Virgin Media Business Continues to Support Extraordinary People in Tech
Virgin Media Business, Ireland’s fastest business broadband provider will partner with TechConnect Live furthering its commitment to providing unparalleled connectivity and service to Irish SMEs and start-ups.
The event, now known as Virgin Media Business Ireland TechConnect Live, will bring together 3000 key decision makers from the Irish and international tech sectors, thus providing a unique forum for technology companies, start-ups, and investors in Dublin this year.
This year, 200 guest speakers from a diverse number of industries will seek to inspire the attendees of Virgin Media Business Ireland TechConnect Live across 20 conferences at the RDS on May 31st. You can register for the free event by clicking here.
The aim of the event is to facilitate investment, innovation, collaboration and the fostering of new commercial relationships. Industry thought leaders from game-changing global companies like Uber, Just Eat and PayPal to name just a few, will share learnings and insights from their own business journeys, no doubt imparting the lesson on all those present that their ambitions are only as small as they settle for.
Virgin Media Business are long-time supporters of Irish businesses run by extraordinary individuals, helping them reach their full potential through the very best in ICT services.
Get Revving for VOOM
Virgin Media Business Ireland TechConnect Live will also mark the launch of VOOM 2017, the pitchathon like no other that sees the top tier of start-ups from Ireland and the UK compete for a chance to pitch their industry-disrupting idea face to face to Sir Richard Branson and win a share of a €1.2 million prize pot.
Last year, more than 7,000 businesses started their VOOM journey across the two competition categories, ‘Start-up’ and ‘Grow’. The Start-up category is for would-be businesses that just need to get their world changing idea in front of the right people to achieve lift off.
Grow, meanwhile is designed for businesses that are already established but with the right investment and guidance could really accelerate growth to a new level.
As well as putting some of the most promising individuals in tech in front of the business world’s most influential decision makers, VOOM also connects the contestant businesses with potential customers thanks to a crowdfunding initiative. VOOM teams up with crowd funding platform Crowdfunder to bring the contestants’ grand ambitions to the public.
The crowdfunding campaign runs alongside each competition entry, giving those who don’t make it to the final the ability to raise funds while also boosting awareness for their business. The most successful crowdfunding campaign throughout the VOOM competition has the chance to win up to €60,000 for their business on top of any other funds they generate from their fans along the way.
Last year, VOOM contestant ‘What a Melon’ took home the top crowdfunding prize. You can read their story here.
Irish Lead the Way
One Irish success story that was further bolstered by VOOM is FoodCloud. Headed up by Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien, the social enterprise manages the redistribution of surplus food between food businesses and charities. FoodCloud has two services.
FoodCloud connects retailers with surplus food directly with local charities through an innovative technology platform. FoodCloud works with Tesco and Aldi in Ireland and with Tesco and Waitrose in the UK.
FoodCloud Hubs connects the food industry, such as farms, manufacturers and distributors, to charities through three Hubs located in Cork, Galway and Dublin. Once the food reaches the closest Hub, it is counted, logged in the FoodCloud IT warehousing system, and then segregated into storage. The efficiencies of the Hubs ensure that minimal food waste occurs.
In some circumstances, FoodCloud Hubs collect from food businesses. FoodCloud Hubs also offer a delivery service for charities who do not have transport with their national fleet of refrigerated Opel vans.
Runner up in 2016, the Irish organisation continues to go from strength to strength. To date, the equivalent of over 17 million meals have been redistributed through FoodCloud and FoodCloud Hubs in Ireland and the UK.
Iseult Ward recently spoke to the Virgin Media Business Blog about the success of FoodCloud and her positive experience with the VOOM competition.
Looking back, how different are things to the time when you were just a two-person operation? What areas of business did you have to learn on the fly?
I started with this when I was in my third year of studying business and economics in University. So, like for anyone going directly from doing a degree to setting up your own business, there were a lot of things I had not done before. Through accelerator programmes I had access to networks of experienced and supportive people. If I didn’t know something myself, there was always someone there who could provide us with some experience and knowledge.
Was the uniqueness of your business something that appealed to your now partners?
We really saw Ireland as a ‘greenfield site’ for surplus food redistribution. We looked to see what was happening internationally with established institutions, but we were also looking to use technology to drive efficiency in redistributing surplus food from retail which was new even internationally. So, while this was a great opportunity, it was also going to be a huge challenge because the retailers and the charities had never done anything like this before. Thankfully, they saw the potential in the solution.
What level of educating did you have to do with the retailers to help them see the surplus / waste problem that they were experiencing?
We have found, the people who work with food, do not want to see it going to waste. One early issue that can arise is that it can seem too complicated or that it wouldn’t make sense for their business to dedicate resources to solving this problem, which is completely understandable. Retailers’ core business is selling grocery products to their consumers, not finding a solution for surplus food. So, we were able to present them with a very simple approach and a very effective solution for a problem they wanted to solve. Then of course, there are many other benefits to this than just solving food waste. We saw this in our initial relationship with Tesco in Ireland which is what helped us grow…and grow into the UK — It connects stores to their local communities, giving amazing benefits to both the stores and the charities. Charities get to know their local businesses and often we see the business go beyond solely using surplus food redistribution as a way of supporting the charity. For example, with Tesco, a lot of our recipient charities have been beneficiaries of their Community Fund as well. One piece of recent feedback from a Tesco colleague was that being able to do this for the charity was one of the greatest parts of their day now.
What are the some of the goals that you have set for your business, or milestones you have already passed?
We’ve managed to implement two very strong solutions for surplus food redistribution in Ireland. We’ve taken one of those solutions (the retail level solution) and scaled it into the UK and we have driven a growth trajectory over the last two years. Back in the beginning of 2014 we were donating maybe a 1000 meals equivalent a month then by December of 2016 we were looking at almost 900,000 meals equivalent donated. Our next challenge will be funding our future growth. We are a social enterprise but we face similar challenges to any young business that needs growth capital if we want to get more stores donating next year.
When you were pitching your business in VOOM, was it harder for social enterprises compared to for profit businesses?
I do not think being a social enterprise made it harder to pitch our business in VOOM. I think it speaks for itself, the fact that we got to the final. People were interested in the impact that the idea could have globally. We were asked the same questions around business models and projections like any other businesses in the competition. As a social enterprise, we were strong on the commercial side of things and strong on the impact side of it as well. Being a social enterprise positioned our business as something unique. In general, there is still some confusion out there about social enterprises. But in VOOM I didn’t find it to be the case at all.
What was it like going into the competition with an idea that you already had up and running?
It was quite an intense process over a short period of time. But it was an excellent learning and development experience. It really helped us focus on how we can effectively tell our story and how to share our future plans, but in a way, that appealed to a wide audience. For example, there were interviews during one phase of the competition. We were speaking to people from very diverse backgrounds and we had to appeal to each of them. So being able to understand the different aspects of our business to a great level of detail and put them across to an expert in those different areas in 10 minutes, one after the other, is a great way of fine tuning your presentation and communication skills. We found that process particularly useful and interesting.
For the final pitch, you have to get everything you know about your business down to two minutes. I think that’s something everyone should be able to do. That in itself, when you’ve been stuck into the detail for so long, is a great process to go through.
What was the spirit like among all the other contestants that were going for the competition?
There was a very nice vibe between everyone. In the earlier stages, when there was an Irish cohort of entrants, we all ended up on the same flight going home. We were able to share our experiences and we all got on very well. We were all really rooting for each other at that stage. In the final, it was the same and I’ve kept in touch with a lot of the finalists. We’d keep an eye out to see how everyone is getting on. Because it was quite an intense process and we saw each other so frequently over a month, you will see a certain comradery, even if it is a competition.
As your business has grown have you been able to find the staff you need in Ireland, with the specific skillsets you require?
We’ve been very fortunate to date that we have a great team with the right skillset and they are incredibly passionate about what we do. We have plans to recruit more people this year to support our growth. We have heard other organisations say that finding the right technology people in Dublin at the moment can be quite challenging as there is a high demand. This isn’t something we have experienced.
Is there any technology that your business depends on that might surprise people?
Our system communicates with charities via SMS. The reason for this is that when we started off, not everyone had access to a smartphone and we wanted to ensure everyone had access to the notifications. We saw the potential uptake of smartphones, particularly in rural areas in Ireland being quite slow and it is dependent on having reliable data coverage. We saw SMS as being more reliable and will continue to have is as option for charities to receive notifications. We just launched a charity app in the UK and we’ve gotten great feedback so far and we hope to have more charities using the app, as we feel it will be an even better service.
If you had a new capital injection this week, what would the priority be for the funds?
It would be for the technology platform and the support teams. We have plans to increase the number of stores donating on the platform in the UK this year quite significantly. To support that growth, we need to grow the team that manage the donations that are occurring across the UK from our head office in Ireland. Then to really invest in our technology platform so that we are delivering more value for current retailers and are able to take on new retailers as well.
Virgin Media Business Ireland TechConnect Live takes place at the RDS on May 31st, 2017.