StartupCafe

I always wonder how the startup scene in Edinburgh and Scotland really compare to that of London and the rest of the U.K. From the BBC comes this encouraging news today: Scotland is the No. 1 producer of spin-out companies in the U.K., with Edinburgh leading the pack.

Spinout companies aren’t the same as startups—spin-outs, in this case, refer only to companies that have built their product or service around a piece of research or intellectual property from a university—but it’s an encouraging metric nonetheless.

Here’s an extract of the same story, as published in Nexxus Scotland. (more…)

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Today, the Festivals Lab has unveiled their first big hackday event: Culture Hack Scotland. Culture Hack Scotland is an exciting event in which bring cultural organisations together with software developers and creative technologists to see what amazing new things they can make in just 24 hours.

Based around Culture Hack Day in London, the day will be similar, but with a distinct Scottish slant to it. I’m secretly hoping that there will be some really neat Festival based apps around it.

The day is looking for designers and developers, as well as people who work in arts.

I’m most excited about this because for once, we don’t have to go down to London for a hackday – which you can imagine is awesome. But the other thing that I’m excited about is, along with Social Innovation Camp, and the potential Startup Recruitment fair, Edinburgh is really one of the hottest places to be at for tech and startup activity. This event contributes to creating a tech community that encourages creativity and experimentation. I only hope that we can reach out to Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen to encourage them to come along!

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Well folks, its been a while since we nabbed someone in the community for a 60 second interview. Just as a recap, we use the 60 second interview as a way to introduce members of the tech/startup community to each other. So if you would like to be featured, don’t be shy and give us a shout on email or in real life. This week, we have Jane Ballantine … (more…)

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At StartupCafe, we’re weighing the merits of organising a startup job fair (like this one in New York City). We’re know there are loads of talented students, graduates, and others, who dream of working for you. The question is whether you’re actually hiring, and whether you’d be interested in exhibiting at this one-off event.

Give us your thoughts in this lightning-fast survey. If there’s enough demand, we’ll make it happen.

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Yes, Social Innovation Camp is back! This time, the team have preferred to locate the competition to the East side of the country (at the Informatics Forum – where I’m sitting right now!) between 17th – 19th June 2011.

Social Innovation Camp brings together software developers and designers with people who understand a social problem to help build web and mobile solutions to social challenges.

This year’s theme is social isolation: (more…)

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Scotland’s largest mobile apps company rebrands to Kotikan, reflecting its growth into new sectors. The rebrand reflects the business’ evolution from a provider of location-based apps to covering the full spectrum of mobile development. From its beginnings in a bedroom in 2007, Kotikan is now the biggest and fastest growing app developer in Scotland. (more…)

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