Our newest guest blogger, Priyanka Bose, offers stories and insights from the perspective of an Edinburgh student currently setting up a business. She’s got an exciting path ahead and we’re delighted to have her onboard.
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How do you turn an idea into a reality? How do entrepreneurs even come up with ideas? How are companies born? Well, this is how I did it.
I was unemployed, the first summer after my freshman year of university, and I couldn’t get a job, anywhere. That’s how it came to me, sitting at my computer one hot, dry day in July, responding to messages on Facebook. It was one message in particular, from a friend in California that really struck out to me. She wanted to know about the application process to universities in the U.K., and I remember thinking, “if only I could turn this into a job?” Well, why not? And that’s when (more…)
Wouldn’t it be cool if umbrellas had lasers shooting out the top? Wouldn’t it be rad if picture frames had custom messages scrolling around them? Or if you could get tweets read aloud to you by a Twitter app that sounded like Cheryl Cole? Well ok, so maybe we disagree here, but wouldn’t it be great if we could share all the random business ideas that pop into our heads?
The Venture Capital and Public Policy series continues, brought to you by 
Ad:Vent is the fundraising project of 6 Capgemini Consulting graduates challenged with devising a business idea to raise £10,000 for the Prince’s Trust. After successfully negotiating the Dragon’s Den and receiving £1500 for their concept, they have been busy making Ad:Vent a reality.
Whilst the Financial Times is busy publishing articles explaining how worse the British economy is getting, there’s a guy across the pond who made $2 billion last week. Is it true? Is it legitimate? The answer to these questions is yes. That guy is Jeffrey Bezos. He founded in 1994 a startup known as Amazon. Yes, that’s the Amazon you’re thinking of. 
The search is on for the most ‘exciting and innovative’ startups in the UK, and low and behold two of our friends were selected to represent the nation. Amanda Jones of Red Button Design and Richard Burton of Hoodeasy do us proud, and we need to rally behind them if we want to see a young entrepreneur from around here make the finals. It was Craig Smith who got voted through to the next round on Scotland’s behalf, so congrats to him, but the wildcard spot is up for grabs! Let’s show the rest of the UK what we’re made of and rally behind Amanda and Richard. You can see their 
I’m always amazed to see the number of people who still do not use a feed aggregator (also knows under other names). Those are usually people who have not tried one, or do not know what they are. Maybe we should call that the “Twitter Effect”, that being when there is a service available which has been proven successful (and sometimes useful), but still a majority of the population does not understand it. Or maybe it is what Geoffrey Moore already described as the Chasm.
Starting this month, Brian Baillie, Launch.Ed’s new business advisor, will be holding drop-in business advice clinics in George Square! The clinics will take place on the last Wednesday of every month from 13:00 to 16:00. Students or recent graduates of the University of Edinburgh can pre-book a 45 minute meeting with Brian by emailing 
StartupCafe 