Jon Harris, founder of Simpl, gave a 3 minute pitch at St James's Palace in front of HRH The Duke of York and over 300 investors and business leaders. In a live audience vote, Simpl was awarded joint first place for 'Greatest Commercial Potential', second for 'Best Pitch' and joint third for 'Most Disruptive Idea'.
Commenting on the award, Jon Harris said, 'It's incredible for Simpl to win an award for commercial potential as voted for by investors, but we're not surprised. The market for radically simple website creation is huge and mobile internet growth is explosive. Simpl addresses a very real pain point for ordinary people who want a website - and that includes many of the investors who voted for us.'
In Stage 1, Simpl won through out of over 50+ startups that applied to Google Campus in London. At Stage 2, Simpl was chosen as a finalist out of 36 startups shortlisted from a dozen different networks. The final Pitch@Palace event, during which #pitchatpalace was trending on Twitter in the UK, was on 2nd April.
Simpl was profiled as a startup finalist in the Daily Telegraph on the day of the event, and featured as an award winner on 4th April.