⚡ How this Start-Up has Helped Scale-Up Teams Connect Across The Globe

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
🌍 How this Start-Up has helped Start-Up teams connect across the globe
🧢 How you can get your product in the hands of superstars
🧑‍🏫 A tool that helps you create an interactive demo in an instant

✨ Last weeks most clicked link (For the second week in a row) was this link taking you through to the £25,000 Simply Business grant.

Happy hustling,
Rich

🎤 Events/Opportunities

💸 UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable research and development innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy. You can apply here.

🤖 Hotbed are running their 5th Founders Camp, giving you access to some fantastic investors and founders. Find out more here.

😇 Haatch are looking to invest £100,000 - £800,000 in S/EIS stage B2B SaaS companies, you can pitch here.

📈 Growth Marketing Manager, Pinpoint
🅿️ Product Owner, YourParkingSpace
🧑‍💻 Software Engineer, Laka

🏦 EU nominates first ever commissioner for Start-Ups. Sifted

🔐 The Cyber Security labour gap now stands at over 4 million open jobs. TechCrunch

🚗 Fisker Ocean owners stuck paying for recall repairs. TechCrunch

🧪 AI Lab powered by NVIDIA tech opens in Stockport. UKTN

WorkTripp: Revolutionising Team Offsites for Scale-Up Companies

WorkTripp is a platform designed to help growing teams create impactful offsites. It caters primarily to scale-up COOs, simplifying the process of organising offsites by connecting them to top-tier venues, coaches, and facilitators. WorkTripp’s services include tailored programs, surveys, and success metrics to ensure each offsite delivers tangible business outcomes. By 2028, WorkTripp aims to democratise access to high-quality offsites for 2,000 teams, a model often employed by tech unicorns.

Finding the Co-Founder: A Shared Vision of Connection

WorkTripp’s co-founders, Sophie and Sally, share a passion for purposeful work and team connection, which they discovered after connecting on LinkedIn. Sophie’s background in EdTech and global B2B events, combined with Sally’s experience in leadership and team-building, led them to the idea of WorkTripp. Their complementary skills in leadership, community-building, and human-centered design formed the foundation of the business. The duo regularly meets in new locations for their own WorkTripps, ensuring they live the ethos of their company.

Securing First Customers: Tapping into Existing Networks

WorkTripp’s first customers came from Sophie’s contacts in the EdTech industry. To showcase their offering, the founders organised a one-day WorkTripp event in collaboration with Innovation in the Wild, involving venue owners, coaches, and people leaders. This event highlighted the impact of shared experiences in fostering sustainable workplace cultures.

Instead of relying on paid media, the team used partnerships to gain traction. Noticing that WorkTripp resonated more with COOs than HR professionals, they partnered with Operations Nation to validate the demand for their services, a collaboration that has been highly successful for both parties.

Scaling Strategy: Organic Growth Through Referrals

While still in the scaling phase, WorkTripp’s growth has been driven by partnerships and network effects. Their curated community, which includes coaches and facilitators, has played a significant role in customer acquisition. Many facilitators and coaches refer their clients to WorkTripp, creating an organic cycle of growth through recommendations and referrals. Additionally, they have built a reputation for trust and quality among scale-up COOs, who often return for repeat bookings.

Key Lessons Learned: Segmenting Leads and Focusing on Simplicity

One key insight for WorkTripp was that their best customers come to them at a critical point of need—such as after securing funding or in preparation for a major company milestone. Understanding these key moments allowed them to tailor their services and success metrics to maximise value for their clients.

If they could start over, WorkTripp’s team would focus more on lead segmentation early on. Identifying which prospects are interested in regular offsites versus those with immediate needs would allow them to better tailor their marketing efforts.

Additionally, they learned the importance of simplicity. While their offering can be complex and nuanced, focusing on a more streamlined approach from the beginning would have allowed them to scale faster.

Funding the Business: Bootstrapping and Angel Investors

WorkTripp began by bootstrapping their MVP, using personal savings from the founders. In March 2023, they raised £235k to build out their curated marketplace, securing investment from four angels—two of whom had worked with Sally, and two from Sophie’s EdTech network. The rest of the funding came from SFC’s SEIS fund, which they connected with through a Female Founders Rise networking event. This supportive community has been instrumental in their journey, offering both practical and emotional support.

Overcoming Challenges: Breaking Barriers in Investment

Finding early-stage investors has been one of WorkTripp’s biggest challenges, particularly given the current climate for female founders in the tech industry. Despite their traction and strong value proposition, accessing investment opportunities remains difficult without personal connections in the investment world. Early investment decisions often focus more on the people behind the business than the numbers, making it subjective and harder for those without established investor networks.

Planning a trip away for business or for pleasure?

Finalrentals, a pioneering car rental fintech headquartered in Wales, has revolutionised the industry with its innovative approach and product-centric strategy. By addressing key challenges within the car rental sector, Finalrentals has experienced remarkable growth, increasing its size sixfold in the past 12 months. The company's expansion is not limited to growth metrics alone; it has also successfully established a robust global presence, extending its footprint across the EU and the Caribbean.

Book your rental here!

This clothing brand took the oldest trick in the book and made it work like a charm!

Siegelman Stable were founded in the depths of the Covid19 lockdowns of 2020, meaning it was almost impossible to get their clothes out there and show them off to potential customers. However, as a Start-Up, they recognised that they could take a bit more risk. So, when the NBA announced that they’d finish the season in ‘The Bubble’, meaning every single NBA player would be on the same campus, in the same arena, they took their chance.

They thoughtfully crafted and sent care packages to each of the NBA players located down in the Bubble in Disney World, Florida, hoping that some of them would wear it when travelling to the games. Well, they got exactly what they wished for and more! The players wore it to the games, they warmed up in it, did interviews in it. Soon after, it was an international sensation.

If you know there’s someone who could really elevate your company if they were seen wearing or using it, how could you get it in their hands? Could you design your own care package?

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

Supademo is the one-stop solution for delightful AI-powered interactive demos. Trusted by 25k+ founders, marketers & operators in 100+ countries. New in Supademo 3.0: instant loginless editor, in-app product tours, mac desktop app, and 50+ features

Next week I’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 me on LinkedIn…