You may have seen a lot of chat on our social media from the past couple of weeks about the RBS Accelerator programme and wondered what the heck we’re talking about!
Earlier this month we were delighted to be accepted onto the RBS Accelerator, which allows any business (whether you’re about to launch or if you’re almost two years down the line like us) apply to be part of their programme – which aims to help you grow and scale your business. Lasting 6 months and full funded, it gives you the opportunity to dedicate the time to areas that we often neglected such as customer discovery or where we envision Yellow Bird will be in 5 years’ time. We’ll be challenged to make goals for the company and push ourselves outside our comfort zone. Has anyone else had to do a 60 second elevator pitch to 70+ strangers at day 2 of an induction? Terrifying! But we won a prize! Which just goes to show we do have the ability to do this once we put our mind to it.
Alongside this we get to use their amazing Glasgow hub (they have 12 across the UK) where we get to work alongside a number of fantastic start-ups. We’ve only been there a week and it’s been amazing to hear about all the other amazing businesses and see the passion and ambition from like-minded individuals. For the next 6 months, all businesses can take advantage of the monthly workshops & networking sessions, you are all allocated a mentor, there’s hot desks, printing, and social events (Friday night drinks are must after any busy working week).
Whatever stage your business is at, be it in its early infancy or going strong for 5+ years, the RBS Accelerator is a open to all and a great opportunity. Typically for most companies, it can be easy to get caught up in the day to day activities of what your service or product provides. In the past two weeks, it’s not only lighted a fire in the team, alongside doing wonders for our confidence, it has also allowed us to step back and look at the bigger picture of who Yellow Bird is and what values we hold.
The RBS Accelerator programme is free and you don’t have to be a RBS customer to apply, you can find out more info how to join here. Stay tuned to our social media as we’ll be documenting our journey through the next 6 months. Yep we’re those gals who’ll be attending as much as we can, throwing ourselves in to the deep end and making as many pals as possible. Because at the end of the day, you only get out what you put in, and one of the Yellow Bird values is to give our clients 100% so it only makes sense to do it with ourselves.
Good luck to all the businesses part of our cohort and if you are thinking about joining the RBS Accelerator, and have any questions, then feel free to get in touch.