Mobiya have been involved with the Aylesbury Vale Enterprise Hub since 2006.“Sacha and I wanted to understand how to protect our Intellectual Property,” says Martin. “The Hub organised workshops around Trade Marks and Patents, which were very helpful. But most valuable for us was the mentoring we received to help us put our business and financial plans together. We had a good understanding of the economics of our proposition and a solid technology expertise but we found it difficult to put this into a form investors would be attracted to.”
“With the Hub’s help we’ve successfully been through our first round of funding in January 2007 and we are currently in the middle of our next round of funding. This will allow us to expand our business in Europe and research new markets in other continents.”
Aylesbury Vale Hub Director Martin Brassell said, “It’s been a pleasure to work with Mobiya on their investment planning: not only do they have a great proposition, but they have a diligent and professional approach to everything they do. While we come across plenty of businesses seeking to innovate in the mobile space, not many of them have something with as much worldwide potential as the Mobiya model. It’s this kind of globally competitive business that the South East must encourage if the region is to realise its potential.”
Resistance is futile
Sacha and Martin have evolved a number of tactics to overcome the inevitable corporate resistance:
Take an open innovation approach
“The larger corporates don’t have the agility to innovate internally. This creates opportunities for external suppliers to help them.”
Stay close to the senior management teams –let them manage the change
“When we do interact at an operational level we work closely with the local team and use their knowledge to make it a success we can all share – they quickly see that we’re adding value to their organisation.”
Don’t assume that every big corporation is impenetrable
“Even the largest company is made up of groups of people – there are always contact points for a small company.”
Look for open technology approaches
“More and more companies are using open technology systems, which simplifies information and data exchange and creates a collaboration opportunity.”
Enable efficiency
“People will listen if you can help them to be more efficient: you can often use this as a trigger into a pilot project, which gives you the opportunity to learn and move forward again...”
Listen
“The most important part of any sales process is to listen. Sales isn’t about presenting; it’s about listening.”
