The two-day intensive programme provided professional guidance and hands-on experience for six HVM and Engineering companies – Omnisense, Inova Power, Zinir, Croft Engineering Services, Drop-Tech, and Vantage Power. The objective was to help teams become more attractive to investors through Qi3 Accelerator’s rigorous investment process, working with mentors and coaches in a series of workshops.
Both Cambridge teams - Omnisense won the award for Best Company, and Drop-Tech was Most Improved Company.
Reflecting on the Bootcamp, Andy Thurman and David Bartlett from Omnisense tell us some of their thoughts: “The breadth of expertise on offer was exemplified in the short, sharp mentor group sessions in which different strategy elements could be tested and either discarded or refined into a more compelling whole. Special thanks are due to our coach Paul Anson for his enthusiastic and valued support, and patience. We very much enjoyed working with him. I believe it needed to be this intense. Thanks to all of you for putting so much effort into the organisation, and running of the bootcamp. It was worth it!”
Alexander Schey and Toby Schulz from Vantage Power added, “It was quite frankly the most intense but valuable investment-related event I have been to, and the quality and knowledge of the coaches and mentors were exemplary.”
Mentor Trevor Cross, Group Chief Technology Officer of e2v technologies said “This was about more than just improving the pitch of emerging micro companies and a shop window for angels to gaze through - I think we actually have helped some of the teams develop their strategy and approach. This approach clearly can work for HVM companies… I expect to hold exploratory follow up discussions with one of the companies.“
Qi3 Accelerator would like to thank the coaches and mentors for their hard work in making this experiment such an outstanding success. Now which will be the first to secure angel investment?