Tag: interview

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AC CEO Paul Salvini discusses raising capital and securing funding in Watch Magazine

Raising capital to grow a business and realize an entrepreneurial dream is just one of the long list of duties that make up a startup CEO’s curriculum vitae. Perfecting the pitch is only a small part of the battle. Attracting high quality investors, and landing the deal is where the big effort comes in – and it’s not an easy road by any means. In this issue of Watch, we sat down with Dr. Paul Salvini, CEO of the Accelerator Centre, to hear his perspective on the startup funding challenge, and to learn why Accelerator Centre programming and mentorship provide startup clients with that all important investment ‘seal of approval.’

Watch: It’s not easy for a startup to secure funding, especially in the early days. What does the process look like, and do Accelerator Centre clients gain any advantage?

Paul Salvini: There are typically many rounds of funding that a venture will go through from inception through to maturity. Often funding for a business idea starts out with money from family and friends, or savings. Or for those individuals who came from previous employment, perhaps a severance package, depending on the path one takes to becoming an entrepreneur.

And then after that first round of funding from family and friends, a startup will typically go through a seed round provided by folks like angel investors, and then subsequent rounds after that depending on how the business does.

One of the things we do really well here at the Accelerator Centre is provide a structured environment that, just by being accepted into the Accelerator program, provides a startup with level of credibility – a seal of approval if you will – with future investors. It is a competitive process to be accepted to the Accelerator Centre, and it is a competitive process to stay here. So that brings a lot of comfort to those who are funding companies, to have the confidence that the team here thought the idea and the founders were likely to succeed. In addition, we are providing mentoring and guidance on an ongoing basis to these companies, that overtime gives our staff some insight into these companies which is the dream scenario for any venture capitalist.

To read the full interview, click here.

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Interview with AC Client In The Chat

In the Chat aims to transform customer service within big brands with a second generation social listening platform that puts customers first.

With more than 1.3 billion Facebook users worldwide and more than 500 million tweets per day, social media platforms have become a dominant communication channel within our lives.

So when our flight is delayed several hours, or our phone fails to hold its charge, we as consumers now turn to social channels to voice our concerns and questions – with the hopes that the brands we interact with daily are out there listening.

However, the challenge that those in the hospitality industry, banks, telco providers, and retailers are facing is implementing a platform to identify these conversations. A platform where you can not only find and listen to these important signals within a sea of noise, but act swiftly upon that information to improve customer satisfaction, and drive new revenue.

It’s a daunting challenge to solve, explains John Huehn, CEO and founder of In the Chat. “The average telco in the US market needs to monitor an astonishing volume of information – up to 10 million posts a day related to their and their competitors brands,” explains Huehn. “There are tens of millions of people in the US today talking about their telecom providers every day. So how does a company effectively, efficiently and expediently decide which of these posts are of highest value? And perhaps most importantly, which of these customers need immediate attention from a customer service or sales representative?”

Huehn believes his company has the answer to that challenge.

To read the full article, click here.