Fiercely ambitious former management consultant Tim Aikin set up Team Boxwish in 2007. Having raised two angel rounds he's looking to accelerate the growth of its social shopping concept.

What’s the concept?
We’re a new media start-up focused on building cool social websites and applications centred around elements of popular culture. Our flagship site Boxwish.com is a movie inspired social shopping site where people can find and buy products (like fashion and gadgets) seen in movies. We also recently launched Movie-Cupid.com - a dating site for film lovers.

Why’s it unique?
With our first site Boxwish.com we were the first company around to build a site focused entirely on the inspirational aspects of movies – like being able to get the fashion, use the gadgets, drive the cars, visit the locations etc. Since then we’ve grown a basic concept into a powerful association engine, which ties together shoppable content with elements of popular culture, such as movies, characters or people.

Where are you now?
We’ve just expanded the team to six people, relaunched Boxwish.com and are working on a number of other great products including a new type of advertising platform and an e-commerce marketplace. We’re also just about to open a new funding round.

Where will you be in two years?
If all goes to plan we’ll have quite a bit going on, including not just our own consumer sites like Boxwish.com but also running our different e-commerce and advertising platforms for other consumer companies.

Who’s backed you?
We’ve got a small team of excellent angel investors who have been a tremendous support. They include a former investment banker, a chartered accountant and the UK marketing director for a very successful e-commerce company.

How much did you get?
We haven’t disclosed the amount raised so far but it’s six figures.

When did you raise it?
We raised our first round in March 2008, completed a small second round earlier this year and are just about to open another.

How long before the cheque cleared?
The time from initial meeting to money-in-the-bank was actually very quick in both rounds. That said each had at least three to four months of prior planning and preparation put into them.

What did it teach you?
The key thing I learnt was the value that being both prepared and passionate have in convincing investors to back you. It’s not only about constructing a convincing argument for the merits of your product, the strength of your team and the rigour of your financial model, but also delivering it in a way that demonstrates you’ve got the passion and dedication it takes to put in the long hours required to execute.

How has the investment improved the business?
In lots of ways. Completing our first round allowed us to get the ball rolling and prove our initial concept. Our last round gave us the chance to expand the team, bringing on board really talented technical and marketing leads. It also allowed us to evolve our strategy to be even more ambitious than what we started with.

Tell us something that would help another entrepreneur keep an investor happy.
Two key things, honesty and enthusiasm. Keep them constantly informed of what’s going on, good and bad (if it’s bad make sure you follow it with what you’re doing to get things back on track) and in doing so be enthusiastic and passionate enough to make them an ambassador for your brand. If they invested in your business they probably have more than just a passing interest in your industry, product or service. Make sure you engage them in what you’re doing, share your plans and visions for the future, get them excited about you and your brand so that they’re telling all their friends and colleagues about it.

Why should we keep an eye on you?
Our flagship site, Boxwish.com was an exciting first step but we’ve got a really ambitious product plan for the next 12 months and a passionate and dedicated team to make it happen.

With music fans essentially the people that pay the money to fund record deals, you’d think they were the ones consulted on which bands get the capital needed to get their music to album stage. Until recently however, it didn’t work like that. But with the launch of slicethepice.com the responsibility and power is being shared out.

According to CEO David Courtier Dutton the site is ‘a filtering and financing engine operating within the music industry –we can work with unsigned artists, established artists, or finance artists underfunded on a label. We’re a financing hub, but one that is attached to the artists.’ Slicethepie lets artists raise money directly from their fans to record their album, letting the fans become more involved in the process, but also allowing them to benefit financially once their investment helps the band’s success. While bands have to pay the company a royalty fee, they keep their copyright and publishing rights – unlike with a major label.

The engine of the site is similar to the trend of social networking - or at least peer review. With 1.5 million user-generated music reviews already on the site, and 10,000 new appearing each day (for which the reviewer is paid at least 3p), advice and tips from fellow fans allow the cream to rise to the top. Slicethepie users, either plain old investors or just music fans, scout and review music they hear and give that music a rating from 1-10. Courtier Dutton is adamant that this ‘wisdom of crowds’ approach is best. ‘If you get a group of people to solve a problem, they always come to a better decision than a room of experts’, he says. ‘It’s the way that google works.’ And bands are already making it through the process. Several bands such as six-piece Scars On 45 have risen the ranks to album financing stage after hitting the top 1% of acts on the site. This particular Bradford group has been booked at The Isle of Wight Festival – both this year and next.

The website launched in June 2007, and has so far raised a total of £2.5m through three separate business angel rounds. Although Courtier Dutton has a legal background, as well as some time in software, his commercial director Paul Brown previously worked at Sony BMG. But that doesn’t stop Courtier Dutton from being fairly scathing about major labels: ‘The problem is the music industry is controlled by four major labels who have a stranglehold on what people can listen to.’ Slicethepie is different, he says.’ This just seemed a simple way to turn it from a VC approach to a free market approach.'

“Person-to-person exchange is the big idea,” says founder Ralph Hazell. “Moneyswap.com is the most tangible embodiment of that. The site acts as a central exchange, and when two people agree on a rate, it’s easier, simpler and fairer than a bank.”

Former trader Hazell came up with the idea while working in a financial market trading firm in Gibraltar. “The company had offices in Dubai and I travelled a lot. I became infuriated with the ridiculous exchange rates. At the time, I was a big fan of Betfair, and I realised that there was a great opportunity in working out a way to exchange money.”

Moneyswap.com launched in mid-2007 with little marketing fanfare. “I had hoped that it would become viral, but, in retrospect, you have to have a good marketing strategy. I had about 75 users by the end of the year. I wasn’t marketing the site, just testing things out. I was also exploring other applications for the technology, and have licensed the technology to create a carbon credit platform, CO2Swap.”

The site is currently down while Hazell talks to potential investors and partners. “The investment necessary to build what is essentially a stock exchange is quite significant. Ideally, a partner of investor would have a distribution base that would have a use for exchanging currencies. Many people out there do: there’s a need for this technology as it brings efficiency by cutting out the middleman.”
by Marli Roode