UPDATE: Awesome news.
Holy thread revival batman!
Just wanted to say thankyou once again to all those that helped out in this survey. In the end, this constituted a piece of preliminary research for the project; we did a LOT more research over the course of the year, eventually coming together as a 27,000 word business plan. Needless to say, the entire concept has developed a hell of a lot since posting this thread, fleshed out and come together.
Through the course of developing the idea, we've been in touch with all sorts of market players and industry experts, had interest in the idea from easyJet, flyBe and BA. So obviously we've been pushing the idea.
This past weekend saw Startup Weekend take place in Newcastle. We were there and came out with a prize for the most innovative startup idea. (see
http://newcastle.startupweekend.org). The prize is £10,000 worth of business mentoring, as well as fast track access to £10k startup capital, with a further £150k on offer if we get it off the ground. Just as a bit of background, a lot of big ideas have come out of startup weekends across the globe - Dropbox for example.
Met up today with our course lecturer, big grin spread across his face when we told him, and we've scheduled a meeting in which to break down the monolithic questionmark that now faces us in terms of starting this as a business; we'll have the full support of the uni, our own expertise and networks from these types of events, the mentoring on offer and startup capital support. Also expecting a lot of coverage from the uni, they love hearing success stories like this. Exciting times indeed!
So once again, a huge thankyou to everyone who got involved with this survey! And watch this space!
