As we successfully hosted the 2021 Hustle Awards last night at the Finsbury Business Centre (in-person finally!) and had a virtual livestream too, we saw five incredible startups take the prize across the five different categories, plus an array of talent that was also shortlisted and five amazing runner-ups. But not only that we saw our community again, and what an amazing feeling that was to be able to speak to some of you face-to-face!

If you imagine a business like a body, company culture is the lifeblood that circulates, revives and powers everything. It’s a fundamental component of commercial success and without it, you and your team are likely to become rudderless and disorganised.

Language and communication tools are continuously developing. Human beings have an amazing ability to find new ways of understanding one another and the world around us. 

Schools, colleges and universities may have finally got back into rhythm following numerous lockdowns, but in embracing new technology, there are elements of the shift to remote learning that will surely continue long after the pandemic is over.

The UK’s first-ever ‘Laptop Library’ has launched to help support and educate the nation’s most underprivileged children. The initiative, launched by grassroots charity CC Foundation in partnership with leading IT service provider Totality Services, will give hundreds of children access to use and borrow laptops.

Digital Catapult’s Machine Intelligence Garage programme is onboarding 10 new pioneering startups who are pushing the limits of machine and artificial intelligence to solve everyday problems. 

According to a recent survey, just 29% of the UK’s manufacturing and engineering workforce is made up of women. Now, while this highlights a step in the right direction when compared to figures from previous years, leading multi-disciplinary engineering firm, adi Group, believes more must be done to secure the industry’s workforce for tomorrow.

Greyparrot, the London based tech company disrupting the recycling industry by providing waste analytics to monitor, sort, and audit waste at scale, was selected among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum’s “Technology Pioneers”. Previous to founding Greyparrot in 2019, co-founders Mikela Druckman, Ambarish Mitra and Nikola Sivacki had built some of the most cutting edge deep-learning computer vision systems in the world. Now they are committed to applying this technology to the recycling sector, extracting the value of materials that would otherwise end up in landfills, oceans or incinerated.

The commute as we knew it may be gone for good, new research conducted by e-bike subscription service DASH Rides reveals. DASH and Sapio Research surveyed over 2,000 city-dwelling, full-time workers, who used to work primarily in the office and now work primarily at home, and discovered that three quarters of those returning to the office will be actively avoiding public transport or seeking new ways to travel. 

Digital insurer Getsafe recently reached two significant milestones: With 10,000 customers in the United Kingdom and close to 200,000 customers in its native market, Germany, Getsafe is now the largest neo-insurer in Europe. The company currently offers contents insurance with five extensions in the UK and a larger product portfolio in Germany.

Over the course of the last year and a half, online shopping and e-commerce has, at times, been the only way consumers have been able to shop, leading to record breaking rises in people engaging with online retailers. This record volume of e-commerce purchases in 2020 has resulted in a corresponding surge in returns made by consumers who have either changed their minds or aren’t satisfied with their purchase after delivery.

If you have ever replied to a ‘what was the number one song on the day you were born?’ viral post, taken a personality quiz without checking the terms and conditions or just accepted a friend request from a stranger then you could have opened yourself up to fraud.

There are three essential elements to a startup’s communication toolkit. All help to sum up what you do in an instant, engage potential partners, customers and investors, and intrigue them into starting a conversation about working with you.

The Hustle Awards 2021 is very nearly here and we cannot wait to celebrate with you all next week - whether that be from the lovely Finsbury Business Centre and Clerkenworks or from the comfort of your own sofa. From startups to freelancers, The Hustle Awards aims to recognise all the founders, co-founders and team members that have disrupted, impacted and taken a risk or a leap of faith with their business. But who has made the shortlist...

WeVee, the first fully-integrated electric vehicle leasing platform, which launched in the UK (home to Cazoo, Cinch and Carwow), is now valued at $14m after its latest investment injection to support the global expansion of the eMobility lifestyle platform, allowing it to broaden its service lines.

“It's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking, than think your way into a new way of acting.” said Jerry Sternin in The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems.

New customer demands and fierce competition: the pressure on companies to innovate is high across all sectors – and established companies and young startups alike are struggling to meet these demands. Increasingly, this is leading to cooperation between corporates and startups. In this way, the speed and agility of young companies meet the professional structures and long-standing know-how of established companies. Both startups and corporates can benefit from each other's strengths in such a collaboration and ignite a firework of innovation together. 

With government changes from 19 July, the question being thrust into the limelight more than ever for many is 'Should we go back to the office?'

Kuano.ai, a software platform for rapid, cost effective quantum modelling of enzymes, has raised £1m in seed funding from ACF Investors, o2h Ventures and a syndicate of Cambridge-based angel investors. The funding will accelerate the company’s growth as it moves further towards commercialisation.

As a startup founder, it’s easy to view your business solely from your own perspective. Your startup idea is surely unrivalled in its brilliance, bordering on genius, beyond comparison.