Welcome to Kick Start

Submit your Kick Start Entry here

Kick Start your business, Kick Start your life.

***APPLY NOW – DEADLINE FOR 2nd (and final) round APPLICATIONS IS MIDNIGHT ON THE 2013th of JUNE***

We are delighted to announce the launch of Kick Start – the latest exciting offering at Oxford Entrepreneurs.

It is a unique and important new programme for budding internet or technology entrepreneurs who want to start-up – but don’t know where to start.

Do you or your friends have a great business idea? Are you passionate about, and committed to, setting up your business? Do you want an investment of around £15,000 to get your idea off the ground?

If so Kick Start is for you.

We have put our heads together with seed capital specialists Agile Ventures, run by proven and successful entrepreneurs Mark Pritchard and Andy Yates, to create the Kick Start programme which will look to invest around £15,000 in the top start-up teams we find.

And Kick Start is much more than just money. Mark and Andy will give Kick Start winners the benefit of their own time and experience to really help establish and grow new businesses and products.

This includes practical, hands-on advice to help you get your business started – such as company formation, advice on key technology decisions and refinement of your sales and marketing strategy.

They will also help you with each “big decision” and key milestone of the company’s evolution – hiring your first employees, renting your first office or raising further funds.

Mark and Andy won’t run your business for you, but will do whatever they can to help you get your business off the ground successfully and heading in the right direction.

They are passionate about helping entrepreneurs and start-ups and differ from normal seed capital providers because of their personal and hands on approach – offering quick decisions and down to earth, practical and friendly help.

Most of all Mark and Andy completely understand entrepreneurs who want to start from scratch because they have done it before with their own business. With minimal start up funds they managed to build their business to a market dominating position and then through to a successful exit.

How Kick Start works

All you need to do is send us your business proposal by 12pm on 20th of JUNE 2010, via the link below.

Submit your Kick Start Entry here

(If you have already applied you don’t need to submit your entry again. We will consider all entries and get back to chosen applications as soon as possible.)

Here are some top tips from Mark and Andy to help with your Kick Start entry:

What we are looking for can be summed up in two words – good people!

Successful start-ups typically have 2-4 founders with a mixture of skills and history of working and collaborating together. At least one of these founders should have some technical expertise as we would like the teams to create their first product largely themselves – with our help of course.

It is vital to have able, passionate and driven founders who work well together.  This can be even more important than a fantastic idea.

You don’t need to have started a business before, or even have that much experience. However, you do need to be able to demonstrate the passion, resourcefulness and determination that will be required to create a successful business.

We  like ideas that can evolve iteratively.  We want you to launch quickly to gain user and market feedback, and develop your business from there.

We are initially looking for people and businesses initially within relatively easy reach of Oxford or London so that we can devote as much time as possible to these businesses

We like technology businesses with high potential and that solve big problems.  We like businesses whose products have broad appeal and that can support a range of revenue streams.

Founders don’t need to provide a lengthy business plan. They do need a well thought through vision of what the business will do, how to get launched with an initial product or web site and a realistic understanding of likely costs and revenues.  We understand that businesses evolve naturally – we don’t expect the founders to have a 10 year plan for their business.

What happens after you have submitted your Kick Start proposal

The Kick Start panel, including Mark and Andy, will review proposals and arrange for a short list of entrants to make a short presentation and answer questions.

Funding amounts will depend on the start-up’s particular circumstances, and will be discussed and finalised through the pitching process. Mark and Andy will typically take a minority equity stake in return for the investment and are confident that they will improve your chances of success to more than justify any initial stake.

Kick Start investments will typically be designed to take the company from inception through to initial product launch or revenue generation within an intensive launch period which would typically be around three months.

As such the investment is designed primarily to cover founders living costs and start-up company costs.

Then after that Mark and Andy can use their experience to work with the founders to explore the crucial next steps to develop the business.

More about Mark and Andy

Mark Pritchard and Andy Yates are successful and experienced internet and technology entrepreneurs.

They have known each other for more than 20 years when they met at Oxford University.

Mark Pritchard worked at senior positions in Bank of America and JP Morgan, helping to pioneer and develop some of the first e-commerce and internet trading systems.

Andy Yates worked as a senior financial journalist at the FT group and the Independent newspaper before helping to set-up and establish the BBC News Online service.

They combined their different experience and skills to great effect when they started-up Digital Look in the late 1990s. The business grew to become one of Europe’s largest financial websites and also provided key real time information and tools to major financial services companies and media portals.

Following a successful sale of Digital Look, Mark and Andy are busy working on new start-up ideas of their own.

They have also established Agile Ventures which aims to identify start-up businesses in the internet technology sector and work closely with them to significantly increase their chance of success. Mark and Andy want to provide seed funding and practical advice on all aspects of running a business to bright new start-up teams.

In short they are passionate about start-ups.

So what are you waiting for?

Submit your Kick Start Entry here

Remember don’t kick yourself – Kick Start your future.