Digi-Cluster - How to raise £600,000 through crowd funding

On Thursday 11th October, we were back at our old haunt, West Herts College for our 12th Digi-Cluster, Herts! What a great event that was!

Digi-Cluster is the leading digital meetup for agency owners across Watford and Hertfordshire. The discussion centres on the future of digital and technology and we always welcome some amazing guest speakers. There’s always plenty of food on offer and a chance to network with like-minded business owners in the Hertfordshire digital scene.

We started the evening as we meant to go on with networking and drinks flowing. The weather was horrendous and the majority of our guests came in absolutely soaked but that didn’t dampen the mood and we still had a full house! (Thank you all.)

Introductions …

Josh Bolland, Bolland & Co took to the stage to open the event and spoke of the reasons behind Digi-Cluster. The point remains the same; to get like-minded people in the same room and encourage relationships to blossom!

Syd Nadim, Clock was next up to introduce our amazing sponsors, Nimbus Hosting. Tom Kingham spoke of the hosting service Nimbus offer their clients with a little help from Ollie Bolland, Bolland & Co who has had first hand experience of the service and couldn’t recommend it more!

Here’s a little bit more about Nimbus:

‘Nimbus Hosting are a dedicated team providing high quality Linux and Windows cloud web hosting. Their in-house built hosting platform STORM, has been specifically designed for agencies and freelancers to streamline their workflow and manage their client’s hosting needs. They have a 30-day free trial of STORM available, with full access to explore just how much they can simplify how you manage your hosting.’

Next up were our two 90 second pitches …

The aim of the 90 second pitches is to showcase different businesses in attendance at the event and open up opportunities for conversation when networking later in the evening.

We had the brilliant Stevie Brooks, Founder & CEO of Cloud Custom and Head of Business Development at Adenzo, talking about Adenzo and how it can help your business.

“Over the past ten years I have seen and learnt first hand about how sales, marketing and business development has been revolutionised by web based applications. Most businesses are not taking advantage of latest technology and as a result are either failing or not reaching their full potential.”

We then welcomed the fabulous Marcel Cowan, DashAgency.

“Everyone knows that your web build projects don’t end when the website goes live. DashAgency enables you to easily list, sell and take payment for all those tasks that need doing after go live, straight from your clients WordPress dashboard.”

The main event …

Adam King, SwipeStation took to the floor to provide detailed insight into SwipeStation, from how it was founded to how to use it. SwipeStation have just secured nearly £600k investment needed to scale them through a crowdfunding campaign with Seedrs. Adam spoke about his experiences over the past two and a half years turning SwipeStation around, lessons learned from crowdfunding, and his plans for the future.

“SwipeStation was founded in 2012 with the goal of enhancing the in-venue experience and improving the way consumers interact with brands.

Each member of the SwipeStation management team is a successful entrepreneur in his own right, bringing to the table a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise.”

Grubs up …

Instead of the usual pizza, we opted for the catering option that West Herts College offer. What a fantastic selection of yummy food! There were sandwiches, quiches, samosas, fruit platters and much more, which went down rather well with the beer, wine and soft drinks!

Once West Herts College had closed up, a few people carried on into the night at Bar Bodega, Watford, where the drinks and conversations flowed!