The Smarta 100 is a celebration of the most resourceful, original, exciting and disruptive small businesses in the UK.

2011
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Founder name(s):
Rich Brown and Rossa Shanks
Company:
Great Little Place
Proposition:
Guide to the best places to eat, drink, explore, shop and wander around the world

Great Little Place

Great Little Place

Great Little Place is a business built entirely on the power of the crowd. It started life as a Facebook page, collating recommendations for great places to go in London first and then different cities around the world. The page had 40,000 fans in a fortnight. Founders Rich Brown and Rossa Shanks decided to take their fledgling venture to the next level and created a profile on crowdfunding site Crowdfunder - offering no equity, but plenty of love - to any generous investors. They raised £10,000. GreatLittlePlace.com now boasts 230,000 global fans through Facebook, Twitter and 22,000 newsletter subscribers. There's a mobile app on the way with a number of revenue-generating channels in the pipeline: referral booking commission, affiliate offers and branded content and newsletter advertising. Yet the real charm of the venture still lies in its crowd roots. The content writers are still sourced via crowd mechanics and this is how the business expands into new cities. You cannot fault the success of this model: it only has two employees yet the business has a presence in 100 cities.

  • Hugely innovative crowdsourcing model
  • Crowdfunded to the tune of £10,000 with no equity sold
  • Viral spread into new cities
Learn more about Great Little Place

more like this www.o2.co.uk/sme Natwest RBS Intuit Viking Mishcon de reya
  • Partners & Sponsors
  • Natwest
  • Royal Bank of Scotland
  • intuit
  • Viking Direct
  • Mishcon de reya


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