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28th Jan 09 - Manchester (6 pm start) - Thriving as a Tech StartUp in an UpStart economy - Beating the economic blues

Posted by superuser on Tuesday 27th of January 2009 | 0 Comment(s)

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Just a quick blog post to let you know that there are only 16 tickets remaining for tomorrow's event. You can still buy a ticket at http://www.nwstartup20.co.uk/jan09. Act now to avoid disappointment later. Tickets at door are priced £40 irrespective of your status.

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"Thriving as a Tech StartUp in an UpStart economy - Beating the economic blues", is our first Northern StartUp 2.0 event of 2009 at new venue Horwath Clark Whitehill, Manchester, UK. The doors open at 6pm. Speakers and panelists include:

 

1. Mike Butcher, Editor, TechCrunch UK and Ireland.

2. Ed French, Venture Capitalist, Enterprise Ventures.

3. James Brocket, Managing Partner, CalibreOne.

4. Dr. Zoe Lock, Technology Strategy Board.

5. Neil Parkin, Sector Broker, Business Link North West.

Lisa Scales of Talent On View will be the first ever StartUp4Slaughter - join the rapid Q&A session. If you wish to get in touch, my details are +44 7769 734491 or manoj@ranaweera.name

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Do get in touch immediately, if you are looking for:

1. Funding

2. Accountancy services

3. Legal services

4. Or any other assistance

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24th Feb 2009 event opportunities:

1. Speakers - Mobile 2.0 and beyond

2. StartUp4Slaughter (one company)

3. Event Sponsor (one company)

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xxth Marc 2009 Dragon's Lair opportunities:

1. Dragons

2. Up to Eight StartUps

3. Event Sponsor

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Our partners include:

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Contact us today if you wish to become a partner

2008 Episodes of TechFluff.TV

Posted by superuser on Tuesday 23rd of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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Georgia and the Dragons!!

Posted by Georgia on Monday 22nd of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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Dragon's Den – Northern Startups 2.0

OK guys this blog post is gonna be the quickest ever as I am rushing around madly preparing for the festivities and racing around at work trying to hit numerous end of year deadlines! I am sure many of you know exactly where I am coming from!!

However, I just couldn't let the opportunity pass without telling you all about my recent success!! December's Northern Startup 2.0 event took the form of a Dragon's Den style pitch, with eight startup companies each presenting a five minute pitch and fielding questions from a panel of three Dragons.

... for the whole post please visit:

http://webstartupdiary.blogspot.com/2008/12/georgia-and-dragons.html

Pankaj Malviya on how to avoid taking venture capital

Posted by superuser on Saturday 20th of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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Resource: Vator.TV

Relationals, the upstart provider of CRM software founded in 2003, has been finding customers in a market that isn't exactly known for growth -- newspapers and other large media firms. More than 60% of large newspapers are using the company's software, CEO Pankaj Malviya tells Vator.tv's Bambi Francisco in this interview. Malviya says that he likes having large customers like Gannett and Hearst because despite all the hand-wringing about the shrinking newspaper business, "they'll still be around in 10 years." Last fall, the company launched LongJump, an online site that provides the small-to-medium-sized business market with access to Web-based applications. Relationals has more than 30 employees and is growing revenue at a rate of more than 150% annually, according to Malviya.

NWDA’s Attention-grabbing move

Posted by ManojRanaweera on Saturday 20th of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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Story from Crain's Manchester Business

US-based environmental software firm AttentionIT is to set up the headquarters of its international operations at Birchwood Park, near Warrington. The firm, which is based at Knoxville, Tennessee, offers a waste tracking software system known as Emwaste and is targeting opportunities in the nuclear sector. The firm said that it plans to take on an initial 15 staff, but expects to grow its workforce “substantially” within the next three years. It supplies software to Magnox South Ltd, which is currently decommissioning five nuclear sites in southern England.

“The Warrington site will not only be our national UK base, but our international headquarters,” said AttentionIT’s co-owner Dan Smith. “We plan to hire from within the UK, utilizing the skills and enhanced knowledge of the local population. Our company may be based in Knoxville, but I anticipate the UK office becoming the larger employer within the next three years.”

Attention IT received support for the move from Cheshire & Warrington Economic Alliance, Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the US-based North of England Investment Agency, which is co-funded by the NWDA. It said the project will represent a £4-5m investment for the region.

“The NWDA looks forward to working with AttentionIT as it grows and develops within the UK, providing future support to assist with expansion,” said executive director of Economic Development, Mark Hughes.

NWDA gives £500,000 to specialist in public sector procurement

Posted by ManojRanaweera on Saturday 20th of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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Extract from Crain's Manchester Business:

Wigan-based e-commerce business Valueworks Ltd is getting a £500,000 grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA). The company will use the move to expand into larger premises and double staff numbers to 123, it said. Valueworks, headed by co-founder and chief executive Jeff Dandridge, supplies web based software designed to save clients money on procurement and supply chain functions. Its customers are mainly in the construction, social housing and social care sectors but the company says it wants to increase turnover by expanding into other parts of the public sector, including healthcare.

Mark Hughes, executive director of economic development at the NWDA, said:

“In assisting Valueworks, we are also enabling a number of public sector organisations to cut costs and remain efficient during these economically challenging times,” he said. “Valueworks has already become an enterprising regional business within the ICT sector and has the innovation to continue to create local employment opportunities and stimulate economic activity.”

A Big Thank you from Thinspace

Posted by LisaLayzell on Friday 19th of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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In the true spirit of the season, we express our heartfelt thanks for your contributions to our success in the past year.

During the past year, Thinspace successfully increased the number of its value-added resellers in the UK from 7 to 20. It has also successfully been admitted into the Catalyst Partner Program via Insight UK for supplying the public sector, including the NHS. Our European penetration program kick started during the second half of 2008, in particular, in Holland, Belgium, and Germany.

We are proud to have supplied end organizations such as Prudential, BAA, Silent Night, Manchester University, Liverpool University, Sheffield University, NHS, NWDA, Jackson Building Merchants, Whitbread, Betfred, Premier Foods, to name but a few, and many many schools and colleges. All could not have been achieved without the support of our key partners.

We have also bucked the trend under the currently global financial crisis and successfully attracted venture capital funds into the company to accelerate its growth and continued innovation.

I hope we can forge a closer relationship with you in the coming year, and expand our thin client market share together.

Many thanks for your support and I wish you all a joyous holiday season!

Lisa

The Richard Report and the Digital Economy

Posted by ManojRanaweera on Wednesday 17th of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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Small Business and Government: - The Richard Report The Richard Report prepared on behalf of the Shadow Cabinet by Doug Richard of Dragon's Den fame and Chairman of Library House and Trutap, both of which are in financial trouble at present, addressed some key issues regarding small businesses and the Government with respect to business support. 

As Doug put it, the big numbers are worth the attention, especially the number of business support schemes, and the amount of money the government spent on business support services and the resulting 33.5% overhead it attracts in distribution.

The report contained more revealing figures within the main body of text, e.g. estimated £12 billion spent on busines support, which is estimated to be 2% of all government spend.

The report claims that £2.44 billion is unequally divided across the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) with the most recieved by the London Development Agency (£446 million) and the least received by the East of England Development Agency (£159 million).

NWDA Structure - Organisation ChartAs can be seen from the document (click on thumbnail) the on-going reforms has resulted in bringing Business Link under North West Development Agency (NWDA) for the North West of England. This means that there is signs of consolidation in delivery of business support services.

NWDA - Who we are and what we doIf you wish to know more about NWDA, this document is the right one for you. In terms of achievement, it highlights building a world class science and innovation base at Daresbury, and creating an international creative and digital industries hub. Projects and schemes are normally delivered through five sub-regional partnerships, these being: Cheshire and Warrington Economic Alliance, Cumbria Vision, Greater Manchester Forum, Lancashire Economic Partnership and The Mersey Partnership.

Northwest Regional Economic Strategy - RES Assessment Report 2008RES (Regional Economic Strategies) Assessment Report 2008 highlights the slow progress of development of a high impact ICT strategy. However, ICT business support has now closely integrated into Business Link North West. The focus is to increase the usage of ICT. However, I am yet to see a clear agenda of what importance NWDA places on developing a culture for helping to setup and grow digital product based businesses in the North West.

In the new year I plan to meet two public sector organisations, which have been entrusted to do something about this short-fall. The understanding is that whilst media/newmedia has attracted significant attention and therefore investment, the public sector has very little understanding about how to help the sector addressed by Northern StartUp 2.0. Given that the public sector is slow to move, I believe there is an opportunity for Foresight North to get involve in terms of segmenting the digital sector and mapping out requirements. That is a conversation I am planning to have with my partner, Dr. Angel Salazar, hopefully tomorrow.

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Who said VCs cannot have fun?

Posted by superuser on Wednesday 17th of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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Dragon's and StartUps - A night to remember - 11th Dec 08 at Manchester

Posted by superuser on Monday 8th of December 2008 | 0 Comment(s)

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Christmas Lights Email Template

The scene is set = Dragons lined up + 8 Start Ups ready for Slaughter
 
Register NOW for Northern Dragon's Lair
 
On 11th Dec 08 at eOffice Manchester from 6pm onwards

 

Unique Sponsorship
Opportunity
: Contact Manoj if you wish to sponsor this event (only one
sponsor will be selected in addition to venue supporter). Your role: promote your company + hand over prizes for the best pitch

 

 
 
StevePurdham's picture
Steve Purdham - Sold Surf Control for £204 m in 2007 
 Roy Shelton's picture
Roy Shelton - 3 investments
including Next2Friends. Initial investment up to £150,000
 
Andrew Burton - Viking
Fund, an Angel investment up to £150,000
 
Carl Allen - Opening up MBI and BIMBOs opportunities

PaulBarraclough's picture


Paul Barraclough - chairman of many startups helping them to grow including IPOs

 GeoffButcher's picture
Geoff Butcher - chairman of many startups helping them to grow (founder of Protek)

 

 











Contact Details: Manoj Ranaweera

e-mail: manoj@ranaweera.name

phone: +44 7769734491
Website: http://www.nwstartup20.co.uk/event/northern-dragons-den







8 pitching companies including television celebrity - can you guess?