Gate One has held its largest Incubator Accelerator Day to date, with 16 employees gathering at the Citizen M Hotel in London to take their new businesses from concept stage to live Facebook adverts in a single day.
Ahead of the Accelerator Day, the group captured everyday problems and chafes which, if resolved, would enhance their lives and potentially millions of others. The ideas – ranging from an instant interior design marketplace to gender-neutral baby clothes – were whittled down from 60 to 15 using our Divergent – Convergent technique.
Of these ideas, participants chose one or two that they were particularly passionate about and which they would be willing to drive forward.
With two or three people assigned to each idea, each group was tasked with creating a name and early brand for their business. Most importantly, they were required to create their first Facebook advert to immediately test demand for their new product. We were delighted to see instant interest among members of the UK public, who were clicking on the adverts within hours to find out more.
Kajal Ruia, Head of Incubator at Gate One, said: “In our view, there’s no better way to live our entrepreneurial values than by being entrepreneurs ourselves. It nurtures key qualities such as creativity, leadership and resilience and broadens our skills, differentiating us from our competitors and directly benefiting our clients. The ideas, energy and drive displayed at this session demonstrates the caliber of people at Gate One and it was a pleasure to facilitate the process.”
Mark Warren, finance and operations director at Gate One, said: “I’m always blown away by the quality of ideas discussed on the day and our ability to think differently. Gate One is fortunate to have a well-funded Incubator program that supports our people in taking their ideas from ideation to external fundraising. The Accelerator Day enables us to fast-track our business concepts – with additional support provided through fortnightly sprint review calls and the recently launched Incubator Academy.”
The entrepreneurs will now build their prototype product in order to quickly move to their first sale and begin the build -> test -> learn iterative cycle.
There is no better way to live our entrepreneurial values than by becoming real-life entrepreneurs. Our consultants launch their own start-ups through the Gate One Incubator.
