The demo day countdown is up and running in the Oxygen office…and to be honest it is freaking our startups out a little.
Just 20 days remain…
Okay now I’m freaking out a little for them. TWENTY DAYS AND COUNTING!
You remember the tears, tantrums and mini breakdowns we predicted on the first day of this programme? Well, we’ve not quite seen that just yet but there is still time. Eek!
Our startups have got their heads down and are making the most of the time they have left before the end of the programme.
Week 9 (beginning 24th October) was another one of those hectic weeks at Oxygen. At the start of the week we had law firm Cobbetts in to talk Employment with the gang. We also had mentor Lisa Broom a marketing consultant in to go through marketing plans with each of the teams. At this stage of the programme, the teams have got to the point where they’ll need to be thinking about marketing strategies so Lisa’s advice would have been very insightful.
As Wednesday (26th October) was Diwali aka the Festival of light, we thought we’d treat our startups to another Birmingham tradition- a balti. What better place to take them for a balti than where it all started; at Birmingham’s Balti Triangle.
So off we went to a place called Al Frash which was just lovely by the way. Highly recommended by all of us at Oxygen Accelerator. Sadly not all of the Oxygen team could make it but like I mentioned earlier, time is precious for our startups- even for a night out. Sad times!
Week 10 (beginning 31st October) started off with a seminar on tax by mentor Ann Bibby from Mazars. A Monday morning seminar on tax might have been a harsh start for our startups but i’m sure Ann proved that tax doesn’t have to be taxing *groan* haha. But if there heads were spinning out from all that tax talk then a Halloween bash might have cheered them up- you can read about our scary shenanigans here.
The rest of the week was once again made up of board meetings with Mark and Simon. On Thursday we had Emma from Cobbetts in to talk more legal stuff.
We’ve also had more mentors in this week who have been working one on one with certain teams. Once again thank you to all the mentors who have been taking time out to help our teams on this programme.
So with demo day creeping up on us, the pressure is well and truly on….
