We profiled Studentgems.com which was founded by Sue Harrison and Joanna Ward last year. Since then, they've raised a six-figure angel investment round. So, we caught up with Harrison to talk about the fundraising and progress to date.

What's the concept?
We’re a website where students can find one-off jobs and earn more than they would for waiting tables or pulling pints. And businesses can save money too. We had the idea when we were working on a project and needed some photography. Commercial quotes were £600 and we realised it would be cheaper to find a talented student photographer for half the price.

Why's it unique?
There are other places students can get jobs, such as job shops and recruitment agencies, but not typically where they use their skills, developing knowledge and talent. Equally, companies often outsource overseas to cut costs. And freelance websites expect professional freelancers to get in touch. So, there’s not a direct competitor, although classified jobs boards such as Gumtree and Craig’s List offer our biggest competition.

Where are you now?
We see our prime employer market as SMEs, but have sole traders up to Breast Cancer UK and Adidas using the system. We have 14,000 students registered offering 74,000 skills across 1,600 categories, and 3,200 employers.

Where will you be in two years?
We’d like to be a household name across the UK. If they need jobs doing Studentgems is a cost-effective resource. We’d also like to take the business over to the US.

Who's backed you?
Eight angel investors. It was quite a long trail. When we started we didn’t know anything about raising finance. Business Link introduced us to Wycombe Enterprise Hub, which is part of SEEDA (South East England Development Agency). They were fantastic, made us portfolio client and helped with the business plan, a Finance South East investor readiness course, and introductions to various networks. We then presented to three groups via a West Midlands-based network plus an Oxford-based network.

How much did you get?
A six-figure sum. Two investors also joined the board. We were happy to take investors who wanted an active role in the business. One is an ex-lawyer the other an ex-accountant.

When did you raise it?
About three weeks ago in September.

How long before the cheque cleared?
It took us about a year to finalise from the first presentation. We didn’t go from nothing to everything. We were picking them up along the way and wanted to get sufficient money to get on with running the business as fundraising is hugely time-consuming. We got pretty much what we need but left the round open as we still have some leads.

What did it teach you?
We were very aware we probably didn’t fit the normal mould for somebody starting a dotcom as we’re neither male nor 25. It taught us never to give up. You really do have to believe in what you’re doing. Everything takes twice as long as you expect. You can present to a group that’s interested and then the next week another group won’t be – there’s no rhyme or reason. We presented to gatekeepers, a hall full of people and a room of people. We had to gauge what would work best for us and go with that, making sure we spent the money where we were likely to get the best results.

How has investment improved the business?
We were able to get stands as seven or eight local Freshers’ Fairs in September which is quite expensive. Thousands signed up. So the money is going on marketing, building the team and enhancing the website – we have loads of developments in the pipeline.

Tell us something that will help another entrepreneur keep their investor happy.
Communication is key. Throughout the fundraising we kept people who said they’d invest fully informed of our progress and have a review each month. We also respond as quickly as we can.

Why should we keep an eye on you?
We hope you’ll see the emergence of Studentgems.com as a household name.

CRM software: Great if your business can afford it, but out of reach for the average small firm. So what's the alternative? iComplete.com thinks it has the answer.

iComplete claims to be the low-cost alternative to the likes of Salesforce.com Sage and 37 Signals; a 'dumbed down' version if you like, but actually very clever as it promises to simplify the complexities of advanced CRM systems. It's the creation of British entrepreneurs Stuart and Claire Hibbert and Kiwi Myles Hantler.

Like all good start-ups, the idea was the result of the market not meeting demand. Or at least not meeting Claire Hibbert's needs. She was running her own small beauty salon business and had no way of cost-effectively managing her customer relationships. Husband Stuart happened to be an experienced software entrepreneur and developer and along with sales specialist Hantler the trio developed the concept. The hope is that Claire was not alone in feeling the need - and that iComplete genuinely has the answer.

So what does the site do exactly? With an eye fixed on the future, iComplete is a cloud computing solution, storing data in the ether - or massive server farms set up to save people data storage nightmares. It enables users to manage their customer interactions and make phone calls via the web using Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP). The service stores details of prospects, customers, phone notes, reminders and follow-ups, a built-in calendar and other information salespeople like to have at their fingertips when making outbound or dealing with inbound calls. Any fears about security should be allayed, says Hantler, by the fact the service is password protected.

And where you might pay £1,200 a year to use Salesforce, iComplete is a freemium model, costing nothing for storing up to 1000 contacts and then £15, £25 or £50 per month depending on the number of contacts stored with the premium offering having no limit. So, clearly more affordable for 1-20 employee companies, albeit lacking some of the bells and whistles of its established rivals. Hantler believes the company's main target users will actually be moving from paper or spreadsheet-based data storage, so will not find the diluted functionality an issue.

You could argue that the fact that this is the case also poses a threat to iComplete's success as likely users currently rely on free products so converting them may take a little persuasion. There's also a chance that Google will move into the space, with Google Voice and its other cloud services potentially providing an attractive alternative to spreadsheets. And in the US, the Zoho.com suite of business applications is evidence that the space could quickly become congested. iComplete also has the lack of understanding of cloud computing at the grassroots to contend with.

Hantler though remains confident iComplete will go places - and with good reason. Stuart Hibbert sold his previous software business, described as Europe's first e-billing application service provider, in 2004. Hantler was also a part of X200 too and they successfully worked their earn-out. The track record and finance the pair were able to invest into the development of iComplete, plus its potential to challenge beyond the UK and a significant target market will be important factors in it achieving its potential. Judges for Dell's Small Business Excellence Awards, which has made the company a finalist, clearly concur.

Hibbert and Hantler plan to raise finance from angel investors or a low-level venture capital outfit in the early part of 2010 to expand and are still tweaking the model having only gone live in April this year. It's likely a white label offering via directory or media sites plus an iPhone application will play an important part in generating the reach the company desires. If the site's progress to date is anything to go by iComplete has a bonny future.

According to Creative Director Rob Wood, Music Concierge is a “music consultancy dedicated to offering bespoke services to brands and branded places” In other words, while there are similar companies around, Music Concierge’s focus is on the ‘bespoke’ part of that concept, helping restaurants, hotels, and brands at “'the high-end, brand-focused end of the market' achieve the right sound for them.

Wood hinks that his team’s background make all the difference. He insist Music Concierge has unparalleled knowledge of numerous genres and an enormous, less commercial playlist, which can potentially make a brand’s uniqueness stand out. As former editor of the now defunct but no-less iconic Jockey Slut magazine, as well as an established DJ throughout the nineties, he’s allowed to shout such credentials were the classic ‘lift music’ accusation to be leveled.

Like many start-ups, the idea came by chance. "Very organically, different brands started to approach me, to help them sound right, to choose music for their website or for their branded compilation album”, says Wood. “Hotels also started to approach me to help me choose their music.” With that, the idea was born, and hotels around the world, from Cape Town to the Maldives, including the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair, as well as the Mandarin Oriental, are counted as clients.

The company went to market in the autumn of 2007 after being formed in May, with Wood using his own money and a loan from family members. In the same year, it won a number of accolades including winning the BT Essence of Entrepreneur Competition in 2007.
Now, expansion is the plan, with the hunt for funding and the setting up of up sales reps from mainland Europe, to India and the US underway. Lobby music might just be getting a whole lot cooler.

PeoplePerHour.com was founded in September 2007 by two Cambridge University graduates: CEO Xenios Thrasyvoulou and CTO Simos Kitiris. In the words of Thrasyvoulou,”We’re a community of freelancers facilitating remote work; it allows companies of all sizes to outsource work. The freelancer gets rated and builds a profile – we provide a safe platform for that to happen.”

And safety and security, in Thrasyvoulou’s eyes, is key: “Remote working has a lot of advantages if it can be done securely. As the employer you need to be able to first trust before you can delegate. The whole concept is accountability through feedback, the E-bay method if you like.” While users of the site pay a percentage to PeoplePerHour on completion of successful jobs, revenue is also ensured by the use of futures listings and premium listings.

Just months after the launch, PeoplePerHour attracted £350,000 of seed investment from prominent angel investors. But for Thrasyvoulou, there is both enjoyment and nobility in the bootstrapping involved in getting a business off the ground. Now on his third business, the Cambridge and Harvard graduate began with boutique lifestyle management business Arcanus, before extending the business to include high-end holidays.

The idea for the site came from the entrepreneur’s previous experience in business. "It was from personal need, I felt the pain factor in trying to find people to execute small but significant pieces of work. It was a nightmare. We all know the problems of hiring and firing... If you want just one thing done as a small company, you’re too small to justify going to a company dealing with it, whether it’s copy writing or having a logo designed. The traditional economies of scale don’t work. It needs to be automated and online."

With the economic downturn upon us, it’s not just ‘typical’ freelancers either. According to Thrasyvoulou, 40% of the users don’t traditionally work in this way, with many of them having 9-5 jobs. PeoplePerHour is counting on exploiting a gap in the market. Thrasyvoulou ‘s opinion? “There’s room for disruption in this space.”

Since the introduction of university-fees in England and Wales, not to mention the scrapping of grants, student life is no longer the Young Ones easy ride it once was – students are working long hours on top of study, and getting in serious debt. Studentgems.com is a new web-based company that aims to help skilled students earn a decent wage for their skills, as well as assisting companies to fill a gap while saving some cash. The idea is to utilise the skills of students, from budding graphic designers and photographers, to young accountants or foreign-language speakers, while paying them a higher wage than they’d expect to receive in a bar job, and providing valuable work-experience along the way.

Studentgems.com which helps students in businesses in equal measure, was founded by Joanna Ward and Sue Harrison in September last year. According to the founders, it’s the only website which acts as an online skills marketplace focussing entirely on matching students’ skills with the needs of businesses and individuals. It’s got a very social-network feel to it as well – the idea is to set up a profile, where users first list their skills and requirements, whether an employer or prospective employee, then browse around for a suitable match. User-ratings add some authority. These web2.0 elements that student-users of the site are at ease with could also be of note to fellow businesses looking to utilise some young know-how. According to director and co-founder Joanna Ward: “We have seen first-hand how techno-savvy and talented these students are and witnessed their commitment to the commercial world.”

Growing each day, there are now over 10,000 people using the site. Ward praises the quality of the participating students on the site: “There is no doubt that our students are highly talented and can offer a wide range of skills. They are part of ‘Generation Y’ or ‘Boomlets’ (children of Baby Boomers) and are the first to experience such high levels of debt. Characteristically they are self-confident, determined and entrepreneurial.” If your company is missing something, why not pay a visit - there's a good chance the person you need is waiting. According to Harrison: "With over 1,600 skills on offer there is something for everyone!"

“During a recession, customer service and value for money become even more important in terms of retaining and gaining customers,” says Will Paterson, co-founder of Plebble. “Plebble helps customers share information about their experiences more easily and so makes businesses more aware of - and more accountable for – the service they provide.”

Will and James Paterson came up with the idea for Plebble in 2006 while working in the City. The business is currently completely self-funded, running on the brothers’ savings, and only employs one web developer. “We’re planning to raise finance to grow, but we’re not actively looking yet. We want to get investment-ready first, so that the business ticks as many boxes for investors as possible.”

Many review sites and business directories are complementary to Plebble, but unlike other sites, Plebble looks at the whole UK economy, including the Labour party, currently one of the site’s worst performers. Plebble also runs on a “freemium” business model: “We offer pay-as-you-go premium services, such as the ability to respond publicly to comments posted on the site or upload company news stories.”

With over 50,000 unique visitors, Plebble is developing a user area to create loyalty and stickiness. And the recent good PR in the Guardian and The Times doesn’t hurt either. “Above all, we’re going out there and engaging with proactive businesses that recognise that Plebble is a positive marketing message and will help them in the long run.”
by Marli Roode