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Looking for Love? StartupCafe launches Startupdating!

1 April, 2011 by Kate Ho

Here at StartupCafe we know how difficult it is for startup founders to find love. We know the score. You work all day and all night getting your MVP ready; you have to spend time surveying and talking to potential users; you have to spend ages refining your pitch, and you have get land those big meetings with investors … when do you even find time to meet anyone? And then when you meet them, how will you explain that you’re a poor startup founder with great potential?

Well worry no more. The StartupCafe team is here to help!

Starting from today, we’re launching StartupDating!

StartupDating is a dating site for startup founders. As well as matching physical attributes, StartupDating allows you to find your perfect match by determining the usefulness and value they can bring to your career as an entrepreneur! In finding a perfect match, the site will take into account what skills they have, how much money they’ve raised before, how much local knowledge they have in a particular country, how many twitter followers they have and which well-known VCs they have a personal connection with. Gone are the days in which personality, hobbies and physical attributes are online dating’s limiting factors.

When asked about the StartupDating revolution, Continue Reading »

Posted in Local News | Tagged , | 3 Comments »

Loc8 Solutions rebrands to Kotikan

1 April, 2011 by Thomas Drapier

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. Continue Reading »

Posted in Local News | Leave a Comment »

A personal update: You can take the girl out of Scotland, but…

31 March, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

Dear diary, and readers,

I typically highlight other people’s news so this feels a little strange, but as you may have gathered, I have an update I wanted to share with you guys… I’ll be moving to Cambridge very shortly for a job I just couldn’t resist.

Who/what/when… huh?

Remember the Springboard programme we announced last month? The one that’s partnered with TechStars and started by Jon Bradford of the Difference Engine? Well I was offered a chance to help with the Springboard runnings, and while at first I was flabbergasted at the thought of crossing the Scottish border, I came to realise it was too neat an opportunity to pass up. Continue Reading »

Posted in Local News | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Lesson 2: Five things founder / CEO of Innocent Drinks found to be true

31 March, 2011 by Bela Hamid

Richard Reed shared some lessons last week that I thought I’d share with y’all who couldn’t make it to the event at London Metropolitan University.  I posted lesson one here: Have a mission that works. So, what’s the second lesson?

Lesson 2: Things that start small can get big; (and then small again) The founders of Innocent Drinks set a target of £6million turnover.  They reached this within the first couple years and went on to grow amazingly year after year until….2008.  Duh – duh – daaaaah….! Continue Reading »

Posted in Events, Opinions | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

Belated Events Menu: 30th March – 3rd April

30 March, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

Better late than never… I hope?

Sorry the first half got truncated as I was homelessly running around Cambridge (more on that tomorrow), and thanks Bela for taking me in in London, but I have completely digressed. If you’ve missed your events fix, still plenty going on this week…

Thursday 31st March: Using Digital Marketing to Build an Online Brand, 6:30pm-8:00pm in Business School LT3

Brought to you by the Internet Marketing Meetup, a specialised partner of the E-Club, and open to all… Thomas Ashdown, Founder of Citylets will lead us in our discussion describing how he has used digital marketing techniques to build the UKs No1 residential lettings site based here in the heart of Edinburgh. Drinks at the Assembly will follow. Internet Marketing Meetup here for more details on them too.

Thursday 31st March: Drinks at SKYBar after above E-Club event, Point Hotel at 34 Bread Street

This bar looks amazing, and Johnny is initiating drinks there following the Internet Marketing/E-Club event. Continue Reading »

Posted in Events | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

5 things founder and CEO of #InnocentDrinks found to be true. Lesson 1…

28 March, 2011 by Bela Hamid

Last week I went to see Richard Reed, founder and CEO of Innocent Drinks give a talk at the London Metropolitan University.  If you ever get the opportunity to see him then I’d recommend it.  He’s a fairly entertaining presenter and I enjoyed myself immensely.

Lesson 1: Have a mission that works

Reed himself makes a hobby out of collecting / identifying missions.  He says that to be successful you need to serve a simple, unifying mission.  It’s important to be clear on why you are here.

I wonder, does this sound like something you’ve heard before?  Why do people say the same thing over and over again at these events? Maybe because this lesson is TRUE and though it’s simple, it’s one that most of us find difficult to achieve!  Reed provides this as an example of a company (called Longaberger) that truly understands the reason for its existence: Continue Reading »

Posted in Events, Opinions | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

3 new startups to watch for football, shopping & meetings: @bluefieldscom @hipsnip & @minutebase

28 March, 2011 by Bela Hamid

Launchpad is a startup incubation programme which culminated in an event last week hosted at Google’s London office where the three teams that survived the four month mentoring programme gave presentations to a roomful of mentors, startups, investors and other interested parties.

The programme was run by Launch48 who did not take a stake in the businesses. There were originally 4 teams but only 3 made it to the end.  The criteria for acceptance into the programme were: talented teams who were technically capable, would benefit from the program, had a product under development and who had an understanding of their market.

Several mentoring sessions were held over four months, each focussing on a particular area: mentoring, marketing, legal review, branding, sales, investment, and term sheet review.  These sessions were mentored by folk from the likes of Microsoft, Google and Dennis Publishing. Continue Reading »

Posted in Events, Local News | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Innovate and Win: Got a Medical Idea for BioQuarter competition?

24 March, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

Put a medical thinking cap on and you could win a hefty chunk of money from Edinburgh BioQuarter’s “Innovate and Win” competition, which is accepting entries until noon on 31st March. While it’s open to PhD students and staff, I reckon you could team up with the nearest PhD student to enter your idea if something comes to mind… [just a thought off the record].

Many thanks to James Wood at the BioQuarter for getting in touch with us, and sorry folks for not posting this sooner – where has the time flown?! Ah c’mon who here plans more than a week ahead anyway… Details below, and feel free to brainstorm or share wacky ideas in the comments for someone to pick up on!

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Edinburgh BioQuarter is offering researchers and staff £55,000 in prize money for the best innovations leading to new medical companies being formed from scientific research. Continue Reading »

Posted in Competitions | Leave a Comment »

Edinburgh Twestival: Inside Scoop on Tomorrow’s Event! @EdTwestival buzz by @idle_bull

23 March, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

Once upon a time I signed up for Twitter so I could crash the Edinburgh Twestival 2009… and tomorrow 24th March the Edinburgh Twestival is on again! The fun starts 7pm-1am at Hawke & Hunter (near the Omni). It’s a wonderful Twitter + festival party with all sorts of entertainment and cool folks, and many thanks to Geoff Kennedy (@idle_bull) for offering the inside scoop in all his excitement [Tickets here til they sell out!]:

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It’s 1.13am Wednesday the 23rd March 2011 and realisation that ‘that Twestival thing‘ I got involved in is iminent!

Well we’ve certainly been ambitious with EdTwestival this year! We’re looking to build on the success of previous Edinburgh Twestivals with even more people there on the night, and if all goes to plan; more cash raised!

As ever the mix is pretty electic. We have bands, cupcakes, a mind reader, drinks (of course), prizes galore (a hell of a lot of prizes), a DJ, a Foursquare Superswarm attempt (very geeky), boardgaming, a photobooth, goodiebags, silent auction, even an opera singer! This doesn’t even cover half of it! Continue Reading »

Posted in Events, Guest Blogger | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

To plan or not to plan…that is the question

22 March, 2011 by Bela Hamid

Who said “it is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time”? Hmm?

How far ahead should an entrepreneur look? Nobody would advocate lack of planning but trying to cater for every future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty is exhausting.  What is the impact on productivity of such an enemy of action? Continue Reading »

Posted in Opinions | Tagged , | 5 Comments »

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