The current economic news presents a bleak picture. Whilst COVID lockdowns have eased, businesses and consumers now face inflation levels not seen in a generation as well as rising interest rates. Lucas Arnold, Director Litigation Funding at Harbour explores.

Starting and running a business successfully is not as simple as some people might think. It requires a lot of time, dedication, and effort. You will even have to forget some luxuries just to ensure that your new venture starts on a strong foundation.

Startups Magazine had the pleasure of attending Sustainability LIVE earlier this month.

Many startups enjoy healthy communications and a robust cultural identity in the early days. Employees form strong bonds and understand their positions and responsibilities in an evolving team. They can see a future for themselves and are invested in the company’s success. It’s exciting stuff.

The global ice cream business represents deceptively big business in 2022, while it’s projected to grow incrementally at a CAGR of 2.87% over the next five years through 2027.

A company’s values today are almost as important as its financial performance, so what can businesses do to ensure their recruitment process is reflecting their ethos – and what part does technology play?

When a team works in harmony wonderful things happen; productivity increases, creativity is unleashed, and problem-solving is reignited. This comes from everybody being in flow, enjoying a more profound knowledge of one another, and playing to their strengths.

‘Net-zero’, or the principle of achieving complete carbon neutrality, is a principle that has been adopted by several nation states in recent years. The growing severity of the climate crisis has inspired necessary action from governments around the world, all working in concert via recommendations and accords achieved through the COP summits.

Creativity has always played a deeply important role in my life, so when I became a founder, giving creativity a seat at the table felt like the most natural, vital thing I could do for my business. And my journey to becoming CEO of my agency, Grizzly, couldn’t have happened if I hadn’t had a creative vision that I now share with my whole team.

The search for a co-founder is no easy feat. It’s not just about finding someone to accompany you on your business journey or having someone to share the challenges that come with being a founder. It’s about finding someone who shares the vision you hold so passionately – someone who has that equal burning excitement within them to build your shared vision into the great product you know it can be. In a way, finding the right co-founder is a lot like dating; it requires a time commitment, and compatibility.

For those who read our last part, you’ll know Traction Club is a new 5-week programme we ran at Colorintech over the summer of 2022 to help underrepresented B2B founders get their first paying client.

Today, Expedia Group launches Open World™ Accelerator, an initiative that builds on its Open World vision to power partners of all sizes with the technology and supply needed to thrive in the travel market. This new initiative is designed to advance innovation in the travel industry, by supporting startups and small and medium sized business (SMBs) to fast-track their growth and innovate on Expedia’s purpose-built technology platform.

Raising capital is one of the biggest roadblocks faced by today’s entrepreneurs. Not only are bank loans very hard to get for many, but risk capital investors can expect high growth and rapid exit, which are not options for a huge majority of businesses. Despite these challenges, Manchester Kombucha business, Hip Pop, has achieved impressive growth since launching just three years ago thanks to its successful investment strategy.

Voice search is rapidly growing in popularity as a way for users to get quick answers to their questions. Already, 41% of adults use voice search at least once a day, and forecasts suggest that by 2023, the number of digital voice assistants in use will reach a whopping 8 billion. 

The world has just started to recover from the pandemic lockdowns, struggling to come back to normal life. New challenges, much more shocking than COVID-19, were a lightning bolt of a clearing sky. The war in the biggest European country has started.

Henrik Grim, GM of Europe for Capchase, discusses why alt finance is an attractive option for well-run startups in a downturn.

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have one passion – their company, their customers, their industry, and their growth. If you are in the process of starting a new small business, or are even trying to successfully run one, you will be well aware of the various challenges that you may have to face in the near future.

If you’ve heard this advice before, it’s because it’s probably true. A brilliant idea should be the foundation of any business, the seed that your company can grow from and the reason to continue believing in yourself when faced with inevitable challenges.

You have finally launched your eCommerce store online—great. What do you do now? Well, there are a lot of things you should not do.

Predictable sales are what startups crave. The exciting news is that trade shows offer predictability but with added marketing bells and whistles.