When two hot entities collide, the results can be explosive. And when your amazing tech startup joins forces with Collider, its co-founder says to expect nothing short of a supernova.
Collider, a startup accelerator, offers a highly selective four-month program in which marketing and advertising tech startups are equipped with an arsenal of tools to drive their company in sustainable and scalable motion. For Andy Tait, co-founder of Collider, the key to revving up a business is an amalgamation of grit, passion, tough grind, and all the right resources.
A WeWork London South Bank member, Tait walks us through his experiences building and elevating his business that helps other startups reach unprecedented heights.
WeWork: How would you describe Collider to the average person on the street?
Tait: Collider helps the founders of new marketing and advertising technology (MadTech) businesses grow rapidly by investing smart cash from industry specialist individuals, giving them expert coaching and the right commercial connections in big brands and agencies. The goal is for those businesses to become sustainable, then grow rapidly, building value for all.
WeWork: What was your initial vision for Collider, and has it changed?
Tait: Through some earlier work with a British Government backed body, we had been asked to propose a startup accelerator for the creative industries which we are very proud of here in the UK. To stand out, we needed to differentiate, so my co-founder Rose Lewis brilliantly came up with positioning us for technology startups in the MadTech sector. It all made sense—the biggest marketing agency in the world is a British business (WPP). We have great creative and technology talent, and we have a community of high-net-worth individuals who could be investors alongside us at Collider. On top of that, the market is moving to more dependency on technology, so we can serve that need with consistent, scalable innovation.
WeWork: What has been your biggest mistake so far, and how did you recover?
Tait: I’m not sure about single biggest mistake. We did spend quite a bit of time very early on with a large potential partner who didn’t deliver. In hindsight, we might have moved away from them more quickly; however, we had only invested time at that point, so it wasn’t a tangible setback. We are learning all the time and adapting to the ever-changing world around us. We’re a startup too, so we build-test-learn, but with an accelerator rather than a tech product!
WeWork: Did anyone give you advice that wasn’t right for you?
Tait: We’ve been around a bit, so know how to take advice in context and act accordingly. We do canvas startups on their experiences with other accelerators and frequently get told they get too much and often contradictory advice. That’s why we only have three baseline coaches for our startups. We encourage our investors to mentor the startups in their specialist areas like branding, finance, or tech, and we ask our brand partners to mentor our startups on how to work with a major brand, not how to build a startup. This way our startups get a broad range of varied advice from specialists, which is then related back to achieving their own specific goals.
WeWork: What is the most challenging part of your job, and how do you keep yourself from burning out?
Tait: As with many early stage businesses, the biggest challenge is breaking new ground, especially when the right thing to do isn’t exactly leaping out at you. It’s challenging, but that’s what makes the job so great—to know we’re actually coming up with new stuff, getting it done, and making it work. To relieve pressure, I run on the South Bank. It’s a very popular area with tourists, so I take some back streets to The Mall and run past Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park, about seven miles round.
WeWork: What’s your favorite drink to start or end the day?
Tait: Strong coffee in the morning and green or Earl Grey tea in the afternoon.