The fast food revolutionary: EatFirst co-founder Rahul Parekh talks long hours, calories, mopeds and Mayfair hotels January 11, 2015 If you're after a startup story with a good luck streak, then that of Rahul Parekh, co-founder of EatFirst, might be the one for you. One evening, late last April, Parekh was holed up in a Mayfair hotel. He got chatting to some friends of a friend who, it transpired, worked for Rocket Internet – [...]
Chateau Gütsch: Journey to Lucerne, the ticking heart of watchmaking January 11, 2015 Overlooking Lucerne, Chateau Gütsch is a belle-epoque retreat with a horological secret. As a writer with a particular penchant for Swiss watchmaking, I probably use the term “chocolate box” far too frequently. Hard not to when describing a springtime visit to an atelier nestled in the verdant Jura foothills, surrounded by cows and their clanking [...]
The 100 City people you need to follow on Twitter this year, day five: Thought leaders January 9, 2015 On the final day of our list, we've gone abstract: having gone through entrepreneurs, analysts, chief executives and economists, our final day provides some food for thought for those looking for a bit of inspiration in their Twitter streams. Whether they're well-known faces or small-time entrepreneurs; whether they've come up with a new way to [...]
Deflation spiral: Who would be the winners and losers? January 8, 2015 Yesterday it was finally confirmed the embattled eurozone slipped into deflation in the final month of 2014. Consumer prices slid into negative territory with a -0.2 per cent year-on-year inflation rate. This marked a significant fall from November when prices rose by 0.3 per cent according to Eurostat. This has fuelled concern the eurozone could [...]
Investors feasted on £13.6bn in London-listed IPOs last year January 6, 2015 Hungry investors feasted on billions of pounds in initial public offerings (IPOs) on the London Stock Exchange last year. In 2014 around 104 plucky issuers raised a total of £13.6bn on London's main and AIM markets. This represented a 10 per cent increase from the previous year's activity according to data from Thomson Reuters. Throughout the [...]
Bupa: Workers who skip lunch risk harming their productivity January 6, 2015 While Britain's workers feel they're too busy to take proper breaks, opting for paperwork over lunches can actually reduce overall work performance, according to new research by Bupa. The research, which looked at 2000 full-time workers, found less than a third of employees took the full lunch hour every day. What's more, 28 per cent [...]
How Tech City’s Future Fifty programme helped to supercharge my company’s growth January 4, 2015 My company, as one of a class of 12 firms, graduated from the Future Fifty at the end of last year, making room for a new class of 12. Future Fifty, a programme run by Tech City that aims to accelerate the development of growth-stage digital companies, has by now assisted many businesses well known [...]
New year’s resolutions to make you think more like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg December 31, 2014 As if running a $221bn (£142bn) company isn't enough, Mark Zuckerberg is known for his commitment to keeping new year's resolutions. Every year, the Facebook founder sets himself a new challenge – a process which, he told an audience last week, forces him to "do other things outside of [work]". But Zuckerberg doesn't just go for [...]
FTSE 100 closes 0.3 per cent up (but fell 2.7 per cent in 2014) December 31, 2014 The FTSE 100 ended the year at 6,566.09 points, 0.3 per cent higher than yesterday's close, as trading ended early on New Year's Eve. However, the index was 2.7 per cent down on the beginning of the year, as equities were rocked by headwinds from global markets. Alastair McCraig, a market analyst at IG, pointed [...]
How to lose weight and get healthy for the new year: A City worker’s guide December 29, 2014 Indulging a little more over the Christmas period is to be expected – with so many mince pies and other tasty treats around, it would be difficult not to. And it’s not just the food that leads to a slightly sluggish feeling after the festive season. It’s also the booze, the parties and all the [...]