L Marks meets AccelerateME at Colony
25 May 2018
Within the Colony walls, our coworking space witnesses a great deal of entrepreneurial activity from people at various stages of their business journey. We’re enthused and energised by the creativity and determination to be found in Manchester and the Northwest and look to support and promote those who are forging their own path through modern life. We recently welcomed this year’s AccelerateME cohort to a Creative Problem Solving Workshop, where we met some of the students and graduates who are bringing their business ideas to life with the incredible support of AccelerateME…
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AccelerateME is a pre-seed accelerator for students and graduates from University of Manchester. Participants undergo an intensive 12 week programme during which they are guided by mentors, receive office space and up to £1,500 equity-free funding. AccelerateME provides members with workshops, resources and professional insights necessary to develop and grow their businesses successfully. With sessions running on weekends and outside of working hours, the programme is ideal for students, as it fits around academic studies.
The accelerator is industry agnostic and one of the few non-tech accelerators in Manchester. It has been running since 2015 and helped to get many successful startups off the ground, such as Percent, Hive Urban Farms and Shut-up and dance.
AccelerateMe at Colony
Teams from this year's cohort had the privilege of attending a Creative Problem Solving Workshop at Colony Coworking, Jactin House, Manchester. The session was facilitated by Emma Marshall, Programme Manager at L Marks. L Marks is an innovation specialist and early-stage investor. The insightful workshop introduced problem solving techniques and engaged the AccelerateMe team into a brainstorming session. Each startup discussed the issues they’re facing and applied their newly gained skills into generation of possible solutions.
The workshop was a great opportunity to listen to the perspective of people outside of the project and resulted in creative, out-of-a-box ideas, helping the teams to move forward with their journey.
The Colony Blog is happy to introduce the following entrepreneurs from the AccelerateME 2018 cohort:
 | 00000000 | aiPatient Scott Martin Revolutionising medical
education by utilising the cutting edge in artificial intelligence
technologies. By enabling the next generation of doctors to practice effectively
and examine their progress, aiPatient believe they can improve patient care. |
 | Rats to Riches Eugene
Lim A finance
strategy card game that aims to reinvent financial education. In the game,
players are rats, competing against one another in a race to 100 coins. They do
so by investing, acquiring assets, choosing career paths, or even stealing
their way to victory. | |
 | In It Together Jonah Ogbuneke, Jack Houghton and Lily Fothergill An experiential marketing agency which delivers social change by
working with charities, social enterprises, NGOs & public bodies on cause
marketing campaigns. Whether through reconnecting their volunteers with the
organisation’s vision, engaging a new audience to begin volunteering,
encouraging community participation in a social programme or creating an
immersive & interactive fundraising event - we help social organisations
maximise their potential impact. | |
 | Macawly Michal Wisniewski The vision is to help
people find their calling at work by creating a culture fit between businesses
and individuals during the recruitment process. Macawly helps businesses to
build a passionate workforce composed of happy and committed employees who stay
at their jobs for longer and perform better. | |
 | CADPAD Mason Rowbottom An innovative online
freelancing platform that makes acquiring a 3d model for AR, VR, 3D printing
and game design easy and accessible. Customers with design ideas are linked to
3D designers, so they can work and collaborate within the WorkSpace, which is
tailored for 3D models. Customers can follow the design process without the
need for additional software or visiting multiple websites to view or
manufacture their designs in 3 steps: 1) Post
Project 2) Accept
Bid 3)
Download 3D model. Simple. | |
 | Bare Bones Jacob Scott and Georgina Bullen Aims to share the
power of fermented food and drink by giving new life to ancient products known
for their probiotic and nutrient-rich properties. They make no bones about
their commitment to great taste and top health for people and our planet. | |
 | Hall Swap Dewy Saxena Solves the problem of
students being unsatisfied with their accomodation. It does that through a
platform where students are matched based on their current accommodation and
preferred accommodation. A match score and a compatibility score is then
created for each room. Accommodation offices have their own account from which
staff can manage review and confirm swaps all in one place. | |
 | Unichar Jamie Rawsthorne and Nicolas Pettican Universities
receive enquiries 24/7 however, staff members only work 9 to 5. The average
waiting time is 3 days for student enquiries to get an answer to their
question. Unichat enables
universities to answer enquiry questions around the clock in a personal way
through their chatbot. | |
 | Student Inspire Network A millennial platform that educates motives and inspires students to start
thinking about and working towards careers. The team are bringing careers
information to social media, on platforms millennials use every day. They are
creating millennial focused content for the social consumer. | |
We wish the best of luck to all those who attended the AccelerateME workshop, along with all those in the wider entrepreneurial community; keep up the good work!
Those looking to find out more should reserve their place at the AccelerateME demo day on 6th June, which will mark the end of another successful year for the pre-seed accelerator:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/accelerate-me-demo-...
Social Media:
Follow Accelerate ME on Facebook and Twitter
Follow L Marks on Twitter @LMarks