Ever wonder what life in a startup is like? Hasan Veldstra – of Vidiowiki fame – produced this wonderful time-lapse video of him working on a new feature and implementing it. Reminds me a lot of this scene from Big Bang Theory.
Archive for the ‘Local News’ Category
A day in the life of a startup
Posted in Humour, Local News, tagged awesome, time lapse video, vidiowiki on 20 June, 2010| 2 Comments »
Introducing Float alpha
Posted in Local News on 16 June, 2010| 3 Comments »
Yesterday, Edinburgh-based startup Float opened its doors to a select group of alpha testers.
The service, an add-on to popular accounting SaaS and fellow Edinburgh startup FreeAgent, helps users predict future cashflow. It aims to take the guesswork out of everyday business questions like “Can I afford to take on a new employee?” and “If Sarah Palin doesn’t pay her invoice on time, will I have enough cash to pay the VAT man?”
Although only a few users are currently live on the system, the Float team reports that they hope to launch a public beta by the end of August. (more…)
The woman thing
Posted in Events, Local News, Opinions on 13 June, 2010| 6 Comments »
Where are all the women? Let me paint the scene: it’s Wednesday evening and Edinburgh TechMeetup is in full swing. Because of a projector mishap, we all crowd into a small conference room to see the presentations. I suddenly notice I’m the only woman in the room. When the guy next to me ignores the ten other bodies crammed around him and asks me to hold his beer, I realise I’m in trouble.
In general, I don’t like to talk about gender issues. Highlighting disparities between the achievements of men and women feels unproductive, and like a cop-out. Why were there no other women at TechMeetup that week? Perhaps they just had more demanding social calendars than me and the 50 men who attended.
Then again, maybe there is something more perverse than the release of SATC2 at work. On Friday, Informatics Ventures hosted “New Approaches to Leadership for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs, Managers & CEOs”, a workshop with an exclusively female guest list, headlined by three powerhouse women from the States.
Two things made this conference different from other “women in business/entrepreneurship/tech/science” events I’ve been to in the past. (more…)
1 Weekend, 5 Startups, Unlimited Potential!
Posted in Events, Local News on 9 June, 2010| 3 Comments »
Edinburgh was well represented this weekend at Launch48 in London, and the journey was absolutely worthwhile. Over the course of 48 hours, teams of developers, designers, marketers, and business savvy individuals came together and created 5 exciting new web applications. Skills and experience were mixed, but one belief was the same – that a huge amount could get done in a short space of time. Our mission was to brainstorm, build, and launch a web app between Friday night and Sunday evening.
25 assorted ideas were pitched by participants, whose suggestions ranged from political lobbying to kid-authoured dummy guides to customisable legal documents. Attendees narrowed it down by way of democratic vote, and we all then chose which project we wanted to dedicate our hearts and minds to. (more…)
18-25 and under-employed? Join the club!
Posted in Events, Local News on 8 June, 2010| Leave a Comment »
This just in: University of Edinburgh alum Tom Rendell is launching a new online platform dedicated to helping young people find work. The project, called Slumpwise, is the brainchild of Open Society, a collective of 18- to 25-year-olds that seeks to generate work and develop first-hand experience for participants through collaborative projects.
The Slumpwise launch event is Saturday June 12th 14:00-16:00, and includes an online panel discussion with 16 selected experts on “Creative Solutions To Youth Under Employment”. (See the full expert panel on the Open Society blog.)
To ask a specific question of the panel, (more…)
Voice-over artists for your promo videos!
Posted in Events, Local News, tagged 42Voices, Launch48, Voice over on 6 June, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Need a voice-over artist for a video? We would love to hear from you asap! Tweet @42Voices or email info@42Voices.com and let us know what sort of thing you’re working on… Or have a horror story of doing your own voice-over? Sorry it didn’t work out, but would be interested to hear about that for testimonials too!
We are running at full speed at Launch48, and with one morning and one afternoon to go, we are nearly ready to launch our snazzy web applications. I’m on a team developing 42Voices, a marketplace to match projects needing a voice with a relevant voice-over artist.
If you’ve ever made a demo or promo video for your startup, then you’re probably familiar with the problem we’re trying to solve. Instead of having to record the voice yourself, or getting your flatmate’s friend or aunt to do it, we’d like to give you access to real voice-over folks in a very quick and affordable manner. Our announcement below! (more…)
Grassroots help with Seedcamp Applications
Posted in Events, Local News, tagged gordon guthrie, hypernumbers, mini seedcamp, seedcamp on 3 June, 2010| 10 Comments »
Local help is being offered on applications for Seedcamp, the wildly popular seed investment and incubator programme in London. If you are interested in attending Seedcamp Week in September, then get an application in now for mini Seedcamp in London to earn a spot. The mini precursor event takes place 27th July, and applications are open now until 30th June.
Debating if this is a suitable opportunity for you? Want help on the application? Well I’m delighted to see this offering and call to action from Gordon Guthrie of Hypernumbers, thanks very much Gordon! Tweet @hypernumbers (see email below) if you want to join discussions.
- Folks
The way Seedcamp works this year has changed. All teams for the final Seedcamp week will have come through one of the mini-Seedcamps which have been running all over Europe.
The last of these is the London Mini-Seedcamp:
http://seedcamp.com/pages/london10
So if you want to apply now is the time. I know at least one team from Scotland is (more…)
Want to share your expertise or passion? We have just the place …
Posted in Competitions, Local News, tagged barcamp glasgow, ignite on 31 May, 2010| 1 Comment »
If you haven’t heard, Barcamp Glasgow is being run on 18th June! This year, Barcamp is being held in conjuction with Interactive Scotland and will feature a list of high profile speakers from STV, RealTime Worlds, Mediacom, Spotify, Facebook (TBC), Scotsman.com, Dog, Line, Whitespace, Innovation Digital, Spider Online, New Media Corp, Wildfire, w00tonomy, ISO Design, University of Abertay and the Scottish Government, with music from those cools chaps at Radio Magnetic.
The event is free to attend with no sign ups. Hashtag is #BarcampGlasgow. Details are:
Friday, 18th June, 4.30pm – 8.30pm, at STV (Pacific Quay) 
In addition, Startupcafe are leading an ‘Ignite’ style session from 7.30pm to 8.30pm.
We have 10 slots for inspiring people to share their expertise/passion/story – and we want to hear from you! We think that there is (more…)
More startup weekend goodness!
Posted in Local News on 27 May, 2010| Leave a Comment »
As if one startup event isn’t enough, London is playing host to another startup launch event – Startup Weekend London from 4th-6th June:
Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects. (more…)
Top Tips for IP related issues
Posted in Local News on 25 May, 2010| 1 Comment »
You’ve had a great business idea. You’ve drafted out a rough plan of how it’s going to work. You’ve done a ton of research, you’ve even managed to scrape enough money together to buy some basic equipment to run the business. You’ve found loads of info about setting up a company online, and found a free advisors to tell you about company formation and funding. Now, people keep on mentioning intellectual property rights being important to nearly every business out there, but not yours…right? Probably wrong.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are often potentially the most valuable thing that a company owns. And yet many people (a) don’t realised this, (b) can’t identify the IP in their business, (c) may know it’s there but don’t keep a track or record of it, (d) don’t protect it and (e) don’t exploit it. Crazy eh? Think – “Hello sir – you appear to have a pot of gold sitting in your unlocked room here – mind if I take it? Thanks…” Similar thing. (more…)
StartupCafe 