Whatever any of us care to call it - funding, finance, getting investors, or any other variation on the theme – obtaining finance remains one of the biggest areas of both concern, and lack of detailed knowledge, for many startups.

Seatfrog is a rail upgrade app that lets standard class passengers bid for a First Class upgrade in real-time or simply ‘buy it now’ and get a new boarding pass instantly on their phone. We caught up with Iain Griffin, the CEO at the recent Business Travel Show.

Getting accountancy advice and assistance is a natural and important step for all most businesses, especially those starting out. When you hire an accountant, the last thing you anticipate is that they will be negligent. Unfortunately, accountants and other professionals do not always get it right.

China’s rapidly growing economy has gathered much interest about the practices and philosophies that support Chinese business. This intrigue is mainly derived from the West. The nature of globalisation for Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) has also significantly affected European economies and societies. In light of this, this piece intends to explore the Chinese concept of guanxi and how this can aid better business relations.

Table4one is the app that makes it easy for you to meet other like minded professionals for dinner, or lunch, when you're travelling. As founder Ciaran Haughey was exhibiting the Business Travel Show he spoke to Startups Magazine... 

The construction industry is surrounded by negative stereotypes, impacting not only its reputation, but it's dedicated workers. Seeing these unfair perceptions of industry workers damaging livelihoods and reputations, I decided to do something about it. After a period of investing in property, I was inspired to start my own business, Trio, with the aim of tackling common misconceptions in the world of construction.

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:

UNLEASH, the largest and fastest growing global network of HR and technology decision makers, startups, visionaries, and disruptors, has announced the first-look at its Spring 2020 conference in London.

For its forth edition, President and COO of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell is set to land at Dublin Tech Summit (DTS) this year. The Summit which is taking place in the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 from the 22nd-23rd April 2020 will bring over 10,000 attendees from over 70 countries and 200 high profile speakers to Dublin.

Founded in Singapore in 2017 by Magnus Grimeland and a team of Google, Spotify, MIT and Harvard alumni, Antler is a global startup generator and early stage VC that is building the next big wave of tech.

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. 

Lancashire-based Get Work, a service that generates local leads for tradespeople, has received a £100k loan from NPIF – BFS & MSIF Microfinance, a product managed by GC Business Finance & MSIF and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

 

The Central Research Laboratory (CRL) has announced the launch of its 7th world leading accelerator programme, which celebrates five years supporting early growth stage product pioneers.

The average startup creates twice as many jobs as the average SME in our country. Nearly nine out of ten SMEs are sole traders, within startups that is only 1.4%

John Armstrong co-created Custom Planet with his friend Andrew Dark in 2008, while they were both at university. The company has since grown to become one of the UK's leading printwear specialists. Here, he gives his expert tips for startups wanting to create their own merchandise for a podcast.

Taking place on the 11th and 12th March at the Smart IoT show, part of the London Tech Show and co-located with a number of other events, is the Digital Catapult's Future Networks Lab Challenge, which is an opportunity for IoT startups will respond and pitch directly to industry challenges set by leading partners Siemens and Arrow Electronics. 

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. 

As a three-time entrepreneur, I’ve been on the difficult journey of scaling from founder to big-company CEO. In one of my ventures I went from an idea on a whiteboard to a publicly trading entity in eight years, and it isn’t just one big celebration – it is hard to keep up with your company.