Press release
Big business and start-ups working together with Venturespring
A new ‘venture development studio’ has launched to connect start-ups with big business,
working with brands to develop and launch new digital companies.
Venturespring works with global brands to develop products, systems and services, and then
forms teams made up of young entrepreneurs to scale them as independent, profit-making
entities, dispensing the advice, resources and guidance necessary to build up their
businesses along the way.
Venturespring based in London Westend, works with clients who want to access a unique
ecosystem designed to help start-ups grow and scale by providing resources such as creative
talent, investment, marketing and technology in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Together, Venturespring and the large corporates shape the start-ups into viable businesses
which generate profit for all involved.
Venturespring also builds its own internal startups and works to partner these small
businesses with its corporate client network. Its current portfolio incudes four internal startups, including the UK’s first ‘social commerce petworking’ platform.
The business is led by entrepreneur Cassandra Harris, who began her career within the
property and financial services industry where she specialised in technology and digital
strategy.
After a switch of sector to the media, she went on to join global marketing company
Mindshare, where she led Unilever’s digital strategy globally. Subsequently, she developed
Mindshare Worldwide’s in-house SEO department from scratch. As well as more than
tripling the size of the team, she increased search revenues by 300% in her first year, with
clients including HSBC, Jaguar, Bayer, Nestle and Kraft.
In 2012, Cassandra left the business to pursue her own ventures, co-founding two successful
start-ups including a tech education social enterprise called Free:Formers and the UK
operation of a global digital creative agency called Aumcore LLC.
She has launched Venturespring with the support of 15 other proven entrepreneurs, finance
and venture capital specialists, all of whom have invested in and built digital businesses
before and are experts in their field. The team is supported by a number of key advisors at
businesses like Facebook, Google and LinkedIn.
Discussing the new business, Cassandra said: “There’s a real gap in the market for this kind
of company; it gives big brands the chance to access the sort of ecosystem that you simply
can’t guarantee creating in-house, and gives newly formed businesses the chance to work
with corporates that could genuinely transform their fortunes.”
Venturespring works with a number of corporate venture divisions including the likes of
Vodafone Xone as well as strategic partners such as Meridian Telecoms, a global
smartphone manufacturer, which has a portfolio of mobile phone brands including Kazam
and Fly Mobile. “Client contacts such as these are useful partners in terms of the unique
ecosystem that Venturespring offers, these clients as an example provide a lucrative route
to market for some of the startups that Venturespring supports”, explains Cassandra.
“We provide that bridge between large bluechip companies and start-ups. They each have
something the other one wants, but they move in two different worlds; that’s where we
come in. Everyone involved will benefit from what Venturespring is doing.
As well as being a viable, profitable business model, Venturespring also aims to provide the
next generation with opportunities that might otherwise not be available to them. The
business has already built up links with large youth charities such as the Princes Trust and
the business model has an unshakeable CSR element.
Young entrants to the profession are not only getting to learn from the best in the business,
they are also given vested equity in the start-ups they create. The long term plan for
Venturespring is to incorporate a more structured altruistic element to the programme, with
young people from disadvantaged groups being specifically targeted.
“It’s a business model that reaps real rewards – financially, creatively and socially – for
everyone involved.”
Twitter: @venturespringWW
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/VenturespringWW/648662961857801?ref=ts&fref=ts
Website: http://www.venture-spring.com/
ENDS