It’s been a busy week again at Oxygen although a quieter week on the blog front- apologies for that.
Isn’t it horrible when ‘writers block’ strikes…ahem.
The teams have once again spent most of the week developing their startups, with 45 days till demo day now is the time to get everything together.
Yep we’re halfway through the programme. That’s quite scary! Seems like only yesterday that our fresh faced startups we’re settling in to BSPA, preparing for the 13-weeks ahead. Now, not so fresh faced (sorry guys) they’re in the thick of all the action.
Like I said last week, with so much to do before demo day there has hardly been time to play hard. So I’m glad to say the teams did let their hair down this week and more than made up for the lack of playtime last week.
I wish I could say the following photographs are a result of late night partying but nope. These sleepy heads have been working hard into the night. Now that’s dedication for you!
When the teams weren’t busy developing and working all hours, Mark and Simon treated them to more board meetings. I’m sure they enjoyed that very much.
Monday was accounting and finance day at Oxygen Accelerator. We all know how much entrepreneurs like to talk money but I don’t think this is what they had in mind. Mentor Nick Johnson from Mazars gave an extremely useful presentation on ‘Fundraising’, going through the basics for the teams. He went through different structures on key criteria for success and funding which included things like the importance of market research, risk and reward as well as the business model and the pitch.
Personally, I enjoyed it because Nick used a picture of my hero ‘Rocky Balboa’ to motivate the teams to “make it happen.” Love it but then again I am easily pleased…
With the rest of the week taken up by board meetings and free time for the teams to develop, today (Friday) was another Legal day. Emma from law firm Cobbetts came in to talk about investor agreements etc. We’re getting used to these Legal days now!
With the sun shining outside, It is safe to say that we all once again have that Friday feeling. I’ll leave you with another instalment of ‘Easel Watch’. Once again the wise words from one of our startups.
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