This week, we wanted to get hold of Aaron Bassett – the web designer that confessed to creating the ingenious and very funny website – BoycottScotland. Aaron is an award winning web developer by day, and a part-time web technology columnist and blogger (plus full-time twitterer) by night! (He’s a really busy guy!) Aaron is based in Glasgow.
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One of my favourite tips from the Aspiring Women Leaders course (run by Informatics Ventures) this week came from Ken Morse, who suggested you should get a wing man (or woman) for your next networking evening.
His advice: Find someone in your organisation that shares the same networking goals as you do, go to the event together. When you’ve cornered Mr/Ms Big and making your pitch, get your wing man/woman to look out for any incoming pitchers and whisk them away. Continue Reading »
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A favourite hobby of all GTD-ers is to talk about their own customised form of GTD. Just look at here or here for instance. If you use GTD, please share your tips below (or leave your name in the comments – it would awesome to have a GTD Geek night).
My Implementation
To give you a favour of what to expect, here’s some of the parts to my implementation of GTD (the full system would take too long to explain!) Continue Reading »
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Getting to plan B, breaking through to a better business model is the authors’ second book. John Mullins first authored The New Business Road Test, which has become a well used textbook in many university entrepreneurship courses. Randy Komisar is the author of The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living, a bestseller in every entrepreneurs’ reading list.
This new book is an attempt at educating entrepreneurs on how to change an initial business idea into a proper business with a sustainable business model. They designed a framework for entrepreneurs to use based on “four key building blocks”: analogs, antilogs, leaps of faith, and dashboards. Continue Reading »
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After a wild week of business and tech events, all we can say is ‘hold on, there’s more!’ Hope you got your rest this summer because the events scene is in full swing. Unfortunate time conflicts mean you’ll need to make some tough decisions, but here are your exciting options:
Tech Meetup: Wednesday, 9th Sept, 7pm at Appleton Tower
A monthly must for anyone in the tech startup scene – developers, programmers, entrepreneurs, students, community members, and curious bystanders. Most importantly, there will be free pizza and beer =). Join in on the 8th floor of Appleton Tower, Chrichton Street. No RSVP or tickets needed.
Edinburgh Twestival: Thursday, 10th Sept, 7pm at Electric Circus Continue Reading »
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The Web's Original Logo
On Tuesday evening, Robert Cailliau, co-inventor of the Web, gave a talk at Dynamic Earth about the growth of the Internet and the Web, during which he compared the Internet to the world’s transportation network. Roads represent the physical cables that connect the world together, the rules of the road (e.g. drive on the left) are the protocols that form the Internet itself, and the traffic that travels along the roads are the protocols that make the Internet useful: E-mail, Bittorrent and of course, the Web. His description is a very good one, though there is one distinction I think it is important to make: there is a big difference between the convoy of trucks used to transport goods throughout this network, and what makes those goods valuable. Continue Reading »
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So you’ve got a product. You want to commercialise it but don’t know what your rights are regarding your intellectual property (IP)?
The Innovators Counselling and Advisory Service for Scotland (ICASS) is an independent organisation funded by the Scottish Government to provide a free, impartial and confidential service to businesses regarding their IP. Accroding to their website, they are strictly an advisory service. Continue Reading »
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This evening, Jessica, Thomas and I were at the launch of the 2009 John Logie Baird awards. The short version: the JLB awards are for entrepreneurs with an innovative product with commercial potential. The long version: the word “awards” is quite mis-leading, as it seems like the winners have a whole bundle of support in helping to realise their idea/product into commercial success. From the launch speech, there were roughly 440 applicants last year, with something near 250 through the process. Last year’s top Young Innovators were StartupCafe favorites Fraser Doherty (Superjam) and Amanda Jones & James Brown (RedButtonDesign). Continue Reading »
Posted in Events, Support | Tagged awards, john logie baird awards, programme, redbuttondesign, superjam | 1 Comment »
We announced this event on our facebook group, but apologise for not announcing it on the blog earlier… We’re having StartupCafe drinks this Friday (4th Sept), 7pm, at Vodka Revolution on the corner between Chambers St and George IV Bridge.
If you didn’t know, Jess and I share the same birthday (which was earlier this week!) and so we thought it’d be a really good excuse for a few drinks! Please join us if you can – we have an area reserved and I think there’s even potentially some free nibbles for the early birds!
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Last week, Network Rail proposed a high speed rail line linking several major UK cities together costing £35 billion. If it goes ahead, the Edinburgh-London journey time would only be 2 hours and 9 minutes! This week, we want to discuss whether the proposed plans will have a significant impact on startups.
Thomas: I can’t wait to see it actually happen. Coming from France, I am of course a supporter of high speed rails links, as I’ve seen them expand across the Channel. The Paris to Lyon link is one of the most profitable routes for the SNCF, the company running trains in France. The route is mostly used by commuters, who travel between the two cities Continue Reading »
Posted in Roundtable Discussion | 6 Comments »
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