{"id":522,"date":"2012-07-06T09:34:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T08:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/?p=522"},"modified":"2021-05-18T10:36:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T09:36:49","slug":"42-blue-dot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-100\/2012\/42-blue-dot\/","title":{"rendered":"42. Blue Dot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Founder:<\/strong>&nbsp;Chris Ward<br><strong>Founded:<\/strong>&nbsp;October 2011<br><strong>Website:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluedotworld.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.bluedotworld.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Having been creative director on nationwide charitable events Comic Relief and 1GOAL, Chris Ward (pictured right, with Coldplay&rsquo;s Chris Martin)&nbsp;knows a thing or two about the third sector. So when he read that shoppers spent more in Westfield in one year than the combined total of money raised for Comic Relief and 1GOAL, he decided to do what he could to incentivise people to give more. His business&rsquo; &lsquo;blue dots&rsquo; can be given to anyone who has supported a good cause, and are redeemable for rewards such as exclusive downloads or gig tickets.<\/p>\n<p>Businesses can buy blue dots to give to employees as part of their &lsquo;corporate social responsibility&rsquo; (CSR) strategies, and brands and businesses also pay to have an item in Blue Dot&rsquo;s store. The website is approaching 10,000 users and as the idea of &lsquo;social currency&rsquo; gains traction, the business is well-positioned to be at its forefront.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founder:&nbsp;Chris WardFounded:&nbsp;October 2011Website:&nbsp;www.bluedotworld.com Having been creative director on nationwide charitable events Comic Relief and 1GOAL, Chris Ward (pictured right, with Coldplay&rsquo;s Chris Martin)&nbsp;knows a thing or two about the third sector. So when he read that shoppers spent more in Westfield in one year than the combined total of money raised for Comic Relief and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91469,"featured_media":523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-157"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>42. Blue Dot - Startups 100 by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-100\/2012\/42-blue-dot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"42. Blue Dot - Startups 100 by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Founder:&nbsp;Chris WardFounded:&nbsp;October 2011Website:&nbsp;www.bluedotworld.com Having been creative director on nationwide charitable events Comic Relief and 1GOAL, Chris Ward (pictured right, with Coldplay&rsquo;s Chris Martin)&nbsp;knows a thing or two about the third sector. So when he read that shoppers spent more in Westfield in one year than the combined total of money raised for Comic Relief and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-100\/2012\/42-blue-dot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Startups 100 by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-06T08:34:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-18T09:36:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/images.startups.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/07\/1341492928Blue-Dot-Chris-Martin-and-Chris-Ward2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"254\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"180\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Startups Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Startups Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-100\/2012\/42-blue-dot\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-100\/2012\/42-blue-dot\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Startups Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-100\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60\"},\"headline\":\"42. 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