2019 saw three winners of the Innovation Award at the SETsquared Bath Innovation Centre. We have asked the winners to write their own blog posts so that we can hear all about their entrepreneur journey as it develops. Read Matt Barlow’s blog about his winning business idea ‘Liveprize’, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page if you would like to read from the beginning of the journey.

#9 June 2020

When you’re trying to build a startup, continuous wins are really important. They maintain momentum and keep morale high. This is especially true when times are tougher, as they are now. That’s why we were especially delighted when we found out that, as recognition of the work we’ve done with Liveprize, we’ve been awarded a grant from Santander as part of the Santander Entrepreneurship Fund. We are incredibly grateful to Santander and the University of Bath as well as to all of those individuals who encouraged us to apply and who took part in the judging.

We’re not entirely sure on how we’re going to use the money right now, as we engage in a phase of planning, and building. We do know that it’s going to be incredibly helpful to us in whatever way we use it; whether that’s to buy the time of a great designer who can add polish to our current product, or whether it will help enable the process of dramatically pivoting the product entirely.

#8 May 2020

Covid-19 has set us back. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, because the number of investors looking at pre-seed / seed companies has fallen and those that are still investing have a lower appetite for risk. Secondly, because the outlook for ad-tech businesses has worsened as a result of a fall in advertising spending across the board as well as an especially large fall for spending on more experimental advertising platforms like ours.

On the flip side, the demand for a product like ours from users has grown. Throughout the lockdown, technology products that have brought people together in fun virtual experiences have done really well. The app Houseparty, which serves as a sort of gamified group FaceTime, would be the foremost example. We had a number of users ask when and how we were bringing Liveprize back throughout this period. Virtual game-shows, that potentially bring thousands, to hundreds of thousands, of people together, all for no-strings attached fun and a chance of winning money, would have been the perfect alleviation to lockdown boredom and social isolation as well as welcome cash injection for the lucky few winners.

This potential increase in demand for our product, at a time when user growth is paramount and advertising deals don’t need to come until later, is why it is especially frustrating for us that our initial fundraising round fell through and as a result, we missed the boat on shipping Season 2.

So, at the moment, we’re evaluating our path forward and making a strategy for the future. We’re weighing up questions like: how do we raise money in the current climate? Do we even want to raise money? Can we ship the current iteration of the product with only a small amount of prize money available? Do we pivot to become a white-label product and serve corporations, given that we’ve had a couple of offers to do exactly this in the past?

The relationship between us as co-founders is stronger than ever, and this is something I’m grateful for given how many startups cite this as their reason for failure. So, which ever way we now go, I’m confident in the team to come up with something great.

#7 April 2020

This short post is about setbacks.

A couple of months ago, we experienced our biggest setback as a startup yet.

We were over 2/3 of the way to closing a seed fundraising round of £150k when our lead investor pulled out; taking with him over a 1/3 of the investment himself, as well as two other angels who also accounted for a large proportion. It was a huge blow.

We had spent months having meetings, refining our proposition, pitching to potential investors and preparing the company for an investment round and in the space of a short meeting, it was essentially over. As you can expect, we were incredibly disappointed.

Even in the short time spent building Liveprize, I’ve found that the lasting consequences of a set-back come only in part due to the set-back itself. Instead, what is more consequential, is the way in which you react. In danger of sounding cliche; as the saying goes “life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react it”.

In reflecting on our investment round falling through, I’ve thought about some of the setbacks we’ve encountered already, and I realised just how numerous they have been, far more numerous, in fact, than our successes. It’s just that the latter, of course, stay in your memory. Setbacks and startups come hand in hand, they are part of the territory.

Persistence is the key in succeeding. You hit a wall, you get pushed back, but you find a route forward, however indirect it is. And that is now our task, a plan for the future after our biggest set-back yet.

#6 March 2020

On the key to gaining your first 1000 users.

When we launched Season 1 of Liveprize, we had pretty modest aims. We wanted to test that the product had appeal, that it worked and that people would want more. We built the simplest iteration of our grand vision that we could, and shipped it as fast as we could, planning to learn and improve as we went. We put up £1000 as prize money for the season, split across 8 live episodes in just over three and a half weeks.

The season, to be honest, blew us away. We had over 1500 people download the app with nothing spent on marketing. The app also received universal 5* ratings across the App Store and the Google Play Store too.

Prior to launch, we had read a lot about gaining your first 1000 users and generating initial traction. The advice ranges from incredibly specific, to incredibly general. Based on our experience, I’d like to offer the following advice:

Build the simplest version of your product that delights people, and offer rewards for users that share it.

If your product is useful / fun, and people are incentivised to share it, then you’ll see organic growth. For us, and maybe for you, it was as simple as that.

#5 February 2020

For this month’s post I thought I would cover some of the neat features and cool ideas we incorporated into the design of our app for the pilot season of giveaways. Some of these ideas are being worked on and improved for the next iteration of the app that’s currently in development, whilst others are being completely overhauled. Next month, I’ll follow this post up with a demonstration of some of the features / formats we’ll be introducing.

Entering a giveaway should be a seamless and enjoyable experience. A key part of this is the feeling that ‘anybody can win so why not me?’. Whilst this is a powerful motivator, especially when the prize is appealing, rational consumers often understand that their chance of winning is relatively slim. This means that repeat play becomes less and less likely. In order to combat this, we introduced Liveprize tickets. The idea with these was to reward users who shared our app, who played in repeated giveaways, and who engaged with us on social media, with bonus giveaway entries. You can see the ‘my profile’ page below.

Within the settings tab, we also gave users a chance to input custom codes for bonus tickets. These were codes we gave out via social media to commemorate certain events or as a reward for following us on social.

As you can see from this page you can also see a submit feedback button which allowed users to send a direct message to our secure database. This proved invaluable to us during our pilot season - being able to receive regular and consistent feedback from our users allowed us to troubleshoot ideas and quickly and improve features. For example, after three episodes, a number of users pointed out to us that they couldn’t allocate their tickets in time. We then changed the input ticket button so that holding it down allowed for a rapid increase of allocated tickets.

Our app for Season 1 was incredibly simple. Show up at a set time, play through a giveaway process, see who won and then wait until next time. Users on the app around the time of the giveaway could do a few things - invite friends, view the winners of previous episodes, send us feedback etc but nothing major. The key really was in the giveaway itself. We therefore wanted our home screen to almost entirely be an advert for the next upcoming giveaway. Given the episodic nature of the giveaways, we came up with an idea to have a movie style poster fill the home screen - complete with timer, prize info and episode number. You can see the template used above. The dynamic elements are missing - like the timer along the top, the prize money amount within the notes, the ticket balance in the bottom right and the season and episode text next to the episode number - but you see the idea. There’s a load more neat features like this that I could write a tonne about but these were the ones I wanted to highlight. Stay tuned for next month’s article where I’ll be detailing some of the work we’ve been doing on our next season.

#4 January 2020

Last time I spoke a little bit about the potential power of Liveprize as an advertising platform. For this month’s post, I want to talk briefly about the world of online content, and specially live, short-form content; the space that Liveprize operates within.

Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, recently discussed investment in original content and commented directly on the company’s plans to explore less traditional forms of content. “Short-form, potentially live, content is an area we’re certainly excited about and planning to actively invest within”. With the rise of social media over the last decade, users have become accustomed to unfiltered, live and all-access exposure to others. Snapchat and Instagram Stories, Periscope and Facebook Live are just a few technologies that typify this. Alongside this, streaming services like Netflix and more recently Amazon, Disney and Apple have pumped billions of pounds into the production of content.

So what do these trends mean for Liveprize? We’re producing content unlike anything else out there. We’re playing the role of television producer by broadcasting a host, structuring our shows and opening up the viewing to other people. But, we’re inviting viewers to be as integral to the show as any other part. You take part knowing you’ll watch something entertaining, but also knowing it could be you providing the entertainment. Our shows are 10-15 mins long, and take place in seasons. A format that leans on what has worked in the past but innovates in key areas to produce something entirely new.

So, to round off this musing about content and Liveprize... It’s certainly an interesting place to be operating within. Consumer interest is ripe, investors are beginning to understand the opportunity that exists and potential exists aren’t too far to imagine - whether its a traditional broadcasting company, a ‘new’ streaming service or even a social media platform.

#3 December 2019

In my last post I discussed the process of raising a seed round. Whilst this process is ongoing, and progress is being made, this post will take a step back from the present and talk more about the underlying concept behind Liveprize. Specifically, I would like to talk about the potential power of Liveprize as a new type of advertising platform.

The current state of digital advertising is heavily focused on providing greater access to potential customers than ever before. By advertising on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, advertisers are able to pick exactly the individual they believe their message will resonate with most. These individuals can be advertised to as many times as the paying brand likes. Moreover, different platforms can be used in conjunction with each other at different parts of the sales funnel; whether its a brand awareness campaign, a persuasion piece or a conversion effort.

However, access is just one part of the equation. For an advertising campaign to succeed, brands need the attention of those they are communicating with. Attention is a commodity which major digital advertising platforms are increasingly struggling to offer. The sheer volume of advertisements that the average social media user is being bombarded with on a daily basis is leading to something researchers are terming ‘ad fatigue’. This is a phenomenon especially prevalent among students and millennials. Breaking through ‘the noise’ is a challenge every marketeer faces in today’s advertising environment. Ads are being scrolled past, blocked and ignored.

So where does Liveprize fit into this? Providing unlimited access to any demographic is impossible for us and is clearly not the front to compete on. Instead, we’re focused on attention. How can we provide brands with the clear and unfiltered attention of a user? By giving them a strong reason to provide it and by only demanding it infrequently. We run game shows in seasonal blocks, with each show being an episode. Seasons consist of 6-12 episodes and take about a month to compete. Clearly, therefore, we aren’t ‘always-on’. We tell users what day and time they need to show up; until then, their time is their own.

With our live shows, we’re aiming to provide an experience for users that is unlike anything else for just the 10-15 minutes that it lasts. Broadly, we’re doing this in two ways:

1. By giving everyone who shows up a chance to compete for the prize in a genuinely rewarding way

2. By ensuring that the entertainment of watching others compete becomes as big a draw as possessing the chance yourself.

Opening up this forum to advertisers allows them access to an audience who will be receptive to their messaging. Advertisements on Liveprize will be watched and listened to: users can’t skip the ad, they can’t use an ad-blocker, they can’t pick up their phone and do something else and they can’t leave the app without losing their entry to the giveaway. Moreover, advertisements will be delivered in a genuine way; by a video host who is known and well-liked by the audience. Finally, research shows that when an individual receives something from a brand, they’re far more receptive to the messaging of that brand. Companies use this phenomenon in many ways. For example, by giving out free samples or free gifts with certain purchases. For us, the brand provides the prize. This provision will ensure that our audience are more receptive to the brands messaging.

Liveprize is unlike any existing digital ad platform therefore we focus on providing amazing experiences for our users; experiences that are enhanced, rather than negatively affected, by the presence of a sponsoring brand.

#2 November 2019

In my last post I discussed where the initial idea for my startup, Liveprize, came from, how it was developed, some of our early successes and finally, where we are today. I also mentioned that we recently began raising our seed round of funding.

Fundraising for the first time isn’t easy. Previous successful exits and years of industry expertise tend to be precursors to fundraising ease and success, and for first time founders like myself, these are things you do not possess. Fundraising successes born out of these precursors occur due to the inherent signals present that an entrepreneur, and their company, are likely to be successful.

So how could we, as first time founders, signal to investors that Liveprize is worth investing in? All the advice we received boiled down to the following: demonstrate a strong founding team and show that we’re building a product people want.

Much of the work I’ve been doing over the last month or so has therefore been to build out our investment proposition with the above in mind. This means being able to clearly articulate and present the answers to questions such as: who are we; what are we building; how do we know that people want it; who are these people; what traction have we had so far; how will we make money; how much could we make; when will we make money; how much are we raising and how will this money be spent? More specifically, I’ve spent time creating one-pagers, pitch decks and presentations and meeting with angel investors, advisers and industry experts.

Progress so far has been steady and we’re currently looking to close within the next couple of months.

#1 October 2019

Hello! This will be the first of many monthly blog posts chronicling my experience building my business, Liveprize, as a University of Bath Innovation award winner.

For most posts after this one, I plan on writing short updates about how the business is progressing and what we’re learning as we work on it.

But for the first post, I thought it would be a good idea to explain how I got here, and what it is we’re actually trying to build. This will be a longer one, so feel free to skip to the subheading that interests you the most.

The Problem

Liveprize was originally born out of a problem I encountered whilst working at Superdrug. As a intern in the CRM department, one of my responsibilities was to run customer giveaways (a giveaway is simply when a brand provides customers with a chance to win a prize). The aim of these giveaways varied, but generally they could be categorised as either attempting to better engage with existing customers, or to acquire new ones. It became obvious to me pretty quickly that these giveaways presented a number of pain points for both brands and for customers, and this was true for giveaways ran by most major brands, not just the ones at Superdrug.

Brands struggle to measure their effectiveness, to communicate a desired message to customers above the advertisement of the prize itself, and to organise prize fulfilment. Customers, on the other hand, simply don’t enjoy a satisfying experience. The data provision required to enter is often predatory, winners aren’t notified for weeks and most customers don’t end up hearing back at all. These problems led me to questioning why giveaways couldn’t be done in a better way? Giveaways should be ‘no-strings attached’ fun for customers, and in turn an effective marketing channel for brands, but instead they’re stale and frustrating experiences.

I looked into the market to see how widespread giveaways were. I found that nearly 30m total social media users entered at least one giveaway in 2017 in the UK alone, and that 92% of consumer facing brands ran at least one in the same year. So, despite the clear problems that exist, they’re still pretty popular. Did an opportunity exist to disrupt this market? A market which hasn’t seen innovation since the introduction of social media as a channel to run these giveaways.

The above led to the original concept for Liveprize; a platform to host better giveaways for customers and brands. Brands could outsource their giveaways to us, and customers would know where to go for better quality giveaways. These giveaways would be more fun, fast, genuine and effective than anything else on the market.

Liveprize Begins

I discussed the idea with my long-time friend Angus, an engineering student at the University of Bristol. We decided to build a simple wireframe of how such a platform might look and with this, I entered the University of Bath’s apps crunch competition. We were fortunate enough to win - confirming to me that there was something in my idea. Wanting to progress it, we looked for a technical co-founder. After weeks of searching computer labs and messaging computer science groups, we found our third co-founder, Alex. Alex is an incredibly talented programmer; he’s built out the entire tech side of two other already profitable businesses.

Now working with Alex, we entered and won the University of Bristol’s New Enterprise competition. This granted us with a modest £1000 of equity free funding to help explore our idea. Our experiences in these competitions led to us refine and improve the original giveaway platform concept we had.

A New Perspective

The original Liveprize idea explained above would serve brands really well. However, the improvements we had in mind for these giveaways were incremental for customers at best. Yes, a faster, more authentic giveaway experience would be welcomed by customers who experienced it, but it wasn’t going to be anything particularly groundbreaking.

So, we did a bit of thinking. Why does anyone enter a giveaway in the first place? It’s not because the experience is fun in any way - I had already found that it was the opposite. It’s purely because you hold a slim chance of winning the prize. Anything you have to do to be in with that chance is purely hassle. And, for a lot of the giveaways that take place, the hassle is just about worth it for that chance.

TV game shows are an interesting thing. They’ve remained popular for the best part of 50 years. Yes, the shows themselves are constantly changing and celebrity hosts come and go, but you can be pretty sure that on any given day, a game show of some type will be on TV. Game shows aren’t too de-similar to giveaways in a lot of ways; there’s usually a big prize on offer, there’s people competing for it and it always ends with only 1/2 winners. However, there’s a key difference between them. Whereas those who enter giveaways only care about winning prize, those who watch a game show have no chance of winning the prize. They're there purely for the experience of watching the prize being awarded to someone else; the format of the show and the moments it creates, the host and their interaction with contestants, and the contestants themselves all play into the experience. It's a viewing experience.

This pretty simple observation was a major lightbulb moment for us - could we manufacture an experience around our giveaways so good that winning the prize becomes a secondary motivator to getting involved? Is there a middle ground between giveaways and game shows that takes only the best features of each and in the process creates something better than either?

The Concept Today

We run scheduled live game shows, in seasonal blocks. These game shows are mediated by a video host. Users show up at a set time and play through one of our formats to compete for a prize. We have a number of different formats in the works but they all follow the same structure. They’re split into two parts. Firstly, all users compete in a mini-game to become live contestants. Chosen contestants (between 2-8 people depending on the format) then interact with the host, and with each other, via the front camera in order to compete for the prize. Each game show (episode) is a unique event, with new contestants, often a new format and a unique prize. Users show up knowing they’ll see an entertaining show, but also hoping that it will include them as one of the contestants.

Season 1

With this concept in mind, we decided we needed to build an MVP. We’d run a pilot season of game show giveaways featuring a simple, but novel format, and a £1000 total prize pot. We opted to run 8 episodes across just over three weeks. Users would show up at a set time, 8pm, on Mondays and Thursdays, to play. As a means of boosting referrals, we built in a ticketing mechanic; users could earn tickets for referring friends to the app and tickets could be spent in game to boost a players chances of winning the prize for that episode. Winners of each episode were shown live to all other users in unison. The below video shows our winners for the first season:

1400 users downloaded the app across the season and this was entirely from referrals - we spent nothing on marketing. Our user base grew each episode and the live video reaction of winners was our main USP.

Moving Forward

After Season 1, I was able to apply for the Innovation Award. Being granted this has enabled me to go full time on Liveprize this year and work hard on growing the business.

Matt Barlow (L) joins the other Innovation Award winners at SETsquared Bath’s First Tuesday Networking event in October, 2019

Liveprize is now raising a seed round of funding, which will be used to fund design work, to source prizes and for marketing. So far, we have about a third pledged from investors, and are looking to close the remainder in the next few months.

Alumni Innovation Award Winner 2019 | Liveprize