster growth by making customers feel the product is uniquely tailored to their needs. This approach is easier said than done however, as it would require broad initial testing to identify the most responsive market segment.

Start-Up life is full of rejections, no matter how glamorous or famous you are. But, if you can do what Yonder did in the face of rejection, you’ll start to see a lot more of them turn to wins.

Yonder wrote to the Wimbledon team to ask if they could be the official credit card sponsor of Wimbledon, but were swiftly told to “get in line”. Yonder did exactly what Wimbledon said, and decided to actually get in the line for the Tennis tournament. The Yonder team got in the the queue for Wimbledon, dressed in Yonder merch and gave out free Strawberries and snacks whilst telling all of those queueing up about what Yonder can do. They coined themselves “The Un-Official Sponsor of the Queue”. This stunt ended up going viral across socials, whilst still enabling them to get the attention of all those who attended Wimbledon.

If you’ve not quite been able to get your company somewhere recently but you know that it’s a great audience for your Start-Up, how can you creatively get yourself on the roster?

Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our innovator community have recommended.

Voicenotes is an AI-powered app designed to simplify note-taking by converting voice recordings into accurate, searchable text notes. It offers features such as automatic transcription, organisation, and sharing capabilities. Aimed at professionals, students, and anyone needing to capture thoughts quickly and efficiently, Voicenotes enhances productivity by making notes easily accessible and editable. The app supports multiple languages and integrates with various platforms, ensuring seamless workflow management.

Next week we’ll be highlighting another awesome start-up (if you want us to feature you, drop us a message), as well as sharing all the usuals including funding opportunities, Start-Up news, plus plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.

P.S. Connect with us on LinkedIn…