New backing for business which puts fledgling firms in a fishbowl

AN online business advice venture partly inspired by TV's Big Brother has won new backing from a venture capital fund.

The website www.inafishbowl.com, launched last year by Nottingham entrepreneur Toby Reid, tracks the development of three fledgling enterprises by broadcasting their every move in business.

The website is already supported by Andrew Springhall, who sold his electricity company Power on Connections for more than £20m and has since launched recruitment firm Blusource.

Now it has won additional backing from the East Midlands Early Growth Fund, a venture capital fund supported by East Midlands Development Agency.

The amount of money invested by the fund has not been disclosed, though it usually puts between £20,000 and £500,000 into innovative young businesses.

Its investment matches the money put in by Mr Springhall.

Mr Reid told the Post: "This is a very useful early-stage investment which will be added to Andrew's finance to allow us to establish the website, and commence marketing and revenue generation.

"We launched at the end of November last year with the website in beta [test] format. We have had an increasing number of visitors to the site month on month and we have already secured some coverage in the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph.

"We want the businesses on the site used to relating their experiences and to providing high-quality content.

"We will start the full-scale marketing soon and this money will help us to do that."

Inafishbowl broadcasts the experiences of Matt Stockman, who runs an online record label and music management business Sharabang Music; Owain Griffiths and Dominic Shaw, who run affordable bespoke tailors Head & Griffiths, and Marcel Flores Newburn, a native Mexican who runs food business Rico Mexican Kitchen.

The aim is to help other new businesses get off the ground by learning form the mistakes, experiences and successes of the three firms on the site, detailed through Tweets, blogs and video diaries.

The three enterprises will also receive advice from business experts to help them overcome some of the challenges they face.

Rob Cawdron, of fund manager E-Synergy, explained the decision behind the Early Growth Fund's investment.

He said: "The fund assesses a large number of early-stage businesses and we know that each company is different and has its own story to tell.

"Toby spotted a great opportunity and has assembled an eclectic mix of best-in-breed media partners to deliver this unique project.

"It combines business education with the real-life trials and tribulations of a real start-up in real time.We look forward to watching the venture become a compulsive media phenomenon.

"In media terms, we have likened it to Big Brother meets The Apprentice. The reality is that it is of much more practical use to potential, first time and serial early stage entrepreneurs.

"Once the concept is established it should go on to appeal to a much wider audience."

richard.baker@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk