IGNITE MANCHESTER — ZERO TO 90
After 13 weeks, the first ever Ignite Manchester accelerator programme is over.
Last night our public showcase marked the moment our teams graduate — as they fly the Ignite nest several are raising investment and some are already closing rounds off the back of the programme .
To give you some idea of the work we do here at Ignite, I’ve put together a timeline to show some of what we’ve been up to over the last 90 days…
So here it is, Ignite Manchester … (in reverse order):
Day 87.
The showcase
Last night’s showcase attracted a huge crowd with a mix of investors, Ignite alumni, startups, and many from the Manchester tech community, all coming out to watch the ten companies from the cohort pitch their businesses.
Amazing night.
Day 82
Pitch Coaching
We bring in professional pitching coaches to work with our founders on the delivery and style of their pitches in anticipation of the Ignite showcase, but more importantly to prepare them for future pitches with audiences and investors beyond Ignite.
Day 80
London Investor Lunch 3/3
The 3rd and final investor lunch where our teams met 36 angel investors and some of the top VCs in the country over 3 days.
Day 74
Manchester Investor Lunch
Our programme investors, mentors and Ignite friends at lunch to meet the teams one last time before they graduate from the Ignite programme.
Day 65
Cashflow forecasting
Paul Newton, the CFO for Ignite portfolio company Kontainers, comes in for the day to work with the teams on their cashflow forecasts.
“Where do you want to be? How do you get there? How much do you raise?”
Day 59
London —
The teams head down to London for 3 days of workshops and mentoring — the focus of the sessions in the latter stages of the programme start to focus on what’s next for the teams with most looking to raise investment to grow beyond Ignite.
Day 49
Sales Workshop
Patrick Collins, sales and growth expert & founder of TimelyPA, is in with the teams for the day working on everything from setting up their sales processes, to managing their pipeline and CRM, to building relationships with new customers.
Day 42
Weekly Reviews
Once a week, the full Ignite team sits down with each company individually to review progress.
Accountability = focus. We treat the reviews as mini-board meetings where we look at each companies progress week-on-week.
“Last week you said you were set to close your 10th customer — what happened?”
Day 30
Ignite goes to the US!
In week 4 of the programme we take the teams out to the US to see the startup ecosystem across the Atlantic.
Its a packed schedule with 5 days in New York and 2 days in Boston.
We’ve got great connections with alumni, investors and friends out in New York, and Ignite’s network extends our founder’s network too.
Some of the highlights:
- Fireside Chat with Dan Smith, COO of Runkeeper
- Session with Brad Gillespie, iA Ventures
- Day at Techstars Boston
- Session with Moisey, founder of Digital Ocean ($1bn)
- Day at ustwo NYC
Day 19
Customer acquisition
Week 3 is all about growth and customer acquisition. We have a number of top CEOs in for mentoring, a workshop with the Head of Growth at Formisimo, and 1–1 sessions with Head of Customer Acquisition at Pact Coffee.
Day 14
Lean Workshop with San Francisco guru @tristankromer
Day 11
Ignite Well-being Retreat
The first ever Ignite Well-being Retreat and the first accelerator in Europe to make founder well-being and Mental Health a part of the programme.
Ignite accelerates the growth of early-stage companies but we also accelerate personal development of founders, and the well-being of the founders we work with is of upmost priority to us.
The Retreat was focused on well-being and mental health and we covered everything from burnout and stress, to work-life balance and failure. We also partnered with Sanctus who facilitated the sessions.
Day 9
Product-focused Mentoring
Day 6
Social #1
The infamous pub quiz. As part of the programme we organise a number of socials for the teams.
Day 3
London Trip
We take the teams down to the Ignite London office to meet Ignite alumni and investors.
Its a unique start to the programme because for the first time the Ignite London & Manchester cohorts overlapped — Ignite London in its final week and Manchester in its first — it was amazing to see the two come together.
We also had Ignite alumni across 5 generations come in to mentor and give back to Ignite and the teams #ignitefamily
Day 2
Team Pitches / Mentoring / Programme Dinner
The teams pitch to the group and to Ignite’s partners in the morning, and in the afternoon the teams get their first taste of mentoring.
Mentoring is tough. The founders come under heavy criticism and scrutiny. Feedback from mentors, investors and the Ignite team is a big part of refining each companies proposition.
Day 1
Induction
After the teams settle into their new surroundings, the Ignite team lay out the schedule for the next 13 weeks and set out expectations.
Day 0
Quiet before the storm.
THANK YOU
Finally I’d like to thank everyone that has backed and supported Ignite Manchester, from our investors and sponsors, to mentors and partners - we couldn’t do any of this without you.
GB
@georgebettany
