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LAST DAY for Engage Invest Exploit 2011 Exhibitor Applications – get em in!

28 February, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

 “If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done…” Well the last minute has arrived, and TODAY, Monday 28th Feb [note a closing time of 5pm!] is your last day to apply to exhibit at the annual investor showcase put on by Informatics Ventures. They are looking for cool tech startups and spinouts from across Scotland, in the areas of software, mobile, computer science & informatics.
You can see a nice little video of last year’s event above, or here.
And if you wanted to apply to exhibit, then do so here: http://www.eie11.com/

They have promised more support than in previous years, no doubt due to feedback from previous exhibitors, and while I know some startups are boycotting participation I want to make sure you get your apps in if you intended to. Good luck!

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Events Menu: 28th Feb – 6th March

28 February, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

***MONDAY IS LAST DAY FOR ENGAGE INVEST EXPLOIT EXHIBITOR APPLICATIONS – www.eie11.com***

Wednesday 2nd March: March Leith Geekup, 1pm at The Constitution

Lots of geeks work in Leith .. let’s have lunch at the http://www.constitutionbar.com/ (You can pre-order food for faster service). See who’s going and sign up via the Bloop event page!

Wednesday 2nd March: Refresh Edinburgh, 6:30pm at Holyrood 9A

Refresh Edinburgh is a community of web developers and designers interested in cutting-edge web technologies. We want to gather great minds, share our knowledge, promote local talent, and be more than we think we can be. We also want to drink and talk geek. Several RSVPs on Bloop – feel free to join in! Continue Reading »

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Inspire Conference: Worth a trip to London! Early Bird tix by Monday…

26 February, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

There’s a wonderful conference on in London this June, and with an impressive lineup of tech & startup speakers I dare say the Inspire Conference is worth a trip across the border! Tickets are an investment at £299 +VAT (or £149 +VAT for students!), so I’m sorry it’s not a free event, but I’d encourage you to have a look and see if the connections and experience may be worth your while.

Running 7th-8th June, the Inspire Conference is brought to you by the folks that created Launch48, so we’ve been very impressed with them before. You can have a sneak peak at the speakers so far – including Michael Birch (founder of Bebo) and Alex Breuer (design editor of The Times) – and I’ve included more details from the conference team below.

Note the “early bird” price lasts until this Monday 28th Feb, so if you’re going to book eventually, the earlier the better deal you’ll get. Are you eager to go, but can’t possibly afford a ticket? *Please comment below if so!* We are putting out a call for help to Informatics Ventures, Launch.ed, and SIE in case one of them is able to help subsidise some Scottish entrepreneurs who consider anything beyond Tesco Value noodles to be a splurge. We hear ya!! Make sure you comment below or email me jess [at] startupcafe.co.uk if a subsidy would make a real difference – I can’t promise anything, but I promise to ask! More details: Continue Reading »

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HubDub hiring an awesome end-to-end LAMP Developer. Know one?

26 February, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

We love the HubDub team and sounds like one very lucky person will get to join them! Know an end-to-end LAMP developer, or is that you? Details below, and apply here if you’re interested: http://bit.ly/fanduel-webdev. Good luck!

Company overview
Hubdub Ltd is a VC funded high-growth startup based in Edinburgh and San Francisco that aims to be the world’s largest premium social gaming company for sports fans. Its main product, FanDuel, transforms traditional fantasy sports ($1bn, 30m people market) into an instant gratification daily game where users win cash prizes every day. It is played on FanDuel.com, via white label partners such as the New York Post, and in future on mobile. If you want to work with smart people on an exciting product that could be Scotland’s next big success story we want to hear from you.

Description
Hubdub is looking for an end-to-end LAMP developer to work on the core FanDuel product. You will have a high degree of responsibility in a small development team, and work with the product manager and technical lead to scope, implement, test and maintain new functionality in the game. The environment is fast paced, challenging and dynamic. We are looking for someone comfortable with this level of uncertainty and who thrives on the excitement of working in a startup. You will form part of a highly talented team so only high-calibre applicants able to demonstrate excellent problem solving and software engineering skills will be successful. Continue Reading »

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Please help us improve StartupCafe

25 February, 2011 by Kate Ho

Hi everyone,

We’re planning quite a few changes at StartupCafe, but before we do anything, we want to hear your views. We want to make sure that we make the right changes so that the blog is more useful to you.

We’ve spent a lot of thought in crafting a questionnaire, which we would really appreciate you taking 5 mins to fill in:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CZM3TWM

As an incentive, we’re giving away this awesome Speck bag ($59.95 RRP) in a prize draw for everyone that answers the survey! (http://www.speckproducts.com/a-line-netbook-ipad-bag-brown.html)

We’re going to be making the draw this Sunday morning (27th Jan Feb, 11am (Ed: sorry, got the month wrong)) so please make sure you get your answers in by then!

Kate, Jess, Hilary, Bela and Thomas
The StartupCafe team

Posted in Competitions | 1 Comment »

Startup Genome Project – consider donating your DNA?

25 February, 2011 by Jessica Williamson

Ever thought about the DNA of your startup, and how it evolves? I gather it’s not Adenine and Guanine we’re talking about here, and not a double helix either, but I’m excited to hear about the recent launch of the Startup Genome Project to map startup evolution. Thanks Gordon Guthrie of Hypernumbers for forwarding this along!

The team behind the Startup Genome Project is kicking off their research, and here’s your chance to take part. You’ll find the initial survey here if you have “4-6 minutes” to chime in, hopefully with willingness to participate in future stages too. The Startup Genome Project was also covered in Fast Company – awesome! I can’t help but wonder their view on previous efforts from YouNoodle and TriStart, but I’m loving the name and very curious to see where this goes. Details from their email invitation below:

Calling all founders and entrepreneurs — Continue Reading »

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Business model example of the day: LoveYourLarder, where drop shipping meets gourmet foods.

24 February, 2011 by Hilary Singer

Current business model wisdom holds that increasingly, companies must provide excellent customer experiences to remain competitive. In other words, to stand out in a crowded market, successful companies must turn good products into fantastic services. Continue Reading »

Posted in Local News, Opinions | 1 Comment »

One Route to Awesome

23 February, 2011 by Bela Hamid

With an abundance of digital agencies and software development companies dotted about the landscape like currants in a spotted dick (it’s a pudding), what can you do to be awesome?  The usual answers are: provide an exceptional service, beat expectations, produce cool, innovative products etc  But I was thinking along the lines of something less glamourous – like implementing processes for various aspects of a project.

Why? Because unfortunately, being awesome can oftentimes just mean – delivering on time!  Being on time with software development projects is not something to be taken lightly.  It’s a huge feat.  Such projects are notorious for being over time and over budget.

Delivering on time on a regular basis means you are reliable.  Being reliable may not be sexy, but it is so incredibly necessary for client satisfaction.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be known as the mailman of the industry you work in i.e. the ones who ‘always deliver’.

Now these things don’t happen overnight but as a colleague from long ago once said to me “Bela, mighty Oaks from little acorns grow”.  Or was that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”?  So here’s a first step that I have found to work wonders, on my stress levels if nothing else. Continue Reading »

Posted in Opinions, Personal Management | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

How to choose your startup idea [Swombat]

23 February, 2011 by Thomas Drapier

Just found a blog that covers pretty much every topic of interest to entrepreneurs. It touches on lead generation for B2B or B2C, equity and investments, the basics of compensation, prototyping, etc: Swombat. Here’s a sample re-post on how to pick the right idea for a new venture.

A good set of question, by Amir Khella, about how to probe a new startup idea:

  • Which one excites you the most?
  • Which one can you do something about right now?
  • Which one can you get feedback about sooner?
  • Which one can you get done with the least amount of outside help?
  • Which one solves your own pain points?
  • Which one aligns the most with your purpose?
  • Which one would you like to work on for the next 10 years?
  • Which one is likely to remain significant a few years from now?
  • Which one do you not mind killing?

Do you really have to choose just one though? Pick several, and apply Hypothesis Driven Development to all of them at the same time, in parallel (a lot of the process is waiting time anyway). Whichever one gets to the point where it takes over your whole day first, is the one that wins.

Via Swombat

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New job listings: Awesome C++ programmer for rising graphics company; Summer internship for agile, can-do coder

22 February, 2011 by Hilary Singer

Working for a startup has to be one of the best jobs around. Flexibility, challenging work, cool colleagues, and a tangible connection between your input and the company’s output—what’s not to like? Here’s two opportunities that are recruiting now (and both, in case you’re wondering, are paid):

1. C++ Programmer for part-time work, possibly leading to full-time employment

Speech Graphics Ltd, a technology startup in Edinburgh providing lip-sync middleware and services to the video games industry, is seeking a talented software engineer for a consultant position, possibly leading to full-time employment. The candidate will assist in the development of a commercial middleware application to perform automatic lip-synchronization for video games. We seek someone with the following qualifications: Continue Reading »

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