Steven Bartlett

Our product team at SparkLayer B2B have been on an absolute roll over the last 3 months... 30+ features published in our release notes, and that excludes all the under-the-hood improvements we’re making 👀. Many of which will help lay the groundwork for some humongous updates later in the year! Here’s just a selection of what’s fresh out of SparkLayer HQ: == Frontend experience == 🎨 Product customisations: B2B customers can now add customisations to products (e.g. freeform text) 📜 Purchase history: customers can easily see their recent order history and 1-click re-order 📊 Barcode support: customers can upload orders via a CSV file just by using barcodes == Sales agent tooling == 📅 Order history: letting sales agents keep tabs of their recent orders ⚙️ Custom settings: sales agents can set custom product rules (e.g. pack sizing) 🔍 Search improvements: making it faster for sales agents to find their customers == Order workflows == 🚦 Order approvals: company roles can be set up that limit who can/can’t place orders 👀 Order visibility: customers can now see “draft” orders placed right within their account We use the word “cadence” internally to describe how we build and release, and there’s nothing more satisfying in software than reaching a rhythm within your team. And getting stuff done! Our website only scratches the surface of what SparkLayer B2B can do and what our team delivers, head over to our help docs if you want to see what our solution is capable of!

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Anthony's innovations have had a massively positive impact on so many in the UK tech ecosystem. I think it would be wise for the UK Gov (and Rt Hon Rachel Reeves) to pay attention. #capitalraising #startups #fundraising #founders #venturecapital #investors #vc #vcfunding #technology #startup #tech

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Do this before your Series A I often see founders Once they have proved the concept Get pressured into scaling fast and expanding further so much so that they get into the trap of expanding and burning To avoid that watch this #seriesA #growthstage #pr #expantion #Vc #startups

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Prohormones, a global sports & health supplement brand based out of London doing 7-figures in annual revenue has seen an AOV bump of 15% with Monk. They've used 2 simple features of the app to achieve this: 1. Bundles on PDP 2. Cross-sell in cart Quite a few brands have these on their site as well but the key to their success is the basket analysis they run every quarter. They internally conduct a basket analysis every 90 days to understand what products are often being purchased together and then meticulously configure them inside Monk to create highly targeted, highly relevant offers. Their team's deep understanding of their customer's buying behaviour has enabled them to create bundles and cross sell relevant products that have a great take rate amonsgt website visitors. They also understand their inventory extremely well and use certain specific products as impulse buys in cases where the existing cart doesn't have any targeted recommendations to offer. Have you ever conducted a basket analysis of your orders? If not, we can do it for you. Our team has a proprietary algorithm that can run a basket analysis on your last 60 day orders and gather. data & insights on which specific products are often being purchased together. Intersted? DM me or comment down below! :)

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🚨 Funding Alert: It's the last day of October, and 2024 is slipping away faster than you think... You know it, I know it – the funding world moves at LIGHTNING speed ⚡️ Timing is everything, and opportunities vanish in the blink of an eye. If you're aiming to land a funding deal before year's end, we've got your back! 💪 At Magdalena Reith, we're offering a special Q4 deal: Book a pitch deck package before November 15th and get a FREE one-pager 🎁 Your strategic conversation starter that turns "Maybe later" into "Let's talk!" Looking to finish Q4 strong and slingshot your startup into 2025? Here's what you get in our Q4 Power Package: 🎯 Expert guidance  🎁 FREE one-pager  💼 Professional pitch deck  ⏰ Priority completion (optional) Reach out via DM or drop a comment below to learn more and lock in your package before November 15th! #StartupFunding #PitchDecks #Startups

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Startups have become a spectator sport. The best founders know this. They are turning their companies into stories, and their people into main characters. I teamed up with Jason Levin ✏️ (Head of Growth @ Product Hunt) to document the trend, and understand how Product Hunt HQ is capitalising on the landscape shift. Link below 👇 Enjoy!

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I was just talking to a founder about the Stella Service business model that Jordy Leiser had built--where you test the customer service experience at a brand and then charge them in various ways for the results, either showing them how to improve or licensing them a seal of approval. The founder hadn't heard of that model and wondered in what other areas it could apply--and it got me thinking about a repository of models and business structures. Has anything like this been built? Pay to get unbiased recs--a la Angie's list. Good for X, Y, and Z markets. Pros, cons. A plugin that pops up information about each site as you visit it, a la Honey, SiteAdvisor (Chris Dixon's old startup before Hunch). It would be great for founders stuck on something to be able to say I've got X, Y, and Z information flowing from here to there, and it has this criteria, or these types of community members, this kind of power dynamic, etc... What models work for this? Otherwise, you wind up with "Uber for neurosurgeons" without realizing that "Uber for" only works with relatively commoditized services.

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One of the many stories showing why my co-founder is better than me 😂- but also how he makes me a better founder 🤩. One of the ways I knew I wanted to build IfWeRaise with Tim Deeson was the way he holds true to our values, and the impact we want to have on the space, and how he holds me to them. When we were first naming the company (in a rush because I was speaking at Websummit the next week and wanted to announce it) I was ok to settle for something that sounded good (or at least I think so) even if it was actually counter to the message we wanted to get out there. So much of the startup world still seems to talk like fundraising is a "when" for founders. And if you don't do it, that must be because you tried and failed. At IfWeRaise, we're on a mission to help founders, especially first time founders, work out "if" funding is right for them. If it is, our goal is to help them connect into the ecosystem which is still very much a "who you know" game. Especially for underrepresented founders who don't benefit from affinity bias when reaching out cold. If not, we're here to help them grow and bootstrap, and make sure they don't feel alone in the process! Want to learn more about what we're building? Drop me a comment or DM! #startupcommunity #fundraising #entrepreneurship #cofounders #values #startups #investment #bootstrapping

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Can you make yourself redundant 🤔 If not you are going to struggle to sell your business. This is my story of how I was made redundant at QADEX and as a result was able to sell, and exit, from the business on the same day in January 2023. If you are a founder who wants to sell your business it is critical that you go on a similar journey, if not you are unlikely to ever sell your business, or if you do it will be for a much lower value and likely have onerous deferred consideration elements. I know from personal experience with QADEX how a founder and the business can become one and the same, but it wasn't until I realised this that real value started to accrue in my business. During the summer of 2018 I realised that I had taken QADEX as far as I could take it and it needed to become part of a larger platform that could enable it to grow globally and across verticals. I started a conversation with my senior team around succession planning and what would happen if I got hit by a bus or had a health scare and was no longer available to the business. This very quickly helped the team realise that the business was too dependent on me. So we jokingly said that the team needed to get to a position where they could make me redundant and out of that, project "make Stephen redundant" was born. Thankfully one of the team, Jemma Halestrap took the lead on this project and alongside three other amazing colleages starting taking over various parts of my role, one by one. What was truly amazing was that we observed the following 👍 they often did things better and seldom worse 👍 many things were done differently 👍 the team became very empowered and independent 👍 morale went up 👍 they got much better at saying "no" to me 👍 I now had time to focus on strategic stuff 👍 I started working on non QADEX M&A and investments And the QADEX business actually started to perform better 👍 New customer sales accelerated 👍 More upselling and cross selling to existing customers 👍 Profitability increased substantially Then I started to get more and more approaches from strategic acquirers interested in acquiring the business, I was not that motivated to sell because the business was doing so well. But the offers just kept getting better and I could carefully consider which potential acquirer would be the best for the team, customers and the product. Now as active investors in, and acquirers of B2B software businesses we have looked at over 500 businesses as potential acquisitions in the past 18 months or so. One of the most common reasons we pass is that the business and its founder are completely inseperable. If you are a founder, or know a founder who wants to sell their business, tell them that they need to make themselves redundant. Tag them on this post. What are you waiting for? What could go wrong? #entrepreneurship #sellyourbusiness #founders #investment

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😮‍💨 We don't just want to be the fastest and most affordable option for founders - we want to be the very best option for them We've had loads of great reviews over the last couple of years but I think this one really nails the value that Verticode team 🧑‍🔧 offers to founders - alongside the power of the Verticode tech ⚡️ #startups #founders

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With some time on our hands, we’ve launched a little project tooearly with a single and quite simple idea in-mind: personalised help for promising first-time founders. There is an abundance of resources online, but not enough 1:1 feedback, materials revision, as well as hands-on and community support. After working as a first-ticket/pre-seed investor, I’ve noticed how many stellar individuals out there are a little unsure when it comes to navigating the founding and fundraising journey (from ideation, to validating the hypotheses, speaking to the right customers, building your fundraising OS and raising VC funding), especially as first-time founders. If you’re looking to build something game-changing, let’s speak. Besides support, we will invite VCs to Investment Committees whenever we see actual winners inside the community to give them a kick-start on their raising journey. !!P.S. We have a 30% discount for the first 20 people who join. OMG!! Little disclaimer: This platform by no means suggest that everyone should raise from VCs or glorifies it (as it’s a tough journey), but this should help you figure out the best trajectory for your idea, and if the VC trajectory is indeed the right one for you, after some months, you should be ready to go out there and start speaking to investors (not stay with us forever, only if you wish to 😉 ). Martynas Cepas - a partner in crime 🙌

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How Founders can attract investors using their personal brand... Your personal brand is the real MVP, not your pitch deck. I've met hundreds of founders in both the UK and USA. The ones who land investors? They're not just selling a product. They're selling themselves 🧬 Why your personal brand trumps your business plan in the early stages: ↳ Investors bet on people, not just ideas ↳ A strong brand builds trust before the pitch ↳ Your online presence is your 24/7 pitch deck As a personal branding coach and photographer who helped a Dragon (from Dragons' Den) brand and launch five startups, I've seen this play out repeatedly. How to leverage your personal brand for investor attraction: 1. Craft a compelling founder story 2. Showcase your expertise consistently 3. Build a tribe before you need funding 4. Document your journey, failures included ✏️ Uncommon strategies that work: ↳ Use personal branding photos to stand out in pitch decks ↳ Create content that solves investor pain points ↳ Build relationships with investors long before you need them Remember: ⚑ Your personal brand is your unfair advantage. ⚑ It's the difference between a cold email and a warm introduction. ➽ Take this high-value action today -------------------------------- Audit your online presence. Is every platform telling a consistent story about why you're the founder to bet on? Would you invest in yourself based on what you see? If not, it's time for a personal brand overhaul. Your move, founder. ♻️ Repost if this resonated with you ♻️ #FounderBranding #InvestorAttraction #PersonalBrand

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Boom! Incredible event last night by Phase One in partnership with ZINC talking about one of the top areas for startups: Customer discovery and building something people want. A huge thank you to Ella Morris, Rosie Webster, Nick Marsh, Stefan Sabev and everyone who joined us! Key takeaways: - Make customer feedback part of your DNA at your company. - Spend time with your customers. - Build something that you would want to use. - Go to where your users are. Examples: Meta for B2C, LinkedIn for B2B, going to markets to find people building physical products (just how Etsy got started). - Don't try to prove yourself right - you'll always find justification in your research. Do the opposite. Try to prove yourself wrong. And the most important one: just ship it. I meant when I said I would do anything for my users. As a founder, having that customer obsession is a true superpower. Ship fast. Talk to users—Obsess over their problems. Thanks everyone!

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How to scale your startup without sacrificing ownership? While helping to navigate the tricky waters of capital raising, I know how daunting it can feel to give away a piece of your hard-earned vision. Equity-free accelerators in the UK might help with #StartupGrowth without dilution. They are designed to help you scale while keeping 100% of your equity. 👉 Swipe the carousel to explore my insights. Has anyone of you chosen to scale this way? Or do you believe giving up equity is just part of the game? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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1 month away!!!! 😱😱😱 London’s Largest Demo Day is back for Episode 2! This time, it’s bigger and bolder! On October 14th, we’re opening the doors to 1,000 players in the UK startup scene: - 30% investors - 40% startup founders - 10% startup employees - 20% operators What makes our event unique? It’s a blend of a one-day conference and a demo day, featuring the largest pitching stage in London. With support from our 60 investor partners, we’ve selected 100 top UK startups to pitch to a packed audience! Here’s what to expect: **Two pitching stages**: Sessions every hour, each dedicated to a specific sector. **Pitching format**: Up to 8 founders per session, pitching at pre-seed to Series A stages. Each founder has 1 minute to pitch, 1 slide, and 3 minutes for Q&A. Investors can access all startup details via the conference mobile app. **Two content stages**: Panels, talks, and masterclasses running every hour for both founders and investors. It’s your chance to learn, connect, network, and hopefully secure funding! See the link in comments for more details and how to book tickets. 👇👇👇

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I've started using a really exciting AI/Web3 platform called SELF. It's created a new category of tech called System Effective Lifestyle Filerting. SELF is designed to deliver a personalised web experience like never before, while your data remains exclusively yours. I think this will turn out to be seen as the right side of history. It's more than an AI, more than an ad-free search engine. Train your SELF learn about you for a day or two, then see the difference. Impressive, even in it's early beta phase. Try it free here: https://lnkd.in/exyHCA7t

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Medial's first pitch deck was a two page word document. Here's what it had in total - 1) About the founders. (3-4 lines each with LinkedIN links). 2) About the product and "Why Now?". 3) Our vision in longterm. 4) How'd we utilise the capital. 5) How much are we looking to raise. All text, a few screenshots from the apps figma design. That's it. Scored us our first VC investment alongside 5 angels. When we extended this round recently, it was the same text deck with metrics. That's it. I had thought of getting a deck designed, building a story but then resorted to doing what I do best- Write.

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Sometimes it clicks Meeting of minds Agreeing next steps Not so often but yes Here’s a thought👇🏼 A short while back we prompted a discussion about product market fit. Short form version is that you know it when you’ve got it. And the same goes for people and what they do. Sometimes it just clicks into place. Like Lego is just clicks together. We also acknowledge that sometimes it’s like standing on Lego in bare feet: immediately painful. The two ends of the range of outcomes. Perfect fit versus sharp pain. The early positive indicator was the preamble chat on the video call. Mind you that wasn’t a given as Teams is a test all of its own and rarely considered a joyful start to any proceedings. But even with that tortuous headwind it was tickling along nicely. Three broad components got us off to a good start and then got better. Quiet confidence and self assurance plus prior preparation and careful thinking plus open minded discussions. In many ways it was a case study for my constant message of #thinklikeaclient And this meant that we agreed meaningful next steps and there will be a positive collaboration that is a win-win for us both. Do note that this win-win started on here with cold outreach to connect with me, a few simple messages and then a call, all of which was achieved in short time lines and minimum fuss. #ThinkLikeAClient #GrumpyOptimist #VentureStudio #Entrepreneur >>>>>>> Footnote: all my content is freshly made daily by me with no additives or tricks. If it interests you please tag the 🔔 in my profile to get it delivered straight to you. Otherwise if you search #GrumpyOptimist you’ll see my past posts.

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