We’ve all dreamt about handing in our notice and leaving our full-time job to go it alone and start our own business. And, for many, this dream has become a reality, with the world going startup crazy in the last 12-months.

The Hustle Awards 2021 is fast approaching, with applications open and in full swing we have seen so many amazing startups and founders already nominated, but who will be in charge of choosing the best of the best? Well let me introduce you to this years incredible judges...

On any given day, you’ll find Tom, a Deliveroo rider, astride his moped in front of a shuttered unit in an industrial park in Sussex.

These days, finding information is easy since you can always choose to access all of the world’s knowledge from the comfort of your office or house. But getting all that information alone is not sufficient for you to build a profitable venture, discover new investors, and develop an outstanding product.

Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, has awarded a Smart Grant to deep tech startup electronRx to support the development of their novel period pain relief technology, Ohmm.

More than a year after COVID fuelled stockpiling of necessities and grocery staples, we still see empty supermarket shelves. Many assume this is because of an increased focus on online sales by the large grocers, especially in the US.

When my business partner, Jack, and I started UnderPinned in August 2018, we had countless images of what running a startup would look like. Time has shown that many of them were poorly conceived. Some, downright fanciful. It’s only been two and half years, but it feels like aeons ago now, and I’ve often thought back to that time, wondering what I would tell myself if I could hop into a time-machine and talk to a younger, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Albert.

Today (6th May) marks World Password Day. Since 2013, the first Thursday of May each year marks World Password Day, promoting better password habits to stay safe online.

“Cautious optimism is hugely important,” the CIO of a large coffee shop chain told us at the end of 2020. The sentiment of caution is familiar: the lockdown life we have all come to know is characterised by endless cancelled plans, delayed returns to the office and an underlying sense of uncertainty. Any optimism that we entertain must be held up with the slightest suspicion that our well-laid plans may indeed fall apart.

As a business owner - Identifying barriers and overcoming them is key to success. Jessica Williamson, successful entrepreneur and business coach has identified the three main challenges that create barriers in businesses.

NeuReality, an Israeli AI startup developing high performance AI compute platforms for cloud data centres and edge nodes, has unveiled NR1-P, a novel AI-centric inference platform. NeuReality has already started demonstrating its AI-centric platform to customers and partners.

Regardless of size, recruitment is often one of the most difficult areas for businesses to handle. Finding that vital talent via recruitment agencies requires an upfront investment that many businesses simply don’t have. The alternative, the DIY approach, is deeply time-consuming, taking anything from 12-40 hours from application to hire and it’s very easy to get wrong if you lack the experience.

On February 5, 2021, a hacker initiated a cyberattack on a small water plant in Florida. If successful, the attack would have caused multiple health complications for the 15,000 residents that the plant provides water for. This is just an example of the disastrous consequences of cyberattacks on smaller companies. But how to avoid them? 

A series of backers, including former c-suite executives from Barclays, American Express, Expedia and Hertz have invested in family travel tech startup tripAbrood, to further develop its revolutionary AI-powered family booking experience. tripAbrood has raised £645,000 seed funds in its second round of funding, bringing total funding to just shy of the £1m mark. It comes seven months after its September 2020 beta-launch.

Businesses should consider classing long-COVID as a disability, an employment expert has warned. Up to one million people are expected to require treatment for the condition after June, according to recent reports.

One of the few silver linings to come from the pandemic has been the rapid adoption of innovation in healthcare. The race to develop vaccines in less than one year is a prime example - taking anywhere between 10 and 15 years in normal circumstances. Other technologies such as telemedicine for virtual appointments, and Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) that provides lifelike remote training for medical staff, have broken through with great pace.

Reactive Reality is a leading Austria and California-based augmented reality (AR) company enabling brands to reduce costly and environmentally damaging returns, by improving their customers online shopping experiences through the generation of high-quality digital models of people and products.

There are a lot of things that we take for granted. Something as simple as reading the label on the ingredients for dinner is quick and easy; but not for everyone. For all the wonderful things making our lives easier, there is still a lack of tech out there which effectively assists blind people in everyday tasks, such as reading text. Billy Wood, Founder of Owlett, has set out to change this.

According to the stillbirth, premature birth and miscarriage charity, Tommy’s, one in every 250 pregnancies end in a stillbirth. That’s around 3,400 babies dying every year, or nine every day, on average. But research has shown that some still births can be prevented.

Sprout.ai, the insurtech that enables insurance claims to be settled within just 24 hours, has announced that it has raised £8m/$11m in Series A funding. The round was led by one of Europe’s largest and most active early-stage investors, Octopus Ventures, and was joined by existing investors, Amadeus Capital Partners, Playfair Capital and Techstars.