EaseeDo and Talking Cents win Angel Pitch Competition

Monday 19 November 2018

A number of inspirational events for entrepreneurs hosted by Startup Guernsey to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, included an 'Angel Pitch Competition' with prizes won by two local startups.

Last week's initiative saw a number of people unleash their ideas and share one global entrepreneurship ecosystem, as part of the international campaign.

The Angel Pitch Competition part of the week gave local startups the opportunity to pitch for investment. Prize money and sponsorship was provided by Barclays Eagle Labs with five entries competing.

Pictured: Barclays Eagle Labs sponsored the Angel Pitch prizes. 

Last year’s winner was Lance Plunkett, Founder and CEO of Found, a tech solution utilising the latest in machine learning and AI capabilities for the purpose of lost property management and gadget insurance. 

Mr Plunkett said: “The Startup Guernsey and Barclays pitch night was a great platform to give me and my business recognition and exposure which helped with the subsequent investments into the business.”

This year, Talking Cents, RISE Financial Services, The Free From Farm, EaseeDo and SynapCon were all hoping to follow in his footsteps. 

Trevor Nicholls from EaseeDo was delighted to win the prize for the 'Most Investable Business Idea'. EaseeDo is an app to support and improve the daily lives of children and adults on the autistic spectrum. He said at their current stage, they are looking to connect with individuals or organisations that can offer help and support in the form of advice and connections.

“One of the critical areas in which we need advice and knowledge is in clinically trialling our software to give weight to benefits of using EaseeDo. We would also like to introduce ourselves to parties that would be interested in a potential seed funding round in the near future,"said Mr Nicholls.

Talking Cents, a website platform gamifying financial learning for children, won the prize for 'Best Pitch on the Night'. Liz Taylor-Kerr of Talking Cents said that there are two ways they need help at the moment.

“We are looking for families interested in our product who are wanting to be beta members and test the idea out. We also need mentors with business experience, particularly marketing and advertising to help us see it to market. We will be looking for investors once we are ready to design a mobile app which needs developing.”

Pictured l to r: Meriel Lenfestey, Nigel Winkett, Liz Taylor-Kerr, Trevor Nicholls, Deputy Andrea Dudley Owen.

Gez Overstall, Ecosystem Manager for Barclays Eagle Labs said: “Barclays Eagle Labs aims to provide an environment that fosters creativity and innovation and encourages entrepreneurs to create, innovate and grow. The Angel Pitch events highlight the originality and development of ideas from individuals and teams and we were impressed with the calibre of pitches we heard. It’s always inspiring to be a part of this process.”

Jennifer Strachan, CEO of Startup Guernsey said:

“Startup Guernsey is passionate about tapping into the enthusiastic mentors and business angel investors in our community who enjoy supporting growing startups. We were pleased to introduce them to these exciting up and coming local companies, thereby providing support for these companies’ business growth. Congratulations to EaseeDo and Talking Cents who were very worthy winners.”

Pictured top l to r:  Anita Kilby from SynapCon, Meriel Lenfestey, (competition judge and Non-Executive Director of Startup Guernsey), Deputy Andrea Dudley Owen (competition judge and board member of Startup Guernsey), Ellie Jones from the Free From Farm, Liz Taylor-Kerry from Talking Cents, Trevor Nicholls from EaseeDo, Nigel Winkett, Head of Captives at Barclays (competition judge and sponsor), Phillip Smith from RISE Financial Services, Jennifer Strachan, CEO of Startup Guernsey, Justin Sykes from RISE Financial Services and Warren Mauger from RISE Financial Services.