48 hours in… Tallinn March 29, 2015 WHERE TO STAY Merchant’s House Hotel in the old town is a traditional Estonian-style inn with original features like stone archways and nice touches in the rooms including cow hide rugs and paintings of Estonian noblemen. merchantshousehotel.com WHERE TO GO The Estonian History Museum celebrates all things Estonian from the mid 19th century onwards, including [...]
Cenkos: A British banking model makes a comeback March 26, 2015 A boardroom chat between an Oxbridge-educated dealermaker who grew up on a Liverpool council estate and the former head of a scrap metal firm from Scotland is a scene only imagineable in a City of London boardroom. But the meeting between Avril Palmer-Baunack, former head of Universal Salvage, and Jim Durkin, chief executive of Cenkos [...]
Mix it up: Take a tipple – it might even be good for your health March 24, 2015 As any good doctor will be all too ready to tell you, alcohol is bad for you. They’re right, of course – up to a point. Too much of the stuff is ruinous. But you can also drink too little. While ten cocktails a day may destroy your life, one in the evening might be [...]
London’s latest novelty cafe is all about the grilled cheese March 23, 2015 Does the idea of a cat cafe bring you out in a rash? The concept behind the owl bar have you on the phone to the RSPB? The £3-a-pop cereal bar make you want to weep into your cornflakes? Fear not. The novelty cafe wheel of fortune has turned once more, and this time it's [...]
Index Ventures backs Daniel Gandesha’s tech start-up Property Partner March 23, 2015 Index Ventures, the venture capital firm behind Just Eat and Candy Crush Saga-maker King Digital, has given £5.2m backing to a crowdfunding platform that allows retail investors to tap into the UK’s residential market. Property Partner, founded by the ex-head of startup investment at BSkyB Daniel Gandesha, gives smaller backers the chance to invest sums [...]
How psychology can make you a better negotiator March 18, 2015 Use empathy and build trust to get better results in negotiation. What can help make you a better negotiator? The common advice is to research your opponent and do your homework on what they want to achieve from the negotiations. But it’s also crucial to recognise the psychology behind the bargaining process. Several studies have [...]
Korma blimey! Just Eat gobbles up the market March 17, 2015 Despite a wobbly start, takeaway portal Just Eat has gone from strength to strength. Just Eat has been connecting hungry customers with their local takeaway restaurants for the past 14 years. “We’re like your best friend, letting you know which is the best Chinese or Indian restaurant in your area,” said Just Eat [...]
Why Engawa is an unusually well thought-out restaurant March 17, 2015 In Japan, the fax machine is still king of the office. While the western hemisphere abandoned it at the first whiff of email, the Japanese persevered, appreciating the personal touch that comes from a hand-written note, even if that note has been broken down into a series of blips and hisses and reassembled somewhere far [...]
The latest gimmick (or the next big thing): Cheese and coffee March 17, 2015 How does a new restaurant make its mark on a London foodie scene already reaching saturation point? There’s the old fashioned way: serving great food at a reasonable prices. And there’s the 21st century way: coming up with a gimmick, a weird pairing, some novelty way of serving or ordering food, something to make people [...]
Just Eat had a great 2014, and this year is looking just as good as international expansion continues March 17, 2015 Just Eat had a year of growth, with users, revenue and orders reaching new heights. The figures Just Eat's revenue for the year ended 31 December was £157.0m, marking a 62 per cent increase from 2013's figure of £96.8m. This was driven by a 52 per cent increase in orders and a 37 per [...]