Business Background: NearMeNow is an app that brings all local businesses, together in one place online: Pushing shop front advertising beyond traditional boundaries into the palms of the hands of smartphone users in the local community, whether they’re at home, in the office or in a coffee shop nearby. Helping customers make the decision on where to shop before leaving home and ensuring that those already on the high street take advantage of every opportunity before leaving, keeping people shopping local for longer. With a messaging feature that has been dubbed as 'the WhatsApp for business', customers can send messages by simply touching the business’ icon on a map, removing the need to search for the business’ telephone number or their social media account. To complete the digital toolkit, a transactional feature is included to enable customers to remotely secure high street goods or services. Once on the high street the NearMeNow app transforms into a truly interactive digital experience through augmented reality. Advertising appears as tiles overlaid on the real-world camera view, allowing customers to interact with their surroundings.
Victoria Mann is the Entrepreneur behind NearMeNow. After leaving Swansea University with a Diploma in Statistics, Victoria worked in Financial Services for 10 years and following a redundancy, retrained to be a secondary Maths and IT teacher at the University of South Wales and then spent three year teaching Maths, IT and Business Studies through the medium of Welsh at Ysgol Llanhari.
It was during her time at Ysgol Llanhari that Victoria came up with the NearMeNow App concept following a visit to the hairdressers during school holidays on a weekday morning: There were four hairdressers and three empty chairs, which prompted her to start thinking of solutions to help fill these empty chairs and generate revenue from missed opportunities on the high street. After leaving teaching in 2015, Victoria started her research during a year in Ireland. On her return to Wales in 2016, she started seeking support.
Victoria approached Business Wales and met with Jay Palmer. Jay suggested doing the online BOSS training, sent a template for a business plan and recommended further discussions around a micro loan. Victoria felt that the idea needed more support tailored towards a business with the potential to grow and scale quickly and was unaware of the AGP at that point, so applied for the NatWest eSpark programme. At the same time, she found Welsh ICE via a friend and met with Jamie McGowan. It was here that the Business Wales support started to make a real difference. The pre-revenue accelerator (now TownSquare’s Accelerator Wales) was a lifeline and was critical to NearMeNow’s early success. The Welsh ICE community along with tailored workshops, board meetings and business coaching combined with the mindset and pitching advice received at eSpark was like rocket fuel to her business. Victoria made the most of all the business support available to her in a short space of time. The vast network that came with being part of both communities propelled NearMeNow forward and she was given access to tailored networking events that were different across both providers.
Following an equity co-investment led by the Development Bank of Wales in January 2018, NearMeNow launched its first digital high street in Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan in May 2018. Victoria was named as one of Business Insider Wales’ Rising Starts of 2018 and as a Start-Up Entrepreneur finalist for NatWest’s Great British Entrepreneur Awards, with regional results being announced on November 22nd 2018. NearMeNow has also driven success for Cowbridge, its pilot community as they have become a Great British High Street Finalist through their use of the NearMeNow App which was the basis of their application. NearMeNow were successful at HRH The Duke of York’s Pitch @Palace on Tour event in Wrexham and will be attending the Bootcamp in Cambridge of October 4th and Buckingham Palace on November 7th. NearMeNow are thrilled to be launching in Cardiff City Centre on September 24th, with the launch being held at Cardiff Univeristy’s Fresher’s Fayre, NearMeNow are trialling their offering with the student population and are recruiting Ambassadors for their brand across the UK.
Their proudest moment in business: Sharing in our success with my 12 year old daughter at the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards Gala Evening.
Is Welsh language used in the business? If so, how has this helped?: All 4 employees are fluent. We recruited an intern throughout the summer and she was fluent too. We launched the App bilingually. The first version of the App gave welsh the same precedence as English. With our business having a fully bilingual app and website and bilingual staff we’re able to operate in either language and often switch back and forth.
Accelerated Growth Programme support: Following the pre-revenue Accelerator we progressed onto the Accelerated Growth Programme. We received continued business coaching support from Lynn Elvins our Accelerator Business Coach with two days’ support. The next hurdle was the promotional video and we received a work package of support on key messaging and conveying our concept from Darran Hughes. Following this we received support from Greenaway Scott, a Golden Partner, who advised on our seed investment round. We required a commercial contract to close, so the package was extended to include the essential contract.
We approached Winning Pitch via our coordinator, Mandy, for support in re-claiming R&D tax credits through Broomfield Alexander, but this was rejected as we have had a significant amount of support to date.
Top Tips:
- Start thinking about a team early on. Identify your weaker points and recruit a team to fill these gaps.
- If you’re on an Accelerated Growth Programme, the last thing you want during a period of rapid growth is to support new team members, so recruit your team on as early as is practically possible. You will need to lean on others at some point.
- Support programmes are there for exactly that: to support you. The drive, ambition and work ethic has to come from yourself.
- Surround yourself with like-minded people, including those that will challenge your assumptions and be a critical friend.
- If something isn’t working. Move fast to change it. You will make mistakes, and make bad decisions, but failure only comes when you do not recognise these quickly and make changes accordingly.
Further information on the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme.