It’s always refreshing when policymakers break with the status quo and do something genuinely left-field and unexpected. The current pandemic has certainly produced its fair share of bold initiatives. In the UK we’ve just had the announcement of Government-subsidised meal deals throughout August to boost the ailing hospitality sector. And, sitting slightly higher on the impact scale, earlier this month the French Government announced that it was making tax credits available to any citizen prepared to take out a subscription to a current affairs newspaper or magazine.

As lockdown restrictions begin to ease, SMEs need to look into engaging potential customers immediately in order to drive sales and awareness in the difficult months ahead. As the majority of the public continue to live and work remotely, however, companies must seek out new methods of marketing in order to attract better engagement. The online space has, thus, become crowded with brands attempting to cut through noise to truly make an impact on consumers. 

Whilst the UK implements strategies to gradually return to life as normal, the question on everyone’s mind is how we plan to do this safely and effectively. With the process of working from home potentially coming to an end in the foreseeable future, regardless of what sector individuals work in, new safety precautions are essential to put in place to ensure the health and safety of employees and customers remain strong. 

What’s sexy about financial technology? When I joined a fintech startup called Littlepay, I could see some of my friends and peers struggle with why I had left an uber-cool venture role to do something they didn’t understand in the fintech space.

Lockdown is beginning to end, but changes in how we do business have only just begun. One country that might be able to shed some light on the upcoming unknown is  Germany - having had their ‘Super Saturday’ back in April. Germany has already tackled the next economic phase that small businesses (SMEs) in the UK will have to adapt to.

A few years back, there was a two-day tube strike in London. As with most tube strikes, it forced stressed commuters to change up their route into work at short notice. When it was all over, economists who looked at Oyster Card data made a surprising finding. About one in twenty commuters who changed up their route on the days of the strike stuck with their new route.

Even in the bleakest of times, entrepreneurs have found a way to innovate and create disruptive products that have enhanced our daily lives or solved a problem. Take the humble chocolate chip cookie, baked for the first time after the Great Depression. During a period of severe economic hardship, this new treat offered some richness and comfort and remains immensely popular to this day.

Over the past few months, the world of business has been turned upside down due to COVID-19. During such unprecedented times, maintaining customer confidence and loyalty is a key focus for companies. The way in which businesses manage its customers throughout uncertain times is often the difference between losing or retaining clients, and ultimately business survival.

Those of us in the recruitment services space are pausing, with a significant heap of excitement and a little touch of alert to perceive how the scene is going to change for us in the coming year. Is it true that we are prepared for 2020?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Conducting a regular business audit is a vital document that is needed to help monitor and inspect the financial situation of a company. To prevent losing track of assets and overheads a business has, audits help bring clarity to managers where their cash in-flows and out-flows are going to and from.

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.

I was young when I realised I came from a family of businessmen. At the age of eight, my paternal grandfather had been engaging in business deals between Africa and Belgium. One of my uncles had also started an import-export business based in Brussels. Then when I was ten years old, my father jumped on the bandwagon and launched a business engaged in the export of exotic meats from Botswana to the EEC. This is what began to pique my curiosity in business. 

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.

Just as monetising mobile was the biggest opportunity of the previous decade, monetising the 3D worlds is the biggest opportunity of the next decade. It’s time to get onboard. From radio to telephone, TV to desktop computer and now mobile, the last 150 years have been filled with technological progress that has transformed our private and professional lives. Today, we are approaching another media transition: spatial computing - commonly known as immersive technology, XR or VR/AR.

While more established businesses might be unnerved by the prospect of homeworking becoming the norm, start-ups are in the privileged position of being able to adapt to a ‘virtual’ workplace with relative ease.

The 23rd of June this year marked four years since the UK's EU membership referendum, and the rest of 2020 will likely see some decisive action on the UK's intention to leave the EU as a result. Much has been written over the last four years about the UK's currently gilded status as the preeminent global hub for financial services and fintech, and the risks of the UK losing this status to another European competitor once Brexit happens.

Scooploop is a social media neighbour and community networking site. It is a platform that you can use for your business, charity or personal use, and lets you join in with conversations, find out local information and get to know people that you may not have met yet.

Identifying your ideal client is one of the most difficult things, and yet the most important thing to do for your business. Before I start going into the how, let us spend a few minutes thinking about the why. Why does everybody bang on and on about this ideal client business!? Believe me I used to feel the same way. Then one day it clicked into place.

In April 2020, the UK’s Office for National Statistics revealed 49.2% of the UK’s workforce were operating remotely as a result of COVID-19.

Millennials are the first generation to be truly comfortable with digital technologies: most own a smartphone and use it for a host of activities ranging from social networking, playing games, watching TV and mobile banking.

Recently I connected with a non-profit civic engagement company called New Union to create a 'tactical urbanism toolkit.' Its aim is to bridge the gaps between governments and their citizens, starting conversations, and ultimately teaching communities that they can and should enact change within their communities – often for little or no cost.

We’re ending our leadership series by taking inspiration from the 1989 film ‘Field of Dreams’ and focusing on your role as a leader in creating a place where people love to work. If you’ve got a vision for what you want your business to look and feel like, you play a significant part in helping to create the environment so that people can deliver that vision and more.  

Before the dreaded c-word hit the UK, and the rest of the world, most businesses were just planning for a busy Q2. With everything turned upside down and a full lockdown, it’s forced many SMEs and startup businesses to completely pivot and significantly adapt strategies.

We live in changing times. Rapidly changing times. Times always change and move forward but what has been remarkable recently has been the fact that the speed of change continues to increase year on year. It is no surprise, therefore, that many founders, both first time entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs, often ask themselves, and me, ‘where do I go from here?’

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way the world works, and with some UK workers beginning to return to the office, some anticipating a phased return in the coming weeks and others working at home for the foreseeable future, it can be difficult to connect the workforce together.

Within the context of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19, Trump has accused China of being the cause of the virus. If this were true, Beijing would have eliminated 91% of UK exports to China over the past ten years in one fell swoop.

The world is changing and what we witnessed in the last months all over the world is the creation of a stronger sense of community: people supporting each other and companies getting together to fight the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The old world is over, as its rules. The new world is going to be different, with new rules.

The coronavirus pandemic is having a significant and painful impact on work, livelihoods and the economy. Recent reports suggest around 600,000 jobs have been in lost during lockdown in the UK alone, while over 40 million people have become unemployed in the US.

Apparently Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t actually say the famous line himself until Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones which we all know is the weakest of the series, however plenty of star characters encourage Luke to 'use the Force' throughout his journey to Jedi.

The business landscape has transformed like never before in just a matter of months. I've seen first-hand how the current climate has impacted global enterprises. As business leaders, we need to instil trust within our teams while also having a clear strategy on how to navigate these challenging times.

The coronavirus pandemic has shaken up the way we work – and the seismic shifts it has brought about could be long-lasting. According to a Gartner survey, 74% of CFOs intend to shift some of their employees to remote work permanently.

The role of the traditional office has been profoundly undermined by the recent pandemic - and with companies like Twitter granting employees indefinite leave to work remotely, coworking should be set to boom.  

In the world of work, the effects of social measures that governments are being forced to take have proven to be incredibly challenging for businesses and employees. However, for many business leaders around the world, they are now starting to turn their attention to the potential long-term implications of the pandemic on the next era of work.

Driving disruption, embracing change and new ideas and generally just jostling for place at the bleeding edge of innovation has always been part and parcel for any company in the tech industry, particularly at the startup stage. But how do tech companies ensure they’re always one step ahead, and how do they create agility and disruptive thinking at the strategic leadership level?

So far, the first half of 2020 has felt like six years, not six months. Every new month seems to bring with it global challenges and the threat of coronavirus still looms. The knock-on effect of COVID-19 has been significant, with the FTSE100 losing nearly a quarter of its value in late March - the biggest drop in history.

For many businesses, scaling up and sustaining growth often seems unachievable, even when the brand has a profitable product or service. Investor and advisor, Sharon Brown, principal of Amplify Equity Inc. has recently adopted a laser focus for helping businesses step-up to the next level by leveraging investor expertise, industry experience, networks, and connections to help them grow faster.

A new survey from HJS Solicitors has found that more than two thirds of employees want to carry on working from home. As the Government continues to lift lockdown restrictions a poll of nearly 2,000 workers shows 68% would like to continue with life in a 'remote' office. 

When (or indeed if) office-based employees make a return to work, now that lockdown restrictions are slowly beginning to ease, they are likely to find a very different world to the one they left behind. Startups, by their very nature, are inherently innovative, adaptable, flexible, and more willing than most to embrace change.

With the IMF warning that the ‘Great Lockdown’ global recession will be the worst since the Great Depression, organisations are being forced to reset and reinvent faster than ever before. The race is on for entrepreneurs and business owners to craft new plans, develop new products and deliver new solutions in order to survive.

….you never know what you’re going to get. Although Forest Gump didn’t technically say that, there is some truth in it: no two leaders are ever the same. Think about the people you’ve been led by in the past -  maybe they were a crunchy-coated, brittle leader, they might have been soft and gooey, or chances are you’ve probably had a few nutty ones as well. You never know what you’re going to get.

Death. A big topic, and generally as much a part of the everyday news cycle as politics or celebrities. From natural disasters to major atrocities, the subject never really goes away. That being said, it feels quite different at the moment. With death tolls now a media centrepiece, it’s playing a much bigger part in public conversation. At Farewill, where our 90-strong team of designers, engineers and psychologists are working to bring the death industry into the 21st century, we’ve noticed a real change in the way people are discussing and dealing with it.

 

With almost 11 weeks of lockdown in the UK, we have only just got to grips with our new working conditions. Now, with lockdown restrictions slowly beginning to ease, offices are planning for reopening. A new ‘blended’ model of working will become the norm, with some employees always working from home, in the office or a combination of both. 

Wearables allow users to monitor their health, receive alerts for potential health issues, and preemptively contact a doctor. With many people housebound during COVID-19, wearables help people track daily exercise habits and maintain a healthy lifestyle while many gyms remain closed. Here, Emily Clark, Content Developer for The Manifest looks at the market for healthcare wearables and discusses how people use wearables for healthcare and the limitations of these wearable devices.

Europe’s AI ecosystem is consistent with many of the continent’s other expanding startups, with the UK emerging as the most dynamic country for AI: that’s according to new research from PNY Europe in collaboration with 33INSIGHTS. The UK leads the pack with 529 incorporated companies (27%), followed by France with 424 (21%) and Germany with 182 (9%).

I read once, 'most people are starting from a disadvantage and do just fine'. I find these words encouraging and motivating. The reason being, they don’t know they’re disadvantaged because they simply, just get on with it.

Following lockdown, the digital trust that blockchain creates for networks of remote users started to re-define relationships between customers, suppliers, partners and funders in earnest.

When you are trying to navigate the management of a business in the midst of a global pandemic, it’s all too easy to neglect the maintenance of your company culture. Yes, it’s true that other priorities might seem more pressing right now; after all, your clients and suppliers won’t be sending you impatient emails demanding to know how you plan to safeguard your internal team relationships.

Buzz Lightyear might not be the obvious choice of great leaders but we’re taking inspiration from his famous catchphrase in this article to encourage you to think big and define the vision for your organisation or team.

Being out of work during ordinary times is not fun. It can weigh a heavy impact on one’s confidence and sense of wellbeing, as well as being demoralising. This applies to people whose employment has been put on hold through, as they have been in the United Kingdom, furloughing schemes designed to prevent mass redundancies. It also applies to students whose future employment and careers have become uncertain after in-person lectures and exams were put on hold. The breath of fresh air is that some lockdowns, including the one in the UK, are beginning to ease.

Startups Magazine has been lucky enough to interview Kevin Smith from Boom & Partners, a business that offers bespoke mentoring for startups to help them grow and thrive. Having teamed up with Kevin and Boom & Partners many times already, we thought it was time to get his expertise on some of the most pressing conundrums for startups

In the midst of a global pandemic our leaders are necessarily focused on the immediate.  Survival - in life and in work. Entrepreneurs and executives alike are shoring up business, optimising current operations and cashflow; the need to stay afloat taking precedence over the long view. But with the passing of this crisis, may there come a sustained shift in values?

For those founders at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey, whether for the first time or as a serial founder, there is a question that I overhear time and time again and that question is ‘should I be a sole founder or a co-founder?’

Over the past three months, small businesses have faced intense struggles, with only those deemed ‘essential’ by the government able to stay open due to the lockdown. Although these restrictions are now beginning to ease, the financial impact will have been significant.

For all businesses operating in the digital arena, there has long been an advantage to be gleaned from better understanding how your customers behave online. Can you identify which website visitors are on the verge of clicking ‘buy’? Can you spot a disgruntled customer desperately searching around an online FAQ for the product support they require? Is it possible to determine whether a prospective subscriber is ready to commit, or whether they need further incentives to push them over the line?

Given that up to 50% of any population identify as introverts, organisations with an unbiased recruitment process will have a fair proportion of introverts in their workforce. If their promotion panels are fair and equitable, some will reach positions of leadership. However, many introverts spend much of their working life pretending to be more extraverted in order to fit in and be accepted. This comes with a heavy price tag; overwhelm and burn-out. Introverts need strong, well-defended boundaries and a personal strategy for replenishing.

Over the last few years, I’ve been teaching business owners and their staff to set up a few simple pieces of equipment to film their own smartphone videos and get comfortable in front of the camera.

As companies across the globe are closing their physical offices, the business world has transformed dramatically within just a matter of months. More emphasis is placed on business being conducted online. For example, retailers, IT service providers and even personal trainers are utilising their online platforms and video chat software to remain engaged with their customers.

Analyst relations. For many startup founders and marketing teams, it’s still a bit of an unknown. There’s no question that it’s a valuable marketing strategy, but there’s a surprising lack of literature advising startups on how to make it work for them, when to start, and what to do in a briefing. This article looks to state the case for analyst relations in a startup context whilst providing some valuable insight from the analysts themselves.  

When starting a business it’s easy to get consumed by P&L and that all-important bottom line (understandably so), but as Sezer Sherif, Founder and CEO of brokerage and investment advisory firm Vector Capital Group explains, that doesn’t mean you can’t build a business with a strong code of ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Alongside a few others, I recently gave a talk to a university conference where I explained my progress in the past year, successes and changes, and my plans. What was interesting, hearing my own answer alongside the other start-ups called in to do the same, was that things have generally 'paused.' We have stopped every financial outgoing we possibly can and are reaching out to investors and clients alike only to be told that they are in the same position – 'expect nothing soon.'

An important global competition is under way that will determine the fate of many nations. By this, I am referring to the global artificial intelligence (AI) ‘arms race’ which has seen countries battle to develop the next generation of intelligent technologies.

Law firm Taylor Wessing’s work with the Mayor's International Business Programme, and its work day-to-day with VC-backed tech companies has shown that most UK companies look to the US or Asia before Europe when looking at new markets. However, Europe is on our doorstep, and has its own advantages which shouldn't be ignored. This article by Mark Barron, a corporate technology partner at Taylor Wessing, will cover what you need to think about in choosing Europe as the first stop in your international journey, and a few of the key advantages in doing so.

Thanks to coronavirus, our working culture has swiftly moved into sharp focus.

As spring turns into summer and the fears of lockdown turn into the uncertainties of release, many early stage companies are effectively having to start all over again, either because they have been temporarily closed and have been in something of a coma like state, or because they have pivoted and the business plan has changed from the original. The question being asked by so many, is ‘what do we do and how do we go about it?’ and is focused around the fundamental question that takes all founders back to the origins of their business.

The world is embarking on a period of great technological innovation. This means that innovators themselves need a place where they can grow their ideas. Technology startups are fast becoming a growth area for semiconductor manufacturers, as they are often at the coal face of design innovation, pioneering the journey towards the fourth industrial revolution.

The world feels upside down, right? Mankind is not meant to stay locked inside. We need wide spaces, open-air, opportunities and horizons. As the world stopped and placed us in a timeless lethargy we find it hard to remain optimistic. The same question goes round and round in our heads as we stare at the azure of the sky through the window: How is Coronavirus affecting the future of work?

Many startups know what building a culture means in their startup, and most founders will - smartly - work to prioritise that closely to ensure their company culture is warm, positive, and creative. But few know what building a digital culture means. Without a digital culture, your business will struggle to scale, and will struggle to expand internationally. It’s often ignored and that means you can make it a real positive difference between you and your competitors.

OK, we admit it. We’re nuts about leadership. We could talk about it till the cows come home and then we’d settle them in for the night and tell them a bedtime story about it.

Like many good things in life, The Hustle House started out over a couple of G&T’s. Free ones at that. Maybe it was because Fiona had her laptop out in a restaurant on a Friday night, or maybe it was because the waiter felt bad for seating them late. Whatever the reason, the free G&T’s set the tone for a discussion on possibilities, on the notion of leaving behind the comfort blanket of corporate life and taking the plunge into the start-up world.

For many businesses, cash in the bank is often a concern especially during periods of uncertainty. Making sure you know exactly what’s going in and out and when has never been so important.

Agile startups have proven that they are able to help in a crisis. Access to bright thinkers and technical experts means they can come up with creative solutions quickly in response to changes in circumstances - and many have been helping in the fight against COVID-19.

One of the significant demands resulting from the Coronavirus crisis of 2020 has been the need for new and novel ways for voluntary support to be facilitatedfascilitated. The ability for assistance to reach the most vulnerable or living in isolation or quarantine in safe ways is vital to saving lives and mitigating the spread of the pandemic. 

Having worked as a solution architect and designed multiple SaaS applications over the years, I could see most startups struggling to choose the right SaaS architecture for their product offering. In this article, I’ve compiled all my learnings into a cheat sheet to help startup founders, who’re looking to build SaaS applications, make a pragmatic decision backed by proven facts and data.  

The concept of co-working has become synonymous with tech ecosystems across the globe. It came to prominence around the same time as the birth of some of the biggest tech companies you’ve heard of, as well as those you haven’t. 

One of the biggest trends right now is IoT, especially Industrial IoT (IIoT) and the security around data. Having taken off massively in the past few years, in the tech startup industry if you were going to create a business, these areas would be two of hottest in the current climate. Innovative startups or scaleups with cutting edge IoT hardware technologies capable of securely retrofitting industrial facilities for predictive maintenance, are extremely sought after and very desirable to investors and businesses. Also we have seen a rise in the number of startups working within data security at sensor level to avoid data breaches.

Many businesses ask me many questions but one of the questions that has become more common over the last few months is whether their business should pivot. Regular readers will know that many of the answers to questions I overhear are often prefaced with ‘well it depends’ but this question can in many ways be easier to answer than that.

There’s no denying that living in lockdown amid a global pandemic is something new to us all. And for millions of workers across the country, they’ve spent the last few weeks working from home as a result of social distancing. Here, Parin Ashra, UX/UI Designer at Perlego for mental health awareness week, delves into mental health within businesses, and why we should be doing more.

SharkNinja although known for producing vacuums, have been doing some very different work during the COVID-19 crisis, as they had some more time on their hands, and wanted to help. We spoke to Mohammad Hatia, SharkNinja Prototype Lead Workshop Manager and asked him a few questions as to what SharkNinja have been up to.

Global efforts to combat climate change have been stifled recently, with an unprecedented crisis shifting the focus of governments, businesses and consumers away from the plight of the planet. We’re engaged in a war against an invisible enemy; and COVID-19’s dire importance has placed many environmental initiatives on hold.

Are there specific entrepreneurial attitudes and motivations that influence business success? For investors, founders, business leaders and boards alike this is the million or even billion-dollar question.

The model and motivations are in alignment and all bodes well for the energy company’s collaboration with a startup. Excitement is high, as are expectations. There is one thing left to attend to though: the environment you create. Will it be a space where collaboration can thrive? Or where it will wither on the vine?

Being a business owner is now more stressful than ever, with the outbreak of COVID-19 seeing companies both big and small shaken and left to find new ways of working. For small businesses and new business owners especially, this is a particularly daunting time with cash flow and employment being some of the biggest worries to face over the coming months.

Throughout history there have been several significant events which have led to mass deaths defining the course of civilisation. Among these are World Wars, plagues, pandemics, and epidemics including the black death, flu pandemic of 1889-1890 and more recently Swine flu, Ebola, and our present challenges with COVID-19. They are all examples of major historical outbreaks that have taken lives and steered the course for public health development, social and medical innovations some which still being used today. 

Modern day advancements in technology and resources, as well as a much wider range of funding options, mean taking an idea from initial concept to startup has never been easier. One thing that you can’t create a shortcut for, however, is understanding the fundamentals of scaling a business - and getting it right. 

This Startip provides a concise list of skills needed to migrate to the cloud or from one cloud provider to the next, so that you can fill the gaps in your team’s expertise. Startups have to have a cloud migration strategy or know how to build cloud-native products, and therefore need the skills to do so.

The UK government’s announcement of a £500m co-investment Future Fund to help startups navigate Covid-19 is a positive step. It recognises the innovation and job creation startups bring to the economy, while addressing their most pressing issues – cash and safeguarding talent.

COVID-19 is affecting every area of our lives. As well as the immense personal cost of this global health tragedy for so many, there are likely significant business implications for your customers as well.

Once its motivations are clear (see part two of this series), an energy company looking to collaborate with a startup must establish how exactly it will do so.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on businesses and the economy in the UK. Access to finance for business, as provided by banks and financial services institutions, is imperative in these trying times. Whether you’re a shopkeeper, sole trader or multi-national company, the chances are you need help right now, and getting access to that support is a top priority. 

As we emerge blinking into the light post lockdown, what will the ‘new normal’ look like? The questions that I am overhearing have changed very recently, from those covering how to survive during lockdown, to those focused around how to get back to normal working? In truth, the questions vary from the theoretical to the practical, but in essence they all ask, ‘how will we adapt to the ‘new normal’?

Depending on who you pay attention to, the current crisis is either a great time to be starting a business, or a pretty terrible one. There are growth opportunities out there, for sure, but there is also a huge amount of uncertainty with which to contend.

Leadership is required more than ever in this COVID-19 world and according to Gallup and their extensive surveying of the US workforce, a very specific type of Leadership is required in times of crisis. 

Covid has dominated our lives for the last month. Business models that have existed for years have disappeared overnight. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for startups. Covid has also created a huge opportunity for us to serve people in new and surprising ways. 

It is certainly a testing time for the UK’s startup ecosystem. No sooner had small businesses put in place contingency plans to get them through Brexit, when a new, and bigger, challenge arose in the form of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

The process of obtaining a business loan can be challenging at the best of times. Normally, though, the loan is part of a larger restructuring or growth plan, whereas at present companies across the UK are requiring financial support just to survive.

The world has been turned upside down and shaken vigorously. Businesses are now scrambling to pick up the pieces and regain a handle on how they can push ahead during these difficult, uncertain times.

There is no part of society that has been unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. On 12th April, the UK sadly became the fifth country to record 10,000 deaths from the virus, with the Government expected to continue its tough lockdown measures for many weeks to come.

Growth mindset rests on the idea that essential things such as talent and achievements can be developed through hard work and practice. Also, the concept of growth mindset explores how passion and training can help a person develop skills that people don’t originally have.

It may surprise some, but there are many similarities between the best attributes of an immigrant and a tech entrepreneur. We speak to Manoj Ganapathy about his journey from humble beginnings in his native India, to CEO of business travel and expense management system, SalesTrip.

The current global situation has affected many different industries, businesses and individuals and it is safe to say we are only just getting into the real mix of it. A lot of people have been talking recently how this could change the world in some way forever. One area that is has affected in an interesting way in the insurance technology area. We decided to catch up with and ask a few questions to Christian Wiens, CEO and founder of Getsafe about the insurtech space, and the current situation for them. 

Prior to the UK-wide lock-down, Startups Magazine attended a London-based panel discussion, hosted by business advice and consultancy company Invigorate, to address some of the barriers, misconceptions and challenges facing female founders and what the future has in store over the next ten years.

When we speak of gender equality, we like to think, in 2020, that we’ve come a long way from the patriarchal society of days gone by. Which is of course true, however, when it comes to business there are still battles to be won and barriers to break down.

Home learning? As governments worldwide announce school closures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, it is important parents and teachers seek out and have access to fresh and pioneering new ways to keep young minds learning and stimulated in the months ahead.

There’s no shortage of fantastic startups in the UK but introducing their technologies and solutions into the public sector presents a challenge for both sides.

Cloud computing might be a relatively mature technology now, well-adopted by many types of SMEs, but changing your cloud strategy can still be daunting. Do the benefits of multi-cloud outweigh the costs? Is it worth the additional time spent managing multiple services, especially for a smaller business? I think that it is, and here’s why.

Jo White, Marketing Manager at customer relationship management software specialists Capsule, looks at the top sectors destined for startup success in 2020 and beyond. She explains how startups can leverage the latest technology to build lasting and meaningful personal relationships to deliver the excellence in customer experience needed to make it big.

At the start of a company’s life, building a business is all-consuming, especially for founders going it alone. For those with an entrepreneurial background, juggling the quest for investment, continuous product or service development and a huge amount of administration is taxing.

To remain competitive, every company across every industry is now compelled to rethink its established ways of doing business. Change is set to continue, the ride is only going to get faster and the differences more fundamental. The risks of not adapting are now outweighing the risks of staying the same.

Many companies collapse after expanding too quickly and spending more than the new business brought in. The sales figures can be high, but the profit may not be there. Or, an unexpectedly large order may put extra pressure on employees – if they deliver a positive experience, a business can be propelled into the next stage of growth.

If you are considering beginning a new startup business, you will not be happy to hear that 90% of start-ups fail; according to the Startup Genome Project. However, if you understand the reasons why new companies fail to become successes, you can avoid falling into those pitfalls.

The stigma attached to periods manifests in many ways and in the workplace, it can often prove quite a difficult obstacle to overcome. In 2018, there were 15.3 million women aged over 16 in employment, with the total female employment rate being 71.4% — the highest ever figure since 1971, when records began.

Many startups are born of a desire to fix a social or environmental issue that the founders believe has been poorly addressed. Many governments, councils and politicians believe the same, enacting policies to hopefully enable these solutions – either through public funding, tax breaks or regulatory requirements (to recycle or meet emissions targets, etc).

The road to developing, catalysing and scaling a sustainable energy business is an eventful, long and can be a frustrating one. I know because I am travelling on that journey right now. For me it started four and half years ago when I purchased a 322 hectare site in Cameroon with a vision to establish it as a production park for biofuels.

For thousands of years, people have been telling stories in a variety of forms. Yet just like the word sustainability, the word storytelling has become a trend or something that’s nice to have.  Getting someone to understand what sustainability is about has its challenges  - there are a lot of opinions out there on what sustainability is but it’s not always easily articulated. Often the explanation gets a bit technical so it needs to be broken down, making it easy to understand. This is why having a good story about sustainability is essential.

The issue of ‘why’ small businesses should be more environmentally-friendly is well-trodden ground – perhaps less so is ‘how’. There are, of course, a number of practical things that businesses can do to go greener. Here are my top tips for tackling the climate issue head on:

The shortlist for the Business Book Awards 2020 has just been announced and we’ve cherry picked the titles that should be on every entrepreneur’s bookshelf. Here are the top six picks…

Mental health is a topical concern. It’s also sensitive, delicate and for entrepreneurs specifically it can be sore, often kept secret. At the end of 2019, while running my men’s mental health magazine MAN_AGE, I found I work the equivalent of four, maybe five jobs. 

Virtually every startup thinks of itself as innovative, but are they really? Every day I help companies claim cash for innovative activities through the R&D tax credit scheme. Most of these companies are somewhat innovative, however, to be truly innovative is really tough. In this column, I want to explore what innovation means and how you might apply it to your business.

Some questions in life are more fundamental than others and some are more specific or technical, and so it is in the world of early stage businesses. But for the person asking the question, each carries the same weight, and each is of the same importance because at the time of asking it is that point that is not understood. 

I have always believed in the power of accelerators and, as a founder of my own startup, I experienced how beneficial they can be.

For anyone starting a business there is that delicious and intoxicating mixture of excitement tinged with fear. That is partly the fear of the unknown but it is also very much the fear of failure. 

Whether it’s a member of your senior team getting poached, seeing your cash run out sooner than you were expecting, or facing a crisis situation, such as a data breach or privacy issue, startups will always face moments when the world seems to be conspiring against them.

The world constantly embraces new technologies - as does our education system. Since the changes in the UK curriculum in September 2014, kids as young as five have begun to embrace branches of education that seem completely alien to many adults.

When anyone is considering doing anything important and potentially life changing in their lives it always pays to think hard, do as much research and gather as much information as you can, and also to speak to as many people as possible. 

According to research by 123Reg.com, business savvy Britons are 10% more likely to start a new venture in January as part of their New Year’s resolutions, than any other time of year.

The majority (71%) of UK SMEs are either too busy or don't know how to attract new customers, according to research by business leadership organisation, Entrepreneurs Circle.

Nearly 70% of Millennials have advised they will make a purchase after seeing branded content online, according to new research by brand publishing specialists, Green Park Content.

If there was one word to summarise the last few years, it would be “uncertainty” – and studies suggested this was being felt by SMEs across the country.

Turkeys don’t have votes, and even if they did, they wouldn’t know what Christmas is. But it turns out PR people do have votes and we do know what Christmas is, so please, dear startup executive/founder/creator, don’t use our services.

Location, location, location. Sure, it matters if you’re picking where to buy a house with your partner, or where you want your children to go to school; but what if we told you it matters a lot for a startup business too?

Working a 9-5 may still be a norm for many, however, it’s been predicted that the number of digital nomads will reach one billion by the year 2035.  With this new tribe making waves in the world of work, Instant Offices looks into how they are changing the way Millennials and Generation Z think about their careers and travel.

The UK is fertile ground for the world’s fast-growth companies and our firm alone looks after three of the fastest-growing companies as listed in the Fast Track 100. 

It was recently announced that total venture capital (VC) funding for London’s tech companies rose by an unprecedented 87% last year to reach $9.7bn, over double that raised in Berlin and triple that raised in Paris. 

Of all the questions that I overhear or am asked, the one with the most variants is without doubt ‘how long will it take? The simple reason that it has the most variants is because ‘it’ can apply to almost anything and everything in a startup or a business at any other stage. 

Co-founder of the MIT Innovation Lab and global thought leader, Dr Dave Richards, shares his a startup guide to 'entrepreneurial spirit'.

You would be familiar with user experience design, if you work in the tech industry, or you have a product which has an interface. In case you are unfamiliar with UX design, here is a quick explanation: a user experience design creates a meaningful and relevant digital experience for users.

Global Gen Z research from Nintex reveals how organisations can make the most of the tech skills and experience of digital natives.

In December, Tesco stopped producing Christmas cards at a Chinese factory after Florence Widdicombe, a six-year-old girl from London, opened a box of cards and found a message inside.

What determines success vs failure? Why do so many businesses fail while others thrive? It is widely reported 90% of all startups fail.

As a Mentor, one of the things that I am often asked about is how to find reliable partners, and indeed who those partners should be. I recently overheard that very point when a lady was asking “who should I ask to help me and what exactly are the best roles for them to play?”

If we can learn anything from Great British Bake Off, it’s that nobody wants a soggy bottom. A half-baked idea must stay in the oven for an adequate time to rise to its full potential. The same thinking can be applied to the start of a new business or venture.

One of the very common themes that I come across with entrepreneurs and founders is that they are generally over confident. About everything! That goes from the valuation of their business to how quick and easy it will be to raise funding.

It's a funny thing, more often than not, I see companies seeking and getting investment that have a great idea, huge opportunity and a really interesting business plan.

There are many reasons why living in the UK makes life so much easier than living in most other countries. This is in our personal lives and wellbeing but also in our working lives, especially as an entrepreneur.

Start-Ups, Pivots and Pop-Ups: How to Succeed by Creating Your Own Business, written by two established entrepreneurs, Richard Hall and Rachel Bell, discusses the key disruptors of the “Start Up Revolution”.

Over the years that I have been working with startups and early-stage businesses I have overheard many different things.  The majority of these follow the normal concerns of any entrepreneur that is entering into uncharted waters for themselves but there have also been some comments that I have overheard that have been unique to the individual’s concerns or the setting in which it was said.

Happy New Year! As the newest (currently) columnist at Startups Magazine, I’m here to solve all your digital and marketing problems. Well. Not quite. 

The value of investing in legal advice for your business cannot be underestimated. By receiving proper legal advice early on in the business life cycle, even when you’re a startup, you could potentially make costs savings and allow your business to operate more efficiently.

Last week was of course the last real working week of the year, but whilst many will have found opportunities to celebrate in one way or another it does not mean that most will not still have been working hard.

Looking back and celebrating the six featured technology startups from each bi-monthly issue of Startups Magazine in 2019.

Streamline your day with these time management strategies to beat ‘overwhelm’. Here are ten tips to master time management to spend more time working on your business, and less time fighting against an inbox avalanche.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find the process of booking a holiday or city break totally mind-boggling and confusing. While technology has doubtless made the practical process far easier than years gone by, we now have a myriad of choice which I find bamboozling.

Catherine Ainsworth, member of the Dot Project spoke at Fireside Summit 2019 to share the organisation's work within the social sector influencing how approaches to technology can become more responsible. 

The middle of December is a strange time of year for all. Some are already starting to slow down and getting into the full swing of the season’s festivities, whilst others are rushing around even more manically than normal in an attempt to finalise matters before things shut down properly.

Many of us dream of leaving the corporate world behind and flying solo but there’s always the fear, will it work?

Different things drive different people in different ways. That is because each of us wants something different from our lives and we are prepared to make different levels of commitment to achieve what we want to achieve and strike that critical personal balance.

Do we value emotional intelligence - EQ - more than ever? Maybe value isn’t the right word (have you ever been hired following an EQ test? I’d love to hear about it), but we do recognise its importance in our lives.

A perfect office space makes for productive and happy employees. But given the evolution of the modern workplace, what’s “perfect” now varies by company. When choosing a new office space with your commercial real estate company, consider what your business and your employees need to succeed.

I am sure that each and every one of us would accept that we cannot be good at everything that we do, or that we do not have time to do everything ourselves. And actually, I would suggest that it is in fact both. 

In each of our lives, some weeks are more predictable than others. Some people are a little afraid of change and facing new, unexpected challenges, whilst others face the world with a ‘can do’ approach and even relish unpredictability and the need for flexible thinking and action to jump over the hurdles put in our way. And just like the best race horses, this keeps us fit and agile.

Everyone has an idea about how they can create the next big thing, but how do you make that idea turn into a reality? Freelance platform UnderPinned teamed up with Startups Magazine to share knowledge about how to take a business from the idea stage to taking the first steps.

This round-up’s inaugural theme looks at startups that help users incorporate sustainability and sustainable development into everyday living. These companies stand out for how they ask for a nearly imperceptible lifestyle change while providing impressive solutions. These are some startups we stan:

Over the last two weeks I have written special articles on ‘Business Plans and Pitch Decks’ and on ‘The Art of Fundraising’ but this week I return to writing 'The Mentor’s Journal'.

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.

There are seemingly hundreds of interpretations of marketing. Most have appeared only within the last decade, driven by the onset of digital marketing and its ever-sprawling complexity and fragmentation.

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.

How many times have you heard this, “I have this great idea for a new product or service”. And how many times have you seen this person with the “great idea” actually do something? Well, this article will help you understand if the idea is a million-dollar idea or not. 

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.

It is one of the biggest challenges for any small e-commerce startup. How do they find an operating model that supports dynamic growth.

The typical anatomy of a sales team in a modern tech company is that of Sales Development Representative (SDR) as the front line sales person. The 'warmed-up' lead then gets handed over to a more senior AE (Account Executive) to close.

Global compound growth rates of robotics, automation and AI companies are expected to grow by more than 40% per year, with revenue generated by these companies reaching $237bn by 2022 according to some estimates and $498bn by 2025 according to others.

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.

Few industries have felt the impact of technological disruption more than the banking sector. Over the last few years several new kids on the block have emerged to take their seat at the top table and muscle in on the activities of the high street giants by specialising in areas that are being underserved.

The business industry is constantly changing, so it’s imperative to stay at the top if your game in order to keep profits increasing. With businesses always competing for customers, it can be difficult to break through the noise and become a successful and established brand while continuing to grow.

Just as last week’s Mentor’s Journal led me neatly into my article, 'The Power of Networking', so this week started off very much in the same vein with all my early meetings either coming from existing relationships in my network, or me utilising my network to join some dots together. 

New data from SeedLegals, the UK’s largest legal platform for startups, has revealed a rise in the frequency of smaller funding rounds for UK startups, with a tech-enabled model of ‘agile funding’ enabling companies to raise money on-demand.

Welcome to the first of a periodic series of articles that will take a more in depth look at some of the topics that make frequent appearances in my Mentor’s Journal series.

As part of this weekly series 'Funding the Wonderful' in partnership with Crowdcube, every month we will showcase a handpicked selection of five startups which are raising on the Crowdcube platform.

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.

This week was quite typical in that it was an unusual mix of many of the things that I get involved with as a mentor and that I have written about in the past. There was some international, some regulation, some cyber security, lots about women in business, and yet again on advisory boards and raising finance.

For many startups, the process of fund raising can be quite daunting. What method of raising do you use? How long is it going to take? To say nothing of the fact that it’s the time when founders and entrepreneurs have to stick their necks out and ask other people to invest and commit to their vision.

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.

One thing that I have learned over the years is the importance of cooperation and working with the right partners, and this has only been reiterated during my activities as a mentor. By working with others that have skills or experience in areas that you do not, then 2+2 can, quite literally, equal 5.

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.

So, you’ve had a great business idea, you have thought it through, built a business plan and a strategy and you believe in it so much that you now want to turn your idea into a reality.

Google for Startups has announced the latest instalment in its commitment to female entrepreneurs with its first Female Founders Residency programme.

This week I met with Deputy Chief Constable Jo Shiner at Sussex Police to talk about all the many ways that businesses of any size can work together with the police for the benefit of the company and the community as a whole.

This week, almost to underline my comments in the first of this series about not knowing what each week will bring, was almost entirely different to last week. Last week was full of face to face meetings and there was no particular thread to my week, other than of course the fact that it revolved very heavily around early stage businesses.

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.

Crowdcube was inspired by an unshakable belief in entrepreneurs challenging the status quo with big ideas and new thinking, the ones with a vision and who dream big, push at the edges and want to make a difference, big and small.

The story of Nikolay Stronsky, Founder and CEO, Revolut is a pretty incredible one, in just four years he has seen a rapid amount of success, with the company now being worth $1.7bn. So how did he do it?

Welcome to the first in the new series of ‘The Mentor’s Journal’ which will look at some of my activities from the preceding week, with a view to turning the theory outlined in my ‘Views of a Mentor’ series into real, everyday situations. 

Every day we read about amazing startup successes. We hear about these brilliant 'unicorns'. What we rarely hear about is the many more startups that fizzle and die. The sad truth is, most startups fail. Taking the leap to start a new venture is a tremendous risk.

Ruth Hallett, a consultant with over 20 years of project and programme management delivery experience for both commercial and public sector clients, demystifies the NHS for healthtech startups.

Concerns about AI technology, in general terms, boil down to the quantity and areas in which it’s used to replace human tasks. Establishing the limitations of AI and unique skills innate to humans, provides insight into its future application, and alleviates some of the worry that one day AI will take over the taskforce.

The focus on company culture and brand values has become a top-tier priority in the modern workplace, as businesses start to realise the only way to persist isn’t to only keep up with changes in the market, but to keep up with changes in work culture and values.

Unbound Festival this year saw an influx of tech for good innovation, propelling the industry towards a bright and influential future. Spearheading the mainstream market today is a boom in self-care apps from mindfulness to sleep assistance, while location-based apps designed to tackle physical inactivity are making scenic walking as easy to find as getting an Uber is to order.

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.

Startups have a lot to think about, especially when it comes to going global. There are many important aspects to think of when growing a company. Here are four common mistakes startups often make when going global.

The relentless pace of modern day brand communications and marketing means the fight is on for startups to win the appeal of consumers and keep their interest. But when it comes to PR, not all coverage is created equally. It’s hard to know where to start.

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. 

Startups working to solve consumer problems sometimes create technology that has the potential to become an industry standard. This may be a de-facto standard, an industry standard approved by a formal standards setting body, or something mandated by law.

x+why understands that not every business wants to be overshadowed by a behemoth co-working brand. For those businesses that are looking for a co-working space beyond the norm, and for somewhere more than just a place to sit, x+why welcomes you to its new co-working space in Whitechapel.

Society is currently being shaped by innovation in the tech industries, and once a year thousands gather to network, share and exchange insight in London to shed light on the future of tech, and our place within it.

It doesn’t matter whether a business is for enterprise or not for profit - to create a successful business, you need more than just an idea. You need to identify a problem/need to create an attractive market. It’s much easier to start a business if you have a unique product/solution, and a scalable, profitable model.

We’re living in a time of incredibly rapid change, where mobile phones are dominating consumer experiences and new technology is constantly being harnessed, turning traditional startup business models on their heads.

International Airlines Group (IAG) has launched its latest Hangar 51 global innovation programme in collaboration with Iberia, Vueling and IAG Cargo. The initiative will be based in Spain for the second time after the huge success of its previous Spanish programme in 2017.

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?

Why building meaningful values into your brand leads to the culture you want

Creating and sustaining culture can feel a little bit like a chicken and egg situation in a startup. You need to define your culture early on in order to attract the right employees, but culture itself is largely driven by people, so until you have the people in place, how can your culture be expected to flourish?

If you’re in the startup space, it is very likely you will have heard the term ‘ICO (Initial Coin Offering)’ thrown around a fair few times, and perhaps even heard it described as an attractive alternative to traditional types of fundraising.

A new coliving space for Paris’ entrepreneurs, freelancers and startups has recently opened near to the famous STATION F coworking campus in the centre of the city. The Flatmates space will consist of three coliving towers and can house 600 residents.

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.

Advanced Engineering is on the lookout for startups to showcase their inventions as part of its Enabling Innovation zone.

It’s not what you know it’s who you know… The right place at the right time… These are both recognisable phrases that both serve to highlight the element of chance that can sometimes be associated with success. And nowhere is this better highlighted than in the world of sport.

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.

For founders looking to start a business it is imperative to get the culture right - as getting it wrong can lead to bad investor, customer and employee experience. At Women of Silicon Roundabout 'Founder Focus' workshop track, CEO and co-Founder of London-based foodtech startup Feedr, Riya Grover delivered a thought-provoking workshop titled 'Defining your culture blueprint to hyper-charge growth', and explained why it is so important to get it right from the start.

Startups Magazine attended the Women of Silicon Roundabout 2019 (25-16th June) workshop 'Getting an innovative mindset: why the world needs more entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs', and here's what we thought.

At the LeadersIn Tech Summit during London Tech Week 2019, a roundtable was held discussing the benefits and drawbacks of partnerships between corporates and startups. At the table, Anna Jones from FieldHouse Associates, Ryan Haynes from Ryan Haynes Marketing, Ben Rudman the CEO of MMT Digital, and Denise Glee from MagnaCarta Communications, lent their personal expertise to the debate.

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.

Common sense suggests that an entrepreneur is the lynch-pin of a startup. At the recent TLA Investor Showcase 2.0 event, for example, investors repeatedly talked about the entrepreneur as being synonymous with startup and scale-up; the person they look to invest in. But are they right?

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.

Disrupt of be disrupted, that's the challenge of innovation in a changing digital landscape. Digital transformation is crucial for business success, but how can you move from talking about innovation to putting it into action?

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.

“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.

The next generation of aspiring startups are hoping their technology will change the world. But what about the technology that is changing startups? I’ve spent the last few years working with some of Europe’s biggest startup success stories, helping them put in place the right business platforms to support rapid growth.

Startups Magazine first clapped eyes on Le Pavé Parisien at CES 2019 within the French Pavilion in the Eureka Park and was instantly intrigued to see the world's only high-end speaker cast entirely in concrete.

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. 

AO, the online electricals store, and L Marks, leading advisor in applied innovation and experienced investor in early-stage technologies, have partnered in a global search 'for the next digital disruptors who will make online shopping easier and faster for its customers'.

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.

Last week’s article focussed on Business Plans; what should be in them and why you should write one. One of the key pieces of information required is of course sales figures, both actual numbers for historic sales and those forecast for the future. It is also very important to include the assumptions and how you market your goods in order to achieve those sales. It is those subjects that I am going to focus on this time.

Over the last five articles I have tried to set the scene in terms of outlining what help is available to early stage businesses, and certain aspects of finance, including a valuable but often overlooked tax refund. In this article and the next I wanted to focus on two fundamental issues that will determine how your business develops and how you grow sales.

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.

South-By-Southwest is an annual assemblage of conferences and festivals that takes place in Austin, Texas in early March to celebrate the convergence of film, music, interactive and other industries. Created to foster both professional and personal growth across multiple levels, the ten-day event prides itself on truly being all things to all people.

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 DTS 2019 (Dublin Tech Summit) Willie Morris got real in his talk about startup failure.

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.

If you are an engineering startup and proud raise your hand! It is nearly a year since the first issue of Startups Magazine, and if it has opened my eyes up to one thing, it is that there are a lot of you startups out there – which is a great thing!

2018 was 'the year of engineering', and arguably a year that allowed more women to make even more of a breakthrough in the industry.

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

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.'

In this, the first of an occasional series, I will be passing on my thoughts and observations in my capacity as a Mentor and how accepting the help that is available to startup business can help transform them.

The French pavilion has dominated the Eureka Park at CES, and 2019 was no exception with the country represented by no less than 414 startups. However this year's CES saw Britain step up to the plate alongside its global counterparts, bringing along over 100 UK companies.

We all know the feeling of buying the latest gadget, boasting two years of battery life, only to see it breaking down before the first year is up. 

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.