It's been 12 months since I joined 4iP and wow what a year. From a professional perspective it's been one of the most exciting and creatively satisfying of my career.
I'll to post a more critical appraisal of 4iP as a fund in the next week or so but for prosperity I thought I'd list all the companies I've led investment in this year.
Without a doubt the best bit of the job is working with all the founders and entrepreneurs and I can't wait to continue to help drive them forward both creatively and commercially in the new year.
So in no particular order:
AudioBoo puts the power of broadcasting into people’s pockets by enabling users to make audio recordings (‘Boos’) with their mobiles, which can be time-stamped and geo-tagged, and then published on-line at the touch of a button. Thousands of Boos have been created since launch and have given everyone, from citizen journalists to media corporations, the power to record, find and share first hand accounts of major news events, public events or personal stories.
Mapumental provides a beautiful and easy to use web interface to enable people to view and understand complex spatial data. Employing ground-breaking technical innovation, Mapumental provides users with a clear visualisation of key issues that matter to them like public transport and house prices and helps them to make better informed decisions on where to live, work and play.
MyBuilder is consumer protection for the 21st century, providing an online marketplace that brings together consumers and tradesmen, offering an open and transparent platform that promotes and supports high-quality work. Working on a principle of accountability through feedback, tradesmen are rated on their workmanship by those who hire them, making it easier to find high quality builders and avoid rogue traders.
Newspaper Club is a web-based tool to help people make their own newspapers using online content. The product is designed to make it easy for any group of people, however small, to take content from the web and print it in a basic newspaper format. It might be a group of birdwatchers, the residents of an estate campaigning for improvements, or a yearly "best of" printed product for bloggers. The quality and breadth of online content is growing but 30% of people don't yet have access to the web and for those that do reading offline is sometimes easier and more pleasurable.
Talk About Local is a project which aims to give people in local communities up and down the country a powerful online voice. The project trains people to communicate and campaign more effectively to influence events in the places in which they live, work or play. This project is all about giving those without a voice online a chance to get themselves heard by giving them the tools and training to create their own local websites.
School Report Card is a web-based service that will enable people to research and compare schools based on the criteria that are most important to them. This product will go beyond the idea of league tables to show schools in context and provide a meaningful interpretation of what it is really like - the atmosphere, internal organization, teaching standards, facilities, discipline and much more.
Splashpath is a website and mobile application with one clear goal; to get as many people as possible enjoying the health benefits of swimming. Splashpath will help people find their local pools and check opening times. Swimmers will be able to record their swims and unlock achievements through completing goals and competing with other users.
GymFu is a mobile application which will allow users to train and track their progress in a variety of exercises, enabling them to squeeze in the recommended 30-60 minutes a day in bite-sized chunks. To keep them motivated, users can follow and comment on the progress of their friends and share their own progress on the web.
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