This week saw the teams top off their second month on the Oxygen Accelerator program centered around gaining traction. As we approach the festive season the pressure is really kicking in and the teams can’t afford to get distracted as they polish off and refine their product, gain more traction and prepare for the demo day pitch in early January. It might be a month and a half away, but we all know how fast December can slip away.

Mentor and investor Kier McConomy of SellMyMobile.com made an appearance in the office this week to check up on how the teams are progressing along with two other Oxygen investors Jon Coldridge and Mark Beeny and new Oxygen mentor Steve Taylor. Although the teams are hard at work, they were grateful for the opportunity of a check up and to get some feedback on their progress. Lee from Carhoots noted, ‘Taking a step back and assessing where you are is sometimes quite hard as you get caught up in the fast paced environment here, its refreshing to take a moment to asses the business from the outside.’.

It seemed marketing and PR was a hot topic in the office this week. Rate my Romeo have been busy brainstorming some impressive marketing and PR ideas (which we’ll keep you informed about over the next few weeks), WeWanna continue to enjoy interest in their weekly gaming events and EatSocial have been busy pushing out more and more events throughout Birmingham. Team Myna continue to focus on their marketing strategies and on Thursday made a trip to London to visit Lonely Planet while UpCloo have been bringing on board some new customers and have added a marketing intern to the team to handle their social media strategy.

But the biggest news has to have been from Team Sorted. This week James (pictured on the left with fellow finalists) has competed, knockout style at Tech Entrepreneurs Week in London. Up against 60 other seed stage tech companies team Sorted successfully came away with the first prize of 50k! Each day the pitch format changed, at one stage James was told only 30 seconds before, so his ability to think on his feet and knowing his business inside out really paid off. ‘I pretty much said farewell to sleep and relaxation as every time we went through I had to rewrite and learn the new pitch late into the evening’ he commented. And, ‘The grilling we experienced during death by mentor paid dividend’s during the Q & A’s after each pitch and during the 1 2 1′s too. There were some pretty tough questions but I was able to stay cool under the pressure and give the best responses I could.’

So another week of big news and strong progress to the teams, with the christmas break now only two weeks away there’s still lots to do!