Cyclehoop tames the Dragons and wins consultancy from SiftGroups

Anthony Lau, founder of Cyclehoop, emerged victorious after presenting to a panel of top class business talent and an audience of 150 entrepreneurs at the exciting conclusion to The Pitch 2009, having dealt with a grilling from judges Tim Campbell, winner of The Apprentice 2005; former TV Dragon Doug Richard; Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins and Helen Stevenson, chief marketing officer at Yell.

Anthony's prize, a total of £50,000 worth of business support, includes strategic consultancy sessions from SiftGroups focussing on developing online community around his business, leveraging social media and online sales techniques.

It's been fascinating watching The Pitch grow from humble beginnings as a small, regional competition in 2008, to a national event attracting attention from Peter Mandelson in 2009, and with even bigger plans for 2010. Of particular interest to me is the viral way in which the event has been promoted using the latest social media tools, and the way in which it was covered online using emerging technology such as CoveritLive to provide visitors with live updates from the event. Of course, having self-confessed Twitter addict Dan Martin leading the social media marketing offensive has helped hugely.

We'll be covering the work that we do with Anthony and his team here, and of course you can follow our Twitter feed for instant updates on this and other things that are going on at SiftGroups.