⚡ How this Start-Up helps you make money from wine

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

🍷 How this start-up helps you make money from wine
👚 How a fashion shoot helped this company go viral
💼 The tool improving your hiring processes
🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the start-up world
📰 The biggest news stories in the start-up world

✨ Last weeks most clicked link was this link to apply for the Pitch 2024 start-up competition.

Happy hustling,
Rich & Gary

🎤 Events/Opportunities

🔌 Insurance affects everyone’s livelihood. It’s only right that it gets better. Before humanity had electricity, there was insurance. The demand for it never left us, it only grew. But there comes a time in every industry’s lifecycle for a change to be enacted – for new innovation to thrive. Plug and Play’s Insurtech Accelerator is designed to help your start-up do just that.

💸 Forum Ventures' Seed fund backs and supports ambitious B2B founders on their journey from Seed to Series A, enabling them to drive innovation across industries and build massive businesses in the process.

💷 Rockstart empowers early stage startups with groundbreaking visions for a regenerative and sustainable future across three domains: Energy, AgriFood, and Emerging Technologies. We offer domain-focused programs and co-investments up to Series B.

💼 Job opportunities

👩 Product Designer, Aster
🧑‍🎓 Growth Marketing Manager, Hazaar
🧮 Senior Full Stack Engineer, Novabook

💷 British fintech company Zilch has secured a £100m debt financing deal as chief executive Philip Belamant suggests it could go public outside of the UK. UKTN

🥽 BBC Ventures makes first investment into metaverse events streaming platform. Sifted

🤳 Meet Seen, a new app for friends to record reactions to TikToks and other content. TechCrunch

🦋 Former Snap engineer launches Butterflies, a social network where AIs and humans coexist. TechCrunch

🍷 WineFi: Democratising Fine Wine Investment

WineFi stands at the intersection of technology and luxury, transforming how people invest in fine wine. Traditionally a market reserved for the affluent and the expert and one that has remained complicated, expensive and opaque, WineFi simplifies and democratises the process, allowing anyone to co-invest in portfolios of fine wines at a fraction of the cost of full ownership.

Initial Customer Acquisition: Building Visibility and Engagement

WineFi's journey began with a robust social media strategy, particularly on LinkedIn, where daily content sharing and active engagement in public discussions helped generate significant interest. This approach led to numerous inbound inquiries from potential investors on the day of the launch itself, setting a solid foundation for the company's growth.

Scaling Through Strategic Partnerships

Post-launch, WineFi expanded its reach by forming partnerships with businesses looking to offer fine wine investment solutions to their clients. This strategy allowed WineFi to scale effectively by leveraging a few high-value relationships rather than spreading resources too thin across too many direct consumer interactions.

Lessons Learned and Strategic Adjustments

One of WineFi’s early realisations was the importance of its digital presence and operational model. The founders noted that an earlier upgrade to their website and a shift to a syndicate model for investments would have accelerated growth. Reflecting on their journey, they recognised that their spending on these elements was not as timely or as effective as it could have been.

Funding the Vision: A Journey Through External Funding

WineFi secured a £500k pre-seed round with contributions from notable investors such as SFC Capital, Founders Capital, and Coterie Holdings. The fundraising process was greatly aided by referrals, particularly those made by Nick Green, a well-regarded figure in consumer investment. His introductions proved invaluable, attracting investors who were captivated by WineFi's vision to make fine wine a viable component of diversified investment portfolios.

Overcoming Challenges: Focus on Prioritisation

The greatest challenge in WineFi's early days was prioritisation—managing the myriad tasks required to grow a start-up while focusing on generating revenue. This balancing act was crucial for driving the business forward and required constant attention and adjustment.

Key Takeaways for Future Ventures

If they were to start again, the founders of WineFi would make strategic hires sooner, particularly those who could drive forward the commercial aspects of the business. Early hiring of key personnel like Ollie Thorpe and Aaran Daniel, who became instrumental to the company's operations, would have accelerated their early growth and helped avoid some of the pitfalls they encountered.

Gymshark have been taking every possible opportunity to jump on public trends, and they’ve consistently been smashing it out the park!

On the left, you’ll see an image from the ‘Sweat Gala’, conveniently posted just days after the Met Gala took place. For at least a week after the Met Gala, people all over the World are talking and tweeting about who wore what and what their opinions are. Gymshark decided they wanted a piece of that action, so produced a shoot with a bunch of models wearing high fashion outfits that were put together using normal retail items from Gymshark. On the right, you’ll see them doing the exact same thing, but this time, with Taylor Swift tour outfits. Both of these stunts went massively viral and had everyone talking!

We’re not saying you have to put together a bunch of outfits and throw a whole photoshoot for this, we actually think the stunt would perform even better if it was a bit more raw and authentic. How can you capitalise on a popular trend or event with your product?

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

PyjamaHR is an AI-powered applicant tracking system (ATS) designed to streamline the hiring process for businesses of all sizes. It offers features such as job posting across multiple boards, a customisable career page, candidate tracking, AI-based resume matching, and candidate pre-screening. The platform supports over 20 integrations, including LinkedIn and Google, and ensures data security with SOC-2 and ISO certifications. PyjamaHR also provides a mobile app for on-the-go recruitment 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.

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