White Bullet

Having received funding from Innovate UK to develop its products while in startup phase, White Bullet is now a thriving scaleup with big ambitions for the future. Participating in Cyber 101 has given the founders access to expertise helping it to plan a growth strategy, navigate the investment ecosystem and adopt a growth mindset that will underpin its continued success and development.

White Bullet wanted to scale its success

When White Bullet was founded in 2013 by a group of experienced intellectual property lawyers it was initially self-funded. As its ideas developed, it successfully applied for Innovate UK funding which enabled it to develop a range of advanced solutions to identify intellectual property infringement risk online in real time and track the advertising funding it. Fast forward to 2019 and the company is thriving, with a trans-Atlantic operation in London, Europe and the US. The founders wanted expert advice on how to maintain its momentum and successfully scale the business.

Now that White Bullet had established a market presence and identified the core target market it wanted support to work out how to make its products more accessible and add more value to these companies. It wanted to think through the best way to structure its value offering and business so it could continue to grow. It also wanted help to identify what resources would be needed to scale, how to focus them and how to raise the investment needed to take the business forward.

Founder Peter Szyszko explains, “When you are running a successful scaleup business it is important to carve out the time to take a step back and look carefully at your business strategy for growing the business. We have the skills needed to start and run a successful business in abundance but we recognise we must take on new skills and resources to advance to the next phase and continue success.”

Digital Catapult offered expertise and the discipline to develop and execute a professional strategy to deliver sustainable growth

White Bullet has been participating in Cyber 101 for the last 18 months. Cyber 101 is part of DCMS funded activity to grow the UK’s cyber security industry and the capability of cyber security startups and scaleups. It works across all sectors because security is a common concern for all UK businesses. This programme is linked to the Develop strand of the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy, a series of activities that will be supported by £1.9bn in public investment over the next five years. It is delivered in partnership with Digital Catapult, The Accelerator Network, CSIT and Inogesis.

Participating in Cyber 101 has supported product development, investment readiness and opened the door for potential investment

Engaging with Digital Catapult has helped White Bullet in three key ways:

• to devise a product development approach that makes its value proposition more accessible and client-focused
• to understand how to prepare the business for investment including focusing resources in order scale successfully
• to understand the type and amount of investment needed and how to meet and attract the right investors

White Bullet wanted to make products more accessible and intuitive so that they offered more value to clients and fitted with how it was operating to ensure the company could continue to run efficiently as demand grows. Participating in the Cyber 101 workshops helped the founders to think through how to structure the products to make the business more scalable and work through how it was going to meet the increasing demand for its solutions.

The investment landscape can be intimidating for businesses that haven’t raised investment before. Digital Catapult helps business owners to understand the different types of investment that are available and how they are structured. What each will do for a business and what the different types of investors are looking for. This includes thinking strategically about any future investment that might be required.

“Digital Catapult helped us to understand and evaluate the type of investment on offer and see how investors would look at our business. This enabled us to improve the tone and expectations from conversations with investors. We feel more confident and equipped to make smart investment decisions” adds Peter Szyszko.

As part of Cyber 101, White Bullet was invited to pitch to a carefully selected group of investors that are actively looking for investment opportunities. This has resulted in investment discussions which are ongoing at the time of writing.