john

After holding out for a year I’ve finally dumped vodafone and ported my number into bit10’s orange company phone scheme.

At home my Vodafone coverage was reasonable (although occasionally patchy), but it appears that I only get Orange reception when hanging out of a bedroom window clinging on upside-down with my toenails; not an ideal state of affairs.

Now I wouldn’t mind this if I lived in the middle of nowhere, but I’m in a big village on the edge of the Solihull/Birmingham connurbation. There’s over 2500 houses with a population of around 7,000.

Even more surprising is the coverage map on Orange’s website, which from afar seems like most of the UK is indeed orange, but up close is a lot patchier. At street level the map says that I should have perfect coverage, but by deduction I think my house must be in the 100m square “hole” in the local coverage (pictured)

So come on Orange; please put a new aerial in one of my neighbours’ gardens (as long as I can’t see it - NIMBY!) because I’d love to be bright orange instead of living in the hole! In the meantime I remain incommunicado at home apart from BT, email, smoke signals and carrier pigeon, all of which are slighly more reliable than good old Orange.

Here at bit10 we have a fantastic Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme, giving every member of the team at least 12 days a year to further their personal and professional skills.

In addition Stuart has pioneered this year’s “Hack day” - an additional creative day when anyone who wants to can spend a day dreaming up whacky ideas, or developing less off-the-wall ideas which will hopefully become commercially viable. Just under half of us are busy being extra creative, even the humble beancounter is having a go and enjoying it!

So the Pizza has just arrived to sustain those creative juices through the afternoon. Great idea Stu, can’t wait to see the results. For those who’ve missed out this year, see you at Hack Day 2007.

I’ve been hooked on the BBC’s business reality shows, and yearn for the next series of the apprentice, if only to find out what happened to Michelle who is apparently having Syed’s baby!

In the meantime we have Dragon’s den on Thurday nights, 8pm BBC2 which is a must watch. I’ve experienced the world of start-ups and equity raising, and I have the utmost respect for all the would-be investees who are pitching to the dragons - It’s a tough ask for those with an investable concept (like Alpine last week ((although their website could do with some TLC)), let alone those who do not.

Last week’s episode 2 featured our very own Marion Burns who runs snip snap at Hatton Country World where we take William for his hair cuts. Much as I love the concept I’m not surprised that the dragons’ didn’t bite, as there is no real USP and minimal barriers to entry.

What did annoy me was the situation with the fantastic Alsi from empty me. Asli had designed a portable picnic bag and has sold over 800 for more than £50 each - not bad for a start up - that’s proof of concept which is all important. Asli wanted £50k to expand her business, loose change for the Dragons. Fair enough, Doug Richard thought that it was a lifestyle business and Asli has not been over-ambitious with the business plan. Duncan and Richard liked the idea, but thought it was uninvestable; again fair call.

What annoyed me was Deborah Meaden’s one-time offer to take 51% of Asli’s business for £50k. The concept of Dragon’s Den is to take a minority share in a business, and then offer the entrepreneur your help and assistance to rapidly grow the business to exit in a 3-5 year timescale with super profits. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not about taking a majority share in a business - in general the entrepreneur will be stifled after loosing control of the business, and the Dragon is unlikely to have the spare time to completely manage and control the venture. I’m sure that Deborah would have offered much to the business, but 51% was too much of a pill to swallow.

So well done Asli for holding out, I hope you get the Investment, and more importantly the investor, you need to drive the business forward. 

So the evening of 20 July 2006 saw four finely honed athletes (me, Cathie, Robin and Alex) head off to the Virgin Gym at Blythe Valley.

The mission - to swim a mile each for Sport Relief. OK, so that Walliams chappie swam the English Channel in 10.5 hours, which is seriously impressive, but here at bit10 we’re all tied up for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, so a mile was more than enough for us.

Besides, it took me an hour to do the mile, I’d still be doggy paddling somewhere near Folkstone now if I’d tried the Channel!

So a HUGE thank you to everyone who sponsored both me and the rest of the team. Between us we raised just over £300, or 0.0025% of Sport Relief’s £12.5m total. Actually we raised a bit more since those kind people at the Treasury pay the gift aid on top of donations. Incidentally David Walliams raised over £1m, an amazing 10% of the total Sport Relief donations!

Also thanks to the helpful people ot Virgin Solihull who let us use their facilities for free, on the promise that they got a mention!

For those interested in results Alex was fastest, with Cathie only a couple of lengths behind. Robin was third with yours truely being laggard by about 10 lengths. You know the old saying (often used by loosers) - “it’s the taking part that counts”! 

In training for the Channel next year…..

John