Why I left the City for a startup – and why you should too September 5, 2014 If there’s a reason I left my finance career to build startups it’s probably this: vomit. It happened one night at 10 or 11pm on the 33rd floor of a gleaming investment bank. It wasn’t unusual that I was there so late – in fact, it was mostly the norm, and I’d been run haggard [...]
The Startup Manifesto: Why the digital economy has never been a bigger political issue September 3, 2014 The UK’s digital startups are thriving – we have the fastest-growing digital economy in the G20 and have created 11 tech companies worth over $1bn in the last decade. British digital successes like Zoopla, Shazam and YPlan are now household names, and in London alone the tech sector is forecast to create 46,000 jobs and [...]
Top startups in call to keep London #1 European tech hub September 2, 2014 London's top startups and venture capital firms will today urge the UK government to relax rules and taxes in order to maintain the capital’s status as the top European tech hub. The so-called Startup Manifesto – written by policy group Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) led by former government adviser Guy Levin – [...]
Aaron Swartz: Reddit founder and internet’s own boy in new documentary August 27, 2014 "He was the internet’s own boy and the old world killed him”. This eloquent epitaph is provided by journalist Quinn Norton, an ex-girlfriend of Aaron Swartz and one of many who talk tearfully of Swartz in a documentary, The Internet’s Own Boy, released this weekend. Swartz was indeed the internet’s boy but it was his [...]
Why the future is collaborative for banks and fintech August 27, 2014 THE INTRODUCTION of paper money revolutionised the way we exchanged goods and services. Now, the booming UK financial technology (fintech) sector is fast changing the way we bank, invest and raise money. Thanks to a large and sophisticated consumer market, a high concentration of global financial institutions, and the availability of capital, fintech has found [...]
Next generation finance: How London can cement its leadership in fintech August 19, 2014 The launch of Innovate Finance, a new body dedicated to supporting fintech (or financial technology) in the UK, at Canary Wharf this month highlighted London’s ability to become the global centre of the sector. They say there is no “fin” in San Francisco and no “tech” in New York – but there is certainly both [...]
Keep burglars at bay with this home security tech August 13, 2014 Thousands of us are preparing to head for the hills for the last few weeks of summer, squeezing in a few precious days of R&R before the long slog towards Christmas. But leaving a home full of laptops and expensive jewellery can be a persistant niggle – and replacing them in the event of a [...]
George Osborne makes a quick buck on £20 Bitcoin buy at Level 39 August 6, 2014 As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, you might expect George Osborne would like to keep his own pocket money in good old, Bank of England-regulated, sterling. But it’s apparent a trip to trendy FinTech den Level 39 has left Osborne with a sense of adventure – he’s gone where no chancellor has gone before – [...]
The iPhone 6: Apple rumours swirling as September release date approaches August 6, 2014 It seems like an age since Apple boss Tim Cook took to the stage to unveil the iPhone 5S, probably the strongest “mid-release” upgrade since the inception of the iPhone. That saw the introduction of the fingerprint reader and a faster processor that dragged mobile gaming into a new league. But once again, Apple’s rivals [...]
Eight ways technology has reinvented fiction July 16, 2014 At a recent lecture in Oxford, Will Self announced the death of the novel. The internet, he said, has mercilessly invaded the silent, solitary leisure time we once filled with “serious” reading. As a result, serious books will no longer feature as a central part of culture. Like classical music, they will continue to exist, [...]