Hi Sean,
Thank you for your recent application to Scottish EDGE. The current round of the competition resulted in 177 applications being received, demonstrating that the level of entrepreneurial activity in Scotland remains high. All applications have now been considered by a panel of assessors who assessed your combined application form and video pitch against the following Scottish EDGE assessment criteria: Value Proposition, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Impact, Customer Focus, Business Growth Potential and Utilisation of Funding.
Scottish EDGE delivers 3 categories within each round, offering enhanced opportunities for the highest rated businesses to progress to our live pitching stages. Your outcome results following the 1st Stage Assessments are shown below:
- Invited to Scottish EDGE (including Higgs, Creative & Circular Economy Awards) Semi-Final Pitch – No;
- Invited to Social Enterprise EDGE Final – No;
- Invited to Young EDGE Final – No;
- Invited to Wild Card EDGE Final – Yes, please see further information below;
CONGRATULATIONS on progressing to the Wild Card EDGE Final. You are one of the finalists now in with a chance of winning a grant of either £15,000 (top prize) or £10,000, as well as additional business support.WILD CARD EDGE FINAL INFORMATION
We have allocated you a time slot as follows:
Date & Time Slot: 03/05/2022 13:10Location: Video Conference via Zoom (Zoom link for your time slot will be provided in due course)
ACTIONS REQUIRED
- Please email us within 7 days of this results email, advising the name of the person(s) who will be pitching to the panel at the Wild Card EDGE Final (our preference is 1 person per business but where there is a strong requirement for 2 people we will consider this).
For the Wild Card EDGE Final, all pitches will be conducted either in-person at an informed location or online via Zoom, with only you, the assessors and the Scottish EDGE team representatives at the final session and you need only attend for the time slot allocated. On the day, you will have 3 minutes to deliver your pitch presentation. Following the pitch, the assessors have 7minutes to ask questions about you or your business. After the conclusion of your presentation and Q&A you will leave the room/video meeting and then the panel of assessors will score you against our Scottish EDGE assessment criteria, and your score will determine whether you will be selected as one of the businesses to win a Wild Card EDGE award.
If you are selected as one of the Wild Card EDGE winners, you will be invited along to the Scottish EDGE Awards Ceremony to be announced as a Wild Card EDGE winner and find out how much you have won.
Ahead of your presentation at the Wild Card EDGE Final, we will ensure each assessment panel member views your initial application form and 3-minute video pitch to ensure they have awareness of your product/service offering.
To support your preparation for the Wild Card EDGE Final, we will be delivering an online presentation workshop to explain the key information relating to the pitch presentation and also share some key tips on how best to construct and deliver an effective 3-minute presentation ,as well as how to handle the kind of question and answer session you might expect from the assessment panel. Details of this will be sent to you in the next few days.
ASSESSMENT FEEDBACK
To further support you in your Scottish EDGE journey and prepare you for your pitch, personalised constructive feedback relating to your 1st Stage Assessment has been provided below. This feedback reflects the assessment based upon the evidence provided across your application form and video against the Scottish EDGE criteria and will offer some guidance on areas you may look to focus on for your pitch presentation at the final. However please note this feedback will not form part of your assessment at the final.
Really interesting business proposal, and offers such strong environmental and social benefits
Good acknowledgement of other alternative products in the market and offered a clear differentiator around the suitability for various battery sizes
Highly impressive entrepreneurial leader with great experience in terms of audiology knowledge
Very commendable aspirations to make a big difference in Kenya
Impressed to see that you have commenced the IP strategy and this offers strong credibility to the innovation and uniqueness of the offering
Outlined quite alarming stats around the numbers of batteries being discarded and if can make in-roads in reducing this then will be a huge environmental benefit
Could have outlined a bit more context around the go-to-market
Good to see the alignment with Starkey and feel like this would be a strong partnership with great impact alignment
Have demonstrated a clear understanding of the customer opportunities and would have liked to know is there potential for more opportunities for growth within a UK market
Still quite early stage but the credibility of the business leader offers strong confidence that the business is on the correct path to take this forward towards market readiness
Really sensible proposed use of the EDGE award to deliver the trial, but will need to think about the future funding requirements in terms of marketing costs
Overall, comes across like a revolutionary product offering and can see this delivering huge benefits going forward for people and the planet. Assessors felt his was a strong candidate for the Wild Card EDGE category
Enhanced Due Diligence checks around ID, Address Verification and Credit History will also be carried out on the businesses selected as Wild Card EDGE winners, and funding awarded to each winner is subject to satisfactorily meeting the Due Diligence requirements. Details regarding the Due Diligence checking process and what each winner is required to complete and provide will be advised once the Wild Card EDGE winners have been announced following the final.
Congratulations on getting this far and good luck at the Wild Card EDGE Final.