Johnathan Ransom, CEO & Co-founder of Square Mile Farms spoke to Startups Magazine about the challenges and opportunities that arose during the 2020 COVID crisis whilst raising from their network. Think back, post-2008 financial crisis, internet technologies and crowdsourcing both evolved to allow companies to easily raise funds from their network and community for the first time. The power and value of the crowd have only increased since then, helping businesses grow quickly and sustainably while reaching entirely new audiences.
The Managing Director of Xero today has argued for a national campaign to help the UK’s 5.9 million small firms bounce back post lockdown.
Founded by Milo Hill and David Hampshire, DOOZY was built during lockdown and allows people to create free quizzes, share them with friends and play them instantly. And it really is as simple as that – no downloads, no sign-ups, just creating a quiz and sharing it with friends.
While the world battles a loneliness epidemic, reinforced by COVID-19 imposed lockdown and social-distancing, a new, rapid growth startup uses technology to help solve the problem for companies individuals. Panion has recently announced a suite of features that solidify the startup’s position as the most exciting new virtual community-building app in the world. Panion encourages its members to be authentically themselves and to lean into the interests that make them unique.
Focal Point Positioning (FocalPoint), a UK-based startup has built and showcased software that solves the accuracy problems that plague sports and running wearables.
The COVID-19 pandemic has massively accelerated the pace of change in the business world. Leaders and employees have had to adapt to operate in a challenging environment, where the only certainty is change. Not only have organisations had to rapidly adjust to the changing needs of its people, customers and suppliers, but it has also navigated the financial and operational challenges. This has led to many businesses prioritising the now, focusing on reshaping its operations to stabilise revenue and align with short term demand.
Many progressive startup founders choose to incentivise and reward their early hires with equity. The key benefits of a share scheme are that employees become more productive, more loyal, and more aligned with the company’s goals.
At the start of 2020, my aspirations looked very different. In January 2020, I was geared up to go to the gym three times a week. The year was looking bright and I was ready to step things up. Now, I just want to get the battery on my watch fixed.
Until recently, for many smaller businesses, their website was purely a shop window with few, if any, transactions done through it. However, thanks to social distancing measures it has now become the primary means of business for almost every company. Ensuring your website is not vulnerable to hackers and other criminals is therefore more important now than ever. The crippling reputational and financial cost of a cyberattack can put a small company out of business.
In today’s global and increasingly competitive marketplace, it is more important than ever to stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of consumers. Trade marks are essentially ‘signs’ which help consumers to identify and differentiate your products or services from those of competitors and other traders.
Have you been toying with the idea of building up a tech company that could one day match the likes of Google, Apple, or Facebook? Well, this may seem a dream too far-fetched, but nothing is impossible with the right strategy, skill, and vision.
In the weeks following the brutal murder of George Floyd and the global protests it sparked, we saw hundreds of companies posting a black square on social media as part of #BlackOutTuesday – an outward display of support and solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement and the black community.
Every company has its own culture, defined by its values, and governing principles that the leadership and employees equally share. While most people consider culture an unimportant element, it has a real impact on performance, retention and the company’s ability to adapt to changes. A disengaged team will leave founders staring into the horizon alone.
London-based startup, RacketPal is on a mission to help more than one billion racket sports players and enthusiasts meet their perfect playing partners. The team is excited to announce the successful closing of its first pre-seed funding round worth £150,000.
The UK’s recent lockdown has seen a surge in demand for on-demand. By addressing one of the most challenging aspects of lockdown, food delivery services alone have experienced a 29% increase in popularity, and even industries historically steeped in tradition – such as theatres, pubs and restaurants – have had to embrace on-demand options. Digital businesses, in collaboration with more traditional high street counterparts, have kept access to services viable during the pandemic.
Kennet Partners Limited (Kennet), a leading European technology growth equity investor focused on bootstrapped and capital efficient companies, has raised $250m (€223m) for its fifth fund, Kennet V in partnership with Edmond de Rothschild. The Fund exceeded its target and secured new investors from across Europe and Asia.
This year’s shortlist for one of the world’s largest annual competitions in sustainability, Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge, has been officially revealed today. The international top 25 organisations now edge closer to being crowned the overall Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge winner and receiving €500,000.
One of the biggest trends in software development has been the rise of Software as a Service (SaaS). With SaaS, vendors and customers follow a pay-as-you-go subscription model, which eliminates the large upfront payment and aligns their incentives more easily: vendors get more recurring revenue while customers are freed from having to host and maintain their own applications.
Technology, especially new technology, has always had something of a divisive effect; that is it can be seen as black or white, working in good ways or bad. If we look back in history, any technological advance is greeted with great enthusiasm by early adopters and shunned and ridiculed by those with a more traditional outlook on life.
The current financial climate is disturbing for technology founders. At the European level, we have over 300 VC funds continuing to actively invest and grant-making programmes in every country, yet founders face many hurdles accessing capital.
