Philip's 12-week start-up challenge: Week 10 - The highs and the lows of launching a start-up

StartUp Saturday alumni Philip Crilly is sharing his progress with Enterprise Nation readers as he seeks to get his gluten-free food business Eatibbles launched in just 12 weeks. In week ten, Philip experiences highs and lows as he nears the end of his start-up challenge.

We're coming into the final stretch of our 12 week challenge and there have recently been some highs and some lows! I've got news about the Shell Livewire competition, building relationships with retailers and also being featured in a national newspaper. Also, you might notice some shiny new pictures on the blog! This is thanks to Enterprise Nation website editor Simon Wicks who took some snaps with me around Surbiton at the weekend. Thanks Simon! (You're welcome! SW)

Missing the Shell LiveWIRE target

After a last minute push to get as many votes as possible for the Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Award (April 30th was the last day to canvass for votes), I received a call from the Shell LiveWIRE team to let me know that unfortunately this time around we hadn't won the funding. I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who did vote - I really appreciate your support! While, of course, I was a bit disappointed, I have to say that I really enjoyed taking part in the competition and learned a lot while doing so. Being shortlisted highlighted the Eatibbles brand to people who may never have heard of it before, it helped boost my confidence in the company and what we are trying to achieve and it gave me the opportunity to make a promotional video (something I had never done before). I'm hoping to get some feedback from the judges about what they thought about my proposals and use their input to develop the business further. Not winning the award is another thing to learn from and I am really keen to re-apply for the competition in the near future.

"Being shortlisted highlighted the Eatibbles brand, helped boost my confidence and gave me the opportunity to make a promotional video."

Chasing a supermarket product  listing

During the week I had the opportunity to meet a very successful food entrepreneur who was able to give me some invaluable branding and business advice. He gave me some key next steps to help make Eatibbles more appealing to customers and advised me on how to build relationships with distributors. He also put me in touch with two other successful entrepreneurs - Charlotte Knight from G'nosh dips and Gem Misa from Righteous - who have already given me some direction for getting my products listed at Whole Foods Market! It's very exciting and I'm hoping to build on their advice to put a proposal together so that I can approach buyers in the near future. A mention in The Guardian

"It was great to be mentioned in The Guardian and hopefully it will spark a bit more interest in what we're doing."

With the disappointment of not winning the Shell LiveWIRE funding, this week also brought some exciting news. Eatibbles and our story were featured in an article in The Guardian discussing businesses that are developed in the hours of 5-9pm. Enterprise Nation's own Emma Jones discussed her work helping to launch new businesses and also the rise of the home-based start-up entrepreneur. It was great to be mentioned and hopefully it will spark a bit more interest in what we are doing. That's the story so far this week. Things are coming together and I'm really excited about finally launching Eatibbles properly and releasing it to the world. Thanks for reading, Philip :)

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• Catch up with Philip's 12-week start-up challenge so far

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Photo credit (main): Simon Wicks (with apologies to SuperJam)