LivingLens grew from the seed of an idea concerning how to combat the difficulties that video presents to the market research industry and generate real value from it. Having spent the past 15 years in the industry, I recognised the value of the idea, but realised that the build and reaching out to the right people in the right businesses was another kettle of fish. 

My co-founder, David Woods, and I scraped together enough money to build a working prototype but realised we needed substantially more to capitalise on the opportunity. After a particularly unproductive appointment at the bank – think ‘computer says no’ scenario – we concluded that banks are not for start-ups, no matter how great your proposition.

Cue, the bigger picture…I started to think about whether we could get equity investment to kick-start LivingLens, and how on earth to go about it. To fill my knowledge gap I enrolled on a government funded programme: Growth Accelerator, specifically the Access to Finance module.

Approaching potential investors

It gave me the know-how and confidence to approach potential seed investors, starting with the obvious: the world’s largest research companies. When contacting investors and clients we knew we mustn’t be fearful of our product being taken and copied, an important take-away from the Growth Accelerator experience. Essentially, large companies are too preoccupied with their own business to develop the know-how, agility or desire to copy your idea. However, if they recognise value in your solution they will work with you to make it happen.

We explored the tech start-up scene – TechNews, TechHub, Google Campus and networking around Silicon Roundabout – which all pointed us back to Collider.

Collider is an accelerator dedicated to startups which help brands understand, engage with and sell to customers. By mobilising a pot of cash, a crack team of coaches, and an intensive programme, it supports startups in becoming sustainable, high-growth businesses.

Its focus on the sweet spot between startups and brands, and the commercial benefits they bring to one other. It invests specifically in technology startups that are building disruptive platforms, products and services.

Collider programme

Its selection process is tough, involving several rounds of pitching on paper and in person; amazingly, we got through. The Collider programme has enabled us to accelerate our proposition, meet brands that have introduced us to their worlds and shown us how we could add value, and build our strategy and financial acumen.

The market research industry is ripe for the introduction of new disruptive technologies that lead to more insight, greater commercial line of sight and more creative thinking.  And it turns out that there are businesses and people, like the folk at Collider, who can help make it happen.

Since exiting the Collider programme in May, we have secured an additional £200K round of funding from our angel investors to allow us to continue evolving and have started working with clients like Unilever and Vision Critical.

Q&A

What was most difficult about the process?

Preparing and polishing our pitch and materials. You must be able to impress and persuade in two minutes. Aside from that, developing our technology road-map and team have been tough. Initially it was difficult to shift my perspective from my previous experience of running a business to survive to thinking much bigger.

What went better than you anticipated?

The ambition and commitment shown by all. Senior, knowledgeable people have given us lots of their time to help us succeed. Collider has facilitated face time with very important client side people. The ‘collide and accelerate’ descriptions are apt – I feel like we’ve done three years of thinking, decision-making and evolving in less than six months.

What advice would you pass on to others?

I cannot emphasis enough the mastery of pitching your business in two minutes, five minutes, with and without slides and demos. Know your industry inside out to instill confidence in your investors and clients. Listen to advice and follow the principles of The Mom’s Test by Rob Fitzpatrick – it’s been a revelation to me. Your team must be balanced, a good start-up team should cover industry knowledge, delivery skills and tech coding ability. Think big, investors are only interested if your product is scalable.

Specifics for the research industry?

The market research industry is a blind spot for most angel investors, accelerators and venture capitalists. Its scale, reason for being, typical way market research is applied and why, is unknown territory for these people. We’ve needed to educate them about our industry.

How did the two stages of your funding differ?

The funding round at Collider was a clearly defined pitching process with a clear offer at the end of it. With the angel investment round we needed to convince those who we had met on our Collider journey and others who hadn’t seen us evolve, to put their hands in their pockets. It was more of a ‘game’, potential investors would signal their interest and then wait to see who jumped in first.

Did you approach each Angel individually?

Every Angel needs to be approached individually and kept informed as to who else is interested or investing. There is little point in discretion so we were (relatively) open about this as many of them know each other, have worked together or invested together, just like the movers and shakers in MR Land, it’s a smaller world than you think.

Carl Wong is co-founder of LivingLens