Accelerate your tech business: Sunderland Software City

Technology is constantly changing, reshaping and evolving.

From automating tasks to revolutionising entire industries, its impact is undeniable.

As businesses adapt to these innovations, initiatives such as Sunderland Software City’s new tech start-up programme Accelerate are ensuring they remain competitive and prepared for the future.

“We’ve pivoted the format of how a traditional accelerator programme is run,” says Hekla Goodman-Parker, head of tech start-ups at Sunderland Software City.

She says: “Usually, you get the core sessions of business development, whether that be around your platform, sales and marketing, legal or investment.

“We thought we would do masterclasses instead, so that could have a touch point with the tech ecosystem for early-stage start-ups, but also businesses that are small to medium size which might have a workforce that need to be educated in specific areas.”

“We’ve got four sessions; one is on tech infrastructure – how do you build a platform to scale and onboard all of your users, so it doesn’t topple over?

“Another is on data insights, looking at the use of different AI models that might help with optimisation and personalisation.

“Another is on sales and marketing, because that’s the crux of every business – if you don’t have any customers, you’re not likely to survive.

“The last one is on customer and user experience.

“Whether it be web or mobile, how do you have that golden thread through all of your marketing materials, so the user is on one journey and can understand your brand throughout?”

Originally from California, Hekla came to the UK on an accelerator programme that encouraged tech clusters to grow outside London.

After six years in the investment industry, she joined Northstar Ventures as investment manager, a role she held for two years until May this year, when she joined Sunderland Software City.

She says: “I liked working with the start-ups a lot more because it’s more fast paced and I think my expertise lends itself to the founder side, rather than to the finance side of things.

“When Sunderland Software City approached me and started talking about the head of tech start-ups role, where I’d get to create accelerator programmes – which I had done in the past in Scotland – the relationship started to build.”

 

 

The new accelerator programme is a support package for tech product and tech-enabled companies, specifically in the retail and esports spaces.

Hekla says: “Sunderland Software City as a company operates to market failure.

“A lot of shops are closing because they were unable to pivot to a tech platform or engage users online.

“That’s why, when COVID-19 hit, those that did were able to survive.

“We’re trying to help businesses that want to pivot into the tech sector and engage a user base that they haven’t before, or maybe they’re a tech business already, and they want to scale their ecommerce platform or their marketplace.”

Harnessing technology to address challenges and develop solutions can be a powerful force in shaping the future.

Hekla adds: “I was in Japan a couple of weeks ago, and you don’t have to interact with servers or go to tills, everything in your checkout box is already counted when you walk through certain touch points throughout the store.

“It makes you think, how efficient could this be?

“There are so many efficiencies you can find within retail – making things more convenient, using speedy checkouts or being able to have heat sensors throughout a shop floor to understand where customers are hovering more, how is logistics coming to play in terms of first and last mile, and how much emissions are we able to save?

“There’s not a lot of tech solving those problems yet.”

The esports element will be run in partnership with British Esports.

Hekla says: “I joined Sunderland Software City and swiftly put together a programme for the esports sector.

“In partnership with British Esports, we were able to onboard 14 businesses from throughout the UK, including one business that had already received investment from the US and they came over here to participate in the accelerator, which now queues us up for the next two, which are focused around retail and esports.”

For North East businesses looking to join the Accelerate programme, all they need is to be registered, have an idea and be able to attend all four masterclass sessions in person at an Eldon Square-based 5G lab.

Hekla says: “Hopefully, we can connect them to routes to market, so we can provide them with introductions directly to businesses that might be able to utilise their platform, help them with testing or connect them to some end user or customer.

“The other goal is just to get them plugged into the tech ecosystem.

“It’s quite lonely, and you can be quite siloed if you’re a tech business because everything is done online and behind closed doors.

“Maybe your team is remote, but this is a way to create some brand awareness, at least within the North East.

“The last thing is the ethos of what we do, helping businesses and helping them become sustainable.

“If we can help on that journey, or be a conduit in any way, then that will deliver great impact.”

For more information, and to apply for the Accelerate programme, visit www.f6s.com/accelerate-x