Loop is a growth programme for founders of tech startups based in the south west of England.
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Loop alleviates these issues by providing participants with exclusive access to a hand-picked panel of experts – each representing a different area of business growth. The idea is to provide practical, helpful advice across everything from investor relations to accountancy to marketing and PR.
The result? Founders end up spending less time trying to master these issues, and more time growing their business.
Each session focuses on a specific business topic and is led by the expert in that field from our expert panel. They are run as a roundtable event with all participants in attendance, and consist of a blend of talks, workshops and Q&A discussions.
Session | Topic | Expert | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Product market fit | Nathalie Alpi | TBC |
2 | Product development | Nic Alpi | TBC |
3 | Accounting | Sandar Millman | TBC |
4 | Winning grant funding | Alan Gould | TBC |
5 | Investor relations | Tim Morgan | TBC |
6 | HR & recruitment | Nick Dean | TBC |
7 | Legal | Paul Hardman | TBC |
8 | Branding & marketing | Nick Farrar | TBC |
9 | PR | Joanna Randall | TBC |
10 | Sales | Ashley Wheeler | TBC |
Roy is committed to helping tech businesses grow by applying his experience in accounting, tax and management consulting.
Roy is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years experience in advising businesses. He has acted as mentor and coach for senior executives in FTSE companies, as well as startups. He founded Affecton in 2002 having worked as a tax partner at EY in Australia and London. Roy is a believer of turning ideas into action. Roy will be available as mentor to all participants throughout the Programme.
Having spent over 20 years in marketing, Nick has an in-depth understanding of what makes brands work, live and breathe and knows exactly how to maximise ROI for clients.
Before co-founding Workbrands, he was director of a recruitment comms agency and MD of an international publishing and events company. A passionate advocate for the use of creativity in strategic business thinking, Nick is well-versed in helping others tell their own story through design in a way that engages their audience.
Marketeer, business manager and co-founder of CookiesHQ , Nathalie is the go-to woman for planning and strategic growth.
She has over 8 years experience working with companies that wish to scale, making sure every part of their business is accounted for including product, customer journey and team. Nathalie’s strength lies in her ability to provide clarity to entrepreneurs who are looking for actionable steps to achieve growth. With an infectious positive attitude, Nathalie will not shy away from confronting issues head-on and will make sure that no stone is left unturned!
Hustler, entrepreneur and tech fanatic, Nic is the co-founder and CTO of CookiesHQ, a Bristol-based software development agency.
From a very young age, Nic used his entrepreneurial mindset and technical skills to develop products for businesses and has often gone against the grain to provide outside-the-box solutions. Never shy of a challenge, Nic has built his company from the ground up and the testimonials from his clients and team members speak for themselves. A word of warning: Nic has a skill for card games so don’t challenge him to one!
Alan supports technology, engineering and R&D companies in proposal writing, project management and business improvement.
He specialises in the interface between government and SME’s: he has helped over 30 ambitious companies win grant funding, land government contracts and develop profitable products and services. Working with big companies or government departments can be lucrative and doesn’t have to be onerous with carefully tailored processes that provide the right levels of compliance.
Sandar is passionate about accounting, tax and innovation - a great combination to help tech startups.
Sandar has worked with SMEs and high networth individuals, specialising in accounting and tax, as well as management consulting for large corporate tax departments. Accounting shouldn’t be just about compliance. Good accounting helps you understand your business better and focus on opportunities for growth. Good tax means meeting HMRC requirements while taking advantage of available grants and tax credits.
Tim Morgan is the founder of SouthWestern VC.
He is an investor in and coach to early stage tech startups and develops personalised accelerator programmes for them to achieve better outcomes. Prior to this Tim founded London and New York based startup studio Mint Digital and exited Picklive and Stickygram. Prior to Mint, Tim worked in M&A. Tim has sold companies (including his own) for more than £150m.
Nick has spent the majority of his career building ADLIB into where it stands today.
One of the UK’s only BCorp certified businesses of its kind, a technology, data, marketing and recruitment business with a mission and impact that goes far beyond recruitment. In addition co-founding and launching TechTalent Academy. A business that builds careers through the development of new tech skills and transforming companies with diverse talent. Finally he’s also co-founder of enable sales recruitment, a team who work with tech start-ups to build out their business development functions.
With over 30 years of experience acting for SME and owner-managed businesses, Paul is the go-to lawyer for advice on a wide range of legal issues.
Paul specialises in corporate finance work with a particular interest in start-up and scale ups. He is committed to helping businesses raise finance through funding rounds, dealing with both small family and friends rounds through to series A venture capital fundraising. He regularly acts for clients on mergers and acquisitions, management buy outs and buy ins, joint venture arrangements and shareholder agreements. Paul is company secretary to the Business and West of England China Bureau and a director of the Happy City Initiative.
Joanna Randall is an award-winning senior communications consultant and the founder and managing director of strategic communications consultancy Purplefish.
With 25 years’ experience in the public relations and marketing sector, her previous roles include head of PR at McCann Erickson and managing director of PR at ThirtyThree. Joanna, who has specific expertise in issues management and the crafting of multi-channel communications campaigns, was recognised as one of the Top 100 Influential Women in the South West in 2018 and is a dedicated mentor and diversity campaigner.
Ashley is a senior general with extensive leadership and omni-channel marketing and enterprise sales experience.
Focused on creating the right strategy and frameworks to allow his teams to deliver results, Ashley has delivered record revenues, successfully scaled sales units and created high-performing teams that beat the market. Ashley has extensive experience of specialist B2C and B2B enterprise sales, and of working in different ownership environments; most recently private equity – high growth, energy and entrepreneurialism. He is proud to demonstrate an extensive history of delivering multi-channel commercial growth, whilst developing high impact new revenue opportunities that complement his purpose values. This experience led Ashley to co-found HdE, a performance growth agency for fast growth digital and tech businesses. HdE currently work with a range of exciting businesses across the West & Wales, Europe, North America and most recently APAC helping them to grow their audience, their brand and their profits.
What is Loop?
Loop is a growth programme aimed at providing founders of South West-based technology startups with all the information they need to run (and grow) a successful business.
How does it work?
The Loop programme consists of ten sessions over nine months. Each session focuses on a different business topic such as accounting, marketing or product development, and is chaired by a local expert in that topic. Find out more about the structure of Loop here.
Who are the experts?
Each expert has been hand-picked due to their experience not only in their arena of business, but in working with technology-based businesses. Find out more about Loop’s expert panel here.
Who can apply for a place on Loop?
Loop is specifically for the founders of technology-based startups based in the South West of England. Our experts have been selected due to their experience in the technology sector, so non-tech businesses won’t be considered.
Where and when will the sessions take place?
Loop’s sessions were originally due to be at the Engine Shed, near Bristol Temple Meads railway station. However due to the restrictions arising from the coronavirus outbreak, they are currently held as remote video presentations. This will continue until government guidelines on indoor events and gatherings change sufficiently to allow small in-person events.
How much does the Loop programme cost?
There is no charge for the expertise; all the experts are giving their time freely.
How can I apply?
Application for Loop 2021 will soon be open. You can register your interest here.
Who is Loop organised and run by?
Loop is a collaboration between two Bristol-based organisations: accountancy specialists Affecton and creative marketing agency Workbrands.
Interested participants in the 2021 programme are invited to complete the registration form before applications close on Friday 26th February 2021.