Over at my day job, we’ve been gearing up towards an internal product launch. We’re at the stage where we’ve put together our marketing plan and the next action is to get a launch page to sign alpha testers up.
I’ve been asking around for the best ways to do this, and here’s what I’ve found.
WordPress themes
Throw up your own wordpress installation and then install one of these themes:
http://wordpress.themeshaper.com/
http://spyrestudios.com/demos/coming-soon-demo/ Continue Reading »
Posted in Knowledge | Tagged beta testing, launchpages | 3 Comments »
This weekend saw the first ever Culture Hack Scotland. 24 hours, resulted in 24 projects being presented at the end of a long and exhausting day.
Organised (prinipically) by Ambition Scotland and Festival Labs, chs11 had a number of previously unrelated datasets for the participants to play with. The most popular ones used at the weekend were the Edinburgh Year-Round footfall data (from Edinburgh City Council) and the Fringe venue dataset.
The Day
I won’t go into all of the details, especially since chs11 themselves have done a stirling job in pulling together a great documentation of the day (through Storify):
Friday night – http://storify.com/hackscotland/chs11-by-night
Saturday morning – http://storify.com/hackscotland/saturday-morning
Saturday afternoon – http://storify.com/hannahrudman/culture-hack-scotland
Posted in Local News | Tagged chs11, hackday | 2 Comments »
I remember when people who wanted to start businesses were told the best thing they could do is to get rid of their TV. TV was time consuming – it was claimed – and could zap away hours of your time through mindless entertainment that apparently added little to your life.
TV has changed significantly since then, of course, with the creation of on-demand (iPlayer) and hard drive recording (Sky+). Both of these models have turned the entertainment paradigm on its head: shifting from a pull rather than push medium. I can watch exactly what I want, when and where I want. No longer do I have to sit around waiting for the 8pm show before watching the 9pm show. As an aspiring productivity ninja, I’ve found that TV does not feature high on my sources of procrastination anymore. In fact, when I do watch TV, I really do want to watch it. Continue Reading »
Posted in Opinions | 6 Comments »
We wrote about the Inspire Conference a few months ago—a TED-like event that brings together top industry speakers to talk about innovation, trends, and thought leadership in technology, creativity, and entrepreneurship from 7th–8th June in London.
Back then, we thought it was a bit pricey, at nearly £500 per ticket. Now, I’m happy to say that there’s a special rate for startups and students (£149.00 + VAT), as well as a StartupCafe discount code that you can use to get an additional 10% off (startupcafe).
This conference has been a bit hard to get my head around at times—I think because its aim to promote a high-level discussion of current technology and web trends is so broad and ambitious, that it’s hard to feel the urgency or direct relevance to any particular person or startup.
However, this is exactly the sort of event that has big benefits for Edinburgh entrepreneurs and startups. London’s a big, shiny source of funding, enthusiasm, talent, customers, exposure, and ideas—and the Inspire Conference provides a cheap, efficient way to tap into all of it. That’s why I’m going.
With only a month until the conference, it’s time to think about scheduling a trip to London. Grab a ticket now (and don’t forget the discount code!), check out the speakers list, and watch for updates from us about discounted hotel accommodation.
Posted in Events | Leave a Comment »
Business angel Permjot Valia (@permjotvalia) blogs on the reality of the royal succession and how it’s out of place in this day and age. Permjot blogs on Business Angel Blog.
Angel investing is like marriage; it is the celebration of hope over statistical reality. So the world is celebrating the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton tomorrow and on a personal note of course it is something worth celebrating. But I have to admit that I am a complete party pooper and as a proud Republican I find the national celebration of a royal wedding depressing. Continue Reading »
Posted in Opinions | Leave a Comment »
I don’t know what it is, but it looks to me that this week’s events menu is surprisingly sparse. Maybe it’s the half term holidays? To make the Friday Coffee morning meetup less lonely, I’ve added some upcoming events that you should put in your diary and look out for. In the mean time, enjoy your relative meeting free week!
Friday 29th April, 8am, Centrore, Friday Coffee Morning
Every Friday morning, Edinburgh’s creative early risers meet at 8am for breakie, and a chance to share ideas and Web 2.0 finds.
Posted in Events | Leave a Comment »
Background
On Monday morning, Hilary and I met with Erin Maguire (Digital Content and Event Producer at AmbITion Scotland) to talk about how AmbITion’s upcoming Culture Hack Day could be structured. We had a really interesting discussion, pulling together Hilary’s knowledge as an organiser of Launch48 Edinburgh, mine as a team member at Social Innovation Camp and team leader at Launch48, and Erin’s experience organising the London Culture Hack Day. We swapped tips and talked about experiences, so here are some of the notes I made from that list.
Tip 1: Open is good, but structure is good too. Having a completely open, freeform event works well most of the time, but sometimes, it helps to have some structure too. A lot of it will depend on how experienced your audience is with hack days. The less experienced they are, the more structured the event should be to help attendees get the most out of it. The trick is to take the best of open and structured styles, and balance them. Continue Reading »
Posted in Events, Local News | 1 Comment »
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. Continue Reading »
Posted in Local News | 1 Comment »
The excellent fountain of knowledge, Ben Werdmuller, posted a really interesting article which he highlights three things to consider if you’re deciding to be a tech entrepreneur (here are my favourite snippets):
1. Leaders vs Developers – “… being a great leader is not always the same skillset as being a great developer. And neither is necessarily the same as being a great businessperson … The details-orientated, engineering mindset that development demands is also well suited to building a company, as long as this is accompanied by those empathic people skills and a willingness to learn. And in fact, the best developers areinformed, decisive, empathic, persuasive, selfless and great communicators.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Opinions | Tagged advice, entrepreneur | 4 Comments »
Sorry the events menu is a little late this week, but hope you enjoy the menu. And PLEASE contribute if you think there’s anything we’ve missed off (especially since it looks a bit thin this week):
Monday, 18th April, New Ventures Support Group: PR for Tech Companies
Sarah Lee, Managing Director of public relations company Hot Tin Roof will join us for this month’s meetup. Sarah specialises in PR for small tech companies, and has implemented successful, affordable campaigns for a number of Edinburgh startups and spinouts.
Friday, 22nd April, 8am, Edinburgh Coffee Morning
Every Friday morning, Edinburgh’s creative early risers meet at 8am for breakie, and a chance to share ideas and Web 2.0 finds.
Posted in Events | Tagged Events | Leave a Comment »
StartupCafe 