As a mentor I get involved in a huge cross section of businesses in different sectors and at different stages of their development. As a result I have been involved in many hundreds of meetings about almost every aspect of setting up and running a business, but it would be true to say that raising money is the most common conversation of all.

Have you heard of ‘associative learning’? If not then, very simply, this is the basis upon which people mentally connect things together.

LegalShield recently launched a consumer app, LegalDefence, that helps the average consumer combat their legal disputes in an affordable but effective way. The Oxford-based startup has been disrupting the industry tremendously since its launch.

A survey of 200 startups and scale-ups – commissioned by Envestors in 2019 – has uncovered a number of misconceptions which are ultimately impacting the ability of companies to successfully raise funds using the crowdfunding model. Furthermore, the results show the approach - which hasn’t changed since its genesis in 2011 - is ripe for disruption.

What people require from their employers, managers, and colleagues, is different to what it was in past years. The days of having one job for life are long gone. In the highly competitive tech industry, hiring is but the first challenge - retaining and growing a sustainable team for the future is the holy ground.

As readers of either my Mentor’s Perspective or Mentor’s Journal series will know, one of the most common themes that I come across is that of fundraising in all its guises. 

Most of us would associate the phrase ‘fit for purpose’ with a product or service that we have seen or used, but that we do not think actually does what it is meant to do.

When it comes to R&D Tax credits, a tax incentive designed to encourage companies to invest in R&D, businesses claim some of these credits back as a part of their R&D expenditure, which can be a process that turns into a bit of a nightmare.

This was one of those weeks that saw me meeting with business from every possible stage of growth from ‘enter stage left’ to being a massive player that is looking for interesting new arrivals.

The old saying that ‘from little acorns mighty oaks grow’ came about to show that sometimes something very large can grow from something very small.

When I think about all of my conversations and meetings last week there was a very common thread tying them all together, and that was of people or businesses reinventing themselves.

As highlighted by last Friday’s global Climate Strike, the world is increasingly aware that we stand on the edge of an imminent climate and ecological crisis. It was heartening to see that, around the world, so many people took to the streets to call on government and business to make serious changes.

FK Group, one of the UK’s leading full building envelope specialists, has launched FK Accelerate in partnership with L Marks as part of its commitment to driving innovation in the construction sector.

Despite the vertigo-inducing surroundings of the 24th floor of the Shard Building in London, it was none the less a glamorous location for the inaugural Seedrs Alumni Awards.

This was one of those weeks where everything seemed to be on fast forward. Not just the number of meetings but the speed of progress in the companies that I met was truly remarkable. 

Innovation company business mix is the key contributor and platinum sponsor for the 2019 festival from 7th-12th October 2019. The Malvern Festival of Innovation is a week-long celebration of innovators, host to multiple symposiums, a gala event, comedy night and formal dinner.

America. In some ways, it can be and has historically been a tough nut for UK technology companies to crack, while in many other ways, the PR strategies and campaigns that work in Britain will work equally as well Stateside. 

Marta Krupinska, Head of Google for Startups UK, recently created the Google for Startups first UK Immersion cohort for African startups, to help them along their business journey.

Calmer launches the digital Calmer Community platform for busy professionals and joins forces with Startups Magazine as Mental Health & Wellbeing Partner.

Knowledge Transfer Partnership, or KTP, is a part-government funded programme that for the past 40 years has helped businesses – including startups – to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within universities.

For the supremely talented entrepreneurs and startups doing great work around the world, marketing and PR are often low on their list of priorities. After all, there’s the running of the business to get on with, the development of amazing technology and launching of innovative projects, investment to secure, and people to hire.

Mentoring is something that everyone will come across in their life, most probably because they need some help and guidance, but also from the mentor side, because they want to help others and both parties always benefit.

The world of business has changed, from the heyday of household corporations like Ford in the 90s, to the rapid rise of tech-applied products and services born over the last three decades.

Following on from the nine articles in the ‘A Mentor’s Perspective’ series that I wrote recently that looked at some of the main points that any startup or early stage business should consider, I will now be writing a brief weekly article in a new series – A Mentor’s Journal. 

As more cities become smarter, and technology grows, what do we need to do to keep with the needs of these smart cities, but also make them sustainable?

A company formed a decade ago in 2009, Deciwatt is older than you’d imagine most startups to be. Created off the back of a brief from Solaraid with therefore, a London-based product design consultancy, Deciwatt’s first product GravityLight was an answer to this  problem: develop an extremely low-cost solar light for $5, a sustainable alternative to the dangerous and expensive kerosene lamp depended on by millions as a source of light.

According to the British Chamber of Commerce, recent figures have shown that the UK economy is predicted to grow at a lot slower rate than expected in 2020 and 2021, and one big reasoning behind this is Brexit and the possibility of a no-deal result.

When Mikela Druckman, Marco Paladini, and Nikola Sivacki founded Greyparrot in January 2019, the three founders set out to utilise their computer vision and Augmented Reality (AR) experience in the B2C sector and translate it into the B2B industry with the mission of creating a positive social impact.

Quite often the best ideas are born out of adversity, and that was certainly the case for Immersive Rehab, a startup specialising in the creation of interactive and engaging physical and neuro-rehabilitation programmes in Virtual Reality (VR), part of the unbound50 Zone at unbound London 2019.

The Victoria Embankment in central London might not be the obvious place to find out more about Scotland’s vibrant startup scene. However, representatives from the country’s board of trade, business incubators, educators, R&D partnerships and innovation centres headed south for London Tech Week, and Scotland House, where they spent the evening showcasing the business opportunities north of the border, creativity, the potential of data science and the country’s talent.

Introducing Dannielle Haig, international Business Coach and Business Psychologist, as Startups Magazine's resident Business Psychologist columnist. 

As a child growing up in Western Australia, Neil Daly was fully aware of the dangers associated with exposure to the sun, and the importance of covering up when playing outside. We have all of course had the experience of being sun burnt at some point in our lives and as such, it’s not surprising that skin cancer is actually the most common form of the disease in the world.

Most of our readers may not be old enough to remember pagers. However, in the pre-internet, pre-mobile world of the early 1990s, if you had a pager you really were a trend setter as it made you contactable wherever you went… imagine that?

Stress is something that can affect everyone and anyone, at any point in your life. Admittedly some things are more likely to bring about stress, for example, creating your own business and trying to get it off the ground.

If your business has investors – then the importance of investor relations cannot be overstated - in Brazil, Egypt and Bulgaria, companies are mandated by law to have an IR function. That’s not the case in the UK – but it doesn’t mean you should ignore it.

Dr Christopher Hartland, patent attorney at leading European IP firm, Potter Clarkson, gives a step-by-step guide to managing your business’ ideas and innovations.

In this article, Dr Christopher Hartland, patent attorney at leading European IP firm, Potter Clarkson, explains how robust intellectual property protection can be a valuable asset in its own right.

Dr Christopher Hartland at leading European IP firm, Potter Clarkson explains how businesses can protect their most valuable assets – their intellectual property.

In this article - the last in this series - I am going to look at scaling your business and the fact that growth is often the hardest part of the startup journey.

The Data Analysis Bureau also known as T-DAB is a data science and engineering agency specialising in machine learning, hoping to empower whilst educating manufacturers to better the industry.

“At the heart of what people, companies and everyone does is innovation. Innovation is our focus.” This was the opening line from Gary Shapiro, CEO of CES at last year's unbound innovation festival in London.

As a startup, what would be your Golden Ticket to propel you towards success? Workspace expenses covered? Invaluable mentoring and guidance?

Having written your business plan, identified your existing and potential market and your target clients, and decided how best to market and sell your product, you should now of course actually be making sales. But how open has you mind been whilst undergoing this process, and how limited are your ambitions? Many smaller companies, whether startups or more mature, have a tendency to only look at selling to the home market of the UK rather than broadening their horizons and selling internationally. 

When you’re keen to win more customers, you turn to marketing. And more often than not, you look at advertising, PR, or anything else that you think that will make a change quickly.

When one thinks of countries with a focus on innovation, the true global leaders - USA, the U.K., Canada and Israel – traditionally lead the way based on the strength of their startup ecosystems. Not surprisingly, the next country to gain a foothold is Australia followed by no fewer than a dozen of the top industrialised nations in Western Europe.

Created by two former insomniacs in 2016, Moona is the first smart product to not only track your sleep habits, but to enhance them by regulating head temperature to help the user get to sleep faster, deeper and wake up naturally.

The Internet of Things is an exciting and expanding market. It’s one that many large organisations are already actively involved in, with competition mounting rapidly as a result; but it’s also a market ripe for innovation, with countless unexplored opportunities – across all industries – almost too compelling for an ambitious entrepreneur to ignore.

Subcon is introducing the Launchpad & Launchpad Awards to this year’s event. The Launchpad aims to propel startups and entrepreneurs by giving them a platform to share their innovations with thousands of engineering and manufacturing professionals with the power to influence and guide them to future success.

Director, Founder, Business Psychologist and Business Coach at DH Coaching & Consulting, Dannielle Haig, headed a personal development workshop powered by C&C, PA recruitment agency, teaching the importance of 'resilience'.

The audience at the Dublin Tech Show 2019 fell silent and slipped into awe as it listened to the man who broke into Mir using a Swiss Army Knife, flew into Earth orbit three times, was Commander of the International Space Station (ISS), has spent 166 days in space and was the first Canadian astronaut to walk in space: NASA Colonel, Chris Hadfield.

Moderated by Graham Hussey, Co-Founder of The Startup Van, this panel at the Dublin Tech Show 2019 (DTS) made up of celebrity companies in the startup arena, Expon Capital, 500 startups, Valor Ventures and Techstars, broadly discussed the ways in which a startup can succeed. 

On the ScaleX stage at Dublin Tech Summit 2019, April 10th, a panel comprised of: Andrew Lindsay VP Corporate Development and Business Development at Hubspot; Alan Costello Venture Investor Leader at NDRC; Niall McEvoy Manager of High Potential Startups at Enterprise Ireland; and moderated by Graham Hussey co-founder of The Startup Van, discussed how to position your team and brand for international scaling.

On the ScaleX stage at DTS 2019 (Dublin Tech Summit) Willie Morris got real in his talk about startup failure.

In this, the second part of looking at the different forms of finance available to a startup, I look specifically at the different types of equity finance and try to summarise the benefits and drawbacks of each. The March edition of the magazine looks at the question of finance in full detail.

Sachin Dutta, Growth Hacker and Founder of Tractionic, shares a growth hacker's perspective on why humans fail and how to succeed at crowdfunding.

It all started when husband and wife John and Avril wanted a new doorbell, and there was nothing that suited their home.

Behavioural economics is the combination of human psychology, decision science, and economics. It is an innovative and scientific approach to understanding how humans make decisions.

Successful tech entrepreneurs share the lessons learned from starting a new business.

Streamr is building an open source platform that will power the world's data economy and give people control of their information.

Women in Technology Oslo is a volunteer driven organisation which host hands-on workshops and technical talks for women new to the world of working in technology.

At the start of any new year, a slew of gurus and thought leaders come out of hiding. Ben Hayes, Director at Grasp Brands, explains.

Startups Magazine speaks to two cycle-tech startups, Beryl and JIVR, working on solutions to tackle urban congestion and pollution.

In the first of this series of articles we looked at the fact that there was actually quite a lot of help available to you when you set up your own business, and specifically we started to look at entrepreneur accelerators and the roles that Mentors play within that overall service. This time I wanted to take that further and start to explore the actual role a Mentor plays, how best to choose one, and then how best to maximise that relationship.

Brian Mulcahey, Category Director, Wellness at Bose Corporation, discusses the company's
breakthrough into wellness tech at 'Indiegogo Enterprise: A Fireside Chat with Bose.'

To celebrate International Women's Day, Brighton workspace PLATF9RM presented its event 'Kickass Women' featuring Startups Magazine's own Editor and Founder, Daisy Stapley-Bunten.

Tom Evans, CEO and Creative Director of the BleepBleeps, has always worked within branding and design technology. Then once he had children, he decided to combine the two to benefit himself as a parent and to create a hardware brand for families.

Felcana is the new generation of digital pet care. It is an ecosystem of connected and responsive smart devices that monitor your pet. Designed by experienced vets and developed by inventive engineers.

Situated in the idyllic and typically English countryside village of Thursley in Surrey, you will find MysteryVibe Design HQ.

Kokoon are the world’s first sleep sensing EEG (electroencephalogram) headphones - comfortable enough to sleep in, without compromising acoustic quality.

A new kind of wearable. It doesn’t track your steps, or how many calories you’ve burned in a day. Nor does it analyse your sleep cycles and record your workouts. This wearable analyses something else, your posture.

Anyone who has received a PPI call in the past will know only too well the scepticism felt when the person on the other end of the line tells you that you’re entitled to thousands of pounds that you didn’t know about.

Like many startups, Carv was born out of an education project, namely a PhD thesis. CEO and founder Jamie Grant completed a Master of Physics at University of Oxford before undertaking a PhD in Financial Economics at Imperial College London. He then applied both these disciplines to his passion for skiing.

A startup can be a lot of things. Anything from one person to a small group of people that have the same vision and that are taking the necessary steps to make it a reality.

MeeTwo is an app designed as a platform for anxious teenagers who want to chat, discuss and open up about any problems they might be going through.

Virginie Berger, previously employed at Microsoft and MySpace, knows the music tech industry better than most.

Camille Venot, Innovation Manager for Unbound, helps startups bloom from London to Miami, Singapore and Bahrain.

Simply put: the glove that will help non-verbal people communicate.

Yes, if you hadn’t guessed, the app ‘Safe and the City’ was inspired by the ever-popular HBO American TV show Sex and the City.

With co-founder Kaitlin Fritz, Olga Kravchenko talks to Startups Magazine about her startup - Musemio.

Bone conduction earphones from London-based startup Voxos put a whole new spin on safe and sound. 

It started with a simple lightbulb moment back in 2013, when Christian Lane, CEO of Smarter, decided to create the first ever WiFi-enabled iKettle

A creative consultancy that helps people who make products to get them into the hands of people who will love them.

Startups Magazine talks with Julie Rice, WeWork Partner and co-founder of SoulCycle, to discuss what she envisions for the future of branding.

Smart underwear from LifeSense Group empowers men and women, and puts an end to suffering in silence.

The startup, founded by Christina Black Petersen, derives its name from her Danish roots, as 'LYS' is the Danish word for light.

Animaro is a furniture design brand which combines art with engineering to create beautiful objects which are visually playful for the home, such as lighting and clocks.

He told the world he was a 'lickable' guy by accident, but it was a typo that spelled out his future confectionery enterprise.