Getting to the heart of online dating February 2, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks matchmaking with Lovestruck founders Brett Harding and Laurence Holloway ONLINE dating has come a long way since kiss.com and match.com – widely believed to be the first major dating websites – were registered in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Today, it is one of the most popular ways to meet a new partner, [...]
Innovation Diary: Three ways in which Britain’s entrepreneurial revolution is continuing to unfold February 2, 2014 BY PLEDGING to cut red tape, open up more government contracts to small companies, and use state R&D budgets to encourage innovation, politicians of all stripes spent last week promoting the entrepreneurial economy. But are they keeping pace? With creative destruction and technological change intensifying, it would be easy to forgive any of us for [...]
Gimme 5 February 2, 2014 …INCUBATOR SPACES YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD OF The Bakery The first Tech City ad-tech hub is a work space and “second stage” accelerator. It has over 3,000 sq ft of space for events, workshops and seminars. www.thebakerylondon.com Bathtub2Boardroom Charity that offers training and creates shared workspaces for early-stage entrepreneurs and freelancers in empty commercial [...]
How to grow a business from a bean January 26, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks student life and staple diets with James Eder, founder of marketing firm The Beans Group IN THE age-old debate over whether entrepreneurship is innate or can be taught, James Eder – founder of The Beans Group – makes a strong case for the former. At 13, he and his brother Michael created [...]
Innovation Diary: Perfect storm of factors is set to make education technology the UK’s next growth sector January 26, 2014 FOR THOSE seeking a model of the classroom of the future, Estonia is often high up the list. Speaking at Davos last week, Barclays’s Antony Jenkins contrasted the Baltic state’s “technologically-oriented” economy, where every child is taught coding at school, with the UK’s structural youth unemployment. Estonia’s tech transformation is indeed impressive. It has some [...]
Gimme 5 January 26, 2014 …STARTUPS CROWDFUNDING THIS MONTH Films of London Target: £125,000 for 25 per cent equity Film production and development company specialising in low to medium budget feature films. Raised: £61,200 via Seedrs 18 days left Lawbit Target: £120,000 for 6.48 per cent equity Online legal service providing plain English contracts for small companies. Raised: £64,040 via [...]
Springbok spicing up the wine market January 19, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to Rowan Gormley, the South African taking on wine’s giants with venture Naked Wines THE DAYS of the wine snob – so brilliantly caricatured by Richard E Grant’s the Hon Simon Marchmont in the BBC’s Posh Nosh – could be coming to an end. It’s an industry long characterised by an assumption [...]
Innovation Diary: Why it could take a network of angels to rescue startups’ faulty funding escalator January 19, 2014 FOR BUSINESSES seeking scale, the process of funding growth is often characterised as an escalator – with founders initially staking personal capital, then finding angel support, then venture capital, and ultimately accessing public markets. While arguably simplistic (the academic Paul Gompers, for example, has argued that different funding sources are more suited to some business [...]
Gimme 5 January 19, 2014 …UPCOMING EVENTS FOR ENTREPRENEURS Don’t Pitch Me, Bro! 30 January, 6-10pm A 3 Beards event giving entrepreneurs feedback on their startup from their peers. No pitches, just demos. £5 Wayra UK, WC1E 6JA Dinner with Simon Sinek 4 February, 7-11pm Tech City News Supper Club’s latest event. Over the course of dinner, author Sinek will [...]
Army veteran tapping into the global gaming market January 12, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks Grand Theft Auto and going East with Paul Sulyok, founder of commerce platform Green Man Gaming COMPUTER games have come a long way since Spacewar! was created in 1962. Last year, Grand Theft Auto V took $2.2bn (£1.33bn) within its first week after launch – a feat even Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters would [...]