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After 15 Years, I Need Help to Keep the RookieOven Meetup Going

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I'm going to be honest with you. The RookieOven Meetup is in trouble and I need some help.

I've been running RookieOven since 2011. Fifteen years of first Mondays, fifteen years of Glasgow tech folk pulling up a stool at the pub to talk shop, share war stories and figure things out together. In all that time I don't think I've asked overly much from the community. I've happily put the hours in - the events, the hackathons, the coworking space, the mentoring, the blog posts, the introductions - because I believed in it and I still do.

I hope, in some small way, I've contributed something positive to the Scottish tech scene over those years.

But I've reached a point where I can't keep doing it on my own.

What's changed

Life. In 2011 I was a student at the University of Strathclyde. 2026 is a bit different. Two kids. Sadly illness in the family. The kind of stuff that quietly rearranges what you can and can't commit to each month.

I've always thought the meetup doesnt take a lot to organise I just show up at the pub at 6:30 first Monday of each month. But now even the monthly cadence of the meetup has become something I genuinely struggle to guarantee. April had to be cancelled. May is looking the same way. And if nothing changes, I think the meetup will quietly die through cancellations.

The ask

So here's what I'm asking for - and it's genuinely small.

I'm looking for a pool of at least five people who can commit to trying to be at The Raven in Glasgow at 6:30pm on most first Mondays of the month. Not all of them. Just most of them.

Five people, because I'm hoping that on any given first Monday at least two of you can actually make it. That's all the meetup really needs - a couple of regulars who'll be there to welcome people, hold the table, get the conversation going. The Raven has been a brilliant home for the meetup (although the recent Monday pub quiz is a bit annoying), the format is dead simple and the community largely runs itself once people are in the room.

You don't need to organise anything. You don't need to do social media. You don't need to find speakers (we don't really do speakers). You just need to be willing to turn up, be friendly, and keep the candle lit.

If you've ever come along and got something out of it - a contact, a customer, an idea, a friend, a moment of "oh thank god other people deal with this too" - this is your chance to give a little of that back.

Why I don't want it to die

Selfishly? Because I get so much out of it.

The first Monday of the month is when I get to be in a room with people who care. People who actually give a damn about what they're building. People who'll happily listen to me wrestle with a hiring decision, or a pricing problem, or whatever weird scaling issue I've got that week - and who'll then push back, ask the tough questions, and either pull me back to earth or build me up when I need it.

That's rare. That kind of community is genuinely rare. You don't get it on LinkedIn. You don't get it in a Slack channel. You get it from sitting across a table from someone who's been there, with a pint between you, and the time to actually talk.

I've helped a lot of people launch and scale products through conversations that started at RookieOven. Plenty of people have done the same for me. I can think of decisions I'd have got badly wrong without that monthly check-in with people whose opinions I trust.

The Scottish tech scene has plenty of conferences, plenty of polished events, plenty of LinkedIn theatre. What it has very little of is small, regular, low-stakes spaces where founders, developers and tech people, the makers and actual doers can just be together. That's what RookieOven has been for fifteen years. That's the bit I'm not willing to let slip away without at least asking.

What happens if no one resonates

I'm being straight with you. If this post doesn't land - if the inbox stays quiet - I'll cancel May. And then probably June. And at some point I'll have to admit that's that, and shut the meetup down properly rather than let it limp on.

I really hope it doesn't come to that. But I've also reached a stage in life where I have to be honest about my capacity and stop pretending I can do everything on my own.

How to help

If you've read this far and you're thinking "yeah, I could be one of those five" - please get in touch. Email me on michael@rookieoven.com or grab me on LinkedIn. We can have a quick chat, you can ask any questions, and we can work out the rest from there.

It's not a big commitment. Show up at The Raven most first Mondays at 6:30pm. Be friendly. That's it.

Fifteen years of this community has been one of the best things I've ever been part of. I'd really love your help keeping it going for the next fifteen.

April 2026 Meetup Cancelled

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Quick update - no RookieOven Meetup tonight. With it being Easter Monday, we're taking the night off to spend time with family.

We'll be back on Monday 4th May at The Raven from 6:30pm as usual.

See you in May!

February Glasgow Tech Startup Meetup - Monday 2nd February

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After taking January off, the RookieOven Glasgow tech meetup is back on Monday 2nd February at The Raven from 6:30pm.

If you've not been before, the meetup is a simple concept. It's an informal get-together for anyone involved in or interested in Scotland's tech scene. Founders, developers, designers, folk thinking about getting into tech - everyone is welcome. There are no tickets, no sign-ups, and no cost. Just turn up.

No egos, just peers

There are no talks. No pitches. No one trying to sell you anything.

It's just a group of people in tech grabbing a drink and having honest conversations. People share what they're working on, ask for advice, swap stories about the things that are going well and the things that aren't. Some folk have been coming for years, others are brand new. It doesn't matter - the whole point is that we're peers helping each other out.

That's what makes RookieOven different from a lot of tech events. It's not a networking event in the cringey, business-card-swapping sense. It's more like going to the pub with people who genuinely understand what you're going through.

First time coming along?

If this is your first time, here's what to expect.

You'll walk into The Raven on Renfield Street in Glasgow city centre and find a group of friendly people chatting over drinks. There's no formal structure, so you don't need to prepare anything or worry about being put on the spot. Just introduce yourself to whoever's nearby and join in.

People tend to talk about what they're building, what challenges they're facing, what's happening in the Scottish tech community, or sometimes nothing to do with tech at all. It's genuinely relaxed.

If you're feeling unsure about coming along on your own, feel free to drop me a message beforehand. I'm always happy to have a quick chat and make sure you feel welcome on the night. You can find me on LinkedIn.

The details

When: Monday 2nd February, from 6:30pm
Where: The Raven, 81-85 Renfield Street, Glasgow
Cost: Free. No tickets needed - just show up
Who: Anyone interested in tech, startups, or the Scottish tech community

Stay in the loop

If you want to keep up with what's happening at RookieOven, subscribe to our RSS feed. It's the easiest way to get new posts without relying on social media algorithms.

We also have a JSON endpoint that always returns the next meetup date:

https://rookieoven.com/api/meetup.json

It's open to anyone - no API key needed. If you're the kind of person who'd rather hit an endpoint than check a website, this one's for you.

Can't make this one?

No worries at all. The meetup runs on the first Monday of every month, so the next one after this will be Monday 2nd March, same time and place. We'll be here.

Hope to see you on Monday.

January 2026 Meetup Cancelled

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Just a quick one to say the January RookieOven Meetup is cancelled this month.

Between the freezing weather tonight, everyone (myself included) still getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas break, and some childcare logistics to sort out, it just made sense to give January a miss.

We'll be back on Monday 2nd February at The Raven from 6:30pm as usual. Hopefully by then we'll all be properly back in the groove and ready to kick off 2026.

See you in February.

Some Career Advice

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Recently I was invited along to a careers day at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). I spoke with budding tech professionals who were about to enter the industry. Throughout the day, I found myself repeating two pieces of advice and its advice that I've found to be absolutely critical in my own career journey.

Build your network

The first piece of advice is pretty simple - build your network. As the saying goes, it's not just what you know, but who you know that matters. I've found in my professional career that really rings true.

When I left University the network of people I knew in the tech industry was tiny. Looking back I can see it really was a huge weak point but its something I luckily addressed quite quickly through the RookieOven Meetup.

So why is networking so important? I've found opportunities often arise through personal connections before they're ever posted publicly. A strong network can:

Help you discover job opportunities before they're advertised
Connect you with mentors who can guide your career development
Provide invaluable feedback on your projects and ideas
Open doors to collaborations and partnerships
Keep you informed about industry trends and changes

Finding your people

So if we agree a network is important how can a student or graduate go about growing theirs? Here's some actionable advice

Get out there

Getting out to events and meetups like RookieOven is really important. So yeah to be blunt if you're working in tech in the greater Glasgow area - get along to the RookieOven Meetup, first Monday of each month in Glasgow.

An alternative is Tectonic. This a newer addition to Scotland's tech event landscape, bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, creatives, and digital talent from across Scotland. It's a vibrant celebration of Scotland's thriving tech, digital and creative ecosystem. Nick is doing a great job pulling these events together, highly recommend going. RO50 will get you 50% off your ticket.

Find your people online

Getting out the house isn't for everyone - it can be daunting to go into a room of random people and frankly life can get busy. In 2025 there's plenty of places online to find a community that can grow your professional network.

Get on Reddit, Facebook even X and see if you can find like minded people. For tech in Scotland a place to check out is the Scottish Technology Club Discord.

Highly recommend joining and getting involved in the conversation.

Build and Ship Projects

The second piece of advice that kept coming up was equally important: embrace your hobbies and get shipping. This means dedicating time to not just build things (that is a great way to learn new frameworks and technologies) but to most importantly, actually ship your work.

Building is easy, shipping is hard

Anyone can start a project, but seeing it through to completion and releasing it to the world is what separates hobbyists from professionals. Shipping involves:

Prioritising features to create a viable product
Testing thoroughly to ensure quality
Creating documentation
Marketing your creation
Gathering and responding to feedback
Maintaining and improving your project over time

Each of these steps teaches valuable lessons that simply can't be learned in a classroom or from a tutorial.

Why Shipping Matters

Shipping completed projects demonstrates several qualities that employers value highly:

Perseverance: You can push through challenges and see things through
Problem-solving: You've encountered and overcome real-world issues
Pride in your work: You care enough about quality to release something publicly
Initiative: You can work independently and drive projects forward
Practical experience: You understand the entire development lifecycle

Make It Public

Whatever you build, make it public. Put your code on GitHub, write a blog post about what you learned, share it on social media or linking back to our previous point why not present it at a local meetup. Public projects not only showcase your skills but also invite feedback that helps you improve.

Remember, your side projects don't need to be revolutionary or perfect. What matters is that you're building, learning, and shipping.

Bringing it all together

These two pieces of advice - building your network and shipping projects - complement each other perfectly. Your network can provide feedback on your projects, while your projects give you something meaningful to discuss with your network.

As a student or graduate don't wait to be spoon fed your next steps in your career. Be proactive, meet people and ship.

Why I Don't Care About 'The Ecosystem™' Anymore

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This past week has been tough. I've been utterly shattered - and not just in the typical way that parents with two young kids are. I've felt broken. Simply climbing the stairs drained me completely. But this might surprise you but it isn't new. I've been dealing with these episodes for almost two decades. Let me explain..

Post viral fatigue

Post viral fatigue has came to prominence in the last few years under the term 'Long COVID'. After a viral infection (like COVID) some people experience a long-term impact on their health even once the viral infection has cleared. That's what happened to be but it wasn't COVID that was my trigger, my story with post viral fatigue actually starts a lot earlier.

2006 infact. I was 19 and in the first semester of my second year of Computer Science at the University of Strathclyde. I contracted Glandular Fever (mono/Epstein-Barr). Not uncommon for a teenager but it hit me hard. I was pretty unwell for a few weeks but as the main symptoms subsided I was left with a constant feeling of tiredness. You might think thats just being a typical lazy teenager but it was a lot more than that.

I was always someone who an early riser - doing paper rounds before school and getting up early to start my homework before watching Everybody Loves Raymond on Channel 4 - I suddenly found myself sleeping 20 hours a day. I wasn't even eating, my weight plummeted, jaundice set in, and doctors were monitoring my liver function. Months passed, and despite struggling through first semester exams (and passing them) I just couldn't continue. I elected to restart my second year of the course the following year.

For an anxious, socially awkward student lacking confidence, this was a significant blow but I got through it and was better for it in the end. Though my health gradually improved and I was able to return to university, I still had to learn to live with new "limitations" of post viral fatigue life.

It's hard to articulate but I liken it to having an energy gauge like a computer game character, I can go from 100% to 50% to 100% no problem but if I go below say 30% I then only get back to 50%, I don't fully recover. Or I find that if I drain my energy too quickly (ie the intensity of the activity) I know I'm in trouble. It's called Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM) or commonly known as 'crash'. These PEM episodes see me extremely fatigued, I struggle with mental load and I typically feel quite run down.

So I started managing my energy reserves - if I played five-a-side football, I knew the next day's pub quiz was off the table. If I went a long drive I knew I'd need an early night and take it easy the next day. These subtle adjustments became so ingrained I barely noticed them consciously. I grew into a pretty 'normal' way of living with maybe two or three 'crashes' a year.

Each crash is a mini episode where I would almost relapse to where I was at 19. So tired I could barely function, brain fog and complete exhaustion

What happened this past week?

So yeah this past week I've been experiencing Post-Exertional Malaise. The trigger? A round of golf. Just my second full 18 holes since taking up the sport in middle age. It was glorious - I managed a couple of birdies and was driving 290 yards straight down the fairway. But as the round progressed, fatigue crept in. What followed was a crash that left me unable to play with my kids or even properly watch football (I mean sit and watch, not even playing).

I've been in a constant state of recovery for the past week. I've been trying to get back to normal but I've been struggling. I've been trying to do too much too soon and that's actually the worst thing for it. I really just need to take it easy and accept that I'm not going to be able to do everything I want to do for a wee while.

Looking back

Don't get me wrong. Overall I'm really fortunate. Really really fortunate infact. I would definetly say my post vial fatigue is on the mild end of the spectrum. I still consider myself to have my health. I'm not in pain, I'm not on medication, I'm not physically disabled, I'm still able to work, still able to play with my kids.

To be clear this blog post isn't a sob story, I'm not publishing this for sympathy but more its me setting the scene and being reflective on my journey.

This recent episode has made me reflect on how I've spent my 'energy bar' over the past decade plus, particularly with my activity through RookieOven. From 2010 to 2019 I traversed the length and breadth of the UK representing Scottish tech startups. I started a coworking space, I organized countless events and hackathons, I mentored hundreds of young people in Scotland. I put a lot into 'the ecosystem'. That all had a cost on my energy envelope.

Over that period I said no to personal experiences and moments for what I believed was the greater good of the tech community. I was really passionate about the Scottish tech and our potential as a country to produce world class tech companies. I wanted to make a difference. Do I regret it? No. I can honestly say I don't regret it at all. I did what I felt was right and important at the time. I enjoyed (most of) it and if nothing else I've probably earned the right to an opinion and share my $0.02 of the Scottish tech ecosystem. But here's the kicker... I'm so apathetic about it all.

The Ecosystem™

Over the years I've felt a lot of emotions about Scottish tech. The negative - anger, frustration, disappointment - and positive - pride, excitement, hope - but here we are in 2025 and despite the previous decade plus of doing RookieOven I'm just so apathetic to it all. I've really stepped back from being an active participant in the conversations about Scotland's tech ecosystem. For something I was so driven and passionate about for a long time, I've become increasingly apathetic.

The constant back-and-forth around the Scottish tech ecosystem between critics and cheerleaders on LinkedIn feels increasingly distant from the real work of building and growing companies in Scotland. My energy is too precious to spend on these debates now. I've grown pretty insular since 2020. I go to the RookieOven Meetup each month and that's about it. I don't go to other events, I can't be bothered with the politics, I just want to build good tech products and celebrate success of my peers in Scotland.

While I'm not particularly 'active' these days I've got a lot of respect for the people who are still out there doing the hard graft for 'the ecosystem'. Not because there's money in it but because they genuinely care about the community. Hats off to you.

You truly are the unsung heroes of the Scottish tech community and I appreciate your work. Thank you.

Where do I go from here?

I've more than paid my dues to the Scottish tech community - running hackathons, opening coworking spaces, mentoring young people, and even trying to advise government. All while carefully managing an energy envelope that most people never knew existed.

Now I'm somewhat being selfish. I might throw the odd blog post up here on RookieOven to share an opinion or two if my apathy allows it and I still run the monthly Meetup for founders in Glasgow. For the most part though I've got my head down, constantly shipping and scaling our own tech products at Add Jam and doing it with a more global outlook than focusing on the Scottish ecosystem. And of course aside from that I'm spending quality time with my wife and daughters... and maybe the occasional round of golf if I have the energy for it.

Hopefully we can catch up at the next RookieOven Meetup. I'll make sure to keep enough energy in reserve for that.

To reiterate this is not a sob story. I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm just reflecting on my journey and how I've spent my energy over the past decade plus. I poured a lot into something I was deeply passionate about and with what I've seen happen in the past 5 years or so that passion has turned into apathy.

Inbound Marketing and Shipping - July Month in Review

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

As we turn the page on another month and I'm looking forward to a RookieOven Meetup (tonight as I write this), it's time to reflect on the exciting developments and learnings I've experienced through the month of July 2024. As a TLDR: I've been hitting YouTube hard trying to upskill in inbound marketing techniques, overhauling websites, and launching new mobile apps. I feel July has been a period of personal growth. Let's break down the highlights and share some insights that might benefit fellow developers and startup enthusiasts in the Scottish tech ecosystem.

Embracing inbound marketing

For a long time, terms like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and ASO (App Store Optimization) seemed to carry a stigma in the development world. Many of us viewed them as 'dirty' words or even snake oil tactics. I've always tried to do the basics well, but it was only ever really at a basic level. This month marked a significant shift in my perspective as I focused on upskilling in these areas of inbound marketing.

Specifically, I've:

Set up a simple tracker in Notion, where each week I update my weekly figures religiously to track progress on 'key metrics'. For each project I'm tracking, I pick three figures to monitor weekly. Three, no more, no less. It gives focus to improve what matters and means I don't get lost in the weeds of everything else I could be tracking.
Made use of the various tools available on Ahrefs to improve content, site structure, and hopefully search performance.
Started using PostHog for analytics both at the product level and on the web. I really like their setup and the default dashboards/reporting they provide.

I feel like I'm just a beginner in these fields, but by applying foundational advice and best practices, I've started to see positive results that can't be ignored. When done right, SEO and ASO are powerful tools for startups and crucial to increasing visibility and attracting the right audience to our digital products.

Unfortunately, both industries do have a bit of a reputation. There are snake oil salespeople and 'black hat' approaches to gaming the systems. My advice to founders would be to stay clear of consultants, at least in the first instance. Take the time to learn the basics, become better informed in these disciplines, and try to do as much as you can yourself. Tools these days (and AI services) make it much easier to take your marketing efforts further on your own.

Key learnings in SEO and ASO:

Content is still king: Creating valuable, relevant content remains the cornerstone of good search performance. An example of what I've been doing is creating content for Come Back Soon Tracker, which monitors Center Parcs booking pricing so customers can leverage the price promise. I've been writing as much useful content as possible on Center Parcs over the last month and am already seeing a definite increase in site visits. We've also scored our first organic customer.
Technical optimization matters: Site speed, mobile-friendliness, and proper metadata are crucial for both user experience and search rankings. The Ahrefs site audit is free to use and gives great feedback in this area.
Keyword research is essential: Understanding what your target audience is searching for helps in optimizing both websites and app store listings. Keyword tools can get expensive, but there are a lot of free alternatives which can get you by if your budget is limited.

I still have a long way to go but am hoping the community can step in and help me a bit. In fact, at the upcoming August RookieOven Meetup, I'm hoping to discuss my experiences and connect with others who are exploring or have expertise in these areas. If you're in Glasgow and interested in the intersection of technology and marketing, I would love to see you there!

RookieOven site redevelopment - simplicity wins

Another significant project this month was the redevelopment of the RookieOven website. The old site was, to be blunt, terrible. It was a Rails app using Prismic as a headless CMS, which, while powerful (we had a self-serve jobs board and some admin features that helped when we had a coworking space), was overkill for our needs now.

In the spirit of simplification and optimization, I made some bold changes:

Switched to a static site: We moved away from a dynamic Rails app to a static site, significantly improving performance and reducing complexity.
Hosting on Netlify: This change not only improved site speed but also drastically lowered our running costs.
Markdown-based blog: We ditched the WYSIWYG editor in favour of Markdown files for blog posts. While it might seem like a step backwards, we've found it to be just as easy, if not easier, to manage through Git compared to a traditional CMS.

The results? A faster, more maintainable site that's easier to update and costs less to run. It's a win-win situation that reinforces the idea that sometimes, simpler really is better in web development.

React Native app launch

Exciting news on the mobile front! I've been hard at work on a React Native app that just this morning received approval for distribution on the app stores. I'm planning to toggle it live later this week, so keep your eyes peeled on the Add Jam blog for the official announcement and details.

This project is really a bit of fun I've been working on mostly evenings and weekends. I want to apply some of my ASO learnings, and I'm going to focus on monetisation using RevenueCat (there's a post about using RevenueCat on the Add Jam blog too).

Looking ahead - Plans for August

My plans for August are to continue on this path of upskilling myself in marketing techniques. At Add Jam, we've previously focused on 'big' projects, putting a lot of development effort into them because that is what we're comfortable with. My aim for the month is to be shipping some smaller, almost 'utility' apps and trying to get them visible on the App Stores. I'll be focusing on keywords, screenshots, app icons, etc. I basically want to create a suite of small (but useful) apps that I can experiment with across the board.

What will you be working on? Come along to the RookieOven Meetup this evening and we can catch up.

August 2024 RookieOven Meetup

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 10:22:54 GMT

The August 2024 edition of the RookieOven Meetup is just around the corner. I can't believe we're in the back half of the year already. August Meetup hopefully starts to see an uptick in attendance now holidays are over with and we start to focus on closing out the year.

What's the meetup about?

I started the RookieOven meetup to give me a chance to meet other people interested in tech, software and startups. Basically come along and meet other founders and tech enthusiasts in a relaxed atmosphere.

The RookieOven Meetup is a long standing monthly event for Glasgow based tech founders to get together - share successes, get advice and share knowledge with each other.

Free to attend, no ticket needed. Just come to The Raven from 6.30pm onwards first Monday of each month.

It will be my first time going, can I chat before hand?

Yeah sure, I know better than most how intimidating it can be to enter a new meetup with a bunch of new names and faces. To make it a bit easier give me a tweet - @_mdhayes - or shoot me a message on LinkedIn so there's at least one familiar person there.

If you can't make it this month get the 2nd of September in your diary.

Getting back to basics

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:22:54 GMT

I can barely believe RookieOven is over 13 years old now and it all started out as two simple things:

A blog where I could write about my personal experiences working in Scottish tech
A meetup with the intent I could meet like minded people in Glasgow with a passion for building tech products

That was way back in May 2011 while I was still at University.

A lot of change over the years

Over the years, RookieOven took on a life of its own. It went from the poorly written blog posts and pints at the pub to me running a full-blown coworking space and even an academy for young tech enthusiasts. I even found myself advising the government (still not sure how that happened) and feeling like we were really making a difference in Scotland's startup scene and helping founders succeed (if anyone is interested in the full history I've added a timeline to the about page).

Not everything worked - the coworking space was ultimately unsustainable, the academy was reliant on hard to get funding and then the meetup was on pause when a pandemic halted it.

I'll be honest – there was a point where I seriously considered throwing in the towel. Between juggling a young family (two wee ones will do that to you) and feeling a bit lost in the rapidly changing Scottish startup landscape, I wasn't sure if RookieOven still had a place or even if it was worth all the personal sacrifice and effort.

Last year, I went public with my doubts in a LinkedIn post titled 'Is this the end of RookieOven' (on LinkedIn because I couldn't face writing on this site) and spoke to a bunch of friends about my doubts and my intent to 'end' RookieOVen. I guess you could call this 'burnout'?

But you know what? The feedback I received reminded me why I started all this RookieOven 'stuff' in the first place. I came to the conclusion that RookieOven is important and still has an important role to play in supporting Scottish founders.

I resolved to continue the monthly meetup in Glasgow which is still ongoing first monday of the month, but what about the website?

Unloved and forgotten

The website hadn't been touched since 2019. Yup, not touched at all. It was slow, clunky and looked dated.

I had such apathy towards the website I was just letting it wilt. I then I stumbled on some of the earliest posts on this site and despite the shockingly poor writing of an early 20's me I could see a young guy bursting with passion for making software and sharing the experience of doing that on the internet.

RookieOven had changed and evolved over the years and I guess I was left a bit bruised by failure and my shortcomings but reading those posts was a reminded to me of why I even started a blog in the first place.

So, here we are summer of 2024 and RookieOven has a new coat of paint and is getting back to basics. By this I mean I'm going back to what motivated me to do RookieOven was back in 2011:

Real, unfiltered stories from the Scottish startup trenches (including my own blunders and occasional wins)
A platform for other founders to shout about their cool projects - posts by founders for other founders
A place to connect, learn, and maybe even find your next customer, co-founder or investor

I want to be an agnostic, honest place for Scots doing great stuff in tech. I run the site, I don't pander to the whims of public sector funders or the requests of sponsors. And I want to help anyone in Scotland do better - I don't care which end of the M8 you live on or if you're on an island or the mainland.

An Open Invitation

This is where you come in. RookieOven has always been about community, and that's truer now than ever. Have you got a story to share? A startup you're proud of? A rant about the challenges of building tech in Scotland? An approach to creating software or marketing that you think others should know about? Then use this site as a platform to share it.

Drop me a line at michael@rookieoven.com or use the contact form on the site. Let's make some noise about the amazing things happening in Scottish tech.

What's Next?

The monthly meetups in Glasgow are still going strong (first Monday of the month in Glasgow – put it in your calendar!) and on the website I'm going to be much more active.

Expect regular honest updates, warts-and-all founder stories, and maybe even some guest posts from faces old and new in the Scottish tech scene. I also want to share some of the technical insights into building tech products, one of the things I think is missing from 'the ecosystem' in Scotland is any profile of the actual 'tech' in the tech ecosystem - there's an endless stream of advisors, mentors and gurus but who is actually experienced in shipping products and scaling them?

Here's to the next chapter of RookieOven. Hopefully my blog posts are bit more coherent and easier to read than the ones from 2011 but my promise is to be authentic, promote Scottish tech and make this some useful digital real estate for my peers. To follow along you can subscribe to the RSS feed or follow @rookieoven on Twitter/x.

How Glasgow has Transformed our Driving Startup

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 10:22:54 GMT

How Glasgow has Transformed our Driving Startup

When launching a product into your initial target market (in our case a small city), the data you gather there informs your assumptions and your decision making. It's easy to fall into the trap - if it works here it's going to work everywhere.

GoRoadie was born in Dundee back in 2016 with the aim of helping local learner drivers search, compare and book driving lessons online — the way they expect to. We launched the service with around 10 driving instructors. Eventually, the number of learners and driving instructors using GoRoadie grew and grew. The service started running itself and instructors and learners were both getting value. In September 2018, we decided to take the business nationally, and both my co-founder and I quit our full-time jobs to focus solely on GoRoadie.

In March 2019, we launched the service in Aberdeen after everything we learned from Dundee. This validated what we learned in Dundee; learners are happy to book their driving instructors through our website, and Aberdeen instructors were happy to take learners from across the city. With that success, we turned our heads to the west and quickly ran into a problem...

Glasgow was a different beast.

Size Does Matter

As with all our city launches, we like to get to know the area and get to know how our customers would use the service. We met with Glasgow-based driving instructors and picked their brains on our product. They loved the concept, however, they continued to remind us that they operated in a completely different way from instructors in Dundee or Aberdeen; they set limitations on how far they would travel for work.

In Dundee or Aberdeen, you see, if a pupil is searching for a driving instructor, any instructor can take them. This is not true in Glasgow.

Instructors in Glasgow only work certain areas; perhaps south-east near East Kilbride or the north-west. Some travel into the centre, some avoid it.

Our product had no mechanism for this type of search; previously it was based on location name e.g. Dundee, Glasgow, Aberdeen.

We needed to iterate and fast.

We quickly got to work building a fully functioning prototype that was based on postcode searches; instructors would select the postcode regions they operated in and students could then search via postcode.

The feedback? Positive but not good enough. We were told by some instructors that they felt there would be too many postcodes and some postcodes areas were simply too large to fully cover.

Back to the drawing board, then. Our next solution was to offer a map with a simple distance radius mechanism. This was much more widely accepted.

One week later — our new search system was live and Glasgow instructors started accepting students from all over the city. Success! 🎉

Apps like Uber & Deliveroo are commonplace

When we eventually started advertising GoRoadie to learner drivers in Glasgow, we assumed uptake would be similar to Dundee and Aberdeen. We were blown away by the response.

In the first month, Glasgow learners made up 80% of all booking requests.

Learners were keen to book their driving lessons through an online system. After all, app-based services like Uber and Deliveroo are very common in Glasgow — something Dundee and Aberdeen are only just embracing.

This gave us a lot of confidence for going forward into Nottingham and Leeds.

The Glasgow Community

When we first went to Glasgow to speak to instructors, we were invited along to a few of the driving instructor meetups. This was a great opportunity for us as we got to see what instructors thought of the current state of the industry and to see the challenges facing them.

We also realised there was a huge sense of community amongst these instructors. They felt part of something bigger than just their own business.

The sense of instructor community in other parts of the UK is not nearly as strong. Having support from your peers when you're a sole trader working long hours is something these instructors relish.

We have taken that idea of community that we felt in Glasgow and are building it into GoRoadie. We want to help more instructors across the country feel connected. We now plan to show them where their nearest meetup is, who is attending and how they can get involved.

The sense of community (there are meetups often for driving instructors, and they feel like they are part of something bigger — we want to help do that across the country because the benefit we see)

Despite the Glasgow launch being one of our toughest challenges to date, it has set the groundwork for the next phase of our product going forward.

In order to launch, we needed to overcome a huge technical limitation of our software and change the way learners and instructors used GoRoadie. Since launch, we have realised that larger cities are keen to use our service.

Starting our service in Dundee was perfect for us to get our Minimum Viable Product out there, and ensure it delivers value. However, just because this worked in one location doesn't automatically mean that it is ready to roll out nationally.

We now have so much more confidence in the business — we know that having cracked Glasgow; Manchester, Birmingham should follow a similar process.

We now understand our instructors and learner drivers behaviour better and because of the complexities of Glasgow, we have now built a much more flexible system that doesn't just help Glasgow Instructors but instructors across the UK. However, we are going to be open to change when we launch in new locations - just because GoRoadie now works in Glasgow, London may be another story...

Thanks to the instructors who have been open working with us, we feel part of their community — we now attend their events and catch up every so often.

People truly make Glasgow.

GoRoadie is a UK-based startup, connecting driving students with their ideal instructors. We launched our Glasgow Driving Lessons landing page, helping Glaswegian's pick their ideal driving instructor — as well as learners across the UK in Dundee, Aberdeen, Nottingham and Leeds.

Community Podcast Recommendations

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 09:29:18 GMT

Over the past few months, we’ve been collecting Podcast recommendations from members of the Scottish tech community. This roundup is a little different, this is all brand new podcasts by the community. Check them out, they’ve all just launched in the last few weeks and would benefit from a listen, your support and your feedback.

Code Craft Cast

Isn’t the alliteration great? Code Craft Cast is by the Code Craft community, you may know them from their software crafters meetup. Code Craft Cast is hosted by Ewa Grabowiecka and Joe Wright, the podcast aims to discuss burning issues facing tech in Scotland with topics such as talent, career paths and upcoming events covered in the episodes.

Episodes are mid-sized, perfect for consuming on your commute.

Gab

One of the most interesting events in Glasgow is the Gab organised by local design studio Jamhot. The events have an eclectic mix of speakers from across ‘creative’ industries so you have graphic designers, digital designers, photographers, videographers, musicians, tech and much more covered in the meetups.

The podcast is a continuation of that with the cofounder of Jamhot, Graeme, hosting the podcasts. The first episode featuring David Keenan who has taken on various roles in his career having worked in music and now being a novelist. It’s great to hear David talk about all sorts of topics from Britney Spears and boxing to cricket within the first 2 minutes moving onto his career in music and selling music globally online just by description.

Like Code Craft Cast, Gab is mid-sized with the first one around 50 minutes long. Again, I reckon that's the perfect length for dropping into on your commute.

Meditative Story

Hands up, I’ve not listened to this one yet, but Meditative Story is by the ultra-talented Rohan Gunatillake. Rohan has taken his talents to produce award-winning apps, card games, books and now the Mediative Story podcast in partnership with Thrive Global.

Here's the blurb on it:

"Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with the immediate, science-backed benefits of mindfulness practice. Every week, you’ll receive a new Meditative Story from a storyteller who will transport you to a time and place where everything changed for them — a story you might find yourself relating to deeply. As the story unfolds, mindfulness guide Rohan will offer gentle prompts designed to calm your mind and help you connect with your own observations, empowering you to feel restored and refreshed at any moment of the day"

Bootstrapped Digest

Brought to you by Ashley Baxter, Bootstrapped Digest offers a transparent account of bootstrapping an insurance business as a solo founder. Ashley is currently building Jack, providing business insurance on a first name basis for freelancers. In Bootstrapped Digest, Ashley reflects on the mistakes and wins she’s had throughout her time building her business in a regulated industry. It’s a refreshing insight into the world of building a business as a solo founder, and the short episodes give a great dose of inspiration.

Anything we’ve missed?

We’re always looking for great content from the community so what are you listening to? Submit your recommendations here and we’ll feature them in upcoming posts.

Upcoming Scottish Tech Events

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 13:13:50 GMT

RookieOven Meetup - 5th August

We host an informal meetup in Glasgow every month on the first Monday of the month, with August’s date for your diary being the 5th. Come along to The Raven on Renfield Street and join us for a casual catch up over a pint. It’s a no-pressure environment, and a great way to catch up with likeminded tech founders and enthusiasts. Meet like-minded people building tech products and catch up with what's going on in the Glasgow startup scene. Free to attend and open to all.

Informatics Ventures Speaker Series - 24th August [CANCELLED]

The iV Speaker Series is a networking programme featuring inspirational talks from local heroes and global success stories to raise the ambition of our nation’s entrepreneurs and unleash the potential they possess. iV Speaker Series also encompasses the hugely popular ‘Pitch n’ Grill’ format which sees early-stage companies pitch to a table before being grilled by the group. The process is repeated 6 times giving the entrepreneur immediate feedback on their proposition as well as all-important pitch practice! For the audience, it’s a fun and entertaining way to get to see some fresh and upcoming companies with the evening finishing with a BBQ. The value of iV Speaker Series is the opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs, mentors and investors and experience the unexpected outcomes that can result from these connections.

Update: 14th August this event has been cancelled 😞

Turing Fest - 27th - 29th August

Turing Fest is where tech's tribes come together over three action-packed days of keynotes, panels, workshops and parties. Turing Fest equips you with the tactics and tools to build better products, grow your business faster and lead happier and more effective teams.

Startup Summit - 30th October

Join 1,000 bright minds in Scotland’s capital and get all the tools you need to start, grow and thrive in business. With over 30 world-leading experts speaking across three stages, an exhibitor hall filled with all the support and connections you need, interactive workshops, and a free afterparty to keep networking, Startup Summit is the place for ambitious entrepreneurs and their teams. Startup Summit invites specialists from globally-known brands to share their stories and insights with the leaders of tomorrow. The content explores all aspects of running a business, including marketing, strategy, leadership, sales and investment giving you direct access to an extensive business network in the UK and beyond.

Are you running a great event this month? Get in touch and let us know about it.

TRC Special Edition 2019

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 11:18:35 GMT

Take it from me, TRC Media offer some of the best support for Digital/Tech businesses in Scotland. I was lucky enough to be on the Cross Creative programme in 2016 where I visited Dropbox, Facebook, Medium, Twitter, Pixar and more. With Special Edition TRC offer a 6 month programme specifically for ambitious women in tech.

Why Special Edition?

Women are under-represented at Board level in the digital/tech sector in Scotland. To address this imbalance, TRC Media created Special Edition, a professional development programme that seeks to help ambitious, talented women fulfil their potential and reach the top of the industry.

What can I expect?

Running over six months, the programme offers a dynamic mix of professional development training and creative expertise to help boost your confidence, improve your entrepreneurial skills, expand professional networks and progress your career in digital. The initiative includes formal workshops delivered by leading industry trainers plus an international field trip to meet with inspiring people making moves in the digital world.

The overall ambition of this programme is to set our female delegates on a career trajectory that ultimately leads to the boardroom. Now in its sixth year of delivery, Special Edition alumni have gone on to great things. Previous delegates have secured secure significant promotions, including to Board level, and started their own businesses.

Training will be delivered through one full-day training session per month over a period of six months. We work with leading trainers and respected industry professionals who have collaborated with TRC over several years and receive consistently excellent feedback from our delegates. Session topics for 2019/20 are yet to be tied down but will cover a range of topics such as

Who is it for?

Special Edition is open to women working in commercial businesses in the digital sector in Scotland. For guidance, this includes but is not limited to: digital agencies, software development, games, animation, mobile apps, augmented/virtual reality and technology.

We welcome applications from ambitious female candidates* who will use this exceptional opportunity to progress their professional careers. Applicants should have:

*Special Edition is open to all women (trans, intersex and cis) and all nonbinary, agender and gender variant people. Self-definition is at the sole discretion of that individual.

How do I apply?

Application is via an online survey - https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PPSM3MF - and I personally can't recommend TRC programmes enough. It had a profound impact on RookieOven and my business. Get involved!

Top Tips for Getting Work Experience

Tue, 04 Jun 2019 23:01:01 GMT

The summer is upon us, and for many students, that means it’s time to get stuck into a work placement. If you’re one of these students and you’re looking to secure some work experience between terms, we’ve put together some top tips for finding your ideal summer job.

Tell people you’re looking

You’d be surprised what can come of a simple mention of the fact that you’re looking for some work experience. Stick up a post on LinkedIn or simply mention to friends and family that you’re on the lookout, they might come up with some gems that you wouldn’t have found yourself. If they know that you’re looking, they’ll be able to share any relevant opportunities they come across, expanding your reach beyond your own search. If you know anyone who works in the industry that you’d like to work in, find out if they know of any opportunities or can point you in the direction of somewhere that can help. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Ask your university or college

Many universities have career departments who are a dab hand at helping you secure relevant opportunities throughout your studies. Ask your lecturer or student union if there’s such a service available in your university or college, and pay them a visit to take advantage of their advice. They can cover everything from help sprucing up your CV and practising for interviews to finding roles and putting you in touch with companies who are looking for students. It’ll vary from place to place, but it’s worth seeing what your campus offers.

Polish up your CV

CVs are an important part of the job hunt, and it’s important to make sure your CV stands out from the crowd. This might be down to the actual content, or it could be the design too. You can download free templates for sprucing up your CV from places like Creative Market, or you can use a free programme such as Canva to whip up a masterpiece that’ll catch the eye of whoever’s desk your CV lands on.

Take on a side project

If there’s an industry or role you’re keen to work in, it can be a great idea to create your own work experience. If you can find a way to practice your passion, you’ll be able to hone your skills and gain a project that you can put on your CV and show off your determination too. It might be something like building your own website or app, starting a blog or teaching yourself how to use a certain programme that’s commonplace in your desired industry. You can learn how to do just about anything on the internet these days, so if you’re struggling to find an opportunity to put your skills to the test in the workplace then why not look for an outlet that you can utilise yourself instead?

Show Your Face

Finally, being a present part of the local business scene can go a long way in building your network and finding opportunities. Have a look at Eventbrite and see if there are any industry events you can attend where you can meet relevant people and find out a bit more about their journeys. If you’re interested in working in the tech scene or a startup, be sure to sign up to the RookieOven newsletter for a fortnightly rundown of the latest events in the community. We’ve also got a Drop In Day coming up on June 7th, where you can come along to the Add Jam office and connect with some of our industry experts.

Meet the Founder - Mike Davis

Tue, 28 May 2019 23:01:06 GMT

Mike Davis is the founder of My Probate Partner and is trying to disrupt the estate administration industry with the help of technology. Having spent over a decade in hospitality, doing everything from washing pots to running multi-million-pound restaurants, and another 4.5 years auditing solicitors in charge of winding up estates, Mike has learned a lot about running his own “DeathTech” company.

Tell us a bit about what your startup does?

With My Probate Partner, we want to be the one-stop-shop for post-death advice and assistance for people in their time of need. We're starting off by focusing on making software to help people who have to wind up someone's estate and are looking to do so in a way that suits them.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

I’ve spent years sifting through solicitors' case files after they’ve finished winding up peoples’ estates (commonly referred to as ‘probate’) for the purpose of setting a fee for them to charge their clients. I find it pretty amazing that vast swathes of the legal industry still haven't evolved past word processing and email; meaning they compile bulky files full of letters sent and received alongside hastily scribbled down notes documenting extensive and important meetings with their clients. It’s all still pretty manual - it’s inefficient and there’s an unacceptably high risk of making errors. At the end of the day, consumers are being shafted due to a bloated and inefficient industry.

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

Pretty much. I've always been fairly entrepreneurial and I used to wash all my neighbour's cars when I was about 10 or 11. In my teens, I used to sell ice-creams, operating from a coolbox in local parks. In the past, I've also set up my own business in Austria running an Apres ski bar on the slopes. I've been self-employed full-time since I was 25.

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

Perfectionitis, self-doubt, having to do jobs I dislike, the loneliness, and having to make decisions with no clear right or wrong answer (this is especially annoying).

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

You should have spent longer trying to figure out how to mine bitcoin in 2009 (I gave up after about an hour).

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

Just do it.

Follow Mike on LinkedIn to keep up with his progress.

What is content marketing and how could it help your startup?

Tue, 21 May 2019 23:01:02 GMT

As consumers, we’re exposed to advertisements thousands of times a day. You’ll see adverts anywhere and everywhere nowadays, and it can feel hard to escape the constant marketing noise that appears to be part and parcel of the modern world. Similar issues arise when trying to market your business, too - how do you break through the barrier of advertising fatigue and get your business in front of your ideal audience? Content marketing is just one of the ways you can cut through this constant advertising clutter.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing involves creating valuable online content like blog posts, whitepapers, videos, social media content or newsletters with the intention of connecting with your target market. This content might exist on your website, social media platforms or on other relevant sites. Content marketing focuses on providing your customers with relevant, valuable information in a way that suits them, at a time that’s convenient for them.

Why bother with content marketing?

Being bombarded with thousands of adverts every day has resulted in most consumers blocking out anything that resembles an ad. Banners are being ignored, ad-blockers are growing in popularity every day and many services now offer “premium” subscriptions which focus on removing advertisements from the user experience. Done correctly, content marketing can help engage these customers who might instinctively ignore “traditional” advertising, providing you with an avenue to expand your reach and increase your customer base.

Content marketing not only helps you build awareness for your brand, it also goes a long way in establishing your business’s authority within the market that you operate in. By highlighting the areas of strength and knowledge possessed by your startup, you can create a level of trust and understanding that traditional advertising can only dream of. Valuable, relevant content marketing will help you connect with your audience and strengthen those crucial customer relationships.

It’s also a cost-effective way to use your budget - great content doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to create. Businesses of all sizes can take advantage of content marketing, and your startup could be one of them.

Using content marketing for your startup

There are a few key points to consider when implementing an effective content marketing strategy, and what works for your startup might not be the same as what works for others in your industry. Most importantly, you have to set clear intentions for what you want your content to do. Do you want it to entertain, educate or impress your customers? Conversions will be a key part of your marketing strategy, but content marketing is about more than just driving sales. You have to think about who your audience is and what they want. What does their customer journey look like? What are their pain points and problems? How can you solve those issues and answer their questions? Understanding who you want to read your content, how you want them to engage and what you want to tell them will guide your strategy.

DeathTech - Disrupting the legal industry with technology

Tue, 14 May 2019 23:01:02 GMT

Mike Davis is building a purpose led, consumer-focused legal tech company aiming to disrupt the estate administration industry. He’s sharing his view on the estate administration industry in its current form and how he wants to change it for the better. This was originally posted on LinkedIn.

Problems & Solutions

I’ve always marvelled at new technologies and how much impact they can have on us and the world around us - but thinking about how it could change things in the future is what really excites me. I believe that there is a technological solution to every problem, and most of the time it’s sitting right under our noses.

There have been some technological developments in recent years in a few areas like conveyancing and setting up a business, but very little in the world of probate.

By the end of summer 2018, I knew I had to act but I just couldn’t work out how. There are other companies making boring case management systems, and my own experience in the auditing business had taught me that trying to get profitable lawyers to change their ways is extremely difficult, so a straight up B2B service was a total non-starter.

So where is the real pain? Their clients’ experiences!

People are being absolutely shafted at one of the most difficult times in their lives. Very few people consider their own mortality, let alone that of their loved ones. This means that at the worst possible time they are confronted with a surprise mess and only a mysterious and archaic process that will be able to tidy it up. Thankfully, the government is trying to do something about the archaic part, in England & Wales at least.

In this stressful and emotional time, the majority of people instantly turn to the professionals. But as the average age of the person dealing with this comes down, an increasing number are now turning to Google in the hope of finding another way that doesn’t involve giving away obscene amounts of their inheritance for what can usually be a reasonably straightforward admin exercise. Unfortunately, their online searches are met with simplified articles or 80-page e-books. Only super-simple cases or the most determined and principled people make it to the end without expensive professional help.

DIY Executor

I want to empower people by demystifying the process and providing the necessary tools so they can make better choices about the level of participation they want to have. I’ll show people what they can do themselves and what they might need a little help with from a solicitor.

I must admit, in my younger years reading about Richard Branson and Duncan Bannatyne, imagining what I might end up doing one day, I didn’t think for a second I would end up in ‘DeathTech’. But apparently, that’s where I am!

Connect with Mike and follow his progress with DIY Executor on LinkedIn

Community Podcast Recommendations

Tue, 07 May 2019 23:01:02 GMT

The Entrepreneur Agony Aunt by Vicky Brock

Telling the startup experience like it really is. Entrepreneur Vicky Brock and her highly experienced founder guests discuss a real life startup challenge each week in honest, unfiltered style. Sharing the bad, as well as the good, because there are no mistakes that someone else hasn’t already made.

Recommended by Andrew from The Gen

Quit Your Job

An anti-hustle podcast for the burnout generation, we talk about work and why it sucks.

Why listen?

“It's a refreshing look at the current digital landscape, particularly in Glasgow. Sarah-Louise, Steven and Stephen discuss the state of the current working world and the “hustle”, with topics so far including burnout, agency life and shitty influencers being shitty. It’s basically all of my favourite topics to rant about in one podcast.”

Recommended by Charlotte

A16z

The a16z Podcast discusses tech and culture trends, news, and the future -- especially as ‘software eats the world’. It features industry experts, business leaders, and other interesting thinkers and voices from around the world. Multiple episodes are released every week.

Why listen?

“A16z covers wildly varied but relevant topics, with expert guests that are easy to listen too and explain their opinions well. Their perspectives have helped me out on numerous occasions and provide the confidence to keep marching on.”

Recommended by Streamba

Letters from a Hopeful Creative

This is a podcast for creative humans who are ready to dive deep, dream big, and do life and business on their own terms every step of the way. Brought to you by creative coaches Sara Tasker and Jen Carrington, every Monday we share a brand new episode answering a letter from a hopeful creative just like you.

Why listen?

“It’s full of topical and useful chat about building a creative and/or freelance business”

Recommended by Lucy Knott Photo

How to Validate Your Startup Idea

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 23:01:06 GMT

So you’ve got a great idea for a product or a service - but how do you know if it’s something that your audience actually want and need? That’s where validation comes in. It won’t do you any favours to invest valuable time and money into an idea that nobody wants. Sure, sometimes taking risks pays off, but with just a bit of time spent on researching your market, you can mitigate that risk and increase your chances of success.

What problem are you solving?

You don’t need to have your whole product built before you start, but you should have a clear idea of what the problem you’re solving is. Realistically, people buy because they have a problem to solve, and knowing exactly what motivates them to make the purchase will help you tap into how your product can be promoted and the buttons you can press to encourage users to buy. It doesn’t always need to be a huge, life-changing problem, but effectively solving a big problem for your customers will put you in their good books.

What does your audience want?

The easiest way to figure this out is simply to ask. When building a startup, you’ll want to have an audience in mind for your product or service. If you’re not sure where to start on that front, check out our blog post about researching your ideal audience. Once you’ve got an idea of who you’re trying to reach, you can attempt to find some people within that audience that you can speak to and ask.

This might take the form of a casual chat with a friend over coffee, an email to ask if they’d be interested in your concept, or more in-depth research using surveys and one-to-one interviews. Find out what their pain points are, what they’d want to see in a solution and - possibly most importantly of all - what they’d pay for it.

What does the internet say?

Social media and discussion platforms are often overlooked in market research, but it can be an incredibly useful tool for analysing what your audience wants, their overall sentiment towards your product segment and the problems that they currently face. Again, if you’ve taken the time to figure out who your ideal audience is, you’ll have some sort of idea of where they spend time online. Identify some of these places, looking at things like hashtags, subreddits, Slack channels and the likes, and see what information you can find there. Google Trends can also offer valuable information on what people are searching for and how that’s changed over time.

It’s even better if you can identify some actual people who suit your ideal audience profile and regularly post online. Following these people can provide vital insight into the demand for your startup idea and how your ideal audience ticks.

What’s already available?

Identifying any direct competitors for your startup concept (chances are, they’re out there somewhere) can show you what’s already been done. But it’s not just about what’s out there! Have a look and see how well they’re bringing the concept to life and if there’s any room for improvement. Seek out customer reviews or mentions of their brand and assess where the gaps in their product offering are - maybe you can fill that gap instead.

Is it actually realistic?

Finally, take the time to carefully consider how achievable your concept really is. If it’s going to take a high level of input or large resource to produce, but the target audience is unwilling to pay a price that would cover that cost, then it’s maybe not the most attainable idea to implement. Similarly, if the demand isn’t there then you may struggle to make a success of your idea - no matter how great you think it is.

Validating your startup idea helps reduce the risks and save you from going full speed ahead on an idea that might not necessarily be the best route for you to take. Who knows, maybe your research will throw up something you hadn’t considered and you come away with a brand new idea instead.

How to Support Your Local Startup Scene

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 10:35:21 GMT

Recently I’ve written a couple of blog posts about the Glasgow tech community. One about the benefits of the city and a second one with some rules for a successful community. One the back of those posts individuals, startups and corporates have reached out asking how to get involved so here are my thoughts on what people and businesses can do.

Be present

The foundation of the community is people and their relationships with each other. How do we form those relationships? Even in 2019 nothing can replace face-to-face contact.

The ecosystem in Glasgow hosts many great events and opportunities to meet like-minded people so get yourself along. Networking is tough, especially if it's a new audience (I wrote a post about how I handled that in another blog post) but you just need to break through and do it. Forming these relationships is the basis of a professional relationship that will last years. If you don’t have these interactions, you won’t be part of the community.

Creating relationships is one thing, maintaining them is another. If a relationship - professional or personal - is worth something to you, you’ll put the effort in to keep that relationship going.

Amplify

The community should look out for each other. Keep an eye out for your peers, promote what they do (either on social media - a cheeky like or retweet - or in day to day business). Your voice added to that of the community extends the reach that little bit further and it can have a profound impact.

Why do it? Well, wouldn’t you like the community to share your successes, achievements and crystals for help? A community isn’t a case of take, take, take. You need to give a little as well.

Take a lead

Don’t just leave it all to the same people to do the community building. Be proactive. Get the finger out and take ownership of your little slice of the ecosystem.

It’s a lot of effort but the wider community is there to support you. This can take many forms - maybe you organise an event, maybe its a newsletter, maybe you have a 1:1 meeting with people, maybe some mentorship or you engage with schools. Just be proactive and get things done.

If you don’t do it who will? If you truly think it's beneficial then don’t wait on it to fall out the sky - just get it done.

Spend a little money

It can be that simple.

A little money goes a long way. As an individual buying a ticket for something or using a service rather than taking a freebie is huge. £10 here and there (where its earned) is well spent.

For businesses, small pots of cash can have a huge impact. Sponsorship (beer and pizza) for events is a small amount (sub £300 sometimes) but has a profound impact on the ecosystem. But you run a business not a charity, right? Well, meet-ups are a great place to recruit, so spend your money on that instead of recruiters. It can also be a place to win business and get your brand in front of customers.

Money can be used for other activities - code clubs, hardware for disadvantaged individuals, software/hosting for students. At the end of the day giving a bit of cash is pretty low effort way to get involved.

Don’t confuse things

I’d like to think the tech community is generally pulling in the same direction. Unfortunately, we have some opportunistic businesses (typically recruiters) or people in the public sector who replicate effort, build walled gardens and try to take their own slice of the pie.

Everyone talks a good game of being collaborative and working with the existing community, but actions speak louder than words. While any activity and choice is a good thing do we really need 3 or 4 Machine Learning Meetups? Glasgow is a village. Just get in touch with the incumbents and play nice. If they don’t play nice then batter on with your own slice but do it in a way that is truly collaborative.

Take the plunge

Ready to get more involved? Let me know if I can help at all. I’m always keen to help people get a footing in the local tech ecosystem and help us all produce better digital products, better experiences and better businesses. Find me on Twitter or drop RookieOven a line.

Getting to Know Your Target Audience

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 23:01:03 GMT

Previously, we’ve discussed some of the ways to find customers for your business. Your customers are a vital part of your business, and having a solid understanding of who they are will serve you well in serving your customers. If you know who your ideal target customer is, you’ll have a better understanding of the best places to find them, how you to speak to them in an impactful way, what their motivations for purchasing are and - maybe most importantly - what they actually want.

But how do you do it? Here are some considerations to get you started.

Back to Basics

Who, what, where, how and why? These might seem like simple questions, but they prove useful in the early stages of discovering your target audience and understanding your ideal customer. Thinking about where they work, shop, live and spend their time can provide insight into the best channels of communication. Knowing what information sources they look to and trust will help you figure out who you want to align your brand with, and considering the way that they shop will highlight the ways in which you can get your business in front of potential customers at the perfect moment.

Wants and Needs

A huge part of getting to know your target audience comes down to understanding what their wants are, and how your business fits in with them. Knowing what your potential customers' needs are and the problems that they face puts you in the best possible position to solve them. Once you’ve figured out how your product or service matches with your customer’s needs, you can align your brand message accordingly and push the relevant features and benefits available.

Utilising Your Existing Customer Base

If you already have some customers, they can provide you with some hugely beneficial information that you can use to better understand your audience. Don’t be afraid to ask them questions about how they discovered your business, what they think of your product and what the biggest benefit they’ve had from your business is. Look at their reviews, testimonials and feedback to determine what’s important to them and how you can align your business appropriately in turn. Be sure to encourage communication with your customers throughout your process, and even consider implementing feedback or customer research channels into your workflow.

Creating an Audience Profile

Designing an audience persona is an incredibly useful activity when it comes to getting to the heart of your ideal customer. Taking the time to produce an example of an ideal customer - including their name and their demographics - will help focus your mind and provides a simple way to communicate your target audience with other team members, too. You might want to get creative and make a mood board to help you visualise your customer, or you can simply list their characteristics and traits instead.

Consider the Competition

It may feel counterintuitive to be thinking about your competition when considering your own target customers, but it can be particularly useful for building your business. Nowadays, consumers typically look at numerous options before deciding what to purchase, and you have to be aware of what your competitors are offering if you want to distinguish your business from theirs. If you know what your customer is looking for, you’ll have a better understanding of the reasons they may choose to take their business somewhere else, and in turn, you’ll be better prepared to stop that happening.

10 Commandments for an Effective Tech Community in Scotland

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 13:03:40 GMT

Apologies but I’m going to sound a bit preachy here. From my experience, I’m able to do my best work surrounded by talented, like-minded people that support me, challenge me, push me to do more, be better and are there to pick me up when I’m feeling low. To me, that’s the essence of a community.

That’s why I’ve been slogging away with the RookieOven since 2011 with the aim of creating a community for those working in technology startups. I feel RookieOven fills a gap in the tech sector in Scotland (in particular Glasgow) by smooshing together an electric bunch of talented, ambitious like-minded talent.

Since 2011 I’ve learned a lot and I’ve observed behaviours that are conducive to an effective community which I’ve distilled into “10 Commandments” (I mean, it worked for Moses), so here they are.

1 - Give sincere and honest feedback

Don’t sugar coat it, don’t soften the blow. Be honest with each other. Be critical, challenge people and push them to do better.

2 - No stealth mode, be open about your business

Talk. Tell everyone your idea because it won’t be unique.

Too often I find people are unwilling to communicate, that shows a lack of trust which is cancer to a community like RookieOven. Trust is really at the foundation of our relationships in the community.

3 - Don’t confuse PR with success, knuckle down and get the work done

Vanity. It’s a horrible thing and lethal to a startup. So you picked up an award or had a newspaper spread…. So what? Is that money in the bank? Is it winning you customers? That’s all that matters with your fledgeling business.

Distractions are common and I’ve seen many talented people being drawn to vanity over real progress for their business.

4 - Doing > talking = Get stuff done and always be improving

I see this too often. All talk no action. Get the finger out and get stuff done.

There’s always a reason not to or barriers in your way. That can be funding related for example. But the really successful members of the community don’t let that stop them and they keep working away with focus rather than fumble and talk about doing something - they get it done.

5 - Be open to challenge, always be learning

You need a certain amount of confidence to be a founder. But don’t let that be your undoing. Be open to challenge and always be learning.

The world moves on at a crazy rate. If you’re not moving forward you’re going backwards, so you need to constantly improve.

You can learn new techniques, processes and technologies that will help you. You learn from your failures along the way. And you learn from people that are just more talented than you.

6 - Confidence is a good thing but it's a fine line between that and arrogance

That confidence I spoke of is a good thing. Be careful because it’s an ultra-fine line between that and coming across as arrogant - nobody likes arrogance.

7 - Look out for others, give a damn about people

When you’re at your lowest you want to be picked up. You need people around you. From time to time you are going to be the one picking people up.

Keep an eye out for others (they’re going to be doing the same for you). If you think someone is down or struggling grab lunch with them, take them for a pint. It matters more than you know.

8 - Be curious. Embrace new talent and new technologies

Ask questions. Of society, of your peers, of competitors and of yourself. That curiosity leads to opening new doors.

If you’ve ever spent time with a toddler you’ll quickly realise they ask questions of everything. The world is a blank canvas for them and as they learn it for the first time they learn through questions. Young people in business are at the start of their careers, they aren’t jaded, they aren’t lumbered with experience so embrace young talent to help you question the status quo.

9 - Don’t ask for permission, get on with it

A cliche but so true. For startups time is crucial. It’s our biggest asset against much larger, better resource teams that don’t have the speed and agility we have. If we’re waiting around for permission we’re eroding our advantage.

The same thing goes for the community. Don’t go looking for permission from your peers, get on with it and make things happen.

10 - Be proactive, solve problems for yourself and others

Solve problems. Don’t just work on solutions. Trying to make ‘things’ better is good practice for building a business do it for your customers but also do it for your peers. Help each other out, you see someone with problems help them fix it.

11 - Don’t be a dick

The most important of the 10 commandments, the one that rules them all is… number 11. Don’t be a dick. This underpins every other rule.

These are just some soft ‘rules’ for a community that I’ve observed through being a part of the RookieOven community since 2011. What do you think of them? Do you agree/disagree or have any ways to improve them?

And if you think they’re useful please feel free to replicate it, adopt them or make additions. Use them in your community or even use them as a set of principles for your business. If you do, let me know.

Creating a Social Media Strategy for Your Startup

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 16:20:19 GMT

Social media is a great way to build awareness for your startup, but it’s not as simple as throwing out a few tweets and expecting success overnight. With a solid strategy in place, you can utilise social media to bring light to what your startup offers and build connections with your audience. Here are some of the crucial steps to consider when creating a social media strategy for your startup.

What are you trying to achieve?

The first thing to think about is what you want to achieve by implementing a social media strategy. There’s no point in spending the time to put a plan in place if you have no idea what you want to do, and having goals are an essential part of figuring out where you should be focusing your efforts.

We’ve got a whole blog post all about setting effective goals, but to summarise your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. What suits you will vary depending on you and your business. You might want to increase the orders through your website, build the number of enquiries online, raise awareness of a campaign or a cause or simply drive traffic to your site. Whatever it is you want to do, you should set some clear objectives and angle your strategy accordingly.

How will you measure your success?

As with any sort of strategy, it’s important to know how you will measure your performance. At what point will you have met your goals, and how will you know if your strategy has been a success? Having a set of key performance indicators that are relevant to your goals will give you a clear benchmark that allows you to measure your progress and understand if what you’re doing is working (or not working).

Whilst it may seem like followers, likes and page views are the key currency in social media, they aren’t necessarily the most meaningful metrics to focus on. Instead of looking at top-level vanity metrics, pay careful attention to actual conversions and engagements that make a real difference to your business.

Where are you going to focus?

The social media landscape is ever changing, and it can be tempting to feel like you need to have a finger in every pie. As much as you don’t want to keep all of your eggs in one basket (especially not a basket owned by another company), it’s equally important not to spread yourself too thin - especially if you don’t have a full social media marketing team at your disposal.

When picking your platforms it’s essential to think about who your target audience is and where they hang out online to know where you need to be in order to reach them. Knowing your target audience is a huge part of marketing, and if you haven’t figured that out then check out our 10 step guide to writing a business plan to get started.

Who’s going to implement it?

Social media, and marketing in general, can be a time-consuming part of running a business. Do you have the capabilities to take this on, or would you benefit from outsourcing? Realistically, you need to be able to set aside time to manage your social media presence if you want to implement social media marketing effectively. If you don’t think you have the capabilities then look into hiring freelancers to take on the social media responsibilities for your startup instead.

What are you going to post?

Content is arguably the most critical part of an effective social media strategy for startups. It’s not as simple as just posting whatever you fancy, it’s important to have a clear idea of what you’re going to post and why it’s relevant to your audience. This might be behind the scenes content about the day-to-day life in your business, valuable industry insights that will benefit your audience, sharing product information or promoting examples of your work. There are countless ways to use social media and, again, the right way to use it will depend on you and your business but whatever you’re posting should be valuable in some shape or form. A good rule of thumb to use before posting is asking yourself one simple question: why should your audience care about what you’re sharing?

Glasgow: A City of Opportunity

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:01:13 GMT

Being a Glaswegian is a weird one, we're simultaneously passionate about our hometown and equally critical.

Citizens of the city will instantly leap to the defence of Glasgow; if anyone dares to say anything bad about our city we’ll boom with pride how great it is. At the same time, we're also the first to complain, talk our city down and belittle most aspects of our city from the weather to the public transport. Well, I'm not going to do that. I truly believe Glasgow is a city bursting with opportunity and unmet potential.

It’s one of the best places in Europe to be for tech.

Education and talent

The city is home to world-renowned Universities with Glasgow University, Strathclyde, Glasgow School of Art and Caledonian sitting within the city boundaries, and West of Scotland on the fringes of the city. That solid base of educators and researchers creates a strong pull for talent to come from across the world and learn here.

Who benefits from that? The businesses based here. We can tap into world-class research or employ from a broad talent base that stems from the universities around us. Few cities in the world have the same pull of educators and therefore the benefit of the depth of talent on their doorstep.

Cost of living

When was the last time you went down to London? Did you pay less than £7 for a pint? Using the entirely unscientific GPP (General Pint Price) index, Glasgow is way more affordable, with anything over a fiver being considered an expensive pint.

In all seriousness. Glasgow is substantially cheaper to live in. A city centre apartment or a flat in a trendy area of town, like the West End or Shawlands, is certainly less than £1000 per month when taking into account council tax and utilities. In other cities across the UK, the cost of living is vastly higher.

It’s the same story for businesses, too. Business accommodation in Glasgow is affordable, whether that be a coworking space like RookieOven or The Whisky Bond or a unit of your own.

Why is this important? Well, your pounds will last longer and stretch further - both personally and for your businesses.

Work-life balance

We’ve established Glasgow is an affordable place to be and we have a talent pool. Other cities can boast about that, but what I think really sets us apart is what we have on our doorstep.

You can go see Beyonce at the Hydro (the eighth-busiest music arena in the world in terms of ticket sales, by the way) in the evening and the next day you can explore the Trossachs or nip up to Glencoe. The city is a short journey to the beautiful west coast and the islands like Arran, Skye, Bute and Harris or you can potter around one of the world-renowned museums in the city - many of them are free to enter.

You might think that with us having wilderness on our doorstep, we might be a bit isolated. Nope. Glasgow has two airports with direct flights across Europe and to the US, and Edinburgh airport is actually pretty close too. We have fast and frequent trains to London and other major UK cities like Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle leaving from the city centre multiple times a day.

No other city in the world has that mix of modern, living city and accessible wilderness on your doorstep.

Work to be done

It’s not all sunshine and flowers, though, and there’s still so much to be done.

Locally there’s a fractured business community. Too many institutions are building walls around their ecosystem, rather than being open and embracing one another - that might be universities, publicly funded bodies, or member organisations - but all too often they’re duplicating effort or fighting over the same slice of pie. However I see opportunity here. What we need is a cultural change in organisations like these, and I think the RookieOven community leads by example here. Our actions speak louder than words and we are open, transparent, helpful, supportive and working together to make Glasgow a stronger place for the tech companies who call it home.

Our geography as a city, as great as it is, gives us a set of problems. The M8 motorway cuts through the heart of the city, making travel cumbersome by bike or on foot. Our public transport is lacking, and whilst the subway serves the centre and west end and ScotRail trains serve most of the city, the east end and north are far harder to get to by train. That leaves buses; which are a complicated mess. Our biggest weakness is a lack of integrated transport like you see in London through TfL. This isn’t an easy problem to solve, but it is something that technology can help with, and is an example of an opportunity for companies to innovate in the city.

Get involved

Glasgow is pretty great, agreed? Yes, there are a few problems, but nothing that the people of Glasgow can't fix. The only thing that's left is getting you involved in the city.

If you have an interest in tech startups get along to the next RookieOven Meetup on the first Monday of each month or if you're looking for a role at a tech company check out the job board.

If that's not your bag, don't worry, the Open Tech Calendar is full of great events each month and Meetup and Eventbrite have a whole host of activities you can get involved with instead.

See you around the city.

What is a Minimum Viable Product?

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:01:02 GMT

If you frequent the startup community, you’ll most likely have come across the term “MVP” and its importance for early-stage businesses. The term MVP, or minimum viable product, was popularised by Eric Ries in his book The Lean Startup and is essentially the simplified core of your product offering and should reflect the basic features available. These features should be attractive enough to distinguish your product and capture the attention of your key early audience.

Having an MVP is a great way to test the waters with your product and test the demand for what you’re offering without investing all of your resources into an idea that might not actually be the best fit. Producing your MVP can help you figure out what works and what doesn’t, giving you incredibly valuable insight into your target audience and what they want. Starting small should help you address the potential bumps in the road early on in the process, ultimately helping you save time and money overall.

The main focus of an MVP is to validate your concept - it might take the form of a prototype, a drawing, a demo, a set of slides or even a functional product. It will look different for every product and company, so the concept will mean different things to different people. In the end, your product might end up looking like the complete opposite of how it started, but that’s okay. It’s about testing your idea, getting feedback and knowing what to change as you iterate.

Your minimum viable product is not going to be perfect and it doesn’t need to tick all the boxes for all of your users. If you’re trying to please too many people, it will take forever to launch anything of real use. Figuring out your MVP will help you validate your idea and reduce the overall risk by figuring out what problems your product actually solves.

Meet the Expert - Michael Hayes

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 00:01:01 GMT

Michael is the founder of software development company Add Jam and the brains behind RookieOven. Add Jam was founded by Michael and co-founder Chris in 2014, and create iOS, Android and web apps to solve problems in innovative ways.

How did you get started in this area?

I studied computer science at university and was determined not to end up working in Financial Services. Working for a multinational bank just wasn't an exciting prospect for me, creating products was far more interesting. I started working with my co-founder at Add Jam, Chris, whilst we were doing masters degrees at university (Chris in Computer Science, mine in Product Development) where would meet up and work on product ideas together.

When we finished up university and found ourselves as poor graduates we both took jobs but continued to work on ideas and projects in our evenings and weekends which led to us founding Add Jam in 2014.

Why are you passionate about Scottish technology?

Scotland has the potential to create world-class tech companies. We have a long history of innovation, we're home to a really high standard of universities, we have great global transport links and have a network of diaspora across the world. I've lived in Glasgow all my life, so you could say I'm biased, but even though we're a small country we are more than capable of punching well above our weight.

What's your one biggest piece of advice for people in the Scottish tech scene?

Get shipping. As a startup speed is your most important asset however I see so many founders taking months to launch or to even make progress in their business.

What mistakes can people avoid?

Don't confuse coverage with success. Winning awards and pitch competitions is great and all, but it's not what business is about. Hunker down, get the work down, get customers and start making money. Don't spend all your time at pitch competitions.

What's your vision for the Scottish tech ecosystem?

I want to see a vibrant, diverse community with highly skilled, driven people working to make products that have global reach.

Follow Michael on Twitter for more

Community Podcast Recommendations

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 00:01:02 GMT

The Recipe for SEO Success Show

The Recipe for SEO Success podcast helps you expand your understanding of all things Search Engine Optimisation and learn from experts you can trust. Listen to award-winning SEO copywriting and Consultant Kate Toon chat with her expert guests about all things Google.

Why listen?

“The host is engaging and interesting to listen to – she makes SEO accessible and easy to understand, and it's a good way of staying on top of changes and updates.”

Recommended by Briony Cullin

Track Changes by Postlight

Each week Paul and Rich sit down with the brightest minds in technology and design to make a better digital world.

Why listen?

“Industry experts dive into and provide fresh perspectives on topics that, as a digital agency, you encounter ALL THE TIME at work.”

Recommended by Neu

Freakonomics Radio

Discover the hidden side of everything with Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books. Each week, Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers. Special features include series like “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.” as well as a live game show, “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.”

Why listen?

“They cover a huge range of topics, all viewed through an economists perspective. Creates some fascinating discussions and really unusual ways of looking at what appear to be dull issues.”

Recommended by Brian at CodeClan

Build Your SaaS

37signals started an indie SaaS revolution when they launched Basecamp and Ruby on Rails. Since 2004, thousands of entrepreneurs, developers, designers, and product people have tried to capture some of that success by launching their own web apps. But what does it take to launch a Software as a Service business in 2018? Follow Jon and Justin as they build & launch their new product: Transistor.fm.

Why listen?

“Jon and Justin share the hard stuff whilst they’re going through it (they’re currently building their SaaS) as opposed to “here’s our success story now we’ve completed it”. It’s candid, real and in the trenches.”

Recommended by Ashley from With Jack

The Indicator by Planet Money

Planet Money launched in 2008 during the financial crisis and, since then, it has won many awards including a Peabody and an Edward R. Murrow Award in 2017 for our investigation into Wells Fargo's retaliation against whistle-blowers. We try really hard every episode to find creative, entertaining ways to make sense of the big, complicated forces that move our economy. That's why we made a t-shirt and traced the supply chain around the world from cotton field to factory; bought 100 barrels of crude oil and followed it from ground to gas tank; launched a satellite; and built an adorable algorithmic trading Twitter bot.

Why listen?

“It’s always interesting, with short, neutral shows focussed on one topic.”

Recommended by Patrick Grey

Check out more of our community's favourite podcasts for founders in the previous edition of RookieOven's podcast recommendations.

Meet the Expert - Andrew Farquhar

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 00:01:02 GMT

Andrew is an experienced technology lawyer and founding member of Skyscanner’s legal team. He’s advised Skyscanner throughout its transition from small business to 'unicorn' and is particularly interested in data privacy, IP, commercial contracts, strategic partnerships and brand protection.

How did you get started in this area?

I studied law at Strathclyde Uni and then trained at an international law firm, before specialising in tech and IP related legal issues. I'd always found that side of the law to be most dynamic and interesting, and when the opportunity of a role at my favourite client - Skyscanner - came up, I couldn't say no!

Why are you passionate about Scottish technology?

Working at Skyscanner for the past 5.5 years has made me realise just how positive a vehicle for change technology companies in Scotland can be. The quality of tech and innovation we're seeing in Scotland at the moment is fantastic and really stands up well against some of the other global tech hubs. We don't appreciate enough the quality we have on our doorstep, and I'm passionate about supporting other businesses in the tech scene to follow the same path that Skyscanner has.

What's your one biggest piece of advice for people in the Scottish tech scene?

From a legal perspective, make sure you have documents in place from day one that make clear who owns the intellectual property in the tech you're building. Be warned: unless it's in writing, the code that you've paid a contractor to contribute to your project will be owned by them and not by your business!

What mistakes can people avoid?

Beware of the inflection points as your business grows. You need to be agile and embrace continual change and organisational evolution if you want to scale your business effectively.

What's your vision for the Scottish tech ecosystem?

Vibrant, thriving and a byword globally for high-quality people, innovation and technology.

How to Prepare for a Holiday as a Freelancer

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:01:15 GMT

As a new freelancer taking a holiday can be daunting. You might have the fear of letting your clients down or missing out on work. This can turn a relaxing break into a stressful time. What can you do to make the process of taking a break go smoothly for both you and your clients?

Set clear boundaries and expectations

The key to healthy client relationships is setting and meeting expectations around communication. Firstly, you should be totally clear which days you are away. For extended breaks, add a day or two before and after for packing and getting back into “work mode”.

Be clear if you are available whilst you are away. Are you going to check your email? Are you available for calls? Are you available in an emergency?

Don’t over-commit to communicating. It’s better to err on the side of caution and then exceed expectations than getting caught up unnecessarily in work matters whilst on your break.

If you do need to be contacted in an emergency, then it's a good idea to set up a specific way of your clients notifying you.

For example, if you're turning off email notifications (as you should!), then try setting up a separate email address specifically for the break where you do receive notifications. In an emergency, clients can email that address and get a reply based on expectations that you set out when you left.

Be sure to check connectivity and signal where you are going. You might want to be contactable, but if you are abroad in a no-signal area then you should be aware before you go.

Build your documentation

It is reassuring to get your client documentation up to date before you leave. What is the current project status? What are the next actions, or things that clients and suppliers need to consider whilst you are away?

If an emergency occurs with a technical product, what can be done to redeploy or fix it? What routine maintenance should be happening? If you aren’t available, is there someone who can step in?

Do you have procedures written down? Are they in a place that your clients or suppliers can find them? Do you have a way of sharing passwords and access credentials if you are not contactable?

If you are working with other contractors, have you left a technical description of your work, so they can get the answers they need without contacting you?

Set a plan for returning to work

If you are going to enjoy your break, you want to minimize worrying about getting back to work. Worries are worst around the unknown, so try and schedule some straightforward client work for when you get back.

For example, I usually schedule simple development and maintenance tasks for my web clients, rather than any architecture or planning that might require input from multiple sources.

If you are away for an extended period of time, it might also be useful to drop a scheduled email to your clients checking in on preparation for work when you return. This can help you hit the ground running when you get back.

Decide to enjoy it

Last, but certainly not least, is deciding that you will enjoy your break. As freelancers, we’re all guilty of thinking about work a little too much sometimes. If you are going away, then really go! Mentally commit to being out of touch and enjoying yourself. Relax and recharge - you’ll be better for it in the long-run.

If you follow these steps then hopefully you’ll have a successful break. If you’ve got any more tips for taking a holiday as a freelancer then let me know @jamiemchale on Twitter.

£250k Investment Win for Pitchbooking

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 11:32:34 GMT

Pitchbooking have announced the results of their latest investment round, securing £250,000 in funding that it believes will help it become the leader in the sports facility management market.

Based between Edinburgh and Belfast, the startup has developed a platform that assists the public with gaining access to sports facilities and streamlining operations for owners in the industry. Founded by life-long friends Fearghal Campbell, Chris McCann and Shea O’Hagan, Pitchbooking has already facilitated over 15,000 sport sessions for members of the public. Read more about Pitchbooking’s journey to startup success in our interview with Shea O’Hagan.

The investment round was led by local investment firm Aurient Ltd and backed by Techstart Ventures and Co-Fund NI, managed by Clarendon Fund Managers. The round was completed by private investors across the UK and New York. This new capital will support the growth of Pitchbooking throughout the UK and across the world.

CEO of Pitchbooking, Shea O’Hagan said: “Before Pitchbooking, finding a place to play meant the time and frustration of hopeful phone calls, booking slips and outdated payment methods.”

Now, Pitchbooking allows players to search through thousands of available facilities within a matter of minutes, and booking can be completed with ease. Those who manage sports facilities are able to promote their services with the ease of a fully automated platform, which helps encourage use of facilities. The ease of Pitchbooking not only drives revenue for facility owners, but it also encourages people to get active.

Aurient Ltd partners Anthony Kieran and Cecil Hetherington will be joining the board of Pitchbooking. Cecil, who becomes Chairman, said: “Pitchbooking offers an elegant web-based solution to two common problems – fragmented information in terms of being able to see what facilities are available in your local area, and friction in the process of booking and payment leading to a market which functions very inefficiently.

“The Pitchbooking management team are 100% focussed and dedicated to creating a better experience for both users and providers of sports facilities, and they are dynamic and innovative in their approach. This is exactly the sort of company that we like to support.”

Pitchbooking launched last year with Oxford City Council as its first major customer. A recent partnership with Goals has resulted in Pitchbooking offering services in over 50 locations across the UK.

Meet the Founder - Raj Sark

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 00:01:02 GMT

Raj Sark is a Partner at InnovateFromZero, Founder of Connect-In Ltd. and former CEO of Xupo technologies. Raj is an active innovation-driven entrepreneur who likes to make use of technology to solve practical problems that can be spotted in our society. He is a graduate in Electronics & Communications Engineering and has an Erasmus Mundus Masters education in Global Innovation Management.

Tell us a bit about what your startup does?

InnovateFromZero is dedicated to augmenting innovations in web, mobile & IoT with technical development, digital strategies and funding. In 2019 we are launching the first cloud-based, AI-powered platform to help product innovators - devToM.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

The inspiration came from our cumulative four decades of hands-on experience of bringing innovative tech products to market some with great success, winning multiple innovation awards, and some massive failures. We have bundled and packaged this expertise in product development in a free and open software solution to build the next great product(s).

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

No, not at all. In fact, I did not properly know what the word 'entrepreneur' really meant till ca. 10 years ago. I started my career employed as an engineer in as much a 'non-entrepreneurial' job as you could be (safe but definitely not adventurous). I learned what it really meant beyond the dictionary definition when I had a chance to get hands-on with it.

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

Running your own business first and foremost take a completely different mindset. Most innovation happens outside of the comfort zone, you almost have to learn to be comfortable while not being comfortable.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

When we started out on the first entrepreneurial venture, I hope I had set the mindset, read more books, had met more experienced people and had them around me and currently I would say, had the devToM software - hands down that would have helped!

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

It is not an easy decision to make. Have the right motivation. Money could be one, but not all of it. When you are employed - you have a job (it's easy). But remember JOB = Just Over Broke. You will never have true financial freedom exchanging your time for money. Being self-employed is hard work and more work but could become more meaningful work.

How to Find a Co-Founder for Your Startup

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:01:02 GMT

Starting a business solo can be an intimidating task, and going it alone isn’t the best route for everyone. If you’re looking for someone to join you on the journey to startup success, here are some of our top tips for finding a co-founder for your startup.

Have clear expectations

The best way to find your ideal business partner is to set out with a crystal clear idea of what you want and who you’re looking for. Take the time to think about your strengths and weaknesses, and consider the sort of person who would complement your skills to create a stronger startup. When searching for a startup co-founder, pay careful attention to who you work well with and who you might butt heads with, past the point of productivity.

Identify what your business needs, and see how you slot into the situation. If you’ve not got the best grasp of the technical side of things, but your startup needs a bit of technical know-how, maybe look for someone who knows their stuff.

Look inside your network

Who do you know, and who do they know? You might have the perfect co-founder sitting right in front of you. Consider the people in your circle already and think about if they’d be a good match for you and your business - and if they’d be up for joining you on the startup journey.

Maybe you worked really well with a colleague in the past and think you’d make a bit of a dream team when it comes to building your business, broach the subject with them and see what they think. It’s worth remembering that startup life can be a bit intense, so pay careful attention to the relationships that you think could stand the test before going in all guns blazing.

Broaden your horizons

If you can’t find anyone within your own circles, it’s time to look at expanding your network. We’ve already got some tips for networking online, if that’s your sort of thing, but you can also head to some events in your local area to meet people in your industry. If you’re in Glasgow, we’d recommend popping into the RookieOven meetup, but we’re maybe a bit biased.

Take it slow

It can take time to find the right co-founder, and it’s the sort of thing you want to avoid getting wrong. Don’t be tempted to rush into things with someone who might not necessarily be the best fit for you or your business - take a moment to think long term and consider if it’s the right decision for you. Founding a startup can create a high-pressure environment, and you don’t want to cause any unnecessary conflicts that could have been avoided with a bit more consideration.

Test the waters

Following on from that last point, don’t be afraid to take a bit of time to test the waters. Get together with your potential startup co-founders and figure out if you work as well as you think you would. Try to iron out any potential issues, and spend some time being open and honest about what you both can bring to the table as startup founders, as well as what you want to get out of it.

Once you’ve found someone...

Found your match made in heaven? Great! Make sure you put the appropriate legal agreements in place before you get started. Think about ownership, benefits, responsibilities, boundaries and expectations before diving in head first. Sort out your escape routes should things go south - should the worst happen you’ll be grateful you took the time to plan out everything beforehand.

Meet the Expert - Stuart Mackay

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 00:01:02 GMT

Stuart Mackay is an Audit Manager and part of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications team in Scotland with Grant Thornton. Stuart is one of the experts on hand to answer your burning questions at the RookieOven Drop In Days which take place every month - find out more here.

How did you get started in this area?

I took the typical route of going to university and from there I trained at a small firm before subsequently moving to Grant Thornton after qualifying.

Why are you passionate about Scottish technology?

Having first really got involved in the sector around 2 and a half years ago I just love talking to people in the space. Technology and its development allow such innovative ideas and businesses to come out of it. I find the people in Scotland are also so passionate about it and want to really make an impact globally in what they do.

What's your one biggest piece of advice for people in the Scottish tech scene?

Take yourself seriously and act professionally from the start. Ensure that you take advice from the immense number of information sources available, and don’t write off paying for advice. Whilst it can be scary, the benefits could far outweigh the initial cost.

What mistakes can people avoid?

Getting caught in a silo - make sure that you're getting out and speaking to people. I often hear about people who believe they're designing the perfect product but haven't actually confirmed that anyone would want it. A great way to look at it I heard recently was "you are not your customer". Also, I wouldn't be an accountant without mentioning to keep on top of your books, especially your cash flow, as you should really know almost at any time how much cash you have and how long you can last on it.

What's your vision for the Scottish tech ecosystem?

Grant Thornton recently launched the VibrantScotland campaign and my vision for the ecosystem is linked very much to that. I envisage an ecosystem that works together to create lots of successful businesses bringing money and jobs into the economy and with the increased purpose in many companies hopefully address some of the social issues the wider country faces. I think this rather than a "Unicorn" philosophy will allow more successful businesses to be created.

For more from Stuart, follow him on Twitter.

Startup Spotlight - Neonburn

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 00:01:04 GMT

We spoke to Gregg O'Malley from Neonburn about his journey as a startup founder.

Tell us a bit about what your startup does?

Neon Burn creates software and hardware for easy to use remotely updatable digital signage. The possible uses for digital signage is endless, from bars to museums, trade shows to company dashboards. Having the ability to update all you screens using a cloud based solution makes life so much simpler. Add in the fact that you can have others take ownership through user management then the stress of using such a solution just disappeared.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

It turns out that there really wasn’t much of a market for this. This journey started when creating fancy/digital presentation boxes for the construction industry tendering process.

However, another friend asked if what I had created could be used with a cheap Android TV stick to display content on a standard TV screen and it turned out this possible without too much effort - so I pivoted to the digital signage solution. When doing this we noticed that the new wave of TV devices and tablet computers are ideal for interactive digital signage, so we set out to create software for people to create amazing digital signs.

What is your background?

I’m a software guy. I’ve worked as an employee for some large tech companies and was also an academic in the Computing Science department at the University of Glasgow for far too many years in between!

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

Not really. I always wanted to do something different from the norm but when I was young I never saw myself being an entrepreneur. I actually really wanted to be in a band and tour the world but that didn’t happen. Then working for some large companies made me realise that I hated it and the only way I was going to avoid that is either to start your own company or get involved with an early stage startup in some way.

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

As a software developer, the biggest challenge is being a salesman. It doesn’t feel natural. That said, the reality is that neither are natural, you just enjoy doing one more than another, and you become over-attached to the thing you enjoy. The problem is a successful B2B business is heavily sales focused!

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

Nothing really, I’m not into regrets.

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

Don’t start a business on your own, have someone that can share the burden with you. The best way forward is to find someone to work with whose skills complement yours.

Meet the Expert - Anoop Joshi

Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:01:02 GMT

Anoop Joshi is one of the experts on hand to chat with at the RookieOven Drop In Days each month. As part of Skyscanner’s legal team, he’s well positioned to chat through any general legal issues you’re not sure about.

How did you get started in this area?

An interest in music and tech attracted me to intellectual property law when I began studying law at university. This was during the early days of The Pirate Bay file-sharing legal disputes and also the rise of online MMORPGs, which had some really interesting legal issues around value creation and ownership.

This was an introduction to the technologies powering the web and a pathway to writing and understanding HTML and Javascript and later tinkering with web development with Ruby and frameworks like Rails and Sinatra.

My role as legal counsel in a tech company like Skyscanner is a way of bringing all of these interests together in one role.

Why are you passionate about Scottish technology?

Scottish technology is diverse, impactful and has been a powerful vehicle for change in Scotland and beyond for decades. We consistently prove that, as a nation, we are innovators and there is an incredibly diverse ecosystem across education, commerce. government and the not-for-profit sector where people can access and use technology to bring about positive change. Whether it's internet connectivity, smartphones, access to online education tools, or the democratisation of the tools we can all use to innovate, tech is a great enabler. In Scotland, we're great at collaborating and working together, and there's a real sense of welcoming and belonging in the Scottish technology community.

What's your one biggest piece of advice for people in the Scottish tech scene?

Surround yourself with people who challenge you, they'll help you to improve. Also, no matter what, get it in writing :)

What mistakes can people avoid?

From a legal perspective, it's not getting contracts in place or, having a contract that's not fit for purpose and only realising that when you need to rely on it most. As a responsible business owner, you need to think about things like when customers are going to pay you, what type of warranties can you give, and whether or not you can really deliver on what you're signing up to. Legal agreements aren't a box-ticking exercise, what you agree to today might come back to haunt you in the future so it's always worth paying attention.

What's your vision for the Scottish tech ecosystem?

A tech ecosystem based on building sustainable and value driven businesses that continue to punch above their weight at a community, national and international level. An ecosystem where there is a focus on diversity, sharing of skills, experience and resource across sectors to help continue to highlight Scotland's role as a leader in technology and innovation for years to come.

5 Things Every Founder Should Do at Christmas

Fri, 21 Dec 2018 00:01:02 GMT

When you’re working on a startup idea, it's so easy to pour too much of yourself into the businesses and neglect looking after your own well being. Here are 5 things I’m going to be doing over the Christmas period to stand me in good stead going into the new year.

1. Spend time with Friends and Family

Switch off. A break from the grind is good for you. No doubt you’ve been busting a gut the whole year, use the Christmas period to spend quality time with friends, family and with the important relationships you’ve been neglecting this year.

I find friends and family are the people who help me most throughout the year and are the ones I neglect most easily. Friends and family are important to my mental and physical well being and are going to be needed throughout the new year so I’m going to be spending quality time with them.

2. Over Indulge

Spending time with friends and family its inevitable that I’m going to overindulge. And? So what, go for it. I’m not advocating anything that will have a long-term negative impact on my health but I’m going to use this time of the year to enjoy time with friends and family and that will invariably involve drink, food and more drink.

3. Read

I always find reading is something I put off. I’ve got a stack of books I want to attack over the Christmas period. Some are business books, some are just a good bit of fiction. It helps destress, it improves my knowledge and its a great way to entertain myself away from a screen.

Top of my list is How to Build a Car, the autobiography of Adrian Newey, the designer of multiple world championship-winning Formula One cars. You can check out the RookieOven Reading List for some more inspiration. What books would you recommend?

4. Alone time and reflection

I’m also going to be using the Christmas period to spend some time alone and reflect on the year gone by. For me, its been a pretty busy 2018, from getting married, launching some side projects at Add Jam, working on automating my house, landscaping my garden (my summer project) and taking hard decisions such as stopping the development of Pocket Leap as a product.

I’m going to use Christmas as a chance to reflect on it all. It’s by looking back and learning that we get better.

5. Plan

What am I going to do next year? At the start of every year, Chris and I get together and share our reflections on the year prior as well as our aspirations for the new year. We speak frankly with each other about what we’ve achieved, or failed to achieve in the previous year and set goals both personally and as a team for the year ahead.

For Add Jam, 2018 was a year of significant personal landmarks, with me getting married and Chris engaged, but we also achieved a lot of our goals for 2018 as a team. That’s putting us in good standing moving into a new year where I’m already planning and setting goals - more on that soon.

3 Low Cost Marketing Techniques to Promote Your Business

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 00:01:02 GMT

Marketing is a really important part of starting a business, but not everyone has a huge budget to dedicate to getting the word out. Luckily, there are lots of ways to build a buzz about your business without bucket loads of cash. Marketing on a limited budget can be tough, but it’s not impossible! Here are 3 ways worth considering…

Social Media

The joy of social media marketing is that it can be done on a shoestring - if you play your cards right. Creating social media profiles and connecting with your audience on the right platforms is a great way to generate some interest in your business. Social media platforms have huge user bases ready and waiting to tap into. Updating these profiles with relevant content on a regular basis can be hugely helpful for growing your audience.

It’s worthwhile remembering, however, that a lot of these platforms lean towards “pay to play” nowadays. Paid advertising on social media can work well with a limited budget, as these platforms do have super customisable budgeting options which can be adjusted to fit your needs.

Public Relations

If you’ve got a newsworthy product or a story with an interesting hook, then it can be worth looking at the press coverage route to get some exposure for your business. Putting together news releases and building relationships with relevant journalists to secure coverage can help get your business seen by new people online and offline. Check out this post by PingGo about pitching your press release for some top tips on securing coverage.

Depending on your business, you can also include relevant influencers in your contact list. Take the time to do a bit of research and investigate what bloggers and influencers are deemed popular in your industry, and reach out to them, too! If you have a product based business, you might want to send out some samples in the hope of getting a review or other online coverage.

Networking

Don’t underestimate the power of your network! Meeting new people can help you learn new things, share your knowledge and increase the reach of your work. You never know where that new connection could lead you or who they can put you in touch with.

Nowadays, you can network just about anywhere. There are still plenty of traditional style networking events, which you can find on places like Eventbrite and Meetup, but there are some more casual events taking place around the country too - like the RookieOven Meetup.

If in-person events aren’t your cup of tea, there’s a lot to be said for networking online. The growth of social media has been a brilliant development when it comes to networking, and now you can connect with people around the world at the touch of a button. Want to find out more about online networking? Check out our top tips here.

Meet the Expert - Claire Foss

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 00:01:02 GMT

Each month, we run a Drop In Day where you can come along to RookieOven and chat to experts from the Scottish tech scene. Claire Foss is one of our resident experts and is on hand to offer advice on all things public relations. Claire runs Waterfall PR, specialising in intelligent public relations for the creative, advertising, technology and media sectors.

How did you get started in this area?

I started out as a journalist covering media, marketing and technology before moving into public relations in the same area. That was in London, more than a decade ago. Seven years ago, I moved to Glasgow and decided to set up on my own as Waterfall PR, serving the same sectors.

Why are you passionate about Scottish technology?

The Scottish tech scene feels like it's on the cusp of something big. All of the pieces are in place - and it's the most exciting industry there is right now.

What's your one biggest piece of advice for people in the Scottish tech scene?

Promote yourselves! You aren't competing with other businesses in Scotland. Your market isn't Scotland, your audience is all over the UK and ultimately, all over the world. It's a crowded world - so you have to speak up and claim your rightful place.

What mistakes can people avoid?

Not carrying out adequate research into what's already out there - and thinking too small.

What's your vision for the Scottish tech ecosystem?

I hope that it becomes known as the best, most ambitious and vibrant tech scene in the world. I want it to attract the best talent and continue to become more interconnected, via events, meet ups and more (like the many that Rookie Oven runs) - sharing ideas is a really powerful thing.

How to Set Effective Goals

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:01:02 GMT

It might be a bit of a cliche to talk about setting goals as the new year creeps closer, but there’s no denying that a new year makes for a great time to outline some new goals and targets. When setting goals, either on a personal basis or professionally, it can be all too easy to jot down some vague targets and leave them to gather dust. If you want to learn more about setting better goals that you’ll actually achieve, then read on…

Be SMART

You’ve got to love an easy acronym, and when setting your goals it’s essential to always keep SMART in mind. Effective goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. These five factors are great building blocks for setting goals that work for you. Being specific helps avoid those vague “get better at selling myself” kind of goals, and adding a clear way to measure what you want to achieve will make it easier to see when you’ve hit your targets. Obviously, you want things to be achievable and relevant, then adding the timescale element will help factor your goals into your planning for the year.

For example, I want to achieve a 10% increase in website conversions by the end of 2019

Knowing What’s Important

What matters to you and your business won’t necessarily be the same as what matters to other people, so it’s important to focus on what’s relevant to you and know what will actually make a difference to your life or business. Hitting thousands of page views on your site or gaining tens of thousands of followers is all well and good, but shallow top-level metrics like those don’t always make that much of an impact in the long run.

For example, instead of setting a goal to hit a specific number of subscribers for your email list, try focusing on increasing the number of opens or the click-through rates.

Be Flexible

Things can, and will, change. No one can predict the future, or else we’d all be rich by now. Whilst setting goals and planning ahead is a great thing to do, it’s vital not to get too bogged down in the details if things don’t go to plan. There’s nothing wrong with being able to adapt and change your focus as situations change, and the things that feel important to you at the start of the year might not matter at all come the end of 2019.

Find Some Balance

Goals can work to your advantage in all parts of your life, so it’s great to find a balance between professional goals and personal goals. Life isn’t all about working, and your goals should reflect that too!

Make Them Memorable

Your goals are going to influence your game plan for the rest of the year, which means you should be keeping them in mind as much as you can and using them as the basis for your annual plans. Write them down somewhere that’s easy to see and give yourself a reminder of what you’re setting out to achieve whenever you’re feeling a bit lost or demotivated.

Meet the Founder - Jude Cook

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 07:00:24 GMT

Jude is the co-founder of ShareIn, providers of customisable investment software that helps you raise funds directly from your own network of investors.

Tell us a bit about what your startup does?

ShareIn are the market leading experts in crowdfunding software and regulatory compliance and currently operate some of the largest impact investing and property crowdfunding platforms in the UK. Our white label crowdfunding software handles every aspect of the investment process and ensures compliance at every stage, allowing customers to focus on their business of sourcing great deals and finding investors.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

Back in 2011, it seemed crazy not to use the internet to mobilise first round friends and family funding, however equity crowdfunding didn’t yet exist. This was the original inspiration for ShareIn. We changed our direction though at the end of 2014 to focus on the bit that we were good at - the tech and financial compliance - and moved away from being a marketplace to being a Fintech (I'm the Fin and my co-founder Andrew Pickett is the Tech). We are now a comprehensive white label crowdfunding software and compliance solution.

What is your background?

I studied Engineering at university, specialising in Fluid Mechanics, and I then went onto become a Chartered Accountant at Deloitte in London. I did a stint in Corporate Finance at BT Plc in London before moving to Edinburgh, keeping my London job. I took a career break to have 3 kids prior to co-founding ShareIn.

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

No - I had only ever worked for gigantic machines. I knew nothing about running my own business!

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

Well I find the whole thing very challenging! But if I had to name a few:

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

Don't ever try a B2C! However, if we hadn't tried a B2C business, we wouldn't have been able to transform into the B2B we are today. Other businesses value the tangible cost savings and professional services we offer and can appreciate the costs involved supplying those services. In my experience this is not the case when selling to the general public.

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

I'm a great believer in testing the water before you jump in. Experimenting in your free time is a step in the right direction. Prototype minimum viable products and get them in front of users early, they can help you shape products that have real marketable value.

Find out more about ShareIn on their website.

Meet the Expert - Andrew Sloane

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 00:01:18 GMT

Ahead of our next Drop In Day this Friday, we’re sitting down with one of the experts who’ll be coming along to offer up their advice on the day. To get us started, we’re chatting to Andrew Sloane from Accelerated Digital Ventures. Accelerated Digital Ventures invest in the most innovative, highest potential, and globally disruptive technology businesses. As Accelerated Digital Ventures' investment lead in Scotland and Ireland, Andrew Sloane works in the local ecosystems to surface digital tech investment opportunities.

Andrew started out running the Scottish Co-Investment Fund at the Scottish Investment bank before moving on to providing legal advice for early stage tech companies and their investors. Now, he’s the co-founder of Accelerated Digital Ventures and a good friend of the RookieOven community.

Why are you passionate about Scottish technology?

I think that Scotland has some really great tech founders, who have the potential to build global, industry defining companies. We want to help them on that journey.

What's your one biggest piece of advice for people in the Scottish tech scene?

Aim big!

What mistakes can people avoid?

Building small and not being led, in all that they do, by the big, long term vision they have for their start up.

What's your vision for the Scottish tech ecosystem?

We've seen a few scale-bigs built in Scotland in recent times, we want to support the development of ecosystem infrastructure & connections and create funding pathways that will allow a lot more to be built by the current and future generations of Scottish tech founders.

Want to chat more with Andrew? Come along to the next RookieOven Drop In Day this Friday 7th December for the chance to ask him, and our other experts, your burning questions. The RookieOven Drop In Days run on the first Friday of the month, and anyone is welcome to come along to find out more.

Whether you're confused by data protection and legal agreements, looking to get your first bit of press coverage or you want to know more about investment and finances, we've got someone on hand to offer advice. It's the perfect opportunity to learn more about RookieOven and the Scottish tech scene.

The Motivation Behind the RookieOven Drop In Days

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 10:57:43 GMT

Earlier this month we tried something new; a drop in day. The premise being anyone can come along to the RookieOven Coworking Space in Glasgow and get access to experts in some core issues that will face all tech startups. Namely legal, finance, investment, PR and product development.

To pull the day off we invited experts from Skyscanner, Grant Thornton, Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV), WaterfallPR and Add Jam (well in that case, me) down to RookieOven where they would make themselves available for founders looking for some guidance.

People and Relationships

Over the years I’ve had lots of very talented people looking for a way to give back to the startup ecosystem by sharing their knowledge and experience to founders. Sounds great but there’s a problem, the offer doesn’t always match with when there’s a need.

For founders to access the knowledge and experience on offer they have to be a stage or in a situation where that knowledge is applicable. Rarely has there been an organic match-up between a founders need and an experts offer.What we really need is to build relationships between domain experts willing to give their time and founders who may one day need to ask the experts for guidance. How can we do that?

We, and many others, already organise informal meet-ups across the ecosystem yet these connections aren’t being made. What could we do differently?

Drop In Days

With the drop-ins, we’ve invited the aforementioned experts into RookieOven to work for a day. They all have work that can be done remotely, so they can use the RookieOven Coworking Space as any tenant would. At worst, they get a day working in RookieOven and a couple of games of pool, however, the aim is the experts get to interact with founders and build relationships that will prove useful in due course.

For startups in the ecosystem, it’s the same offer. Come down, get work done and meet experts and fellow founders. Our goal is to run these Drop In Days monthly (first Friday of each month) and for them to grow into a reliable and consistent means for founders to access domain experts.

It’s quite simple when we boil it down, however, it’s reliant on input and attendance from passionate individuals in the ecosystem on both sides, experts and founders.

Does it work?

I think so. It’s hard to tell after a single running of it but even with that, we had founders working on products in accessibility, VR, travel, tourism and even a couple of students getting involved. What we’re doing differently in our next Drop In Day is to increase the social aspect of it.

Last time people didn’t really collide and connect with anyone other than the experts. We want it to be an informal, relaxed environment so we’ll be encouraging founders to stick around longer, grab a game of pool and, if they’ve left the car at home, get a drink after work - it is a Friday after all.

Get Involved

Our next Drop In Day is the 7th December and you can get a free ticket on Eventbrite (it helps us know how many people to cater for through the day). If you're unsure of what to expect or if the day is for you drop me an email michael@rookieoven.com if you have any questions about it.

See you there?

RookieOven Event Roundup - Festive Focus

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 17:05:58 GMT

The Scottish tech scene is gearing up for the Christmas season and there are some great events in the calendar for the final few weeks of 2018. Want to join in with the fun? Check out some of our highlights…

Startup Grind - From Stand Up to Startup

Hear from Anna Devitt at Startup Grind's next event in Glasgow. Anna has become a multi award-winning businesswoman, she started her business by opening an all-female comedy production company which went on to sell out at all major festivals throughout the UK.

She then embarked on challenging and changing the way we educate young people. Anna built Comedy & Confidence™ Training Program which was accredited under SCQF Levels, 3,4,5 & 6 and is a custom built SQA Award with funding support from the trust. She launched this training program in 2016 within Polmont Young Offenders. Since then she has adapted the organisation into a community interest company and the program has won several titles including Enterprise in Education ROCCOS 2016, Finalist for Best Start-up Company in Scotland Scottish Variety Awards 2017, Business Woman of the Year Finalist Best Start-Up Company 2017.

Get your ticket here

Scottish Tech Startup Awards

The team behind Turing Fest have put together the first ever Scottish Tech Startup Awards and they're taking place on the 29th of November. The whole point of the Awards is to bring the community together, and to help strengthen our collective identity; people are by far the most important element of a technical ecosystem, and Scotland doesn’t actually have that many opportunities for the startup community to get together.

Get your ticket here

RookieOven Meetup

Our meet up takes place on the first Monday of every month and is a great opportunity to catch up with the local tech scene. We like to keep things pretty informal, and everyone’s welcome. Come along to The Raven on Renfield Street at 6.30pm on Monday 3rd December to see for yourself! Find out more over on our Facebook page.

Drop In Day

Join us in RookieOven to get help from experts in the Scottish startup community. Our drop in days run on the first Friday of the month, and anyone is welcome to come along to find out more.

We're opening our doors for the day so that you can get first-hand advice from members of the community, including:

Reserve your free ticket here

Glasgow Tech Christmas Party

It’s that time of year again... Time for the Glasgow Tech Christmas Party!

Come and join others involved in Glasgow's digital sector as we celebrate the end of another fantastic year for the community. Pull on your Christmas jumper, dust off your Santa hat, and enjoy a night of merriment and cheer with likeminded folk from across the digital community.

Get your ticket here

4 Easy Tools for Building a Website

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 12:01:24 GMT

A website is a pretty essential part of running a business these days, and it’s easier than ever to put one together. There are so many options out there for building a website, no matter what level of experience you may have. Innovative drag and drop “what you see is what you get” website builders provide the perfect balance of control and ease, making them an ideal solution for startups big and small.

Here are some of our favourites…

Squarespace

Squarespace is a simple block based website building platform, with nearly 100 templates to pick from, each with customisation options that allow you to put your own stamp on your site. The templates are all responsive, making it easy to ensure your website works well across all devices.

The level of customisation available depends on the templates, but there are options available to suit most site needs, particularly for startups and small businesses. They benefit from stunning visuals and their system of “content blocks” make it easy to drag and drop the page elements to create a design that suits you. This system makes it easy to pull together attractive webpages pretty quickly, and the added option of choosing from prebuilt page templates to tweak can make the design process even quicker.

Wix

Wix is a simplified web builder that still packs a punch, with a library of customisable responsive templates to choose from and tweak to your specifications. They have a variety of different plans available, including a free plan to get started with, and offer a wide range of widgets to add extra functionality to your website.

It’s not the most sophisticated of systems and it is better suited to smaller websites, but it is a great starting point and allows for e-commerce integration at a relatively low cost. It’s worth testing it out on the free plan to see if it’s a good fit for your business before committing.

Shopify

Shopify is a great option for those looking to build online storefronts, with a powerful ecommerce platform that allows you to set up a working online shop in a matter of minutes. There are over one hundred templates to pick from, and countless integrations available to help you supercharge your shopfront. Shopify users benefit from inbuilt analytics, helping you to get to know your customer better, and a secure checkout system to give you and your customers peace of mind.

Webflow

If you want a little bit more control over how your site looks, then Webflow might be the best option for you. Webflow offer three main products - a visual website designer, a content management system and web hosting. Their visual designer can look a bit complicated at first, but it acts as an automation tool for HTML and CSS, automatically generating the relevant code for the elements you position and style on the canvas.

It’s by no means the easiest of design tools out there, but if you have a basic understanding of CSS or the time to get stuck into their library of tutorials then you’ll be able to create some great websites without the need to code it all yourself. There are a variety of free and premium templates if you’re not comfortable starting from scratch, and Webflow recommend giving these a go if you don’t have much experience with HTML or CSS. It’s a bit of a step up from the likes of Wix, but the results are worth the little bit extra effort.

For a more in depth review of Webflow, check out this review on the Satori Studio site.

Startup Spotlight - AiroLuggage

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 00:01:01 GMT

Tell us a bit about what your startup does?

Door-2-Door Luggage Delivery. AiroLuggage offers an affordable alternative to checking in your luggage with the airlines. Unlike the standard process of checking in your luggage we offer a simple and easy digital booking platform, complimentary luggage insurance and live tracking, so you know where your luggage is every step of the way.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

As a frequent traveller lugging, dragging and carrying heavy suitcases around airport, bus and ferry terminals was a stressful exercise and I thought there must be a simpler and easier way to do this. That's where it all started. Lets put this into perspective, imagine it was the other way around, and the norm was Door-2-Door luggage, how many of you would check-in luggage at the airport? And remember it wouldn't be tracked or insured.

What is your background?

I come from a start-up background, within commercial, operations and general management roles.

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

We all have a burning desire to run our own business, don't we?

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

Keeping tabs and improving all aspects of the business. Starting up requires constant tweaking - leaving no stones unturned, being persistent and looking for issues.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

I'm far too young for this question!

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

If your idea is good and you talk to people who say they like it, then you should check you've got enough money and, with that, time to get it up and running. It will always take longer than you expect. If you don't have enough money I'd suggest finding an investor.

The RookieOven Reading List

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 16:27:25 GMT

Last month we shared some of our favourite podcasts, and now it's time to recommend some of the best books we've been reading recently. Wishlists at the ready...

Crushing It by Gary Vaynerchuck

In this lively, practical, and inspiring book, Gary dissects every current major social media platform so that anyone, from a plumber to a professional ice skater, will know exactly how to amplify his or her personal brand on each. For those with more experience, Crushing It illuminates some little-known nuances and provides innovative tips and clever tweaks proven to enhance more common tried-and-true strategies.

Why Read?

"Gary's follow up from 'Crush it' featured a variety of case studies from people who have applied his principles in personal branding and social media engagement to build a business based around their passion. I like Gary's straight talking approach which clearly defined the indicators of growth and success online. Many case studies featured people who had to flourish in very adverse circumstances, if your currently in the grind of your own start up, hearing these stories will give you motivation to keep going."

Suggested by My Flag

It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work is a direct successor to Rework, the instant bestseller that showed readers a new path to working effectively. Now Fried and Heinemeier Hansson have returned with a new strategy for the ideal company culture – what they call “the calm company”. It is a direct attack on the chaos, anxiety and stress that plagues millions of workplaces and billions of people working their day jobs.

Working to breaking point with long hours, excessive workload, and a lack of sleep have become a badge of honour for many people these days, when it should be a mark of stupidity. This isn’t just a problem for large organisations; individuals, contractors and solopreneurs are burning themselves out in the very same way. As the authors reveal, the answer isn’t more hours. Rather, it’s less waste and fewer things that induce distraction, always-on anxiety and stress.

It is time to stop celebrating crazy and start celebrating calm.

Why Read?

"It's a great look into the Basecamp culture, written by the founders, and a nicer way to do business."

Suggested by Futurematik

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Millions of people around the world have improved their lives based on the teachings of Dale Carnegie. InHow to Win Friends and Influence People, he offers practical advice and techniques, in his exuberant and conversational style, for how to get out of a mental rut and make life more rewarding. His advice has stood the test of time and will teach you how to make friends quickly and easily, win new clients and customers, become a better speaker and boost enthusiasm among your colleagues.

This classic book will turn your relationships around and improve your interactions with everyone in your life.

Why Read?

"It's really easy to read as it's all framed around short real life example of the principles Carnegie proposes. Each example is really profound."

Suggested by Michael

Playing Big by Tara Mohr

Five years ago, Tara Mohr began to see a pattern in her work as an expert in leadership: women with tremendous talent, ideas and aspiration were not recognising their own brilliance. They felt that they were ‘playing small’ in their lives and careers and wanted to ‘play bigger’, but didn’t know how. And so Tara devised a step-by-step programme for playing big from the inside out: this book is the result.

Why Read?

"Playing Big is all about teaching women to have the confidence to do bigger things, and I loved it. It really helped me approach my insecurities in a new way and taught me how to reframe some of my bad habits, down to changing my dismissive language and looking at the way I study."

Suggested by Charlotte

Want to suggest a book for our next roundup? Submit your suggestions here.

Startup Metrics for Pirates Explained

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 10:57:59 GMT

Although every startup is different, there will usually be some similarities when it comes to customers, with each customer journey following key stages. Back in 2007, the founder of 500 Startups Dave McClure coined the term “Pirate Metrics” as a handy reminder of the main stages of the customer lifecycle for the vast majority of startups. Named because of the AARRR acronym, these metrics help create the foundation to grow your startup and provide clear focus for the future. Each stage of the customer lifecycle will have different performance indicators, and your analytics should reflect this.

Acquisition

Put simply, this is how you reach new customers and generate business. Acquisition tends to be the main focus of marketing, and this stage looks at both inbound and outbound marketing channels for driving traffic to your website or product. Acquisition channels can include social media, traditional advertising, search engine optimisation and more - if it acts as a way someone can discover your business then it can be considered as an acquisition tool.

At this stage, you’ll be looking at basic metrics like your page views and bounce rate. Here, you can figure out what your baseline looks like and carry out testing to see the most efficient methods for marketing your product or service. This stage of the process is primarily focused on awareness before moving onto brand activation.

Activation

Once you have your potential customers on your website or landing page, it’s time to convert them! This point is where your relationship with your customer really starts, as they’re showing a clear interest in what your business has to offer.

When measuring activation, there should be a clear point of contact that begins the engagement. This might be signing up for your newsletter, submitting a contact form or starting a product trial. Their actions indicate that they want to know more about who you are and what you do.

Retention

It can cost up to eight times more to obtain a new customer than retain a current customer, so sustainable businesses typically require some element of customer loyalty. Loyalty will look different for every type of business, so it’s essential to take a look at your standard customer life cycle and figure out how you can measure repeat custom and interaction.

Repeat visits or sales are a good baseline for measuring retention, and these can act as an indicator of what areas of your business are performing well and adding value.

Referral

Referrals can be another signpost for the strengths of your company. Do your customers enjoy your product enough to recommend it to their peers? It’s not the easiest metric to track, but with the correct analytics and programmes in place you can gain clear insight into how your customers view your business and where you can improve.

Revenue

Most businesses rely on sales to sustain and grow. Looking at your revenue based on the channels and customers will assist you in effectively distributing your marketing budget, allowing you to clearly understand where to focus when looking to grow your business.

Meet the Founder - Shea O'Hagan

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 00:01:00 GMT

Tell us a bit about what your startup does?

Pitchbooking.com is a two sided marketplace that allows the public to find, book and pay for the rental of suitable sports facilities, all in under 90 seconds. We also provide a linked management platform to give facility owners fine grained control of their booking and payment processes, on any device, at any time.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

When I was captain of my college team in University, I really struggled to book a football pitch. It was a problem I’d had since I was in school. I also noticed that the local clubs had chronic under-use of their pitches and very dysfunctional booking processes. This, coupled with seeing how other online marketplaces can open other under-utilised resources, led to the obvious conclusion of Pitchbooking.com.

What is your background?

I recently finished my PhD in Physics. Whilst at uni I was captain of my college team and that’s when I really experienced the problem of trying to book a pitch - turns out there was one about 250m away from where I was living but nobody knew about it!

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

I always saw myself ‘building’ something. My co-founder Fearghal and I ran a music promotion company when we were at school so we’ve had entrepreneurial tendencies from a young age. It’s been fantastic that, along with Chris, we’ve been able to build a company with friends, solving a problem that we’re all acutely aware of.

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

Trying to keep focused and clear on what our product is, and not getting distracted with other tangents and proposals.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to put your product out there, even if it’s not finished. Get lots of early feedback which you can iterate on. Don’t be afraid to drop development, despite the emotional attachment you might have after many months of work!

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

Ensure you have some validation, whether that be from an existing customer or an investor. Makes the jump much easier!

For more from Pitchbooking, follow them on Twitter.

Scotland’s tech ecosystem is flourishing — but there’s still work to be done...

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 16:27:57 GMT

Why we’ve launched the first-ever Scottish Tech Startup Awards

I moved to Scotland from Barcelona in 2010 — for the weather, obviously. I came here to build a SaaS startup, joining what was then a pretty small and fragmented tech ecosystem. 8 years later, everything has changed; that startup is no more (RIP Stipso), and this ecosystem is no longer quite so small or fragmented — it’s growing into a thriving organism.

It’s an exciting time for tech in Scotland, which is why we’ve launched the inaugural Scottish Tech Startup Awards. There’s a long road ahead of us if we’re to become Europe’s top tech ecosystem — I believe we can — but I reckon it’s about time we brought the community together to take stock of how far we’ve come, and celebrate (with a party to remember!) some of the outstanding people and companies that are driving our growth and progress.

The future of the Scottish economy is going to be driven by the tech industry, and the success of our startups and scaleups is tightly entwined with the future success of our nation. It’s on all of us — national and local governments, universities, industry, but most importantly startups ourselves — to invest in building a robust community that supports and enables businesses to start, scale and succeed.

The outlook is positive, but there’s a lot of work to be done (attracting & retaining technical and leadership talent in Scotland; ensuring that startups can access funding to grow, and the resources and support systems to enable that growth) to ensure that Scotland’s technology sector can fulfil its promise and drive growth in the broader economy.

Since 2016, I’ve been leading the team behind Turing Fest, and it’s been really remarkable to see how the demographics of our community have evolved over the past three years, reflecting the changing face of Scotland’s tech industry. We’re seeing a striking proliferation of new product and SaaS businesses — and more importantly, we’re seeing more and more those companies raising serious investment, scaling their operations and moving beyond the ‘startup’ label, becoming real, viable, growing businesses.

Not only that, but we’re now seeing more and more Scottish businesses hit the success milestones that create a virtuous cycle: notable fundraising (CareSourcer, Snap40, Flick), IPOs (Nucleus Financial, FreeAgent) and acquisitions (Skyscanner, IntelligentPOS, Converse.AI, ZoneFox) that return talent and capital to the ecosystem to start new ventures.

There are big challenges ahead, but we’ve also got a lot to celebrate - and that’s just what the Scottish Tech Startup Awards intend to do. We’re giving out gongs in 10 categories this year, to recognise people and organisations building exciting, ambitious businesses (whether B2B or B2C; startup or scaleup; product or service) and contributing to the continued development of the ecosystem (the Diversity in Tech Champion and Ecosystem Award.)

The whole point of the Awards is to bring the community together, and to help strengthen our collective identity; people are by far the most important element of a technical ecosystem, and Scotland doesn’t actually have that many opportunities for the startup community to get together. It’s really amazing, looking at the public nominations so far, to see so much enthusiasm and goodwill in the community — nominations close next Wednesday (31 October), so you’ve got a few more days to let us know who’s inspiring you.

We’ll be announcing the shortlist on Monday 5 November, and we’ve got an all-star lineup of judges to help us choose the winners:

But the main event is happening at Edinburgh’s glorious Central Hall on Thursday 29 November: the Awards Party, where we’ll announce the winners — and raise a few glasses to them! We’re going all out to make it a fantastic evening and a fitting capstone to 2018, with a little help on the entertainment from our friends at We Throw Switches, the interactive entertainment maestros behind the Games Are For Everyone nights. Tickets are available now — we’d love to see you (and your team!) there to be part of it all.

Tools for Managing Your Finances

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 23:01:01 GMT

A lot of small business owners struggle with the financial side of things, as it can be quite complicated to get to grips with when you’re just starting out. Money management is a crucial part of running a successful business, so thankfully there are some great tools out there to help you manage your small business finances in a way that suits you.

Here are just a few that will help you get your books in order.

Accounting Software

Taking a DIY approach to your small business finances is made so much simpler with the rising popularity of accounting softwares like FreeAgent. You can use software like FreeAgent to complete tasks such as sending and tracking your invoices, filing your receipts, tracking your hours and submitting your self assessment - to name just a few.

Accounting software helps make your admin a bit less stressful, this way you’ll easily be able to update your bookkeeping records and stay on top of your finances.

Banking

Banks are getting smarter these days, with app based banks making it a lot easier to track your spending. Using smart banking like Monzo, Revolut or Coconut can help you organise your expenses and stay on top of payments throughout the month, with added notifications to keep you on track.

Coconut is a relatively new bank on the scene, but it’s designed purposefully for freelancers, self-employed people and small business owners. It even gives you an estimated tax bill, so you’ll never be too shocked come submitting your self assessment.

Filing

Managing receipts and keeping invoices organised can be a huge help when it comes to managing your finances as a small business, so a good file management system is key. If you’re keeping all of your receipts for expenses, you might want to consider trying out an app like 1Tap Receipts, where you can upload and sort your receipts on the go.

For invoices and other relevant paperwork, using a cloud based system like Dropbox or Google Drive helps ensure you always have access to your bookkeeping - as well as giving you that necessary backup should something go wrong. Dropbox also gives you the opportunity to scan files, which is handy for storing your receipts on the go if you’d rather not use a separate app.

Community Podcast Favourites

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 12:04:26 GMT

We love finding new podcasts to listen to, so we’ve asked some of the RookieOven community to share their current favourites. Here’s what they suggested…

Overtime by Dribbble

On Overtime, Dribbble’s official podcast, we share in-depth interviews with your favourite designers. Twice a month, we’ll be speaking to Dribbblers about their process, the tools they use and we’ll get the stories behind their most popular shots.

Why Listen?

"It’s got interesting content, with high profile designers being interviewed."

Suggested by Mark

How I Built This by NPR

Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.

Why Listen?

"It shares real stories from people who've built startups, traditional businesses and beyond."

Suggested by IC Mobile Lab

F1: Beyond the Grid

Beyond The Grid, presented by Bose, is a new podcast that delivers great stories, fresh insight and amazing anecdotes from the world of F1. Each week Tom Clarkson will bring fans in-depth, personal conversations with the biggest names in the sport, from current superstar drivers and leading team bosses to legendary figures from history.

Why Listen?

"The podcasts I subscribe to are a mix of work related and ones based on my passions and hobbies. One of my biggest passions is motorsport. This podcast is the official Formula One podcast and by Tom Clarkson. Each episode is an interview with an notable f1 figure and each gives fantastic insight into the individuals behind the global sport."

Suggested by Michael

This Week in Startups

Serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis and a rotating group of guest experts bring you this bi-weekly take on the best, worst, most outrageous and interesting startups and stories from the Web world. Calacanis, a podcasting pioneer, gives you an insider's look at what's happening in the tech industry with his trademark blunt style and good humor. Want to know who's hot right now in tech? Looking to start your own company? Want to catch up on what's happening in Silicon Valley and beyond? Your journey begins here.

Suggested by Tom

The Guilty Feminist

Ever feel like you should be better at feminism? Join comedian Deborah Frances-White and her guests for this comedy podcast, recorded in front of a live audience. Each week they discuss topics “all 21st century feminists agree on” while confessing their insecurities, hypocrisies and fears that underlie their lofty principles.

Why Listen?

"Because it makes you feel like you’re on top of things, and it's very funny!"

Suggested by Claire

Indie Hackers

The Indie Hackers Podcast dives even deeper into the strategies and tactics behind making money online. I’ll be speaking with the founders of businesses both big and small, from people working a few hours a week on side projects that generate $500/month, to CEOs who’ve grown their startups to millions of dollars in annual revenue. Whether you’re currently running your own business or you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, you’ll learn by example the fundamentals behind coming up with valuable ideas, testing the market to see if they’ll work, finding your first customers, marketing and growing your business, and becoming a financially independent indie hacker.

Why Listen?

"It's really interesting and encouraging hearing about different startups and their journeys."

Suggested by Duncan

JAMstack Radio

A show all about the JAMstack, a new way to build fast and secure apps or websites.

Why Listen?

"They cover tons of topics about front-end and API architectures."

Suggested by Tom

Want to suggest a podcast for us to listen to? Submit your suggestions here.

Meet the Founder - Stuart McLeod

Thu, 18 Oct 2018 23:01:01 GMT

Tell us a bit about what your startup does?

VASTCLICKS is a URL shortener, link management and messenger platform that allows you to take advantage of that breaking news story, how-to article or popular review post that you want to share with your target audience. Created as a SaaS platform, VASTCLICKS enables marketers to shorten content URLs down to a custom branded link and equip it with an optimised overlay ad to promote an offer. You can also attach all your preferred retargeting pixels & remarket to those who click your links across various social ad platforms.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

Our inspiration came from the performance marketing agency we started in 2016 called Adidit. Adidit's focus was to develop our own brands that generated revenue through Affiliate Marketing, Lead Generation & E-commerce. However, our big pain point was trying to create fresh, relevant and authoritative content with limited resource across multiple verticals. Like many marketers, we shared articles from top publications to supplement our social media but frustratingly I knew we were sending visitors away with no way of re-engaging with them. On top of that, GDPR was around the corner and a lot of marketers were going to have to bin their email lists and rebuild their audiences. We knew there had to be a better way, so we set about building the first version of what would become VASTCLICKS.

What is your background?

I have always had some form of job or side hustle since I was 11 years old. After finishing school, I tried further education but it wasn't for me. By my late teens, I had become a self-taught IT consultant which lead to me working for the City Holdings group. City gave me a project to build a website to recruit staff, an experience which opened my eyes to the possibilities of the Internet. I later left the IT sector in my early 20's and started importing products and selling them on my own e-commerce sites. Since then I have spent over 10 years helping organisations generate revenue through digital marketing. In 2016 I left my position as head of digital for Scotlands largest private hospitality company, having led the team that transformed their entire digital portfolio, to form Adidit.

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

I tried not to as it would have been easier to get a job, pick up a salary, go home at night and relax. Unfortunately, I am not wired that way, my mind doesn't stop and I love the creative freedom to be able to build something with no limitations.

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

For myself, it was trying to articulate exactly what our platform does and communicate it in a way that even my mum could understand. This seems like common sense because it was obvious to me what VASTCLICKS was all about. However, unless your product or service is as simple as turning on a light switch, don't assume your customer is going to have a light bulb moment.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

Nobody gives a s**t unless it benefits them! Keep delivering value and believe in yourself.

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

Expect the best but prepare for the worst. Invest wisely and leave vanity at the door.

For more from Stuart follow him on Twitter.

How To Start an Email List

Tue, 16 Oct 2018 23:01:00 GMT

Email lists are a great way to regularly communicate with potential and existing customers, so they’re worth exploring as part of your marketing strategy. Thanks to their personal nature, email subscribers tend to be a lot more receptive to what you have to say, as they have demonstrated an interest in your business through their decision to sign up.

Thinking about giving it a try? Here are six steps to starting an email list for your business.

Pick your provider

You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to email marketing platforms these days, and many offer free accounts too. Popular choices include Mailchimp, ConvertKit and Drip - but there are plenty more available if none of those suit your needs.

It’s important to pick a provider that suits your business, so it’s worth considering an estimated size for your mailing list and the type of content you’ll want to send. Take a look at the automation offered by each platform and think about signing up for free accounts where possible to test the system out before you commit.

Create a signup form

Signup forms are a crucial part of building your list, and the wrong signup form can attract the wrong customers. Think carefully about your ideal audience and what they respond to, as this will come into play when building your signup form too. This can operate as a standalone landing page which can be promoted directly, or you can embed it into your website for extra traffic.

Check your compliance

Email marketing is regulated to protect against shady behaviour, and it’s essential that you ensure you’re complying with whatever regulations apply in the countries your audience resides in. Anti-spam regulations state that all emails must have a clear way for readers to unsubscribe, and an address for the sender should be available.

Your email platform will be able to point you in the right direction, but you can check out Mailchimp’s articles on anti-spam requirements and best practice for building your list to get started.

Set up a welcome email

Welcome emails tend to see the highest open rates, so it’s worth taking the opportunity to get yourself in front of your new subscribers and introduce yourself properly. Most email marketing platforms allow you to easily create a welcome email that will automatically be sent to new subscribers, and you can use this to pass on any key information whilst getting your subscribers used to seeing your content in their inbox.

For some businesses, one welcome email will be enough, but depending on the goals of your email marketing campaigns you may want to look at setting up an ongoing sequence to boost your conversions.

Promote your list

What good is an email list with no subscribers? Once you’ve sorted out the basics, it’s time to get promoting. Make sure potential subscribers can easily access your signup pages across relevant pages of your website and your social media. Highlight your list to new and returning customers, and consider offering incentives like free downloads or exclusive discounts to encourage new subscribers.

Create regular content

Once you’ve started building your list, it’s important to keep your subscribers up to date with regular content. This might be once a week, once a fortnight or once a month - it’s up to you - but the most important thing is that you stay consistent. This will help your subscribers know what to expect from you, and help you build up brand awareness within your audience.

Want to see some examples? Sign up to the RookieOven mailing list for fortnightly updates on the Scottish tech scene.

Legal Issues Faced by Startups

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 12:32:38 GMT

Throughout Skyscanner’s journey from start up to scale up, we’ve come up against all manner of legal, regulatory and compliance issues ranging from contract, IP and employment issues to competition law, mergers and acquisition. When you’re moving fast there’s plenty of scope for error and mistakes and based on our experience, we’ve prepared a list of the key legal pitfalls we believe anyone starting out should be aware of.

Pitfall 1 – not putting in place the right corporate structure

It’s essential to formalise a corporate structure for your business as early as possible - making your business a ‘legal person’ in its own right. The most common legal form for start-up businesses is a private limited company as members have limited liability. However, there are other structures including partnerships and LLPs.

Failing to do so could result in:

Pitfall 2 – not making the deal clear with co-founders

When starting up a business with others, it is critical to make sure that rights and responsibilities of the respective founders are agreed and clearly documented at the outset.

Put in place written agreements (shareholders’ agreement and articles) which clearly document:

Legal input on such documents is recommended, but if you can’t or won’t pay a lawyer, having anything in place (in writing) is better than nothing.

Pitfall 3 – not having restrictive covenants in place

Restrictive Covenants are contractual terms which protect a business by preventing competition (non-compete or non-solicitation clauses); infringement of IP (assignment of IP clauses); and disclosure of confidential information (confidentiality clauses). They can be used in shareholder agreements; consultancy agreements; non-disclosure agreements; and employment contracts.

Pitfall 4 – not owning your IP

Intellectual property rights are one of the most important assets of your business.

Principle forms of IP to be aware of:

It is critical to ensure that you actually own the IP that is being generated by your business.

Avoid the situation where you have a deal set-up for the sale of your business or for a major investor to come onboard, only to discover during the diligence process that you don’t actually own the IP that you thought you did…

Who owns IP?

Avoid the IP ownership pitfall by making sure that every contract you enter with a developer or other third party contains a clear IP assignment clause! Where there is any critical IP in your business that you don’t own (e.g. a third party software platform on top of which you have developed your product), make sure that you have a clear, perpetual and irrevocable licence to use it as required.

Pitfall 5 – using OSS without having checked the licence terms

Open source software

Pitfall 6 – choosing a brand that infringes someone else’s rights

When picking a company name, brand and domain name…

If your great idea is taken, better to realise that at the outset than to find out three years later when your big marketing push results in you receiving a ‘cease and desist’ letter from an existing trade mark owner. Disputes and litigation are costly and can be a major distraction which can be avoided by taking the right steps at the outset.

Pitfall 7 – ignoring the implications of data protection /privacy laws

If your business collects or processes user personal data, you must comply data protection/privacy laws to avoid regulatory fines and potentially irreparable damage to brand and reputation.

Key steps to ensuring compliance:

Pitfall 8 – failing to put in place written contracts when doing business

When you’re busy getting your business off the ground, its easy to think of contracts as a hindrance rather than a help:

However, taking the time to put in place written contracts which clearly set out the rights and responsibilities of both parties, is actually of real benefit to your business. For example….

Contracts:

Recommendation – invest in a template form NDA, commercial contract and development contract early on. Many law firms will give you a good deal on pulling some basic templates together in the hope of further work from you.

Pitfall 9 – not putting in place adequate employee incentivisation arrangements

Start-ups have a tendency to give away too much equity (shares) in the early days to bring in high calibre management/employees. There are few fundamental problems with this:

A better solution is to grant options to employees/management via a tax efficient incentivisation scheme. Such as:

These are the key legal pitfalls we most commonly encounter when speaking to start-ups. If you’ve got a question or would like to chat about any general legal issues (we’re not your lawyers but can give you general guidance or pointers before you seek legal advice) we’ll be running legal clinics at RookieOven – keep an eye out for the dates on the RookieOven mailing list.

Why You Need to Integrate Your Digital Strategy

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 23:01:02 GMT

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to digital - your website, your Facebook page, your Twitter, your app, maybe an Instagram account and a blog, too. The list goes on. No matter how many platforms you use as a business, it’s essential to ensure that your digital strategy is integrated and cohesive across each and every one of them.

So, what is integration all about? To put it simply, it means coordinating all parts of your customer communications in a way that creates a consistent message. It’s about having a cohesive approach to your marketing, considering all platforms and creating a seamless overall experience. It’s not enough to have multiple marketing channels, you need to ensure your channels work as a team to publicise your message to as many people as possible.

If a potential customer sees a television advert about your product one evening, then when they’re scrolling through Facebook in bed that night they see a further advertisement in their feed, and the next day they spot an advert for your business in the paper they picked up on the train you’ve had three crucial contact points with them. This increases the awareness of your brand, and makes the viewer substantially more likely to remember your company when they need it most.

But if the advert they see on Facebook isn’t really all that relevant to the other messages you’re putting out there, or even worse is contradictory, they’re more likely to be turned off by the inconsistency. If a potential customer sees you advertising a certain deal on Facebook, they want to be able to see that deal available on your website so they can learn more. It’s all about consistency.

Co-ordinating your marketing communications for repeat exposure at different points of the day helps to increase awareness of your brand as a whole. In the current climate, consumers are bombarded with hundreds of advertising messages each and every day, and as a result they don’t care enough to pay attention to too many varying messages. A consistent message makes it easier for consumers to digest what you’re trying to say, increasing the chances of their intent to purchase and ultimately reminding them about your business.

Integration is about more than having a consistent brand identity – although it helps. As much as your brand needs to be recognisable across each of its platforms, online and offline, the most important thing is having a constant brand message that translates across each stage of your business. You should also consider the timing of your messages – is the post that’s going up on your Facebook page saying the same thing as what’s on your website, or are they contradicting each other? Consumers interact with your business in different ways and through various different touch points, so you should be striving to ensure that they’re all getting the right message, no matter where they may be finding you.

At the end of the day, it’s in your best interest to make your message as easy to understand as possible. You want to avoid confusing your customers, ultimately making their experience with your business as hassle free as possible.

Support in the Local Community

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 12:59:38 GMT

Starting a business in Scotland you have access to a huge range of support from the public sector. The likes of Scottish Government, Business Gateway, Scottish Enterprise, Informatics Ventures, Skills Development Scotland, Creative Scotland, Highlands Islands Enterprise and a stack more. Some of this support is utterly fantastic and unique to Scotland which is a real strength to our ecosystem. And yeah, while a lot of these agencies have their problems and some are utterly useless (no names needed) across the board we’re pretty well off in regards to public sector engagement and support.

However, for all the help the public sector provides it’s, in my opinion, insignificant compared to the support we offer each other at a grassroots level or as a community of volunteers or private entities. Here are some of the best.

CoderDojo Scotland

CoderDojo Scotland is part of a global collaboration that provides free coding clubs for young people. Across Scotland, CoderDojos are run by volunteers and rely on passionate individuals giving their time to teach the next generation of tech talent.

Future Tech from Skyscanner

Skyscanner is without doubt the highest profile tech company from Scotland. They’re also one of the most active in giving back to the local business ecosystem. The perfect example of this is Future Tech.

If you have questions about running an internet economy company, lean/agile working, legal, finance, computer science or getting into the tech industry - send them through and the team at Skyscanner will do their best to find someone within the company who can help.

Anyone in the Scottish tech can easily get access to world-class talent.

Solo Mental Health

Founding any business is challenging. Challenging in a host of ways, but one of the least talked about challenges is founder mental health. Jamie McHale has started Solo Mental Health to be a collection of useful resources (apps, books, articles and videos) to help freelancers and entrepreneurs build positive and defeat negative mental habits and patterns.

It’s by a founder, for others. I think giving nature is something that strikes me a lot in the tech/business community here in Scotland. People are massively generous with their time and caring for their peers.

RookieOven Drop-ins

Something new we’re trying with RookieOven is monthly drop-ins. Every founder will need help at some point and there are a host of people willing to give it. But it can be hard to match up availability of help and when that help is actually needed.

The monthly drop-ins will run with regularity and a be a stable go to for help on a host of domains from experts in the community such as legal (Anoop and Andrew form Skyscanner), investment (Andy Sloane from ADV), finance (Stuart MacKay from Grant Thornton) and technical (myself and Chris from Add Jam).

As we build up the drop-ins we’d love to add more domains where experts can really help businesses in the community. I’m thinking, PR, HR, coaching, marketing and product. I’m keen to know what you’d like help or, even better, what you can help others with. Drop me an email with anything you think can help the drop-ins.

Why Should You Start Your Business in Scotland?

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 12:59:04 GMT

Scotland is a great place for a lot of things. Sightseeing, history and culture? Check. Food and drink? Check. Beautiful scenery and nature? Check. Great weather? Okay, not so much…

One thing that definitely belongs on that list is our ability to welcome brand new businesses to the scene. Our country is a fantastic place to start a new business, and here are just some of the reasons why…

The Talent

Scotland is home to world-class universities, with high-quality graduates across a range of subjects. Yes, we have an excellent calibre of tech talent, but we also have a brilliant selection of arts, business, humanities and science-based programmes too.

Outside of formal education, Scotland benefits from the strength of programmes like CodeClan who offer a range of courses focused on improving digital skills. There are plenty of great learning opportunities for all ages and skill levels, with a mix of casual meetups and intensive training programmes on offer by various companies across the country.

The Opportunities

Within Edinburgh alone, digital tech jobs increased over 3 times the rate of the UK Average between 2014 and 2017 according to Tech Nation. The tech industry in Scotland is growing every single day, and it’s not just tech. There are over 360,000 small and medium-sized enterprises operating in Scotland, providing roughly 1.2 million jobs and making up 99.4% of all private sector businesses in the country.

Interested in learning more about some of the opportunities on offer? Check out our job board to see what some of Scotland’s best startups are currently looking for.

The Costs

Whilst we don’t necessarily have the same access to finance here in Scotland, our costs are much lower, so your pound stretches that bit further. This lets us do so much more with less money - making it a great place to bootstrap your business and keep your costs as low as possible from the off.

With money in mind, the cost of living in Scotland is typically much lower in comparison to other UK cities. Scottish cities saw high levels of satisfaction with both the cost of living and quality of life in Tech Nation’s 2018 report.

The Community

Our favourite part of building a business in Scotland has to be the people. The startup community is growing every single day, with countless great events in the calendar, regular meetups and plenty of support on hand.

Online and offline, the startup scene in Scotland is full of fantastic, supportive people who want to help you succeed. If you want to dive headfirst into the community and see what’s happening for yourself, why not join our Slack team?

Add in the beautiful surroundings and we think you’ve got yourself a winning location to start your business.

What’s your favourite thing about growing a business in Scotland? Tweet us and let us know your thoughts.

How to Use Data to Your Advantage

Sun, 30 Sep 2018 23:01:03 GMT

One of the biggest advantages of digital technology is the wealth of valuable data it provides us with.

This data has changed the way digital marketing works, with marketers now needing to dedicate a huge portion of their time to collecting and analysing the information provided to fully optimise their efforts. In the past, traditional advertising methods didn’t offer much insight into how audiences interacted with them, making measuring their success a bit of a guessing game. Now, with an overwhelming amount of information sources, you can eliminate this guesswork and use the data provided to uncover opportunities and fully understand what works for your business.

What information can you uncover?

There are countless types of data available to use nowadays, and with it you can access a valuable window into the minds of your customers – which can be used to your advantage. With digital you can discover everything from where your customers are based and what their interests are to their shopping habits and business preferences. This data helps you curate a better understanding of who your customer is and the value you can bring to their lives. You’ll be able to anticipate the problems they have, and how you can provide the solution.

What impact does this data have?

But how can you use this understanding to your advantage? By creating a concrete knowledge of your target customer, you’ll be better placed to refine your offering in order to provide the best possible service for them. You’ll know their likes and dislikes, which you’ll be able to translate into your business, and you’ll know where to communicate with them based on where they hang out online. With this, you’ll be able to target your marketing communications to the most relevant audiences, ensuring you get your business in front of the right people at the right time.

You can use this data to uncover potential opportunities for new services, or to highlight ways in which you can make your current practices better for your customer. Maybe you’ll figure out a way to streamline your booking process or share information with your customers in a new way. You’ll be able to better predict the success of new ventures, such as releasing a mobile app, which can help you avoid costly business mistakes as much as possible.

Why does customer data matter?

These uses have one overwhelming advantage – saving you money. Gone are the days of money down the drain by advertising to irrelevant audiences. Using the data gathered about your customers, you can build deeper relationships with them and encourage them to be loyal to your business. Acquiring new customers can cost five to ten times more than keeping current customers, and on average repeat customers spend as much as 67% more with your business – so it’s in your interest to keep them happy.

Data is an incredibly valuable tool, and when used wisely can really make or break your business.

How to switch off at the end of the working day

Thu, 27 Sep 2018 23:01:08 GMT

Listen to this post

Late nights. Lost weekends. Relationship strains. Ruminating on work. Stress piling up.

Recognise this?

As a freelancer or entrepreneur, this might be day-to-day life.

I have worked as a freelancer and company founder for over eight years. Switching off at the end of the day wasn’t always a top priority — but now I see it as key to long-term growth and prosperity. Working too many hours leads to diminishing returns. It impacts both your business and your health. In the long run, it’s simply not sustainable.

Rest to give yourself mental space to let your ideas grow; figure out problems, and to give your brain and body a break.

Rest to develop other interests and maintain relationships with friends and loved ones.

So what can you do to switch off at the end of the day?

Build a focused work system

The first step is to build a work system that you can trust. Capture your thoughts, tasks and worries when they arise. Get them out of your head, and into your system. Stop beating yourself up about not getting work done in the immediate moment. Be clear with yourself that the important stuff will get done in the future.

After-hours work and worry come from the feeling that working hours have been wasted with procrastination, and a lack of focus.

Start with small steps, and cultivate focus. Good advice on how to set this sort of system up comes from the Getting Things Done system by David Allen and in Deep Work by Cal Newport. Whether you use paper, digital, a notebook or an app, knowing that you can capture a thought, then take action on it later gives you the confidence to let go and rest.

Manage your notifications

Step two is to clear up your digital notifications, making it easier for you to switch off when you are done with work.

Email, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. Notifications demand your attention. By accepting them, you have handed control of your work over to an app. Use Do Not Disturb mode on your phone. Try it now! Turn off notifications from work-related apps (do you need them on your phone if you are notified on your laptop?).

Move work-related apps to their own folder on your mobile home screen. This adds an obstacle to discourage mindless opening and browsing.

Set up a work environment

The third step is to set up your physical environment so that once you stop work you can step away and start relaxing.

If you work from home, even occasionally, you should set up a specific work area.

For example, I have a desk in the corner of my living room. If I’m sitting at my desk I’m working, and if I’m not working then I’m not sitting at my desk. If my mind wanders, and I take a break for a few minutes then I stand up and move away from the work zone. No moving to the sofa; and especially no laptops or work in bed.

Make the delineation between work-space and rest-space clear — this helps you cultivate focus when you are working, and relax when you are not.

Build rituals

The final step is to start ritualizing the start and end of the working day. A ritual helps make it clear to yourself when work begins, and when it ends.

At the start of the day, turn on the notifications and apps that you need. Settle down at your desk. Create an order for these activities. Play music, make a coffee. These things act as triggers to switch into focused work-mode.

At the end of the day, cross things off your to-do list, jot down notes for the next day, quit your work apps, stand up and stretch, close your books and laptop, have a glass of water, do a little dance. Whatever works for you to mark the occasion.

Even if you plan to continue using your laptop, having a ritual to close it down from work-mode helps build the separation between your work and rest.

Implement these steps, and you’ll be well on your way to being able to switch off at the end of the day.

If you have any other suggestions or examples then please do tweet them to me.

Jamie McHale is a freelance consultant and developer, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He maintains solomentalhealth.com — a resource for solo, freelance and remote workers.

Why do Scottish startups use recruiters?

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:01:06 GMT

For all companies, not just tech ones, their most important asset is the people. People are the face of your company, they make the key decisions that affect your product and your customers. With business, it really is all about the people.

That's why the talent market is so fierce. Companies of all size are fighting over the same talent pool and when you're in a growing tech team you need to add people fast and unfortunately, the ‘easy' answer is recruiters.

It's odd because there aren't a tonne of people on either side of the recruitment coin who like recruiters sitting in the middle. Many companies don't want to pay the exorbitant fees and often the candidates supplied are of low quality. Plus I hear quite often that people hired through a recruiter aren't passion led, their driver is money and typically not a good fit for a fast growing tech business.

On the other side of the coin, employees are bombarded with emails and calls from clueless recruiters (hands up Java developers who have been approached by recruiters for Javascript roles).

So recruiters, are expensive and nuisance but they do provide benefits and value to many companies so they're here to stay. What can we do as a community to reduce our reliance on them?

A better way of doing it

As a startup ecosystem how can we approach recruitment better? I think there are three area's to focus on:

Let's start with 'building relationships'. Early stage recruitment is based heavily on trust and relationships and therefore, as an ecosystem, we need to develop ways that allow us to build solid professional relationships.

Events such as the RookieOven Meetup, Startup Grind, Tech Meetup and the many technology specific user groups serve an important role here. The leaders of these events and communities often do it as volunteers and I would love to see more companies support these grassroots and volunteer led meetups and communities with sponsorship, low cost event space and maybe even some staff resource.

Our talent pipeline is also key. We need to develop the talent our businesses need to succeed and thrive. There are positive steps here. CoderDojo, CodeBar and our own Academy are initiatives that are feeding the top of the funnel and CodeClan is an option for those looking to retrain The Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland are investing heavily in this area and its something I hope to see continuing.

Lastly our ecosystem needs to have a mechanism to promote opportunities and with that in mind we're relaunching the RookieOven Job Board.

Our Community Job Board

Our job board is for the community. The aim is to make it affordable and easy to promote opportunities with your company to the talent base in Scotland.

We’re going to be approaching our job board with some core practices that we hope will make a solid contribution to the tech ecosystem:

Our aim is to give amazing opportunities in Scottish tech visibility while also giving good talented folk looking for their next opening exposure to what it could be with a startup or growing tech business.

How do I list?

Getting a listing on the job board is easy. Head to the job board, click “Add Job”, enter your job details, create an account, choose if you want a boosted listing or not and pay for your subscriptions.

Yup, the job board costs money. Its £25 per month for a normal listing, £50 per month for a boosted listing. It’s far from a money maker. The fee is really there to ensure companies keep their job listing fresh and remember to take it down.

We had a job board on the old version of the RookieOven site but it was manual, clunky and far too reliant on me. Whilst it was free we realised that was a problem - those listing jobs didn't ‘value’ free. The no cost led to listings becoming stale, the board would be linking to 404 pages. We think the small monthly fee, which is fair and affordable, will ensure people come back and ensure their listings are fresh and up to date - if you disagree let us know why. I'll repeat, it's not a money maker for us.

Who is on it just now?

The job board is live, check it out at https://rookieoven.com/jobs/ however even at this early stage we have some amazing listings already including ProdSight who just raised and Shogun from YCombinator.

A better world

While recruiters are here to stay, and do provide value for many companies, I think there are some achievable positive steps we can take to a better way of hiring talent. I hope for the RookieOven job board to play a role in that and if you agree with me then get your listing up on the job page now.

When is a Mobile App Relevant?

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 10:50:52 GMT

As much as we harp on about how valuable a mobile app can be, it’s important to recognise that it might not always be the most relevant investment for your business. There are countless benefits to having a mobile app, however if it’s not a suitable move for you as a company then it could a waste of precious time and resources. It’s worth considering exactly how an app would fit in to your business, and the impact it would have on how you work, in order to make an informed decision about the relevance of an app for your brand.

One of the main things to consider is the way in which your business works. Different types of organisations have different needs, and no two businesses will operate in the exact same manner. Will an app help streamline your operations, or enrich your customer experience? Carefully think about how an app can fit in to the day to day running of your business and if it will really bring any benefit to the way you work. Maybe you could use your app to make your employees lives easier – which is always a good thing to do – or it might be a case of helping your customers get the information they want, when they want it. There are endless ways to use a mobile app, and it’s all about finding the best way for your business.

It’s crucial to think about your bottom line, too. Can you really afford to bring an app on board as part of your strategy? With a mobile app, you’ll also need to invest a bit of time in keeping your app up to date with the most relevant information. With a content management system this is really simple to do and ensures that your users are getting the right information at the right time. Overall, though, technology can go a long way in saving you money on your day to day business operations. Using the right technology in your business can help boost your efficiency, and optimise the way you use your valuable resources like time and money.

Your customers should be at the heart of your business, so it’s important to pay careful attention to how they interact with your brand. Understanding your customer is important at any stage of your business, as they will influence everything from which digital platforms you use and how you set your pricing to the way you word your marketing. If you don’t think your customers would really use your app, is there much point? But if you think you can really optimise the way they see your business, then it’s time to bite the bullet. Keeping your customers happy is vital, and a mobile app could be the perfect way to do this.

Ultimately, your mobile app must integrate with your overall business strategy. You can’t just push a mobile app out into the world with no rhyme or reason and expect your customers to use it. It’s important to consider not only how you’ll make customers aware of your app, but why they should be downloading it in the first place. It has to have a unique selling point that adds value to their overall experience, or else it’s just not going to work. When used correctly, a mobile app can become a powerful tool to attract, keep and satisfy your customers or staff.

Meet the Founder - Tadas Labudis

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 23:01:01 GMT

Tell us a bit about what your startup does?

Prodsight is a web-based Software as a Service (SaaS) which provides product managers with insights into their customer needs and issues. It automatically gathers and aggregates customer feedback, performs analysis and visualises insights in an interactive web-based dashboard. Prodsight directly integrates with popular live chat systems such as Intercom. The system then retrieves the live chat data and always keeps the latest version ready for analysis. Every time a support conversation closes, Prodsight scans the contents of the communication between the user and a support operative, performs topic and sentiment analysis and records the results for later comparison. Product managers use an interactive web dashboard to learn about common customer complaints, issues, feature requests and overall sentiment. They can also perform in-depth investigations by filtering and segmenting data to understand which groups are affected by which topics or to the root cause of a customer issue and assess its impact.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

As a Product Manager, I was experimenting with various approaches to identifying market opportunities and reducing product launch risk. I found customer feedback analysis to be instrumental but notoriously tricky and time-consuming. However, I couldn't find any off-the-shelf tools who could do the analysis for me at a reasonable cost. I spoke to peers at other companies and found that they felt the same which is what encouraged me to launch Prodsight.

What is your background?

When I was 18 I launched my first business - an online drum shop called Drum Space. I was basically selling drum parts out of my bedroom to fund my business studies at the University of Glasgow. When I went on to study Business at the University of Glasgow, I co-founded my second startup Eventhread - an event discovery platform. I was forced to learn coding and realised what it takes to truly run a tech startup. Upon graduating I decided to get a job to get experience with bigger teams and projects before trying startups again. I got a product manager job at Kotikan - a leading mobile agency which built Skyscanner and FanDuel apps. Then I continued working as a Product Manager at Yavi where we built a mobile communications app for deskless workers. There I learned how to build scalable products and lead product teams.

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

I think I got a knack for it when I was a teenager. Whilst at school I was buying and selling bicycle parts and used profit to fund building my ultimate bike trials bike.

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

The biggest challenge is being able to quickly adapt or learn how to handle increasingly difficult situations as I progress through my startup journey. Learning to code, gathering courage to speak to customers, raising money from investors, hiring are all really tough challenges when you hit them the first time but make you a stronger entrepreneur once you overcome them.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

Have more confidence. I am an introvert and naturally tend to be quieter and doubt my ideas. In the meantime, the louder ones get the attention they need to get ahead. I have learned to get out of my shell and be assertive when pursuing my goals which served me well so far.

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

Create a financial survival plan. Save up at least 6 months of living costs before you take the plunge. Consider your liabilities such as mortgages and loans and work contingencies into the plan. Prepare a plan B and C so you know what you will do if your venture doesn't generate income as quickly as planned. That's what I did and it helped maintain sanity as well as maintain good relations with my wife :)

Follow Tadas on Twitter

Want to take part in the Meet the Founder series? Get in touch.

RookieOven Event Roundup Sep-Oct

Tue, 18 Sep 2018 23:01:02 GMT

Digital Tourism Meetup

On Tuesday 25th the Digital Tourism Meetup is back in RookieOven once again. The Digital Tourism Meetup was born out of a belief that Glasgow has some of the most talented minds in both technology and tourism, which we wanted to bring together under one roof. There's so much room for collaboration between the two industries and we can work together to build Glasgow's status as a worldwide tourist destination.

At the September meet up we’ll be hearing from Synden Grieve of Expedia, and Michael is going to be chatting about the future of Digital Tourism Glasgow. Tickets are free and we’ll have plenty of beer and pizza to get stuck into. Reserve your ticket here.

RookieOven Meetup

Our meet up takes place on the first Monday of every month and is a great opportunity to catch up with the local tech scene. We like to keep things pretty informal, and everyone’s welcome. Come along to The Raven on Renfield Street at 6.30pm on Monday 1st October to see for yourself! Find out more over on our Facebook page.

Skyscanner Legal Clinic Drop In

Got a legal issue you’re not sure about? Looking for someone to chat to about the legal agreements you need to put in place, or maybe you’re trying to work out what you need when you’re getting started? From data protection, intellectual property, employment or company structuring and set-up issues, to anything arising around the intersection of law and technology, a couple of lawyers from the legal team at Skyscanner are going to be on hand at Rookie Oven, 1046-108 Govan Road, Glasgow, Glasgow G51 4XS on October 2nd between 10am and 12pm to answer any burning legal questions you might have. Find out more and RSVP on our Facebook event.

ScotlandPHP Conference

The third ScotlandPHP conference is taking place through in Edinburgh at the start of October, with a great lineup of speakers and workshops taking place across the two days. There will be 14 talks presented across 2 tracks, along with 4 workshops to help you enhance your current skills and find out what's next for PHP and beyond. A limited number of tickets are still available here.

JPMorgan Developer Networking Evening

JPMorgan are opening the doors of their award winning Technology Centre and inviting experience developers to learn more about working in the company on October 11th. As one of the largest IT employers in Scotland, JP Morgan are always on the hunt for new talent to join their team. Developers will be on hand throughout the evening to chat about their agile teams, technology stacks and opportunities.

Are you running a great event this month? Get in touch and let us know about it.

How to Run a Meetup

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 10:48:02 GMT

Hopefully, my last post about organising a successful meetup was useful but I missed out a large part of making a meetup successful - actually running it.

Following the process of my first post, we know what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and most importantly why we’re doing it. Now we need to actually do it.

Tools and Services

When running a meetup there are lots of services that will help you. Eventbrite, Meetup.com and Facebook are all great, or you can roll your own. Basically, these services give you a web presence, a means to get a guestlist/tickets and some tools to help you promote the event and communicate with attendees.

What to use is up to you, each service has pros and cons, but it's not essential. With RookieOven we didn’t use anything to run it - we just promoted the event on Twitter and our mailing list and the meetup has been running successfully for 7 years.

Picking a tool doesn't lock you into using it forever. Experiment, try things out and if they aren’t working for you try something else. Most tools are free or have a small monthly cost so the overhead isn’t huge for trying them.

Find your audience

This is a marketing challenge like any other. Who is going to come? Where do they hang out (either in the real world or online)?

For many, the usual social media sites - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn - will be a good starting point but within these sites, there are communities and niches you will need to identify and spread your message within.

And don’t be lazy and just rely on the most used social networks. There are communities all over the place from Reddit to Slack, Discord and even Pokemon Go - wherever your audience may be hanging out.

Don’t forget the real world, either. Coworking spaces, other events and transport links are all valid places you can go to seek an audience for your event.

Consistency is key

Wait a minute, I used the same subheading in my last blog post. That’s because I cannot stress enough how important consistency is. You need to keep at it.

The running of a meetup is often a selfless task and you need to keep plugging away at it.

Seek help

You can’t do it on your own. The most successful meetups I see in Scotland aren’t being organised by a single person but by a team or people with a shared vision.

That’s true with RookieOven, over the years I’ve had huge amounts of help from the community to keep the meetups going. Often I felt like I was being a burden to people and would shy away from asking for help when I need it most but over the years I’ve realised you can only ask and people are welcome to say no.

Can we help?

As I said above, the RookieOven Meetup has run for so long because I’ve had help from the community. If you’re looking to get a meetup started is there anything we can do to help?

5 Free Productivity Tools

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 23:01:00 GMT

We live in a busy, digital world. A world that’s full of distractions and ways to procrastinate, making it harder to concentrate on the task at hand. We’re all to often caught up in an endless cycle of scrolling through our phones instead of making our way through our to-do lists, so here are five of our favourite free productivity tools that will hopefully help you stay organised and keep distraction at bay.

Lists

Knowing exactly what needs to be done is the first step in being organised, and having a to-do list is a simple way of keeping on top of things. A classic pen and paper list is great, but if you prefer something a bit more high tech then we recommend giving a tool like Asana or Trello a go.

These tools allow you to set out your to-do lists and map your tasks in a clear, visual way. You can use calendars and timelines to keep up to date with deadlines, helping you to see how everything fits together and spot any overlaps or gaps.

If you work in a team, both Trello and Asana allow you to bring your team together in one place to keep everyone on track. You can assign tasks and get an overview of where everyone is at with their work, making collaborative working simple.

Sharing

Continuing on the theme of collaborative working, Google Drive is another great tool for collaborating with a team or just keeping your own work organised. Google Drive is completely free to use and acts as a cloud-based file sharing system with built-in word processors, spreadsheets, presentations and more.

Work in tandem with your team on projects with the real-time editors, and share files for approval in a couple of clicks. You can access your Google Drive on any device, making it great for working on the go, too.

Automation

If This, Then That (or IFTTT for short) is full of brilliant automation to keep your life ticking by with ease. Choose from countless recipes to streamline your life, be that tracking your hours in your Google Calendar, backing up photos or cross-posting content to your social media platforms. IFTTT is great for saving you precious time on your daily tasks.

Avoiding Procrastination

Are you wasting time by reading “interesting” articles and ending up down a rabbit hole learning all about something that’s definitely not related to what you’re supposed to be doing? You need Pocket. Instead of losing an hour of your day right at your most productive points, you can save all of those must-reads for later in the day instead.

Once it’s in your “Pocket”, you can catch up whenever suits you best. You don’t even need to have an internet connection, so it’s ideal for filling your commute.

Staying Focused

Sometimes, no matter how good your intentions may be, you might find yourself straying in the direction of Facebook. If you use Chrome, the free Stay Focusd extension is great for blocking the sites you know you shouldn’t be wasting your time on. It’s super customisable so you can set it up to block specific sites, pages, subdomains or even content types. You can give yourself an allotted time for time wasting, then when it’s up the sites are blocked again and it’s time to knuckle down.

The Unsung Heroes of Scottish Tech

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 23:01:00 GMT

The Scottish tech industry is getting more and more recognition. Traditional press is often featuring the exploits of our biggest success and there are now even outlets focused on Scottish tech but they don’t paint the whole picture.

Throughout the Scottish tech ecosystem, there are individuals and teams that make huge contributions to making a more vibrant, cohesive and successful technology industry in Scotland but they often go overlooked.

That might be a typical ‘Scottish thing’ where we don’t like to boast so I’ll do it for them. Here’s my attempt at applauding the unsung heroes of Scottish tech.

Kyle Bremner

Kyle is a talented software engineer now part of the team at Skyscanner. Previously he founded Defining Technology and worked at Streamba and Linn Products.

Over the past couple of years, Kyle has organised the no-profit Glasgow Tech Christmas Party. Each year he’s put his neck out and organised a gathering for all the meetup groups, communities and incubators in the city.

It’s a thankless task to organise food, drink and entertainment for ~100 people on a shoestring budget while also getting on with the day job but its massively valuable. It helps us, as a community, celebrate our achievements in the year and look ahead to the upcoming year. Through 2018 I’ve had conversations and collaborations that I can trace back to the Christmas Party. Thank you, Kyle.

Kyle has also organised other community-focused events such as the Glasgow Chapter of the Global Day of Code Retreat and has supported many other meetups, events and startups in the country.

James Baster

One of the most long-standing and important meetup groups in the country is Tech Meetup. James has been a long-standing support of the group but his contribution to the community doesn’t end there. James is the founder of Open Tech Calendar.

As the name suggests its a calendar of tech events that is open data. It has become the go-to resource to find out what’s happening in Scotland and so many people rely on James’ contributions to the community yet it's often overlooked and not given the recognition it deserves.

Thanks for all the effort James, we use the calendar a tonne for planning and promoting events.

CodeCraft Team

Eva, Caroline, Joe, Gary and Keith are the organisers of CodeCraft. A monthly meetup and annual conference for the community to discuss, demonstrate and debate how to write well-structured, malleable software.

The events have now been running for at least 4 years and are a pillar of the local tech community. A real vibrant cross-section of attendees, from corporates to startups, attend and learn.

Again the team organise this as volunteers and I bet good money you won’t see the mainstream press feature their successes and shout about their success but I can say with confidence their contributions have made our ecosystem much stronger and improved our ability to produce digital products.

Pat Cassidy/Govan Workspace

This is one close to home. RookieOven started life as a blog in 2011. Yup, a crappy Wordpress site. Nothing more. In the years since it’s grown to be more and, I hope, provide useful contributions to our ecosystem.

A large part of what RookieOven is in 2018 is the collaborative space in Glasgow. Our coworking space is based in the Fairfield Shipyard Offices in Govan that was once the heart of Glasgow’s engineering industry. Thanks to Pat Cassidy and the team at Govan Workspace it’s a home to engineering and innovation again.

In 2011 we partnered with Govan Workspace to open RookieOven. We had no capital so almost every other landlord in the city turned us away. Pat and his team saw the opportunity, Fairfield was newly restored and empty. Now RookieOven is home to many exciting companies and the Fairfield building is full of tenants such as Caseblocks, Base and Firecrest Films.

Who else is an unsung hero of Scottish tech? Contribute your own suggestions

Startup Spotlight - Canny Travel

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 09:21:17 GMT

The RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a member of the Scottish tech startup community, looking at who they are, what they do and where they do it. Scotland is home to some incredible startup talent, and here at RookieOven, we want to shout about them from the rooftops. Today, we're talking to Sabrina from Canny Travel.

Tell us a bit about your startup and what you do...

No one anticipates having to cancel travel plans when we're booking them but for a myriad of reasons, plans can and do change. Cancelling a flight or holiday can be stressful and expensive leaving you paying for up to 100% of a holiday you can't use. When it comes to cancellation fees, the more money you save the less money the travel provider can keep hold of, plus they can often resell the booking after you cancel.

At Canny Travel we help our customers to reduce the financial loss and hassle typically associated with cancelling flights and holidays. We offer free advice and guidance for those having to cancel and services through which we actively work to avoid and minimise cancellation costs on our customers' behalf. Sometimes we'll look to transfer a booking to someone else so it doesn't need to be cancelled at all. This way both parties save money. In other instances we working to minimise the cancellation fees charged where cancelling is unavoidable.

What was the inspiration behind your startup?

While working for a large UK Tour Operator I spoke with lots of customers having to cancel at up to 100% loss, usually through no fault of their own. Then I myself had to spend a week in the hospital, rather than on a beach in the Algarve. I claimed on my comprehensive insurance cover but I still lost over £200. I decided to use my experience as an after sales adviser, my knowledge of travel rights and complex booking conditions to help others save time, money and hassle in similar situations.

How did you fund your startup?

Our funding to date has come from a variety of sources. A small business loan, directors investment and a small friends & family round were used to get past proof of concept stage and develop our platform.

What is the current state of play?

We have recently moved into new office premises in Dundonald and grown into a team of three. We have some exciting trials underway with new customer groups and service line which is delivering promising early results and revenues.

We'd love to add some Senior Engineer talent to the team in the next few months to help us scale up our platform.

What does the startup look like in 12 months?

Over the next 12 months, we're focused on adding new partnerships to deliver an enhanced cancellation experience for consumers across the UK. We're working on becoming the first place people go when they need to cancel a travel plan.

Our Guide to Starting a Successful Meetup

Tue, 04 Sep 2018 23:01:00 GMT

I’ll start this with an admission that I’m far from the best meetup organiser, but since the first RookieOven Meetup in 2011 I have learned a thing or two - so here’s my guide to running a successful meetup.

Objectives

The first thing to consider is your objective. What is the meetup trying to do?

Answering this will inform so many of your decisions - format, date, time, venue, catering etc - so spending the time to think about ‘why’ you’re running the meetup is a good investment.

Let’s use RookieOven as a case study. To be verbose about it; I wanted to get like-minded people with an interest in technology and startups to get together to create useful relationships in a laid-back environment.

What’s your niche?

I’d recommend anyone creating a meetup to be specific about who the meetup is for. Rule one of marketing is market to someone, not everyone and with a meetup, it’s exactly the same.

My niche with RookieOven was “people with an interest in technology and startups”. As niches go that’s actually quite broad but its worked for me. For your meetup be specific, is it around a language or framework like Javascript or Rails? Is it aimed at an industry sector? Is it aimed at a profession or job role such as marketing, sales or design?

There are no right or wrong answers as to what your niche should be but your objective will dictate that to a degree.

What’s your format?

The format is important too and like your niche, there are no ‘right’ answers. And actually, there could be many formats for your meetup group.

For RookieOven, the key things are my niche and, from my objective, being a laid-back environment. A pub meet was a great fit. If my meetup was aiming to educate talks or a seminar type event would be more applicable.

The format has a huge impact on your venue and timings. If you’re looking to do talks you're going to need AV equipment and likely seating. With a pub meet, there’s less to worry about, the pub already has what you’d expect to see.

Consistency is key

RookieOven is the first Monday of each month. Like clockwork. You can rely on us being in a pub having a beer talking tech and startups with anyone that comes along.

That regularity is important. It can be hard to stick to with life and work commitments getting in the way but you really must, to the best of your ability, make your meetup a regular occurrence.

For RookieOven its monthly but your meetup could be daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or annually. Whatever the occurrence, be consistent and reliable with it.

Keep at it

Some month there were 3 people at RookieOven Meetups. Equally, there were months with over 70. It’s taken consistency over the last 7 years of each month's event being at the designated venue.

In that time I’ve seen so many great events fall by the wayside, not because people didn’t like them but because the organiser lost heart. It’s a thankless task but something organisers can gain a lot from. For me RookieOven Meetup has enabled me to meet amazing people working on amazing products, it’s given me an opportunity to sit at tables I really don’t belong at and it’s given a host of strong relationships (not just business relationships but great friends in my industry).

Where is your place?

Look at your local environment. What exists already? Where can you fit into your local ecosystem?

For tech in Glasgow, RookieOven is one small link, that plays a role in a bigger community of individuals in tech.

Something that really grinds my gears is competing communities and meetups. Why do it? Try your utmost to collaborate with others if possible.

Should I do it?

If you've made it this far down the post and you can identify an objective, a niche, a format, you can be consistent, you can commit to it long term and you have a place in your local ecosystem? Then by all means yes. Do it.

If you do go ahead, let us know if RookieOven can help with a venue in our coworking space or if we can help shout about what you’re doing.

How We Made the New RookieOven Website

Sun, 02 Sep 2018 23:01:00 GMT

This is the fresh new 2018 edition of RookieOven.com. In my last post, I talked about ‘why’ we had built a new site and some of our thinking behind the structure. But I also think its interesting ‘how’ we got here.

The Legacy

RookieOven started out life in 2011 as a Wordpress website. I was a student at the time and Wordpress was the easiest and most cost-effective way to get a blog going. That’s what RookieOven was, it was just me writing about experiences in Scottish tech.

The site was redeveloped in 2015 when we opened the coworking space in Govan and one thing was clear - it wouldn't be built in Wordpress again. I used the Jekyll, the static site generator. My thinking was something without a server underneath would be easier to host, less management and we could still benefit from an easy to manage website.

A static site ran out of steam for us and caused some problems. Starting with the problems; by using Jekyll I figured we could use GitHub as a sort of CMS. Contributors could do pull requests, the site could be improved by the community and anyone interested could reuse the site for free. The reality was it was just too cumbersome, our number of guest posts fell and there wasn’t the interest within the community in working on building the site. The value of community contributions is in the content, not the build.

Jekyll also ran out of steam, as we added parts to what we do such as the job board and the academy, the site became a limiting factor and that forced us into this ground-up rewrite.

The New Stack

The site is made up of three key elements:

Why Rails? Development speed. I doubt RookieOven will ever hit a point where we encounter scaling issues through Rails or we have more than our core team working on the code base so Rails was an easy choice. There’s a stack of gems out there we can rely on (like a Prismic API Client) that made development much faster than alternatives (looking at you Wordpress).

Prismic is our CMS. It’s both powerful and easy to use. It allows us to update content with ease, have site previews, editorial workflows and it gives us the power to implement a simple page builder which has given flexibility for any new endeavours RookieOven might enter into.

The last piece of the puzzle was Startup Framework from DesignModo. Startup Framework is an easy to use CSS framework for landing pages and with their slices and generator, it made it very quick for us to iterate and plan out the website structure.

The Future

This marks the third major redevelopment of the RookieOven website. The first version lasted from 2011-2015 and the second 2015-2018. I hope this new codebase will last at least as long.

The flexibility and power of our stack and the tools we’ve chosen should hopefully put us in good stead going forward.

How to Write a Marketing Plan for Your Startup

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 23:01:00 GMT

It’s pretty difficult to run a successful business without some form of marketing. Marketing is how you get your product in front of your ideal audience, and although the strategies may differ, the core concept will always remain the same. No matter what type of business you run, chances are there will be some sort of marketing involved.

Much like writing a business plan, writing a marketing plan will help you set some clear structure in your business and outline a path to follow for future success. There are many ways to write a marketing plan, but we’ve boiled it down to five key areas for you to cover and included a free template to get you started.

Section 1: Situational Analysis

It’s important to be aware of what’s going on with your business and the environment it exists in. Here, you might find it useful to perform a SWOT analysis and take a look at your strengths and weaknesses - the internal factors that impact your business - and the external opportunities and threats that may play a part in how you operate.

This section might cover things like your competitors launching new products, legislation changes for your sector, changing production costs or market trends.

Section 2: Goals

From here, you should be able to identify some key goals for your business and determine how your marketing strategy can help you meet your objectives. For example, you may want to enter a new market, and you’ll have to adapt your marketing strategy in order to do so successfully. The most important thing with setting goals is that they should have clear, measurable performance indicators in order to track progress.

A useful method for setting goals is to follow the SMART framework. Your goals should be:

Section 3: Target Audience

Who are you speaking to? It’s time to figure out. Knowing your audience is crucial, as the people you are trying to target will dictate the methods of marketing that will work best for you. In this section, summarise your target audience with a short description. For consumer businesses, tailor your audience profile using demographics and any relevant characteristics. If you’re operating business-to-business, then break your audience into overlying categories.

Section 4: Strategy

Now that you’ve got your audience sorted, it’s time to decide how to reach them. This section will most likely make up the bulk of your plan, as this is where the marketing magic happens.

Here, you should be outlining all of the actionable steps you’re planning on using for marketing. This might be traditional advertising, digital marketing, trade shows, promotions or press relations. It might be useful to map your activity out using a calendar to ensure an even spread throughout the applicable period.

Your marketing tactics should be relevant to your audience, your business and your goals. For example, if you operate on a purely B2C basis, marketing at B2B trade shows may not be the most appropriate strategy for your business.

Section 5: Budget

You can’t ignore your budget when writing your marketing plan, as this will impact everything you do. The available budget will determine the most appropriate marketing strategies to take, and should be considered alongside your planning too. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, with digital methods reducing marketing overheads greatly, but you should still be prepared to allocate some of your budget to your marketing activity.

Launching the New RookieOven Website

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 10:52:13 GMT

Ta-da. Welcome to the new look RookieOven. Over the past few months, we’ve been working to rejig our thinking behind what RookieOven is and how we best serve our goal of creating a more vibrant tech community in Scotland.

We’ve logically grouped our activities into 3 areas:

Let me explain.

Coworking

This one is pretty self-evident. Through our collaboration with Govan Workspace, we have the RookieOven Coworking space in the Fairfield Shipyard Offices.

The road to opening the space started in 2014 when I was looking for a place to base myself. Edinburgh had Codebase, TechCube and Mallzee Towers, Newcastle had Campus North, Manchester had SpaceportX and what did Glasgow have….?

I wrote a blog post asking “where is the heart of the Glasgow tech community?”, and that kick-started the road to opening the coworking space in Govan.

The space opened in early 2015 and since then we’ve had tenants and visitors from all over the world. We’ve hosted meetups, live stream, seminars, hackathons and all manner of events to serve the community.

I’d like to think that our space has become an easy to access, reliable, flexible and affordable asset to the community and long may that continue.

Community

RookieOven started back in 2011 in two ways; a meetup and a blog. Both with the intention of creating a more cohesive tech community in Scotland and that has been at our core.

We still meet monthly in Glasgow in The Raven (the next meetup is next Monday) and we promote all the other great tech events across Scotland through this site and our social media. If you have an event or happening you want to be promoted let us know.

While the meetup has continued to flourish the blog has been in a sorry state - and that’s on me. In the heyday of the RookieOven blog 2011/2012 I was writing at least 3 blogs per week, I ran it pretty much like a business - with commitment and drive. Since then the blog has fallen down my priorities and sadly not been given the attention it deserves but we’re changing that. From now on the blog is going to be filled with regular content and my aim is to have that content be founder generated as much as possible. I want us, as a community to shout about our successes, share our failures and learnings and put Scottish tech on the map.

The community aspect of RookieOven grew a job board which is being relaunched as an affordable way to recruit talent. Our aim here is twofold - can we reduce our reliance (as a community) on recruiters (and their fees) and can we help to highlight opportunities with an aim of retaining talent in the community, with Scottish owned companies.

The last part of our community activity is our newsletter. Every fortnight we drop an email with a summary of what’s going on in Scottish tech.

Across is all, our community activities aim to do that - create and bolster the community. If you have any suggestions or would like to join in let us know.

Academy

Our academy started in 2016. It was a response to the poor state of technology education in Scotland and sadly it’s still the case that teachers are hamstrung by poor IT (ancient hardware, locked down networks and terrible software and services). Teachers too often don't afford the time to develop their own skills and abilities, to keep up to date with the latest trends, technologies and ways of working.

I strongly believe that ‘we’ as a community should step forward. After all, the next generation of talent is essential for our ambitions of having world-class tech companies.

With the Academy going forward we’re going to continue to experiment and try new formats that best serve educators and pupils. But in the immediate term, we’re curating collections of useful content and resources that can be used by educators and by new founders.

This content is again founder generated so I charge you reading this, as a person with interest in Scottish tech - step forward, drop me an email and play your part in developing our talent pool.

Top Tips for Networking Online

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:01:54 GMT

When you’re self employed or looking to build a company, networking is crucial. Meeting new people can help you learn new things, share your knowledge and increase the reach of your work. You never know where that new connection could lead you or who they can put you in touch with.

Not everyone has the time to constantly attend networking events in person, but the internet has got you covered. The growth of social media has been a brilliant development when it comes to networking, and now you can connect with people around the world at the touch of a button. Here are some of our top tips for using the internet to build your network.

Pick your platforms carefully

Whilst you don’t really want to be putting all of your eggs in one basket, you also don’t want to be spreading yourself too thin, either. Take the time to figure out which platforms the people you’d like to connect with are active on, and factor in which ones you enjoy using too.

Realistically, LinkedIn should be your first port of call when it comes to online networking, but don’t discount the likes of Twitter or Facebook either. Both are great tools for connecting with people in your industry, and can definitely be used to your advantage. Twitter lists are brilliant for categorising the people you follow with ease, and Facebook is full of groups that are jam packed with people you can chat with.

Be present

To boost your profile online, you have to spend some time online. It’s important to keep up with your online presence and share regular updates. These updates don’t always have to be about you, or what you’re up to, either - you can share articles you’ve enjoyed or boost the work of other people in your network, too.

How often you post or interact is up to you, and should suit your own schedule, but still maintain some regularity. Posting multiple times a day for a week then going silent for a month might not give the best first impression!

Social media is social

Engagement is key. Be sure to pay attention to the people you’re following and interact with their content on a regular basis. It could be something as simple as endorsing them on LinkedIn or retweeting one of their tweets - but it’ll show them that you’re there, and that you’re listening.

If you enjoy someone’s work, tell them! People love a confidence boost and it’s a great way to kickstart a conversation. Share their blog posts, congratulate them on their achievements and support the people you want to support. What goes around, comes around.

Consider offline

You can’t ignore the offline world. Have a look at what’s happening in your industry and find ways to interact with it online. Is there a great conference happening for your sector, but it’s halfway around the world and you can’t make it? Check out what hashtags they’re using, see who’s interacting and who’s attending and engage with them online.

As great as online connections are for building your network, the best relationships tend to be cemented face-to-face. Don’t be afraid to take it offline and meet up with people in your area to talk shop. Off travelling somewhere new? Share a post mentioning where you’re going to be and ask if anyone wants to grab a coffee! Online networking should be just one part of building new connections, not the be all and end all.

Actionable Steps

Startup Spotlight - MyFlag

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 11:27:09 GMT

The RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a member of the Scottish tech startup community, looking at who they are, what they do and where they do it. Scotland is home to some incredible startup talent, and here at RookieOven we want to shout about them from the rooftops. This time, the spotlight falls on RookieOven tenant Haseeb, co-founder of MyFlag, his third startup - if you include two toddlers.

Tell us a bit about MyFlag and what you do...

I was formerly involved in the music events industry. Did everything from running events, Dj’in to Audio Equipment Hire. My business partner and friend introduced me to his father, who invented the LED manipulation technology we use in MyFlag. This led me down the rabbit hole of electronics and product development. Not having any formal education in engineering, my role was customer and sales focused.

However, that changed, when we lost Sandeep’s father to a heart attack 5 years ago. He was our mentor and technical expert, so this meant we had to widen our skill set in order to keep the company going.

We developed a miniature LED display for shop front businesses to use for targeting passing trade. Once we got it to prototype stage and tested it on the market, we realised it would need much more money to get it to market. So we decided to shelf the idea and create something more primitive with the tech that would be cheaper to develop, manufacture and sell.

Enter Myflag, a new concept that is unlike anything else on the market today. We put it into development over 2 years ago, and it went live as of April this year. It gives users a brand new way to interact with the event they are visiting - be it music or sports. The device is 104 Full colour LED display that fits into the palm of your hand. You can change, animate and boost the display to engage with event activity.

What was the inspiration behind MyFlag?

The inspiration behind the idea was seeing people using lighters, cameras and phones as part of a crowd illumination ritual. We wanted to take that to the next level with a dedicated device that can offer greater impact, colour and light up for the entire length of an event.

Did you always see yourself running your own company?

I’ve been self employed for the last 10 years, and ever since I learned to DJ I knew I wanted to spend my time doing something I love - no matter the cost. I did always fancy myself as a bit of a creative and innovator, music gave me an outlet to express that before, now I do it through product development.

What are the biggest challenges you face having your own business?

The biggest challenges of having your own business is keeping your family and friends on side with your vision. Most people will not understand the time it takes to make a start up successful, the daily challenges you encounter and the likelihood of things going wrong. There is a mindset all entrepreneurs need to adopt, especially when your carving a path into unknown territory - the only way I can describe it is idealist optimism with unrelenting determination to overcome. Being able to look at 6 failures and still remember you have only increased your chances of a success.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

If I could tell my past self one thing, it would be that real world practice is a far superior teacher than theory. If you want to learn anything, get stuck in, don’t be afraid of failure, invest the time and be patient.

What’s your favourite thing about working in Rookie Oven?

My favourite thing about working in RookieOven is the environment, the beautiful space and people that understand the struggles of start ups.

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to make the jump to self-employed?

The reason I personally wasn’t afraid of making the jump to self employment all those years ago; my favourite job I ever did was delivering pizza on a scooter. For me, even today, that is the fall back that I could happily do and be content. So why wouldn’t I risk it all to explore the bigger ideas today?

Finding Customers for Your Business

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

A business can’t really be successful if it doesn’t have any customers. Your customers should be at the heart of what you do, but how do you find them to begin with? It may seem like the most daunting part of starting your own business, but it doesn’t have to be so bad.

The most important part of finding your customers is figuring out who they are. If you’ve followed our guide to writing your business plan then you’ll hopefully have your target market figured out, but if not it’s time to dive in. What does your ideal customer look like? Where do they shop, work, live? What do they do for fun? Where do they spend their time online? These questions will go a long way in figuring out where you can connect with your ideal target audience and get started with turning these people into loyal customers.

Once you’ve figured out where they are, be that the social media platforms they use or the forums they frequent, you can use this information to build a promotion strategy that really shouts about what you do. Social media and other digital channels are great tools for fledgling businesses with limited funds, so having a presence on the platforms that your audience use is paramount. Use these networks to tell the world about what you’re doing and why it matters, working with your ideal customer in mind at all times.

No such thing as stealth

Shouting about your business in your existing network - like your friends and family - is another brilliant way to start building your client base. You never know who might need your product or services, and maybe the people in your circle will be able to connect you with someone else who’s looking for exactly what you have to offer.

Expanding this existing circle of contacts through networking will go a long way in building your client base, too. “Networking” has turned into one of those cliches that you’ll probably be fed up of hearing by now, but there’s a reason it’s mentioned time and time again - it works. Get yourself out there, either online or in person, and meet some new people. Set up your LinkedIn account, start following new people on Twitter and peruse the listings on Eventbrite and Meetup to see what’s happening near you.

Retain

Gaining your first customers may seem like the most important part of running your business - but the work doesn’t stop once you’ve got them. Increasing your customer retention and creating a base of loyal customers can improve your profits by up to 95% - sounds good, right? Keep your existing customers happy whilst encouraging them to become ambassadors for your brand, promoting what you do within their circle, and the cogs will keep on turning.

There is no definitive, failsafe method of gaining clients for your business, but if you put in the legwork the customers should follow.

5 Reasons Coworking Works

Thu, 26 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

When starting a business, you might be drawn in by the appeal of working in your pyjamas on the couch. If you’re going it alone, you’ll probably be looking to cut your costs down as much as possible in the early stages of your business, so renting an office space might not be an accessible option for you. Working at a coworking space like RookieOven gives you the best of both worlds - flexible, affordable office space with the freedom to be creative and build your business on your own terms.

Sure, we might be biased, but having worked in an innovative coworking space like RookieOven, we feel like it’s the way forward for startups, freelancers, remote workers and the rest. Here are just five of the reasons that we think coworking, works.

Networking

We’re always told about the importance of networking, both for building connections in more “traditional” careers and when going solo, but who has the time? Networking events are brilliant spaces to meet new people, however not everyone is able to give up their evenings in order to attend them all. When working in a space like RookieOven, you’ll be working alongside like-minded entrepreneurs who are on hand to help share their skills, knowledge and connections. You’ll meet some incredible people, and build your network naturally.

Support

You’ll find a variety of people in RookieOven, there’s the startup founders and the solo entrepreneurs, the freelancers and the remote workers, the students and the “just visiting”. We’ve got people developing insurance businesses, travel products, web designers, technological services and so much more - there’s always going to be someone on hand to bounce ideas off of or have a chat with about something that’s got you stuck. There’s a lot that can be learned from hanging out in our space!

Professionalism

Coffee shop meetings are all well and good, but what about those days where your favourite table has been taken or the cafe has been invaded by a rather chatty group? Many coworking spaces, like RookieOven, offer professional meeting and event space that you can use to impress your clients. We’ve even got a pool table, too, in case you fancy a bit of friendly competition.

Structure

Working at home can be great, but sometimes it gets a bit difficult to switch off at the end of the day. When your home is your office, finding that coveted work-life balance can be tricky. Using a coworking space gives you a dedicated workspace that you can properly leave behind at the end of the day, helping bring some structure to your working week and making it that little bit easier to switch off.

Socialising

Working solo can be tough when you’ve not got anyone around to socialise with. Water cooler chat might seem mundane, but there are some people out there that really thrive with a bit of social interaction. Come hang out with us, and we’ll give you peace when you need it, but we’re also there for a natter too. We promise to try not to bore you with too much chat about the weather…

(also, the office dogs and our pool table make it pretty fun, too.)

Want to try coworking out? Get involved with National Coworking Day on the on the 8th of May.

Ahead of the Curve - 3 Startups Working with Local Government for a Digital Future

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

The UK is on the verge of a distinct moment of local government innovation. UrbanTech – new digital technologies, provided by small, dynamic companies – has the potential to not only deliver faster, more user-centred local services for citizens, but can provide an important tool in easing the budgetary pressure councils are seeing grow year on year.

PUBLIC is a venture firm that supports tech startups looking to transform public services, both at the local and central government level. In this article, we pick out three startups who are already transforming the way councils provide for citizens.

Switchee

In 2014, Google closed a $3.2 billion deal to purchase Nest Labs, a home automation company that manufactures sensors for self-learning thermostats and smoke detectors. Google’s acquisition not only provided a new source of important data, but also showed that there was demand from consumers for wired products in their homes. If it’s true for consumers, why not also for residents and landlords in the public sector housing?

Switchee, the first B2B thermostat, has successfully provided for large, social landlords including in Islington, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Bromford, Renfrewshire Council, Oxford City Council and Glasgow. In Oxford City Council, Switchee’s solution led to significant council savings.

Some of these savings have also been passed down to residents, who are able to control their energy consumption and reduce their energy spending. One resident in Oxford City Council had her annual fuel bill cut in half from £600 to just £300 a year. Switchee also enables landlords to use data from the thermostats to help identify potentially at risk elderly residents, find out earlier about vacant properties and give landlords advanced warning about boilers that are out of order.

novoville

As diverse and increasingly sophisticated channels of communication emerge through digital technology, local councils are now looking for new means to engage with their citizens. Mobile reporting tools and customer service dashboards are allowing an ever increasing flow of information between service users and service providers. The result is better informed citizens and councils with a greater understanding of their constituents wants and needs.

novoville is a citizen engagement platform. Citizens are provided with an app through which they can apply for services, report problems, and, most importantly, share their opinions. This information feeds through in real-time dashboard controlled by the council, allowing councillors to detect and solve problems quickly and efficiently, whilst seamlessly updating the citizen who has filed the report.

In addition to operating in 40 cities across Europe, novoville is about to embark on a three-month pilot with the West Midlands Combined Authority (a pilot they won through Urban Challenge - an open-call competition run by PUBLIC and the WMCA), as part of which they want to create a chatbot with startup Apptivism to engage local citizens via social media.

Mastodon C

Planning for an uncertain future around children’s special education is a challenge many councils don’t feel ready to face. Should they be building new schools for special needs students, or investing in more teachers to keep students in mainstream classes? Should they be working with other councils to provide infrastructure? Considering that 1 in 100 people in the UK aged 4-26 are born with Autism, these are questions that face just about every council in the UK.

Mastodon C offers a potential resolution with their SEED model, a product that uses open source technology and council data to help councils learn the potential cost and number of children who may need to receive care. They are currently working with a London borough that was facing a series of challenges including rising rates of autism, helping them map out scenarios as far as 10 years into the future.

Their main differentiator is that they can also break down the data based on the severity of special needs and disabilities. This helps councils to make data-based decisions around investments in special needs education and avoid difficult scenarios such as having to send disabled or special needs children far away from their home due to a lack of capacity.

Are you a startup looking to transform government services? Applications for PUBLIC’s 6-month growth programme GovStart are currently open.

Want to learn more? Get in touch and set up a time to talk to a member of the GovStart team. Applications close April 30th.

10 Things to Consider When Writing Your Business Plan - Part Two

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

All great businesses start with a great business plan. It might sound unnecessary, but taking the time to sit and map out your objectives and intentions for your business can help provide some much needed direction for your company, and showcase which areas you should be focusing on to get yourself off the ground.

Previously, we covered some of the internal factors you should be thinking about when starting your business, including your “why”, your business values and the solutions you provide. Now, it’s time to take a look at the market you’re operating in and one of the most crucial parts of a businesses success - your customers.

Keep reading to find out more about what you should consider when writing your business plan.

6. Customer Profiles

Realistically, your business will not appeal to everyone, and narrowing down your ideal customers can go a long way in helping you define your brand and create effective processes. Customer profiles will assist you in understanding who it is that you should be targeting and why.

You can create as many customer profiles as your business may need, but they should all answer a similar set of questions. In your customer profile, you’ll need to outline who your customer is, what they do and where they’re based. Are you providing a face-to-face service - or working remotely? How will you communicate with them?

Once you know who you’re looking to target, consider why you’re targeting them. What need do they have for your product or service? This may impact on the way that you reach them, and it’s worth considering which channels you’ll use to connect with potential customers.

From here, you should be looking at what you’ll do to convince them to buy from you. This could be an overview of your marketing - which we’ll look at in more detail later - or a rundown of any packages or deals that you’ll offer them.

7. Competitor Analysis - who else does this and how well do they do it

When running a business it’s good practice to have an awareness of who else operates in your market, and running competitor analysis is a great way of highlighting areas to work on that you may have missed previously. Knowing what other companies you’re fighting against to gain customers will help you craft your marketing strategy and look for ways to stand out.

Much like your customer profile, there are a few specific areas you should be covering when looking at your competitors. Again, you can do this for as many competitors as you choose, but each should follow a similar structure.

Who are your competitors - where are they based, how are they similar and what size is their organisation? Use this information to look at the specific areas you’re competing on, and what advantages or disadvantages you may have over them.

This will help you create an understanding of why customers choose them, which will ultimately highlight the ways in which you can encourage them to make the switch to your business instead. Look at what you can do better, how you can provide additional value and make it obvious from the offset. Encouraging customers to make the move might not be easy, so you should think about the marketing messages and tasks you’ll need to undertake to promote your business to them.

8. What You Offer

Here’s the kicker - what services are you actually providing? In this section, outline the products and services you have on offer and the costs of these for the customer. At this point, you might want to look at packages for joint services, which can act as a marketing tool in itself.

When pulling together your services list, you should be putting in as much detail as possible, which will come in handy when creating quotes for clients in the future. You don’t need to make these public, instead use them to refer back to when necessary. You might find it useful to include a short explanation of how you came to these prices, too.

You can use this as a benchmark for future pricing increases too, as you’ll be able to look back and see what you were charging for specific services - and why you decided on that rate.

9. Pricing and Projections

Once you’ve put together an idea of what it is you’re going to be offering, you can use this to determine what you’ll need to do to make your business viable. Are you operating at a loss? How many client hours will you need to book to make your living? This can help you set goals for the future, as well as monthly targets to meet within your business to ensure success.

10. Marketing Plans

Finally, your marketing. How are you going to promote your business? It’s all well and good getting started, but without marketing you’ll struggle to get your name out there. Use all of the information you’ve pulled together so far in your business plan to create a rough overview of your marketing strategy - including your platforms, any associated costs and your overall messages.

Marketing is a mountain in itself, but having a vague idea of how you’re going to reach your customers is the best way to get started. From here, you’ll be able to see if it’s something you can take on yourself or if you should consider bringing in some help to define and implement an effective strategy.

Startup Spotlight - Blog and Beyond

Fri, 06 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

The RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a member of the Scottish tech startup community. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups from across the country. It’s an opportunity to share information about an exciting tech startup from Scotland you may not have heard of. Giving a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. This post the spotlight falls on RookieOven tenant Blog and Beyond.

Tell us a bit about what Blog and Beyond does…

Blog and Beyond is a platform for bloggers big and small which aims to share information and resources for all aspects of the industry. It's a pretty new sector which has seen so much growth recently, and as a result, there's a lot of uncertainty about best practice for both bloggers and brands. The website pulls together posts from lots of different people in the industry who provide insight and advice on how to build a blog, work with brands and turn it into a business.

How did Blog and Beyond get started?

I'd been blogging for nearly eight years myself and spend a lot of time giving other bloggers advice. It's something I cover on my own blog, Colours and Carousels, quite regularly and last year I started a newsletter dedicated to sharing blogging tips and tricks. It grew pretty fast, and I had the idea to turn it into a dedicated website that other bloggers could turn to as a one-stop shop for advice when they need it - instead of a fortnightly email that soon disappears into the depths of your inbox.

Did you always see yourself starting your own company?

Yes and no - I'd never really known what I wanted to do. Various career paths I'd considered included running a bakery, being a storm chaser, working in fashion or being an air hostess. Business was definitely my favourite subject at school, alongside English, and I've always loved writing - so it's not really all that surprising that my current career path brings the two subjects together. I never imagined that I'd be working for myself, though, as it wasn't something that was originally shown to me as an option.

What are the biggest challenges you face being self-employed?

Managing my work-life balance can be difficult. I'm not good at switching off, and when a lot of my work revolves around social media it can be hard to draw the line at the end of the working day. Putting my phone down helps, but I'm hopelessly addicted to Instagram.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

Believe in yourself. I think this applies to my current self, too! I'm the worst for doubting myself and as a result, I always put my plans and projects off as I think they'll fail from the very start. That hasn't happened yet, and I've always had really encouraging feedback from the people I've worked or connected with, so I think it's time I got over my fear and learned to trust my own skillset a bit more.

What’s your favourite thing about working in RookieOven?

Does the biscuit stash count? Otherwise, I like being in an environment with a real mix of people. I've learned a lot from the other RookieOven residents and, although I'm still painfully awkward, it has helped bring me out of my shell a little bit. Being surrounded by motivated, entrepreneurial people helps me push myself that bit further. Plus, it makes me get out of the house when I need a change of scenery!

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to start their own business?

You can spend forever waiting for the "right moment" - there is no right moment. Preparation is important, but sometimes you just need to go for it and give it your all even when you don't feel 100% ready. (Also, to-do lists are the best)

Find out more about Blog and Beyond - https://blogandbeyond.com.

10 Things to Consider When Writing Your Business Plan - Part One

Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Business plans can be misconceived as long, stuffy documents full of boring business jargon, but the truth is they don’t have to be. For the most part, businesses don’t really need the long formal outline that’s required for bringing in investors, instead a simple, ongoing document will do for most.

If that sounds like the right fit for your business, read on to find out the first five things you need to consider when writing your business plan.

1. Business Overview

Your business overview should include a quick introduction to the business - including the name, the business owner(s) and the places where it can be found.

The most important part of your business is your concept, so when getting started with your business plan you should be thinking about what it is you’re actually setting out to do. What’s the point of your business, and what difference will it make?

Chances are, there’s already something similar out there, so you should be thinking about your unique selling point and what makes you stand out from the crowd. What do you do that’s better than everyone else? Here, you should be summarising the value your business provides to its customers.

2. Your Why

This will all tie into your “why” - aka the reason you decided to start this business in the first place. When thinking about your why, you should be considering your values as a person, and how these will reflect in your business.

What made you decide to take the plunge and start building your business? Here, you can let your passion shine through, and really get to grips with your personal and brand values.

3. Business Need

Now that we’ve covered the reasons why you started the business, it’s time to consider the reasons that you think this specific business is needed. This is where you can map out any gaps in the market that you’re intending to fill, as well as thinking about what problems your business might solve for your customers. Are you saving them time, money or simply making their lives easier? Think about your proposed venture from their perspective and really get to grips with the value that your business is providing.

4. Behind the business

Here, you should be sharing a short summary of who you are and why you’re a good fit to run this business. What do you bring to the table? Consider your skills and experience, and the relevance they have to this new venture.

5. Operations

One of the most important parts of your business plan is the overall structure of your venture. At this point, it doesn’t need to be concrete, but having a general idea of how your business processes will run will go a long way in improving your customer experience - and create structure for your own working life.

In this section, you can outline your customer journey, and consider the processes you will undertake each step of the way. Consider your on boarding process, how you’ll produce and deliver the work, your quality control systems, payment processes and any software you’ll require throughout this.

By creating a vague outline of your business processes, you’ll have a much better understanding of how your business will operate, as well as the costs and resources involved in producing your work.

Startup Spotlight - With Jack

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Meet Ashley, one of our RookieOven residents, and learn more about how she’s making the world of insurance easier for freelancers to navigate.

I’m Ashley! I’m a solo founder bootstrapping With Jack from RookieOven. When I’m not working on With Jack, I’m playing video games (currently into Ghost Recon: Wildlands), walking Indie or taking photos.

Tell us a bit about what With Jack does…

44% of freelancers will be stung by a bad client. With Jack is a tool that helps them financially and legally when that happens. In other words, it’s business insurance for freelancers!

I’m looking to build With Jack into more of a platform that helps freelancers with their business. I’m currently exploring how that looks, which means lots of video calls with existing customers and idea validation.

How did With Jack get started?

I was already working in the insurance industry before I launched With Jack. Freelancers weren’t really getting the answer to insurance that they deserve. While there are providers who target freelancers, they also target 200+ other professions. What you get is a customer experience and product that’s trying to be something to everyone. That just doesn’t work.

There was nobody saying, “Hey, we’re really good at this one thing for this one group of people”. Considering freelancers can face a lot of problems with clients—and don’t really know what their options are when those problems arise—it felt like there was space for someone like With Jack.

I started small. I tested the water by signing up as an affiliate for an insurance broker. Whilst I couldn’t build my own tech and customer journey, it meant I could launch something quickly and gauge interest. That interest was 55 sign-ups, £14,000 premium written and positive feedback towards the brand. That was my first step in validating With Jack. Then I went onto get authorised (I’m an appointed representative) and partner with an insurer so I could build my own tech. I launched in September 2016.

Did you always see yourself starting your own company?

No, I thought I’d be a full-time drummer at this point in my life. I studied music at college. I had the intention of becoming a session musician, so that was the career path I tried following. Clearly that didn’t work out.

What are the biggest challenges you face being self-employed?

Every day is an emotional rollercoaster. There’s really no consistency. It’s euphoric highs and abysmal lows. There’s no safety net. If I don’t have a good week with sign-ups, there isn’t anybody else to pull the slack. It all falls on me. That’s exhilarating when things are going well, but it’s stressful when there’s a quiet period.

If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

I unexpectedly ended up in insurance after chasing my music dream. I wasted a lot of time being unhappy in the beginning because music didn’t work out. I wish I could tell my past self that—despite my dreams of becoming a drummer not working out—I’d be very happy and fulfilled, so relax and enjoy the journey. And maybe eat less doughnuts. I said maybe.

What’s your favourite thing about working in RookieOven?

I reckon I’m the only RookieOven resident that wouldn’t say the pool table. After the blazing fast WIFI, my favourite thing about working here is the community. I’ve worked from home for 8+ years. That gets lonely. Working from here breaks up the monotony of having my head buried in a computer all day—even if it’s only a 10 minute conversation with another resident over lunch. I like talking about video games with Chris from Add Jam, or asking Michael for business advice. RookieOven has kept me sane for the past 3 years.

Do you have one piece of advice you’d give to people looking to start their own business?

Start with people. If I could start over again, I wouldn’t think about what I’d be selling down the line or the business I’d build. I’d pick a group of people I want to serve and spend a solid year focusing on that audience. No getting distracted with selling or developing a business—I’d channel all of my energy into helping researching and speaking to that audience. My advice to others wanting to build a business is to start with people and not the idea.

Find out more about With Jack - https://withjack.co.uk.

Introducing Digital Technology Meetup Glasgow

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Glasgow is a world leading tourist destination with a rich history, spectacular events and diverse culture. Glasgow is also home to a strong and vibrant community of world leading technology companies (as showcased by RookieOven).

However at the moment there's little cross over between these two industries. Why is that? It makes total sense to foster a relationship between these two communities with the aim of creating a stronger tourism industry and increased recognition of the local tech talent in Glasgow.

The technology sector in Glasgow has great breadth and depth of talent in digital marketing, digital design, software development and creating innovative products. The tourism sector is one of the largest industries for our home city and the city’s vision for tourism and its visitor economy is that, by 2023, one million additional tourists will enjoy the world’s friendliest and most vibrant city, spending £771m per year, growing tourism Gross Value Added (GVA) by £148 million. Effective use of technology will be important to reaching these targets and with support and the input from the amazing tech talent on our doorstep.

This monthly Meetup offers an informal format to exchange ideas, knowledge and connections and each month 2 leading figures from the Toursim and/or tech industries in Scotland will give a 20 minute talk with time for Q&A.

The night will have plenty of opportunity for networking and free beer and pizza.

The format for each meetup will follow a simple agenda:

6.30-7.00: Drinks, pizza and networking
7.00-7.30: First speaker (20 mins) and Q&A (10 mins)
7.30-7.45: Networking
7.45-8.15: Second speaker (20 mins) and Q&A (10 mins)
8.15: Close

Who should come?

The event is open to anyone but if you're working or studying tourism at all we hope you'll get a lot from it. Likewise if you work with technology and think you have a lot to offer the tourism sector come along and understand the needs of the businesses in Scotland.

The main aim to bring together people with the right attitude to see both industries (technology and tourism) work better together in Scotland.

The meetup is a monthly opportunity for us to get together in a relaxed environment. No hard sales, suits or pushing business cards about. Just great conversations between Scottish businesses.

Venue

Each event will take place in RookieOven which is super simple to find on Google Maps. We're just a short walk from Govan Subway and we have free parking to the rear.

RookieOven Glasgow technology

RookieOven is not only home to the leading tech talent in our city today but it has historically been a centre of engineering excellence. Not too long ago shipbuilding was the most important industry in our city and Fairfield Shipyard was at the centre of innovation and design that make 'Clyde Built' a world recognised brand for ships.

RookieOven is in the former drawing office of the Fairfield Shipyard and the building is home to a stunning heritage centre operated by Govan Workspace.

Get your ticket

The event is free but ticketed. Tickets are available via Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-tourism-glasgow-meetup-tickets-37031815156 - and are limited.

Digital Tourism Meetup Glasgow

Just Add Code

Fri, 18 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMT

If you're reading this I'll hazard a crazy guess you're involved in tech. So when did you start to learn about it? When you were a child or a teenager? From a website or even...a book? You may just be amazed at how things have changed...

Over recent years the ways in which young people can learn digital skills, particularly coding and digital making, has improved and increased dramatically. In the past five years in Scotland there's been a incredible rise in the support for young people to develop tech skills.

Organisations such as CoderDojo Scotland and CodeClub support children from as young as seven to get creative with coding and digital making. The Digital Xtra Fund, which aims to financially support organisations who deliver digital skills to under-16s, has recently become a charity. And of course RookieOven has created an Academy for young people who are interested in becoming tech entrepreneurs.

All of this is very positive and highlights not only a top-down recognition from government and industry of the importance of developing and nurturing new talent, but a demand from young people who are interested in learning about technology and how to use it to do amazing stuff.

Digital Making in action

This is an area I've been working in over the past few years. I'm really enthusiastic about helping young people appreciate the creative potential of technology and develop their own skills. As an ex-software developer and experienced teacher I set up the free coding clubs CoderDojo Castlemilk and CoderDojo Bridgeton and help facilitate RookieOven Academy.

Designing robots

I'm now setting up Just Add Code, a home-tutoring service for young people in central Scotland who want to develop their coding and digital making skills. If you've got a child (or know of one) who's super-keen to develop their tech super-powers I'd love to hear from you - john@justaddcode.co.uk.

An Introduction to Metrics Driven Development — build features that change real numbers.

Sun, 30 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMT

How many times have developers picked up tickets because they were in the backlog? Delivered them and never asked why? Metrics driven development tries to put an end to this. It focuses the teams and business on building features that aim to have high impact on what matters i.e. logins, revenue, or sign ups. You can read more about this in a blog I posted back in February. I want to talk about where I used this methodology in a real world example, and how this could change the way your organisation works forever.

Recently at Roadie, a Dundee based startup helping learner drivers find the right driving instructor, we have been trying to increase the number of our booking requests. The process is lightweight and something other startups can pick up easily.

We started by looking what we were trying to achieve; more booking requests. Then we looked at our metrics for search results and seen we have 60% drop off. Right now our booking conversion is around 4% so in theory if we managed to lower this drop off we would see more booking requests. A leap of faith assumption but we went with it.

Roadie Dundee search results analytics

So, the objective was simple: Reduce bounce rate on search by 5%. This is our criteria for success

Next, we had a brainstorming session where came up with possible solutions, all varying degrees of work.

Brainstorming options for search results

We discussed what we thought were worth taking on and that could have high impact. As a team we voted and began the work.

We released three changes on that list; higher resolution images, banner for popular instructors and a nicer heading.

Then we released those changes.

The process of gathering metrics, deciding what to do, then implementing the changes took less than 1 hour.

When the (cross-functional) team has a clear goal i.e. increase conversion and the team is left to their own devices to solve the problem, development becomes a lot faster. Ownership aids delivery.

Roadie Dundee search results

View Driving Lessons in Dundee results.

The real test comes from looking back at the analytics. Did we succeed? Is the bounce rate lower?

Roadie analytics for search greatly improved

Ten days after the change, I think the metrics speak for themselves. 60.26% to 46.38% is definite win. This is something we will continue to measure in the coming weeks. However, we did make an assumption that decreasing the search bounce rate would increase the number of requests overall. It is too early to tell if this change has a significant impact on booking requests, however by watching those metrics, and having a predefined criteria for success the team knows that the deliverables met the desired outcome; to lower the bounce rate by 5%.

By using Metrics Driven Development, the team were able to quickly deliver features as the nature of the problem was clear, and by writing out the criteria for success beforehand it is easy to judge wither they failed or not. Using these steps could drastically speed up delivery. Focussing on metrics daily will help startups prioritise it's backlog, give real clarity of success and failure. Try it, putting your analytics first will change the way you look at startups and software.

Michael Carr

Founder of Roadie

Twitter

Blog

Grenfell Tower Support Hack

Fri, 23 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMT

What happened on 14 June was terrible. The fire that devastated the Grenfell Tower took 79 lives and changes many more. In the days and weeks following the fire there has been such a clear need to support those effected. So what can the people of Glasgow do to help?

In what could be one of the fastest organised hacks in history, Arlene McDaid of Legal Hacker Scotland has pulled together a Hack this weekend! Arlene only started talking about doing some this week and ideas started to percolate and as the reality of the aftermath unfolded, the determination to make a contribution to the relief effort grew. So we – Legal Hackers Scotland community have organised a hackathon, which is taking place this weekend – 25 + 26 June - in Glasgow.

Pocket Leap mobile apps for tourism

What do we need?

Technical or non-technical (you don't need to be able to write code), your contribution can make a difference. All skill-sets are welcome. Copywtiting, design, animation, audio production, data scientist, digital marketing, PR, advertising, Legal professionals and law students, we hope you will join us! So many skills sets in our city that we can apply over the weekend to a good cause.

How can we highlight resources and support? Can we make legal advise more accessible? Can we help on the ground support initiatives with some digital marketing to increase their reach? Can we help people find employment? How do we help people connect with relatives overseas? There are so many small jobs that we could pitch in to do that will make a huge difference to those affected.

If you would like to get involved, please sign-up here: https://bit.ly/2rX8ije. If you can’t commit to the whole weekend, feel free to drop in and help shape ideas.

A special thanks to Alasdair Thomson and Stephen Moore of Peloton Communications, who didn’t hesitate in agreeing to host the hackathon at their fantastic premises, Curated House. Please share the event details with your networks!

Making mobile affordable

Thu, 22 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Technology is changing our lives at an ever increasing rate and by extension changing how businesses operate. Therefore businesses should be investing in technology but it can be very expensive. A typical mobile app can cost easily over £20,000 but RookieOven tenant Add Jam have a solution for making mobile affordable and accessible to more businesses - Pocket Leap.

Pocket Leap mobile apps for tourism

Why make an app?

Mobile platforms (namely iOS and Android) are for many people their main gateway to the internet. The device is always with them, powerful, fast, secure and always reliable so there are many reasons why a business would want to make a mobile app.

Add Jam believe mobile has huge potential for many businesses but for too long has been inaccessible, costly and difficult to get started in that’s why they created Pocket Leap. If you want to give customers an more engaging mobile experience than a web site you can create useful mobile apps with Pocket Leap that take full advantage of mobile devices.

Pocket Leap apps work offline and make full use of mobile features such as mapping, indoor positioning and push notifications. And at only £180 per month for an iOS app Add Jam are confident its a game changer for businesses looking to create a fantastic mobile experience for their customers.

Easy to use CMS

The core of Pocket Leap is the clean and easy to use dashboard (or Content Management System).

With Pocket Leap you start off by selecting a ‘theme’ for your app. This creates an app bundle on iOS and Android automatically for you with the right layout and configures the simple content management system (CMS) where you can input and manage your app content. The CMS is designed to be useable — the mission is to allow people to make an app without talking to a developer.

Pocket Leap mobile apps for tourism easy to use cms

The CMS is uncluttered and has simple navigation. We’ve purposefully developed it in a way where we take care of the complexity.

Although easy to use, through the CMS the app can be styled (colour palette, icons) and theme options (such as map pin style, tab names etc) can be customised. Users hit publish and the app is on its way to the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store. Simple. Painless. And with Pocket Leap there's no need to pay support fees or annual maintenance. The team behind the product make sure your app stays fresh and usable automatically. When Apple and Google release new versions of iOS and Android they make sure the app is ready for day one of the new operating system.

iOS and Android

One of the big benefits of Pocket Leap is being able to service both iOS and Android platforms for an affordable monthly amount. The apps are native to their respective platforms.

This means on iOS the app will use the Apple share icon and share sheet. On Android the app will make use of the Android back button and the icons and fonts will fit the platform by default. There isn't a compromise to making the apps work across both platforms.

How much?

Pocket Leap, with this unique blend of ease of use and powerful features, empowers businesses to really deliver a quality mobile experience to their customers. It will empower businesses to have their brand present on customers devices, allow businesses to engage through a simple push notification and all the while Pocket Leap will be collecting useful data and providing useful insights through our built in analytics.

It costs only £180 per month for an iPhone app and £300 per month for an app on both iPhone and Android. That's a massive saving on the previous approach of making custom mobile apps. Actually the monthly fee for Pocket Leap is likely more affordable than the support and maintenance agreement on a bespoke app build.

To find out more about Pocket Leap visit their website https://pocketleap.com, email the founder Chris at chris@pocketleap.com or catch them on Twitter @pocketleap

Founders4Schools comes to Scotland

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMT

RookieOven works hard to create a better startup community in Scotland and we strongly feel a large part of this is taking time to foster the next generation of tech talent. We do this with our Academy programmes that have run over the past 12 months but we're alway eager to see more happening to inspire young people and give them fresh opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have.

Founders4Schools is an an award-winning charity connecting pupils with business leaders to increase youth employability. They're working hard to inspire young people across the UK and thats why, as a startup founder, I have just signed up to Founders4Schools to give one hour to inspire pupils at a local school.

Founders4Schools comes to Scotland

Getting ready for work

The Founders4Schools mission is to inspire students and prepare them for the rapidly changing world of work by enabling teachers to invite business leaders into the classroom. Founders4Schools realise time is precious for teachers and make this process as quick and painless as possible. The aims to hook founders up with a school in just 4 minutes.

Founders4Schools is a free service, connecting teachers with leaders of successful growing businesses in their community.

The thinking is that young people hearing from people like myself and other founders on their doorstep means a world of difference and helps teachers seeking to have conversations with their pupils about their career pathway.

This is backed up with research showing that pupils with four encounters with employers are 86% less likely to become NEET (not in employment, education or training) and earn 18% more.

What can you do?

Founders4Schools need founders across Scotland to do two things. Firstly please sign up and add yourself to their community of founders willing to spend an hour in a local school.

Secondly get your peers involved. Reach out to founders in your network and encourage them to likewise give back to the next generation.

As business owners we can't sit back and wait for skills gap to bite back and leave our businesses languishing behind.

Founders4Schools is aiming to sign up 1,000 more volunteer speakers before school’s out for summer. Let’s help them get there!

Scottish startups don't have to be based in Scotland

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMT

With RookieOven I've always tried my best to shine a spotlight on tech companies and happenings across Scotland. The blog has covered startups from Ayr to Aberdeen over the years but last week, for the first time, I added a startup based in California to the RookieOven job board. If we're all about helping Scottish startups why would we do that? Well I think you don't necessarily need to be based in Scotland full time to play a part in our tech community. Here's a few examples.

Shogun

Shogun, a drag & drop page building tool for Shopify, might not strike you as a Scottish startup but I think it is. Shogun was founded by Finbarr Taylor, a graduate of the University of Strathclyde.

Shogun

Finbarr was active in the Glasgow tech community in 2012 before moving to California and has kept in touch. Any time he comes home he's keen to meet local startups and founders. And if anyone goes the other way he's always keen to grab a beer and learn a bit about whats happening back in Glasgow.

Now Finbarr is looking to grow the team at Shogun he's looking to Scotland for talent. If you're interested in working on Shogun (its a Rails/React project) get in touch with Finbarr.

KAPA

Another example of a non-Scotland based Scottish startup is KAPA based in London. It's a sports team management app that allows clubs and societies to organise, chat and pay.

KAPA sports team management app

Using KAPA to manage a sports team will save time by allowing organisers to send out group updates or chat privately to individuals. KAPA simplifies checking availability for matches, training sessions and other events and lets you see your clubmates responses in real-time. Collecting cash is also super-simple. Previously an organiser would collect cash on the door but using KAPA an organiser can collect monthly payments or single charges all through the app making the running of the club cashless, secure and paid directly into the club account.

KAPA on Android

KAPA cofounder Paul Kane is from Glasgow and when it came to developing KAPA he looked to his home town for tech talent. I know this as my cofounder, Chris, and I at Add Jam worked with the KAPA team to launch the app on iOS, Android and the web.

I wrote up a bit about this scenario last year. For Paul and his cofounder at KAPA, Neil Johnson, they get better value for money compared to the same resource in London yet its a short flight away, on the same timezone and we just about speak English.

Loads more

KAPA and Shogun are two examples I know of but there's no doubt there will be more startups around the world with a strong link to Scotland. As a country/community we should embrace these founders, support them when we can and celebrate their good work.

RookieOven Academy - What our students are telling us

Fri, 17 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

As well as gearing up for RookieOven Academy Three, we've been reflecting on the last two Academies and taking the time to figure out what's working well, what needs improved and what (if anything), needs 'moved to trash'.

We're driven to help the next generation of ambitious tech entrepreneurs fulfil their potential by giving them an insight into what it takes to start up their own business and (we hope) inspiring them to take the next step. We want to have a positive impact. And, in order to check that what we're doing is having the sort of impact we want it to, we evaluate it regularly.

Having evaluated Academies One and Two, we've produced a infographic (below) to show what we've learned.

If you're 16-25, have a passion for tech and are keen to develop your startup business skills, apply now.

And if you're still thinking, 'Mmm...don't think this is for me...' have a look below to find out what our students are telling us about the Academy. We think you'll like it.

RookieOven Academy - feedback on Academy 1 and 2

Adimo raises £1 million to make marketing shoppable.

Tue, 28 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMT

About Adimo

Adimo is making marketing shoppable. Its platform integrates with any form of marketing – including display ads, landing pages, websites, social media and video - to make it shoppable. Thanks to Adimo’s integrations with retailers, shoppers simply select products and add them directly to their online supermarket basket for later purchase with the rest of their weekly shop. Adimo also gives brands valuable behavioural data about customer decision-making. The marketing tech company was founded in 2012 and has offices in Glasgow and London.

Adimo Success

Glasgow, UK – 21st February 2017: Marketing tech start-up Adimo has closed a £1m seed financing round following early traction with major consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) including Nestlé and PepsiCo. The Glasgow headquartered company, whose software natively embeds shopping functionality into digital marketing campaigns and content, will use the funding to expand its commercial team and drive customer acquisition. Investors include Scottish Investment Bank (the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise), ESM Investments, Galvanise Capital and Patrick Griffith, co-founder and ex-CEO of Havas Work Club.

Richard Kelly, who previously worked in digital advertising, founded Adimo in 2012 having recognised that despite investing large sums on marketing, the CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry lacked the ability to acquire customers directly and as a consequence had limited customer data or insights. CTO Colin Brown devised a way to forklift the basket addition process into digital marketing campaigns and content.

“CPGs see data as the key driver of growth and competitiveness but despite spending billions on awareness campaigns they’re getting very little back in terms of data. This makes marketing optimisation extremely difficult,” comments Richard Kelly, founder and CEO at Adimo. “Our technology integrates with any form of marketing to make it shoppable, shortening the path to purchase, putting brands in baskets and providing valuable behavioural data about customer decision-making for to clients.”

Adimo’s platform integrates with any form of marketing – including display ads, landing pages, websites, social media and video - to make it shoppable. Thanks to Adimo’s integrations with retailers, shoppers simply select products and add them directly to their online supermarket basket for later purchase with the rest of their weekly shop.

Furthermore, purchased products are automatically added to the shoppers ‘favourites’ list, greatly increasing the chance of repeat purchase – up to 70% of items bought from online supermarkets are from favourites lists.

Crucially, Adimo gives brands valuable behavioural data about customer decision-making. Its real-time analytics dashboard offers a comprehensive range of insights including products viewed, basket additions and revenue, which can in turn be linked to marketing source. This brings previously unavailable ecommerce-level insight to awareness-based marketing.

Adimo is available on either a license or CPM fee. Its customers include consumer goods behemoths Nestle, P&G and PepsiCo. The company has already added over 1,000,000 products to baskets for its clients, generating incremental revenue of over £14million. The technology is now integrated with over 100 retailers across 20 countries and any retailer can be added on request.

“FMCG companies are increasingly looking at how to maximise Digital Marketing spend and understand sales impact of the reach or engagement that our brand marketing makes” comments Sean Douglas at PepsiCo. “We believe Adimo is a radical and highly compelling solution that allows frictionless path to purchase. The technology solution makes for a seamless integration and we’ve been very encouraged with the results following our initial trials. The partnership with Adimo has been one where we work together to create a solution that works for both the shopper and our brands. I believe Adimo with PepsiCo are setting the standard of Media to Shelf in the FMCG digital marketing industry.”

“The channel ecosystem is enormous but highly siloed – the fact remains that for shoppers, buying FMCG goods on impulse is convoluted,” continues Richard Kelly, founder and CEO at Adimo. “Given our touchpoints with consumers, brands and retailers, we believe there is a big opportunity for to use our technology to not just help brands sell more effectively, but to do so in ways that makes shopper's lives easier.”

“Since the discovery of Data, too many Marketing tech firms have all but abandoned the noble art of creative seduction for a new drug called low-cost targeting, and it is the consumer who loses out,” comments Patrick Griffith, co-founder and ex-CEO of Havas Work Club. “I like that Adimo are asking a different question, and while most marketing tech firms seem to focus on ever more ingenious ways of shafting the consumer, Adimo's idea of "How can we make advertising more useful to people?” is really refreshing.”

“For our FMCG clients, this has opened up digital advertising in a whole new way; providing the insight that was so desperately needed to justify spending online. To see Adimo secure additional funding is very exciting and we wish them success with bringing this product to a wider market,” comments Matt Lee, Co-founder and Director of shopper media agency, Capture.

“The Adimo business is extremely exciting given the scale of the market opportunity and the quality of the brands the company is already working with”, said Kerry Sharp, Head of Scottish Investment Bank. “We are delighted to be able to support the company’s growth plans by participating in this funding round in addition to the other support Scottish Enterprise has provided to the company.”

Congratulations to Adimo for their success, from RookieOven. It just goes to show the impact the Glasgow tech community can have!

You can find Adimo on Twitter and Facebook.

For more of the latest Glasgow tech community news make sure to join our mailing list and follow our Twitter and Facebook page.

TRC Media - Special Edition

Sun, 26 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMT

TRC Media acknowledge that women are under-represented at board level in the tech/digital sector in Scotland - so they decided to take action. Special Edition is an initiative that aims to help women reach their full potential in the industry. The six-month programme offers participants a chance to learn from detailed workshops and develop not only their professional and creative skills, but their entrepreneurial and networking skills.

Previous candidates have gone on to secure boardroom level positions and even start their own companies. The ambition of the program is ultimately to have all female participants embarking on a career which leads to the boardroom.

TRC Media run the excellent Cross Creative and Special Edition programmes for tech companies in Scotland and do a great job providing world class training and development for tech talent in Scotland.

What will the programme involve?

During the six months candidates will receive help developing their skills through formal training workshops taught by top mentors. The workshops aim to boost the candidate's confidence and help build their professional network as Special Edition is a great opportunity to meet other women with similar ambition in the tech sector.

Entrepreneurial skills will also be developed throughout the programme as candidates learn how to progress their current careers in the digital sector. The programme involves an international trip to experience many digital centres of excellence where participants will meet the industry's most influential leaders and innovators.

The skills and training are tailored to the individuals in the programme and previously discussed themes have been:

Personal and professional goal setting
Influencing skills
Creative thinking and problem solving
Entrepreneurship
Management techniques
Networking

2016's Special Edition started back in August beginning the first of the five sessions which ended in a very successful international trip.

What is the entry criteria?

Special Edition was created for women working in the digital sector - specifically those who work in commercial creative businesses. This includes businesses such as digital design, agencies, games, animation, mobile apps, publishing, augmented/virtual reality, technology and platforms/software.

Those who wish to apply should ideally have:

Significant experience in their field
Experience in management
The aim of reaching Boardroom/Director level or run their own business.

There are limited places available on Special Edition and the highly competitive selection process is based on talent, need and clearly articulated goals.

trc media world class training and development

Candidates from 2016

Claire Wood The Leith Agency | Associate Planner
Danae Shell FreeAgent | Head of Awareness
Kaye Symington Paved with Gold | Co-founder
Laura Boyle Dog Digital | Senior Analytics & Insights Manager
Sarah Johnson Whitespace | Head of Digital Marketing
Terresa Aitken Blonde Digital | Group Account Director

What do past participants have to say

"I arrived knowing this experience would change my career. I left feeling it had changed my life. We shared, we supported , we challenged, we travelled, we laughed, we cried, we changed, we grew." - Kirsten Murray, Teviot - Talking about Special Edition.

Case Studies

Three other candidates have left detailed accounts of their experience in Special Edition. Hopefully these will give you a better understanding of what is involved in the programme.

Louisa Gallie | Special Edition

Louisa Gallie who is a senior 2D artist with Hunted Cow in Elgin, details her experience on the Special Edition programme over on the Highlands and Islands Enterprise blog. You can find this Here.

Kirsten Murray | Special Edition

Kirsten Murray is the Senior Designer with the creative agency Teviot. Find out more about her experience Here.

Yolander Yeo | Special Edition

Yolander Yeo is the founder and CEO of Yo Design. See what Yolander had to say about Special Edition Here.

How can I apply?

Currently TRC Media are not taking applications. However, you can register your interest in Special Edition by leaving your name, email and a message at Contact TRC Media. This way you will be contacted when applications are being taken for Special Edition.

Don't procrastinate, take action!

Special Edition is a great opportunity to grow not only your career but all aspects of your life. So Register your interest and don't miss out. For the latest tech community news and opportunities make sure to join our mailing list and follow our Twitter and Facebook page.

RookieOven Academy - Demo Day

Wed, 14 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Last night was Demo Day for the RookieOven Academy and brought an end to our second cohort. With the Academy the goal is for the young people to come along to RookieOven, form groups and then for each group to come up with product ideas and turn them into the foundations of a solid business.

With the RookieOven Academy we're not looking for academic achievers. We want young people with a natural talent, that relish a challenge and have a passion for tech, design and innovation.

Why we do it

RookieOven is helping Glasgow (and the rest of Scotland) to have a more vibrant community of home grown tech companies. Our meetups are well attended by everything from people with a whiff of an idea up to venture backed startups. Our coworking space in Govan works hard to provide a home for the tech community of the city, we have amazing companies basing themselves in the space and we host a range of meetups and event.

But our community is nothing if we don't continue to produce new talent. Looking to the future we feel strongly that Scottish education is failing out industry. Schools are often a poor learning environment for creativity and for teaching technical subjects but at RookieOven thats exactly what the space is designed for.

In schools we find teachers are so busy keeping doing the job of teaching the (often out of date) curriculum they struggle to keep up to date with industry and a fast changing technology landscape. But the companies in RookieOven have to keep up to date with (and are often at the forefront of) a fast changing industry.

We felt passionate that RookieOven was uniquely positioned to try something new and to deliver a unique, impactful and invaluable learning opportunity to young people.

How we do it

Since the start of November each week we've called on talent from across the Glasgow tech industry to come to RookieOven and impart their experience, knowledge and top tips with the Academy participants to help them develop their digital products and a valid business model.

Speakers and subjects being:

Creative Thinking with Me, founder of RookieOven
Business Models with Chris Sloey founder of Add Jam
Digital Marketing with Kaye Symington, cofounder of Paved With Gold
Identity and User Experience with Jen Thomson, founder of Upclose and Pixelated
How to tell your story with Ashley Baxter founder Jack
Demo Day

Each week the speakers would give a 20 minute introduction to the subject area - sharing their industry experience and career advice - and were on hand to give one to one advice to groups. Through the sessions groups were encouraged to use tools and services used in industry.

The Teams

We had three team, all working on very different concepts.

Pitching action shot announcement

WalkSearch

A offline local information source. Ideal for walkers, tourists and cyclists this product allows you to store offline local information with the business model using premium listing for businesses to advertise and a monthly subscription for users looking for more offline storage.

PA

PA is a personal assistant for your finances aimed at students. As a student you need to manage your own budget for the first time, with PA you can ask for help on how to spend your money to allow to reach goals and it will analyse your outgoings and identify areas you're spending too much.

APPetit

Aimed at students living on their own for the first time. This app aims to help them reduce food waste and be healthy by providing healthy recipes tied to fitness information. Using barcoding scanning students can keep a track of what they're eating and eat healthier with the suggested recipes.

Demo Day

Over the pervious weeks the groups had been validating, designing, coming up with branding, content strategy and pulling that together into a coherent story they would pitch on to on Demo Day to an industry expert judge. Our judge for Demo Day was Claire Scally joint Managing Director of TRCmedia. TRCmedia run the excellent Cross Creative and Special Edition programmes for tech companies in Scotland do a great job providing world class training and development for tech talent in Scotland.

The three teams had 5 minutes each to communicate their work and share their story. This was followed by questions from Claire and the rest of the audience. Timings were brutal and talks cut off at the 5 minute mark. All the teams did a great job with Claire saying "I was really impressed with the talent, ideas and enthusiasm on show from the participants I met. The RookieOven Academy is a great initiative and TRCmedia is delighted to meet the digital champions of the future."

Winner announcement

Judging was close. All the teams has a web presence (either a live site or social media profiles), they all either have mockups and user journeys for their products or high fidelity mock ups and they had all identified a problem they were trying to solve.

The winning team on the night was PA, the personal assistant to help students with their finances, with prizes of an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet.

Whats next?

Demo Day is the end of the Academy programme for this cohort but their engagement with RookieOven doesn't stop there. Going forward the group will very much be part of the RookieOven community and be able to tap into the knowledge and experience of the companies and individuals across it. They will also be able to come by the RookieOven space in Govan and use it as a basis for growing their business.

Additionally the team at Amazon Web Services has a program for startups called AWS Activate, which provides Academy teams with the following benefits:

24 months of AWS credits (up to $3,000).
Free access to the AWS Business/Technical Essentials 1 day web-based or instructor-led training (normally ~$600/course).
80 credits for Qwiklabs self-paced labs.
One year of premium AWS Business Support (up to $5,000)

The three groups now have one of the best foundations for young people wanting to start a tech business in Scotland.

Will we do it again?

In short yes. The Academy has provided real benefit to young people in Glasgow and is well worth us developing further so keep an eye on our mailing list, Twitter and Facebook page.

The RookieOven Academy (both the programme from June/July this year and this current one) were funded by Glasgow City Council and Skills Development Scotland as a pilot. Our aim was to validate that our community can give back effectively, to show young people can produce excellent work in a short time scale and to do so in an open and transparent way with the aim of inspiring teachers/schools/colleges across Scotland to implement similar programmes in their schools.

The Academy has been a success but so far it has relied on the good will and support of so many members of the community. From Girl With a Camera doing photography for free to hottinroof giving advice and support for PR and Amazon providing AWS credit to Academy teams. Going forward; for us to reach our full potential we will need further resource:

We need more equipment for kids to utilise while in the space. Luckily/thankfully at present companies in RookieOven have allowed young people to make use of their hardware but ideally we would have a bank of machines with the right software (Atom, Sketch, Affinity, Android Studio, Xcode etc etc) set up and ready to go for the teams.
It would be great to have staff dedicated to the Academy. With that we would be able to open the space up at weekends and evenings for access and go out onsite to schools for outreach and building relationships with younger age groups. As it is the RookieOven Academy has been run by myself (along side the rest of RookieOven and while trying to run Add Jam) and Kev (a full time high school teacher) with support each week from John Bell from CoderDojo Scotland (also a full time teacher).
Better defined pathways and strong links with other organisations able to provide support. Both for teams looking to continue development of their product and on a practical level for kids looking to further their skills in the subject areas essential for making tech products (development, design, marketing etc).
Awareness. At the moment the Academy has had some amazing support from SDS and teachers across Scotland to get young people involved. We need to raise awareness about the Academy to parents, local businesses and more young people.
Developing other programmes. At the moment the 6 week Academy is working well for 16-18 year olds able to make it to Govan one evening a week. Going forward we need to develop what we offer through the Academy for a wider age group and develop programmes with a different structure that are not geographically locked to Govan.

My challenge to those reading this is to reach out to us, give support and help in anyway you can that will allow us to fulfil our potential with the Academy and help even more young people in Glasgow.

Keep an eye on us in 2017 as we will be continuing the Academy, as members of the Glasgow tech industry we can't afford not to.

Resources

We're collating resources used in the Academy into a public Dropbox folder. I would love to see teachers from across Scotland pick this up and use them in their classrooms - if you do please get in touch and let me know how you're getting on.

That offer for help stands for education institutions in Scotland looking to help young people in tech just get in touch - michael@rookieoven.com

RookieOven Academy is supported by Glasgow City Council and Skills Development Scotland

RookieOven Academy - UX Design

Wed, 07 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT

We're currently running our second RookieOven Academy; each week we call on talent in the Glasgow tech industry to come to RookieOven and impart their experience, knowledge and top tips with the Academy participants. For week 4 of this Academy, Jen Thomson, UX and Digital Product Designer, shares with RookieOven Academy some amazing resources (nearly all of which are free) that she recommends for UX design.

UX Design

UX (‘User eXperience’) design involves many disciplines including visual design, usability, accessibility and human-computer interaction. It’s fundamental to the design of products that your customers will want to use and will pay you money to use.

CXPartners provide some useful resources and templates that can help with UX design, including resources for creating personas, wireframes, testing reports and user journeys. (FREE)

Personas

When designing your website or app you want to have a good understanding of who is going to use it. Personas can help with this. A persona is a representation of a groups of users of your product from a particular market segment. They are useful as they help you consider the goals, desires and pains of your potential users.

The Fake Crow Persona Template can be used to generate and communicate personas (FREE) and the ‘How-to’ guide UX Lady DIY User Personas explains how to construct your own personas. (FREE)

Site Maps / User Flows

A site maps shows the pages/screens of your site/app and how they are connected to one another, without giving any detail about each page or screen.

User Flows (or User Journeys as they’re sometimes called) describe the path the user takes through your site/app to complete a task.

It’s useful to be able to visually describe how the user will move through your site or app.

How does the user find a B&B at their price-point and book it? How do they purchase their tickets for collection at the cinema? How will a new user sign up for your service? User flows will help you answer questions like these.

There lots of tools that can help do this, but we particularly like MindMup and WriteMaps.. Both are FREE for the basic version.

Microsoft’s Powerpoint or Apple’s Keynote both work well for this task too.

Wireframes

A wireframe is simply a visual guide to the functional elements of a site or app. No colours. No fancy graphics. It’s a stripped down, bare bones guide to the layout and functions on each page or screen and how the user will interact with them.

Wireframing for mobile app

Of course it’s perfectly possible to create wireframes using good old pen and paper but apps like Balsamiq Mockups let you quickly build clickable wireframes that you can easily iterate over, and share. Balsamiq offers a FREE 30-day trial and pricing plans start at $89.

Just as for site maps and user flows, those sturdy workhorses Powerpoint and Keynote can work well here too.

Prototyping

You don’t want to invest time and money designing something (or even worse, building something!) that doesn’t meet your customers needs. Personas, site maps, user flows and wireframes are all really useful parts of the design process but prototypes allow you to interactively test your design ideas before going into development. They allow you to ‘fail cheaply while learning more’.

Here are some tools that let you do just this. With the POP (Prototyping on Paper) app you can sketch out ideas on paper, upload them and turn them into a working prototype. The basic plan is FREE.

Market-leading InVision is a prototyping platform which offers collaboration between team members and with customers, and the ability to gather user feedback about your prototype. It also has strong integration to tools such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Slack. It’s FREE. Balsamiq Mockups, which we looked at before, is also a useful prototyping tool.

User Testing

Here are some tools which help you test whether your design choices meet your customers needs.

As well as InVision, which we looked at previously, UsabilityHub is a platform which enables you to run quick and simple usability tests. It’s free to run tests with up to 20 of your own recruits.

Peek from UserTesting is also free. It can help you get an idea of what users are thinking when they’re using your site or app by capturing a 5-minute video of a user using your product.

Design Inspiration

Looking for design ideas? Check out these sites: dribble, Behance and Mobile Premier Awards.

Graphic Design

At Google Fonts you’ll find a huge range of open source designer web fonts (FREE), while at dafont.com there are tens of thousands of downloadable fonts (freeware/shareware/public domain).

For a useful guide to web typography check out I Love Typography or envato Tuts+.

ColourLovers is a good site for creating and sharing colours, patterns and palettes.

The Paletton web app is a free tool for creating colour palettes.

Looking for that perfect icon? FlatIcon is a huge database of vector graphic icons, all of which are free. The Noun Project aims to create and share a vocabulary of icons world-wide. Icons can be downloaded for free (as long as you credit the creator).

Glasgow Tech Christmas Party 2016!

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Dig out that Christmas jumper, dust off your Santa hat and get ready for some seasonal cheer… It’s the Glasgow Tech Christmas Party!

Back for the 3rd year running, the event brings together developers and designers, creatives and disruptors, and all the other wonderful people that help make the tech community in Glasgow what it is.Come along to The Raven on Wednesday 7th December for some holiday spirit, delicious bites, good company and general merriment.

Tickets are just £10 + eventbrite fees.

As someone who has been to the last two Tech Christmas parties I have to say it is a real highlight of the year, I always meet people that I have not seen in ages, and new interesting people I would not have met otherwise. You are SERIOUSLY missing out if you don’t go. Buy a ticket!

- Kevin Brolly, Braw Software

The event is completely volunteer-organised and the ticket money goes towards the cost of the venue, food, etc. Anything left at the end of the night will be donated to this year’s chosen charity, the Mental Health Foundation.

We also want to say a huge thank you to all of this year’s sponsors, who help us to put on this great event!

Streamba

Streamba are building the “Google” of the energy supply chain. VOR is the single global source of operational truth for it’s customers, giving them complete visibility over their supply chain. Currently hiring for their Glasgow office, they are keen to support and grow the Glasgow tech community, using the success and recent exits of companies in Edinburgh, like FanDuel and SkyScanner, as a benchmark and inspiration.

Burness Paull

Burness Paull is a premier independent commercial law firm with offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The 59 partner firm advises clients in Scotland, the UK and internationally. In the last year they have represented clients and project managed over £100bn of deals in more than 60 jurisdicutions. Burness Paull's key focus is on Corporate Scotland and the technology, property & infrastructure, financial and oil & gas sectors. Bringing together experienced tech-aware practitioners from every discipline, the team looks to understand how tech drives your business and can deliver solutions that work for you.

Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton have chosen to set their reputation alongside a bold purpose — by unlocking the potential for growth in their people, clients and their communities they believe they can help shape a vibrant economy where businesses and people can flourish. They believe that today’s world is all about connecting across businesses and industries, between public and private. And they have a track record of making that happen. They provide advice to more than 40,000 dynamic organisations across the public and private sector, and working with those organisations excites them because they know they help a vibrant economy to thrive.

Cathcart Associates

Cathcart Associates is Scotland’s leading independent IT Recruitment Consultancy. They focus solely on Technology, and have dedicated Consultants who each specialise in a niche technical and geographic area. They truly understand your skills and experience, and so are best placed to help you find your next job/hire. They have a strong presence in Glasgow, and love to get involved in tech meetups and conferences (and parties!) — as well as their everyday business of helping good people find the right job and helping companies grow with fantastic technical talent.

RookieOven Academy Two

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Earlier this year we ran our first RookieOven Academy. It ran for 5 weeks (across 6, 2 hour sessions) from May into June with talented and ambitious young people from across Glasgow learning from some of the brightest minds in the Scottish startup community such as Cally Russell, Ashley Baxter and Graeme McGowan. Participants, all aged between 16-18, came up with their own business concepts and developed them into valid products that they pitched to a real investor.

We're now opening up applications for our second Academy which will run from the 8th of November until the 13th of December.

The details

Each Tuesday evening from 6pm - 8pm participants will come along and over the course of the Academy develop a product idea. The 6 sessions are broken down as follows:

Creative Thinking - we'll get to know each other, have a think of some real world problems and come up with product ideas to solve them
Business Models - now we have an idea how can we make it into a sustainable business
Identity - we need to develop an identity and product vision for our company
Digital Marketing - using the tools of today how can we market our solution
How to Pitch - we need to know how to communicate our idea effectively
Demo Day - pitch to our panel of experts and investors

The Academy is completely free and open to anyone aged 16-18 to take part.

Don't take my word for it

I believe Scottish education is often teaching the wrong thing badly however the local tech ecosystem consistently punches above its weight and produces world class products and services. This community can play an important role in helping the next generation fulfil their potential.

In our first Academy we succeeded in giving young people an insight into tech startups and creating modern businesses. “The RookieOven Academy was a fantastic opportunity to get to grips with how a tech start-up works,” said winner Selina Gourlay. “This experience has been invaluable in showing what it takes to become a successful digital entrepreneur. I really hope that one day I can turn an idea like this into reality.”

Our first Academy was a great success and we're taking a lot of learnings into this second Academy so it can only get better.

Get involved

With the RookieOven Academy we're not looking for academic achievers. We want young people with a natural talent, that relish a challenge and have a passion for tech, design and innovation. Real passion will shine through on your application and will impress us more than straight A's.

Sound like you fit the bill? Get moving. Places are limited (we have space for only 16 of the most impressive young people in Glasgow) and applications are open now. The form is really short, really simple and shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to complete.

All those accepted will have to commit to participating fully in the academy and will need availability from the 8th of November until the 13th of December and able to come to the RookieOven Coworking Space in Govan.

Any questions get in touch on Facebook, Twitter or email michael@rookieoven.com

Get involved with Cross Creative

Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Without doubt one of my highlights for 2016 (so far) has been the Cross Creative programme ran by TRC Media. It gave me more confidence. Gave me amazing new connections both locally and in San Francisco. But best of all it transformed by startup Add Jam. We would not be where we are now if it wasn't for Cross Creative. So if I were you I would stop reading and get an application in immediately (closing date is 16th September)

Cross Creative group 2016

Why Cross Creative

The obvious attraction to taking part in Cross Creative is the 5 day field trip to San Francisco. While there I met amazingly talented people at Dropbox, IDEO, Facebook, YCombinator, Twitter, Pixar, Medium, Unity, Xamarin and more. An impressive list of companies. They were all so open and willing to share insight into their culture, processes and kept us well fed and watered. I wrote up my experiences in San Francisco on the Add Jam blog across three blog posts, please do check them out.

Cross Creative at Pixar

Need convincing?

As if a funded field trip to San Francisco with access to some of the biggest tech companies in the world wasn't big enough motive to apply the amazing training and people you meet should.

VR at Unity

Prior to Cross Creative I didn't know anyone from the other businesses on the programme - Axis Animation, Solius Group, Newspaper Club, MadeBrave and Screenmedia. But thanks to the programme I do now. The 6 months of training and the trip to America is amazing but TRC keep such a high calibre of participants it create's real value in getting to know the fellow participants. For me that alone was well worth taking part.

The training itself is world class. From negotiating skills to communication. The sessions will improve you as a person, your business and ultimately make you more successful.

Cross Creative at YCombinator 2016

Apply damn it!

It was a once in a lifetime trip. Hugely inspirational. You would be insane not to even try getting involved with the programme. Applications close on the 16th September, its a simple form, no excuse not to get one submitted. Do it!

Startup Spotlight: Adimo

Fri, 26 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Each Friday the RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a member of the Scottish tech startup community. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups from across the country. It’s an opportunity to share information about an exciting tech startup from Scotland you may not have heard of. Giving a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. This week the spotlight falls on Adimo.

Favorite thing about Startup Spotlights:

After writing numerous Startup Spotlights, I have noticed one of my favorite things is when a company writes back with such comedic and perfect explanations for their business it becomes hard to top what they have written. This is the exact case with Adimo.

I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with the Adimo team to better understand their company. So please join me as we learn more from Adimo.

Adimo Connecting

How it all started:

"The idea for the business came about as the result of problems that Richie (our CEO) experienced working on digital marketing projects for high profile FMCG clients whilst working agency side. Without the ability to create sales online, some of the biggest brands in the world were spending vast quantities of budget driving shoppers to websites that didn’t let them actually buy. The result? Lost revenue, missed opportunities and an inability to track the performance of their investment.""

Adimo Startup

"Adimo’s technology was developed to solve this. It allows consumers to add products to their online shopping baskets directly from digital marketing. Since then, Adimo has developed a suite of technology that can be integrated into any digital marketing activity from display advertising to social media, website integrations, video, apps and more."

How how would you describe Adimo now?:

Adimo Brands

"Adimo is a forward-thinking business with an ability to solve problems big and small. The team has a diverse range of skills and experience and there is an overarching hunger to see the business flourish.

We are always looking for the next way to make the business better and we try to have a good time while we’re doing it! "

Cheesy but true - Every team member counts:

"As cheesy as it sounds, every member of the team is key. As a lean business everyone’s contribution makes a big difference to our ultimate success, whether it’s skillfully handling a client query, developing a tricky new touchpoint (like our awesome new Native Video integration) or simply articulating what we do to a potential customer."

Can we just appreciate how much fun this team has together:

Adimo Team

So how do you fund Adimo?

The Adimo team describes their funding process in a way we can all relate:

Phase 1 – Blood, sweat and tears.
Phase 2 – Bootstrapped from revenue
Phase 3 – Investment

They do this all using the Software as a Service (SAAS) business model. Check out their campaign here.

Keep a look out for more from Adimo:

Thank you Adimo team for helping us get to know you better! Be sure to check out their social media or even give them a wave if you're walking by their studio space at the Glasgow’s intersection of Arts, Music, Tech and cheap leather shops: South Block, on Osborne Street.

UPRISE Festival Comes to Dublin

Wed, 24 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

This October 3000 attendees make their way to Dublin to participate in Europe’s Startup Festival - UPRISE. The RDS Arena hosts 150 exhibiting Startups coming from all over Europe and the U.S. This unique festival creates a single entry point for talent and the public into our fast growing tech community. Gone are the old conference mentalities but the approachable and inclusive ideals of bringing product back into the hands of those that use them.

So what can we expect at UPRISE?

The Shelbourne Hall hosts the UPRISE Startup Marketplace where 150 Exhibiting Startups buy, sell and get feedback on their products and interact with the public.
The Casino Stage has demonstrations, launches and mini-workshops by startups. Bank Of Ireland hosts their Startup Space and Google, Microsoft and Sendgrid offer mentoring sessions for participating companies.
There's a Pitch Battle that will pit 6 Startups based in Ireland against 6 International Startups in 3 knockout rounds. Find the press release here.
Throughout the day workshops run covering topics such as Artificial Intelligence to Investor Risk Assessment.
Interactive Panels will be held to get the audience involved in topic debates with Cathy White (Tech City UK), Anna Boffetta (Balderton VC), Joe Griston (Freelancer.com).

Uprise dublin tech conference

UPRISE is in the RDS in Dublin on Thursday 20th October 2016. Using the code UP_Eu30 you can get a 30% discount on Early Bird Tickets until the 29th August.

Startup Spotlight: Product Forge

Fri, 12 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Starting on your own:

As we have learned from personal experience or just reading our weekly blog posts, startups are moulded from recognition of the supply and demand, usually from our own personal experiences. Entrepreneurs thrive off of this and Product Forge wants to support these innovators.

A few weeks ago, I had a the thrilling opportunity to interview This is Milk live from our studio. This was entirely because of Allan and his team at Product Forge. It was an exciting experience, watching the team come in and by the simple act of moving some stuff around, placing mics on myself and Angela, we were ready to go live. Just like that, it was like magic! I knew after that interview, I should talk to Allan more about the company's mission.

This is Milk Interview

Product Forge's mission:

When I asked Allan, the Managing Director at Product Forge, to describe the company you could hear the passion in his words: "Our mission is to support early stage entrepreneurs, as well as junior developers, designers and product managers, to give them experience working in cross disciplinary teams and knowledge of other sectors. The hope is that some of the teams go on to develop their ideas further."

Product Forge Hackathon

The Beginning to Present:

Product Forge was founded in 2014 when Allan realized he had been organising similar events since 2012 but with the market constantly growing, he knew he could take this opportunity to fill the demand. "I co-organised the first Scottish Startup Weekend with Michael and aside from the enjoyment of it, [I] wanted to further develop the format and longer term partnerships." Now Product Forge organise Hackathons, livestream local tech events, and startup events.

I love this description from their website: "We run hackathons with a twist; our hack events develop teams and products that tackle society's hardest challenges. Participants use design thinking and digital technology to rapidly prototype their ideas, with support from mentors who have real world commercial experience."

Product Forge Ideas

Every startup has their challenges and sometimes do not realize welcoming the struggles and finding communities, such as Product Forge and RookieOven, can really help them survive and prosper within today's demanding tech culture.

Who builds up the team?:

Product Forge, like most startups, consists of a small team of hardworking people. Allan, as we said earlier, is the Managing Director and there are two others: Michelle Caulfield, the Events Coordinator, and Jakub Tansey, the Videographer. Together, they travel to continue their mission, providing support via videos to startups across Scotland.

Product Forge Group

What is your business model?

Product Forge is self-funded and bootstrapped. They use event sponsorship to partner with "organisations who want to practice open innovation or support early stage entrepreneurship in their sector."

Get to know them more:

You can find Product Forge’s offices in TechCube, Edinburgh's first privately funded technology incubator which was founded by Olly Treadway with support from TechMeetup volunteers. Allan and his team are very excited to hear from startups so don't hesitate to check out their websites, videos, and even give them a call!

Pokemon Go Trail

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I think it’s time we talk about Pokemon Go or as I like to see it as "dreams coming true for every.single.90’s.kid". It is hard to contain my excitement for our next event, Pokemon Go Trail, which is a way for tech companies within Scotland to get together, network, support a charity, AND embrace their inner child with Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Go Trail Flyer

Nostalgia at it's best:

I genuinely can't help hearing the first few notes of the theme song and breaking out into...

“I WANNA BE the very best, like no one ever was! To catch them is my real test, to train them is my causssseeeeee. I will travel across the land, searching far and WIDE, teach Pokemon to understand, THE POWER THAT’S INSIDE!"

I'm sorry I can't it's just when I hear it...

"POKEMON! GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALLLLLLLLLLLL! It’s you and me, I know it’s my DestINY, POKEMON! OHHHHH you’re my best friend, in a world we must defend, POKEMON, GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL!”

#trainerstyle

I remember being a tween, with my chocker necklace on, bright blue eyeshadow, bell-bottom jeans, oversized tye-dye shirt, worried about my Tamagotchis (gotta feed that b*tch!) and playing my Gameboy feeling like the coolest kid on the block. I adored everything of my generation, but Pokemon blew them all out of the park.

I grew up in the States, so my childhood gems might be different from others but it doesn’t change the simple truth that Pokemon has brought all generations together. Looking back, I remember geeking out over the trading cards, I was on top of the world playing the Nintendo games and every single weekend I’d run over to my neighbour’s house in the mornings to watch the 3 hour Pokemon marathons. I even remember the first Pokemon I ever won from my brother – Cubone.

Pokemon Go Cubone

Pokemon Obsessed:

To this day he is still my favourite and the moment I caught him via Pokemon Go, I felt all those memories rush back. I am a real Pokemon Trainer.

And I’m not alone!!

Pokemon Go has influenced all generations, not just us 90’s kids. I truly believe it’s a wonderful and groundbreaking app which has brought joy to many individuals. Which is why Digital Media and RookieOven decided the Glasgow Tech Scene needed a Pokemon Go Trail.

Pokemon Go Trail Event:

This weekend, August 14th, we invite you to come join us as we divide into teams and compete while drinking, eating, supporting a good cause, and catching Pokemon.

The event starts at our studio, RookieOven, and the trail continues throughout Glasgow till we ultimately end at WEST Brewery for final drinks and prizes! The goal is to have fun while also supporting the Macmillan Cancer Support.

If you're an individual or a big group, you are all welcome to come! We also highly recommend grabbing your best sneakers and gloves because there will be prizes for the best dressed and best team!

Oh yeah, it's FREE! Simply RSVP and turn up at 12:00 PM.

Last Tips & Naysayers:

Here are some tips for the evening:

We will be walking a lot so we recommend wearing comfy shoes.
Highly recommend bringing your portable chargers as a backup for your Pokedex.
Water is always a smart choice.
#trainerstyle is not a must but totally gives you points (ehem PRIZES!).

I know there will be some naysayers out there but here are my thoughts on that: Who could actually have a bad time catching imaginary monsters while eating and drinking copious amounts of alcohol and vittles? WHO? TELL ME! I will find them, take them to find Pikachu, and if they don’t feel like the best damned Pokemon Trainer there ever was then I’m probably just secretly part of Team Rocket.

I can't wait to see everyone on the 14th and you better believe we're going to catch them all! Check out more details via the event page!

Be there or be a Derpy Lamasaur!

Startup Spotlight: Appointedd

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Appointedd Logo

Appointing you in the right direction:

Bad pun aside, we’ve seen companies help organise businesses before but Appointedd has it’s own special touch within the booking industry. This online booking and business management software company has taken Scotland by storm! I got an opportunity to talk with Marc Blake, Appointedd’s Marketing Manager to discuss more about this fantastic startup.

Marc describes Appointedd as a company which “allows all kinds of different small, independent, businesses to take online bookings from their website, Facebook and really any online presence. Then once that booking is made the software can manage that booking right the way through their business. The whole business can be managed all in one place.”

How a frustration became an inspiration:

Appointedd Leah

Leah Hutcheon, CEO of Appointedd, grew incredibly frustrated that booking anything would always be a pain. As a magazine editor, Hutcheon was always on the go and used to a busy schedule which needing to manage everything online. “The only thing she couldn’t seem to book was my hairdresser appointments, or anything engaging with independent businesses. She thought if she had that problem, who else was experiencing this too.” As this frustration grew she realised that this could be something huge for companies, big or small, thus Appointedd began.

Small but mighty:

“We are a small but growing team. We had 4 team members at the start of the year and we’ve now grown to 8 in the last few months.”

Leah Hutcheon, CEOBilly Jones, Lead DeveloperGreg Dickson, DeveloperChris Brunton, DeveloperClare Mackay, Head of PartnershipsMarc Blake, Marketing ManagerKirsty McLaughlin, Customer Experience ExecutiveScott Hutcheson, DesignerOscar

Their chairman is Kenny Fraser of Sunstone Communication (he's actually based in RookieOven and runs weekly office hours - book in if you need some advice) and Marie Macklin CBE is a Non Exec Director.

How they funded their online based startup:

Funding is a challenging task, especially when your company is based online. Do you use ads or do you seek investors? Appointedd went through two rounds of funding primarily through investors. Investors include Gareth Williams (Skyscanner), Marie Macklin (Macklin Enterprise Partnerships), Equity Gap.

See more about their funding on their blog.

What is your business model?

Appointedd is a subscription based model. Customers can sign up for a 14 day free trial of Appointedd with no credit card required. They have four price points:

Standard at £10 per monthPremium at £35 per monthSuper Powered at £45 per month

They then have bespoke pricing for enterprise customers.

Appointedd Converter

Find out more here:

You can find Appointedd’s offices in the centre of Edinburgh. “We share our office space with fashion app Mallzee and are incredibly lucky to be round the corner from Codebase and Skyscanner.”

Get Involved at VentureJam

Tue, 02 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

VentureJam is a unique opportunity for 40-50 young people in Scotland. Young Scot and Glasgow City of Science are running a weekend ‘Jam’ that will see teams of young people developing fresh ideas that embrace the digital world to solve real world challenges. Throughout the Jam the young people will have access to a team of inspirational mentors from the world of television, gaming, product design and 3D animation as well as legal experts and environmental gurus. Young Scot will be there to guide the participants through the co-design process.

Venture Jam 2016 Logo

All the young people taking part in the weekend will get the chance to pitch their best ideas from the Jam weekend to top innovators and investors at Venturefest on the 1st September 2016, 'Dragon’s Den' style.

When/Where is VentureJam Taking Place?

VentureJam is taking place this weekend (from 5 – 7 August 2016) at the Glasgow Science Centre, 50 Pacific Quay, Glasgow G51 1EA. The Agenda looks like:

Celebratory Launch Night: Friday 5 August (6-8pm)
Jam Activity: Saturday 6 August (10am - 4pm)
Sunday 7 August (10am - 3pm)

There may be an additional perfect your pitch coaching session ahead of the final pitches at Venturefest Scotland (1St Sept 2016).

Who can apply?

VentureJam is open to groups of around five people; although people can apply as individuals. There's going to be a huge group of lively young people aged 14-20 living in Scotland with a range of interests. No experience required and you can learn over the weekend what it takes to make a real product.

Venture Jam 2016 Group Photo

Whatever their thing, we want the young people get excited about working in teams to create new ideas (products, games or even interactive art installations) to make our lives and our environment better, including the air we breathe.

How to apply?

Firstly it’s free! Teams and individuals should simply complete the online application form the VenvtureJam website.

Food is provided throughout and travel costs can be reimbursed.

Good luck to those taking part!

Happy Birthday Open Tech Calendar

Wed, 27 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

We have a special shout out to Open Tech Calendar to wish them a Happy 4th Birthday! There are a lot of unsung heroes in the Scottish tech community that work extremely hard to create a more vibrant and successful tech industry in Scotland. Open Tech Calendar is a prime example of this so let's help them celebrate turning 4.

Happy Birthday Open Tech!

I talked with James Baster, the Android and web developer who helped create Open Tech Calendar. Baster has always been up for meetups, getting himself evolved with the Edinburgh Tech Meetup, presenting and help running it, for over a year and decided the Scottish tech community needed an easier way to locate and promote events. We are really glad he did because this site has become one of our go-to’s for finding and advertising meetups for RookieOven! It’s a fantastic site and while talking to James I got to hear about their journey to their 4th birthday!

Open Tech Calendar is when it comes down to is driven by passion with a lot of freedom, for example they have no offices and working from home or wherever they so please. James says their funding “the site’s only income has been our sponsors, who have very kindly supported us.” All of this allows them to dedicate their time to helping people find great tech events near them. James says “We also help the tech community work together for everyone’s benefit. We provide a platform of Open Data to make the data more useful and for others to build on.”

He explains that Open Tech strives to be a directory for tech events rather than “take over”, more of a way to help promote links on their homepage. “We try and make it really easy to add events, and employ several UI/data tricks to try to make sure our data is kept up to date.” Really they are giving companies like RookieOven another platform to spread the news about great events like our Monthly Meetups (Next one this Monday! August 1st)

Celebrating 4 years:

James went on to tell me about how the idea of Open Tech came about:

“Open Tech calendar was started in July 2012 after a similar calendar run by Tech Meetup was accidentally destroyed. Tech Meetup always was and still is a place to bring the community together, and we thought that was a great thing that should be encouraged. For instance, they have always had space during their events for other announcements.

We set out to create a calendar that made the data more useful in terms of filtering, could welcome more contributors in a safer manner and crucially, was less likely to be accidentally destroyed. Our initial version was a rough website launched using an Open Source wiki platform in a long weekend (Mediawiki + hacked plugin). However, it was clear from the response to this that the community was interested.

We grew over time. We moved to our own custom platform as it quickly became clear that there were UI/UX challenges that our initial platform couldn't handle. We Open Sourced our own custom platform in Feb 2014.”

For their 4th birthday they launched https://find.techin.scot/ to experiment with a different approach to find the best way to reach the tech community within Scotland. "We are constantly trying different ways to get the message of what we do across and working on our UI...We will be looking for other data sources to add to this site!"

So how do you fund something like Open Tech:

James says "Simply sponsorship. We view Open Data as a very important thing for us and our embrace of it is one of the things that has made Open Tech Calendar the platform it is. This causes problems for us sometimes in terms of measuring our impact and persuading people it’s worth their time to add events, but we just embrace the openness and do what we can."

Best Wishes:

Well Open Tech, RookieOven is definitely a fan and wishes you guys another wonderful year and a very happy birthday!

Find out more about Open Tech via:

Scotland vs London

Fri, 22 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Last week I was down in London for a few days working out of a coworking space called Wimbletech and it really got me thinking of the pro's and con's to being a startup based in Scotland vs being a startup based in London. London is one of the largest business hubs in the world and home to an ever growing startup scene but is it better than being based in Scotland?

Access to finance

One of the most obvious benefits to being based in London is access to finance. It's much easier to get investment at an early stage and investors are less risk averse. There's simply more investors, more money and it's easier to access it. But I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing.

In Scotland it might be much harder to raise even a seed round but it just means we need to build different types of tech businesses. If we can't get finance at an early stage then we maybe need to be generating revenue from the outset, have a solid, validated business model and living within our means but that in itself has benefits. It can result in more sustainable businesses where the founders retain ownership.

Even though we might not have the same access to finance doesn't mean we don't have any. There are plenty of startups in Scotland that have raised money and some of the fastest growing companies in Scotland still rely on investment from London based firms.

Access to talent

I'm a strong believer in the power of people. The right people can turn a bad idea into a great product and the wrong people can turn a fantastic idea into a disaster of a product.

The population of London alone is higher than the whole of Scotland and in being one of the largest business hubs/cities in the world it has a draw to it - many of my peers from my Computer Science degree moved to London when they graduated - so startups in theory should have their pick of the bunch. The problem is competition.

There's so much activity in the London tech industry that makes it so competitive finding talent. Scotland has its issue's here too, banks like JP Morgan and HSBC are growing their tech teams here and the likes of FanDuel, Amazon and Skyscanner are hiring like crazy.

But I do feel there is a wealth of talent in Scotland. Glasgow alone has 3 Universities all running good Computer Science courses, with business schools and world renowned design schools all producing thousands of talented graduates every year. Our problem has been in retaining that talent but with more well paying, secure jobs in tech cropping up (even if they are with a bank) it will grow our talent pool, slow down the brain drain to London and make a stronger tech industry in Scotland. Vs London I think Scotland is very well placed for talent.

Vibrant community

On any given day of the week and at any time of the month there's going some kind of event on in London. General meetups, niche meetups, language user groups, parties etc etc all happening. It means there's a lot of networking, sharing of knowledge and real vibrancy in the community. Scotland can't compete - that's both an weakness and an opportunity.

It's a lot quieter in comparison (although still a fair amount going on) but that means there's a lot less competition to get something up and running. Take RookieOven for example, we started as a monthly meetup and have grown into an amazing collaborative space and now an Academy. I've seen companies in Scotland startup user groups and meetups with the aim of engaging customers, talent and investors.

So what does your money get you?

So say you do raise a £100,000 seed round. How far would that get you in London versus Glasgow?

Well a mid level software engineer in London could be £60,000+, that same role in Glasgow could be filled for half that. In many cases the same level of talent, as I said many people with the same degree as me took up jobs in London straight out of University.

A fixed desk in TechHub in London can cost as much as £350+vat, a fixed desk in RookieOven is £175+vat. Again half the London price (plus RookieOven has a sweet pool table).

Then there's cost of living. In London you would be hard pushed to get a 2 bedroom flat for anything close to £1000 per month but in Glasgow you would be able to take your pick of city centre penthouses for £1000 per month.

Glasgow is clearly more affordable and you can get more bang for your buck.

A hybrid approach

I don't think in todays world we can afford to just shut ourselves off and make our own home cities their own little island. Going to London last week I left the house at 5 and even with a delayed flight was in London for 9am. There's been times I've went to Edinburgh and its taken me just as long (thanks Scotrail). London is really not that far away. Basing your business in Scotland doesn't mean you can't still be part of the London tech industry and benefit from the advantages of it.

Heck asides from that we're on the same timezone, (just about) speak the same language and with Hangouts/Skype/Slack/Github etc etc it's never been easier to work as a distributed team.

In the view of startups in Scotland looking to London; well get down there, build a presence, get involved with what's happening it's only a short flight away. And for startups in London, get out of the city and come look across the UK there's a lot of benefit to you spreading out and taking advantage of the resources outside London.

Startup Spotlight: Administrate

Fri, 22 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

We tend to look at businesses wondering “How did that come about?" It usually breaks down to someone noticing a need within the industry and filling that demand. Administrate started in a similar way, emerging from a training company to ultimately be the success they are today. RookieOven wanted to know more about their journey and where they are now. Luckily Jen Paton, an Operation Manager at Administrate, was happy to provide us with their story.

Administrate Cover

What they do:

Administrate is a training management solution for providers who would like to save time and money by streamlining their day-to-day administration. Training companies and departments use their products to manage their operations, increase bookings, and deliver exceptional learning. Jen says, “In terms of working at Administrate, our dream is to be the ‘Ultimate Human Organisation’ so we’re constantly thinking of different ways that we can be the best place to work. For example, last year the whole company moved to a 4-day work week but still gets paid for 5!”

It’s not just the awesome work week which makes Administrate great, but more importantly, it is their passion for learning and developing. This shines through each and every team member and they make it a must when introducing new employees. “Everyone attends a presentation by our CEO and CCO on our values and culture” and that’s not all, they value learning so much that they hold an annual conference in Edinburgh called Learning Innovation Technology Evolution, or LITE for short. Their aim is to bring like minded people together, with amazing speakers, to continue educating themselves and others. This year's line up include record breaking cyclist Graeme Obree and DOOM co-creator John Romero! We will definitely be there this September.

Administrate Conference

The Rest is History:

Around 2007 in Fort William, a training company was looking for a tool which would help manage their training business, but seeing as there were none, they decided to create their own for internal use. It did not take very long for them to see how successful their idea really was, they decided to share this useful product for other training providers. With a bit of funding and being welcomed by the market, the rest was history! According to Jen, the team has more than doubled last year and they have an ever-growing global customer base “currently at just over 280, and every day our customers (spanning 6 continents and over 25 countries) use our system to deliver education around the world.” Let say that again, OVER 25 countries, spanning across 6 continents are using Administrate to help maintain their training programmes!

Below are some of the key members of Administrate:

Administrate Team

Top Row: Chief Executive Officer - John Peebles, Chief Commercial Officer - Patrick Flanagan, Chief Technology Officer - Andrew Williams

Bottom Row: Chief Financial Officer - Derek Gardner, Chief Product Officer - Troy Michels, Marketing Director - Mike McGrail

What's their approach?:

They are predominantly funded by Archangels, one of Scotland’s longest running angel syndicates. Their business model is based on the importance to them that their customers “get real value from using Administrate, and our team structure and pricing reflect that.” They started as a subscription based fees, however last year they changed to a pricing structure to include a charge per learner booked on and using the software. Jen continues to explain “obviously the more learners a training provider has flowing through their books the more successful they are. We’re therefore, aligning ourselves with their success because it’s also in our interest that they do well! We have great support, implementation and account management teams in place to ensure that customers are successfully using our product and driving value for their businesses.”

Administrate Management

How to get in touch:

Administrate clearly values providing outstanding customer service, as well as, a good product. If you want to say hi, they are located within Codebase, an incubator for lots of tech startups, in Edinburgh. Jen refers their offices and Codebase as a place which “breeds a fantastic community.” and they'd love to hear from you.

Find out more about Administrate via:

Working On The Go

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Everyone at some point has to travel for work or work while traveling. This can be a wonderful, all-paid for, no hassle experience OR, the more common experience, a difficult and painful experience, but a necessity or convenience. For me it was the latter and though I pride myself of being a multitasking queen, I have no reign over the UK train system and thus had a terrible time trying to get anything done. So by learning from my mistakes, here are six gems of wisdom about what not to do while working on the go!

Working on the Go - Why it's a must for me:

Leisure travel is a foreign concept to me at the moment since I work part-time, have freelance gigs, and am completing a masters in journalism. I’m not actually complaining about the work; gahd no! I genuinely adore it! I get to write for an amazing company, film wolves and the landscapes of Scotland, and finish up some freelance jobs (wooo networking!). Though I won't deny this is a lot of work all within the span of two months! But fear not self, at the end of July all freelance gigs are complete and at the end of August my dissertation will be done. So for the next month and a half, I am channeling my spirit animal Leslie Knope allowing me to be a controlling, organization freak who can balance it all!

But sometimes you can't do it all:

However, this past week I admit I took way to big a bite and my gorgeous unicorn of a Knope morphed into Liz Lemon having a nervous breakdown. I was naïve, simple as that. I may have had all the right equipment (or so I thought), the motivation, and enough time but I did not factor in unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances…like trains breaking down. A lot.

Don't do what I did:

Here’s a quick summary of my past week: From Thursday to Monday I was in Poland for a two-day wedding and filming for freelance work, came back Monday and got packing to immediately head down to London to film wolves for my dissertation then back up for Friday to film in Oban, all the while maintaining RookieOven’s social media and blog posts. Everything was going pretty darn well even with a few hiccups along the way, until Wednesday. It’s 5 AM, I’ve got my coffee, my laptop, and I'm on the train. I’m ready to go! I'm in the mindset of "going to be productive for this 6 hour journey" and within an hour…everything.goes.wrong.

I was supposed to arrive for noon to have some wiggle room for filming, then I could get to my aunt’s and finish up some work to have a much needed sleep in the next day. Instead, my train was delayed so badly that over 3 hours’ delay and 5 trains in total I made it to Reading.

You might be asking yourself, “But Morgan, train’s have wifi! Why didn’t you do work there?” Oh dear friends I tried but I have never in my entire life encountered such horrible, spotty wifi in my entire career as a travel journalist. I even had Skype credit as a backup which gives you a bit of a hotspot with weak lines but NO, no wifi for me.

So I missed my interview, got to my aunt’s tried to do work but her internet was cut out as well. I was shit out of luck the entire trip, even on the train back I had the exact same issues. Now I would say I could write all day Thursday and Friday, which I tried to get as much done as I could between the catch up filming but again I put all my eggs in one horrible train basket which had me standing for most of the way back.

Six Gems of Wisdom:

But now I’m in Oban, it’s pouring down rain and I can’t film so I'm taking advantage of the strong wifi, a good cup of coffee and the wisdom I learned from this past experience.

1 - Don’t take on too much: If you’re traveling, be realistic about what you take on in relation to where you’ll be traveling. Ask yourself if you can genuinely manage that with no glitches or will you run into problems like I did?

2 - Prioritize your workload: I should have made a database before I left with research completed well in advance, even though I had prepared the social media enough the blog was lacking. I naively thought I would get time between trips but forgot to factor that people might not respond in said time. This means you might need to work some overtime to spare you the hassle during your trip or work on projects that are non-wifi dependent. Use the down time to improve projects rather than start them, it’ll calm your nerves and help you in the end with deadlines.

3 - Have all the right Equipment: Be as prepped as you can be with your equipment. Charge them the night before, have portable chargers, get a dongle with strong connection so you don’t have to worry for wifi-dependent tasks. Make sure when you’re stuck in an unforeseen jam that your tools can help you still be productive.

4 - Assign your tasks to the appropriate transportation: You may have 100 emails, 20 phone calls, 50 million notifications, and more that you need to respond to and some places are better than others to complete these tasks. If you know you have 30 emails and are having a coffee break, take that time to read them. You have 20 phone calls? Save those for journeys with a time limit, this way you can justify short, sweet, and to the point, while checking those off your lists. However, don’t be that person who talks super load the whole train or bus ride. We hate you, shh your face, go home. (No seriously, please be considerate of your surroundings.)

5 - Let your boss and clients know: set up an “out of the office” email, give them a heads up that you might not be able to respond for a bit, and be honest. Sometimes you can’t control all the plans, so if you’re honest and have already given advance notice, people will be more understanding if things go wrong.

6 - Give yourself a break: You’ve tried everything, you done all of the above, yet still everything is wrong. Take a break, enjoy the travel (though it might be hard due to stress), and accept that it was out of your control. Sometimes you truly cannot do anything about it until later, so keep your chin up and work hard when you can! If you’re lucky, you can even use the experience to create something like this blog post.

Startup Spotlight - Find A Player

Fri, 08 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Find A Player Header

Already being named the "Facebook for sports", Find a Player is your go to for sports, and I don’t mean just football or rugby. This app covers 140 sports and counting! Their goal is to make it easier for players to find each other and play the sports they love. It all started when Jim Law, the founder and CEO, got so frustrated with the experience of organising games of 5-aside football that he became determined to find a solution. Countless prototypes and proof of concepts later, Jim and a group of very clever and hard-working team members – John Hamelink (CTO), Lee McLaughlin (Head of Product), Andy Gilchrist (Creative Director), Owen O’Donnel (Chairman), Duncan Brown (IOS Developer), and Kush Mishra (Android Developer) – created Find a Player.

Find A Player Meet the Team

The Press has beamed with compliments for Find A Player:

"A key tactic for finding a ringer for your team." – the Sun
"Takes the hassle out of running your sports team." – Sport Review
"Glasgow entrepreneur creates app to make five-a-sides-call-offs a thing of the past.” – Evening Times

What makes Find a Player so unique, and our pick for this week’s Startup Spotlight, is they are a sports company that runs like a tech startup. John Hamelink, the CTO, says “we’re an interesting bunch…everything is measured and analysed. We’re working with some really talented people and it shows in our product.” Find a Player’s business model focuses first and foremost on scale. Similar to other startups, their “mission is to increase our user numbers as much as possible, so we can then position ourselves to be able to monetise our use base at a scale that would interest larger companies.” And they are doing a great job at that! Last year through Seedrs, a crowdfunding site, they raised £150,000 in just three days. Let me repeat: Just. Three. Days. With another fund raising event around the corner, Find a Player is doing a superb job with creating an app and listening to the needs of their audience.

Find A Player 140 Sports

You can find the team at either their office in The Whiskey Bond or their desk space at RookieOven. They welcome everyone to check out their site and social media to stay up to date:

Be sure to download the free app available via the App Store and Google Play.

Find A Player Download

RookieOven Academy - Demo Day

Mon, 04 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

For the past 5 weeks, RookieOven has watched three groups of incredibly talented, bright, and tech savvy individuals come together to create their own start-up business plan through RookieOven Academy. Our major purpose, as Michael put it, was to "further their abilities in digital and wanting to flex their entrepreneurial muscles" and I can tell you, they did not disappoint! RookieOven is happy to declare Demo Day as a big success.

It has been awhile since we blogged about our Academy, not out of any negative connotations, in fact it was the exact opposite. We became so enthralled with the academies progress, as well as working with our current clients, we genuinely devoted all our time to focusing on them rather than blogging. However, we’re back to tell you about the final week – Demo Day.

To Recap:

The goal for each group was to come up with product ideas and turn them into the foundations of a solid business. The weeks were as follows:

Creative Thinking with Chris Sloey, cofounder of Add Jam
Business Models with Rohan Gunatillake, founder of Mindfulness Everywhere
Digital Design with Graeme McGowan, cofoudner of Jamhot
Digital Marketing with Ashley Baxter, founder of Insurance by Jack
How to Pitch - Cally Russell founder Mallzee
Demo Day with our panel of experts and investors

As the Weeks Progressed:

The three groups brain-stormed some fantastic ideas:

Visual To-Do – using your senses and visual representation to help you remember your to-do lists.
Simple Animations – a high quality animation tool for the “every day Joe/Sally” to make their drawings come to life.
Tourist Information – an app which filtered tourist attractions to your personal preference without all the internet chaos.

However, as many entrepreneurs know, your first idea might not be the same as the final, a lesson the students quickly picked up on. After a few weeks of playing around with ideas and business plans, the outcome for each was as follows:

Elegance – We are all different, our smiles, our laughs, but specifically how we like to represent ourselves. Many find make up to be a third arm, an extension of how they express themselves but finding the right products can be daunting. This group created an app which allows the user to not only match their skin tone but also set preferences such as vegan, cruelty free, price, etc.
ATMO – According to My Opinion (ATMO) is an app made for people who are awful at remember exact names but can remember details to the T. If you are someone who gives directions like this: “first you’re going to come to a huge tree, take a left, keep going till you see the burger joint, but if you see a graveyard you’ve gone too far”- this is an app for you. This app helps train your mind to remember your to-do’s by using visual aids and sounds.
RC Products – Remote Control Smart Chair aim is to relinquish the back pain we all know too dear. Sitting at your desk for hours and hours can be extremely harmful to your lower back and have some terrible consequences. With the RC Smart Chair, you will be able to analyse your sitting habits to then customize settings to create the perfect and healthy work chair.

The Final Countdown:

Each team had to create a pitch to sell their product to the experts and investors, this can be a scary task however each group hit it out of the park.

Investors listening to pitches

The guys were gentlemen and it was ladies first pitching Elegance:

Group one pitching Elegance

Next was ATMO group which unfortunately had a prior engagement but didn’t leave us hanging and created a film presentation with Michael stepping in to help pitch their idea:

Michael pitching ATOM

Last but not least, RC Products with their Smart Chair:

Group two pitching RC Products

Results:

Each pitch had a clear vision and very thought out business plans. The academies had fantastic confidence and really shinned as they proudly explained their products. We couldn’t be more proud of each group however Demo day was a competition.

Coming in first was Elegance with their beauty app:

Participants Winners

Runner ups was RC Products and their Smart Chair:

Participants Second Place

And lastly, third place was ATOM and their visual to-do list.

But truthfully, as corny as it may sound, they were all winners! Though that is a wrap on the first ever RookieOven Academy, we look forward to the next set of creative, bright minds that will help shape the future of technology. Keep a look out for their work, these guys are definitely paving the way for our tech future.

Thank you:

Last but not least, this could not have happened without the help of Skills Development Scotland and Glasgow City Council. RookieOven would like to thank everyone involved. Programmes like this are here to help encourage younger generations and support their ideas. As artists and inventors, we survive with the help of those who believe in our work and ideas, without that we would not see some of the amazing technology we have today. These guys are truly the voice of the future and we are beaming with pride as we help them follow their dreams. Thank you again to all involved and we look forward to the next Academy. For now, we bid you all ado and leave you with our studio mascot, Indy, who embodies our feelings after so much hard work:

Indy Sleeping

RookieOven Academy - Day Two

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Our aim with the RookieOven Academy is to develop viable product idea's. Last week Chris from Add Jam helped us generate idea's and in our second session the excellent and inspirational Rohan Gunatillake (founder of Mindfulness Everywhere) joined us to share advice on business models. With the advice and insight into Rohan's experiences our groups were well placed to develop workable, viable business models for their ideas.

Day Two Speaker - Rohan Gunatillake

Rohan shared how he got started in business and the story of his business Mindfulness Everywhere. Mindfulness Everywhere is a two person company that has grown from his passion for mindfulness. In 2014 he launched Buddhify on iOS. The app is unusual in being a 'Level 5' app, this means it has a cost of $5 on the App Store and is a one off payment. Many competitors to Buddhify are based on subscription services with a very limited free offering.

Buddhify on iOS

Buddhify was hugely successful on iOS and soon after an Android version launched. Initially this was priced the same as the iOS version but Rohan found buyers on the Android platform were more price sensitive than those on iOS and he adjusted the pricing to $2. He noted how it's important to analyse performance and react when the product is underperforming.

Of note Rohan finds iOS generates 5 times as much revenue as Android.

Business Model vs Revenue Model

One of the core pieces of advice Rohan shared was a distinction between a business model and a revenue model. Rohan identifies a revenue model as how you make money for your business; one time sale, subscription, licensing etc etc. But a business model is how your business exists.

This makes your business model much deeper than just how you make money. It includes how you talk to customers, how you find them, how you treat them after you've sold to them and even includes how you treat your employees.

Creating more products

Rohan didn't stop with Buddhify. He used his learnings from this product to create a suite of mindfulness products such as Cards for Mindfulness (a successful Kickstarter campaign), Sleepfulness App (a free app with in app purchases), his book This is Happening and now Kara a mindfulness app for cancer patients.

With each new product Rohan builds he uses learning and real world feedback from customers to make better and better products. With all these products sitting in the field of mindfulness and mental wellbeing they drive referral sales across the business. Customers who love Buddhify bought into the Cards for Mindfulness Kickstarter. Customers who discovered the Cards via Kickstarter can become Buddhify users.

Mindfulness domain expert

Lastly with creating such a suite of products in the field of mindfulness it's made Rohan a domain expert. He is now sought out for opinion and commentary by the press and often invited to speak at conferences around the world. This in turn then drives more sales for his products.

Top tips

Rohan was immensely giving of his time and in giving open, honest insight into his business. The biggest take away for the young people in the Academy being:

Don't just think how you'll make money, figure out why your business exists and how it will exists
Try new things. Rohan has constantly pushed himself into new territory. Whether that be physical products like Cards for Mindfulness or becoming a published author with his book This is Happening.
Grow your reputation. Become a domain expert and it will open doors for you and your business.
React when thing's don't work out. Rohan was quick to change the pricing for Buddhify on Android when he noticed it wasn't having the same growth as on iOS.
Sometimes it's good to copy what your competitors are doing but equally there are times where it's worthwhile doing something different so you stand out.

In all Rohan was hugely inspirational to the Academy participants and gave them a unique chance to learn from one of the biggest talents in Scottish tech.

Exercise

Academy exercise time

Following Rohan's excellent talk we moved onto a short exercise. We tasked the groups (formed in our first session) to come up with some innovative and different business models for some every day items. Milk, crisps and golf balls.

The creativity from participants blew me away again. For milk we had suggestions of dairy only restaurant and milk subscription services. Crisps we had crowdfunding of custom flavours, liquorice and toffee flavour anyone? Well by using crowd funding you could presell a flavour and make sure it was financially viable. And for golf balls we had balls with beacons in them so you can find them and golf balls in the post, 3 new balls a month for a flat fee of £3.99.

The exercise was there to show we can look at every day items and apply a new business model to them. This got us all thinking of how we could apply a model to our own idea's that we are developing through the Academy.

It's ok to change your plans

One thing we're doing with pride at the Academy is failing. It's ok if things don't work or we decide to ditch it - as long as we learn from it. With this being the second week of the Academy our initial idea's didn't all stand up to scrutiny when trying to apply a viable business model to them.

Visual to-do list - this idea is still being worked on but has changed to now be aimed at businesses and there is talk of white labelling the product.
Make up when you need it - this idea aims to make it easier to get make up as and when you need it. Depending on seasons and maybe even your calendar it will help you make sure you have the right make up you need.
Smart chair - bad posture is a serious problem. People sat at their computer all day can do some serious damage. What if a chair could react to their sitting and adjust itself to make sure the person sitting on it doesn't cause damage to themselves. What potential could it have for disabled people?
Content for teens - there's so much noise on the internet. How do you find the good stuff? This group aim to create a platform where content sources can be curated and the best content can be discovered.

Next Week Design and Branding

Before the next session all the teams will be having a think about their idea, talking to people for feedback, getting advice and iterating on what they're doing but also starting to develop the basis of a brand. Next week Graeme McGowan founder of Jamhot will be on hand to share his experience on branding and digital design.

Resources

Slides used on the day are available here feel free to use them in your classroom, if you do let us know.

RookieOven Academy is supported by Glasgow City Council and Skills Development Scotland

RookieOven Academy - Day One

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Education is having a hard time keeping up to speed with the fast moving world of tech. In the tech industry there's not a day goes by there isn't a new Javascript framework or a new design language or new device launched. Contrast that with Scottish schools where languages like Basic are the norm and digital marketing is an after thought. That's why in March we announced the RookieOven Academy. The RookieOven community is made up of amazing talent that works at the forefront of technology and digital innovation. Using our community we're giving young people an unparalleled opportunity to learn from leaders of the Scottish tech industry.

Format

Over the course of the Academy participants will team up and develop a product/business concept over the six two hour sessions. Each of the six session will have a particular theme and an 'inspiration speaker' each night that will impart knowledge and been on hand to give advice.

Welcome to RookieOven

Creative Thinking - Chris Sloey cofounder Add Jam
Business Models - Rohan Gunatillake founder Mindfulness Everywhere
Digital Design - Graeme McGowan cofoudner Jamhot
Digital Marketing - Ashley Baxter foudner Insurance by Jack
How to Pitch - Cally Russell founder Mallzee
Demo Day - a panel of experts and investors

Day One Speaker - Chris Sloey

Our first session kicked off with Chris Sloey, cofounder of Add Jam, helping us understand how to come up with idea's for real, useful products that people would use and pay for. Add Jam create software products on mobile (iOS and Android) and the web for clients around the world and launch their own products so this is something they do often. Chris shared insight from the front line of creating high quality software products. Top tips from Chris include:

Start with a problem.
Embrace your hobbies and interests. You have such good knowledge of your own hobbies that you should be able to identify problems plus you'll have an interest/passion for it which will make it more worthwhile to work on it.
Start simple. You don't need to spend weeks and months developing a grand product, start small and build it up over time.
Get feedback. Speak to everyone about your product and get invaluable feedback early on.
Seek advice. Use knowledge of others to fill gaps you might have or to get a steer when you're unsure about things.
Experiment. Try things out and if it doesn't work that's ok because failing is good. Failing is often the best way to learn.

So now that Chris had given us some ideas from the inside of Add Jam and how they work and develop idea's we applied that through some short exercises.

Exercises

First thing we did as a group was to warm up our creative muscles. We did a couple of short challenges to help us do this. First up in 60 seconds we all had to name as many uses as possible for a random everyday item. Like a pencil, you can use it to write with and you can chew them but what else could they good for?

We had some really varied uses like a weapon, transporting things, building a tower or a part of a sling shot. All from something we usually just use for writing with. We did this a few times (and even tried it using colour to mix it up). Each time we were getting more creative and more relaxed to think outside the box.

Kevin Ormond delivering Academy session

With us all thinking more creatively we moved onto the next challenge. We teamed up, were given three totally random words and 10 minute time limit to come up with a product that we would pitch to the group. Random words were... well random. The teams had words like 'urban starship laboratory' and 'hot source whitespace'.

As challenging as the words were the groups delivered. Drones that pick up litter around cities, engaging app's that help people study to tourist information apps that have tight filters. We all came up with some amazingly diverse and really practical ideas that could be viable.

Pitching and teaming up

At that our pizza's arrived and we relaxed, got to know each other a bit better and talked over idea's and interested. After we were all well fed everyone had the opportunity to pitch a product idea. For those that didn't have a business idea that was ok, they listened to those that did and would team up with their favourite idea. For those pitching an idea it was their job to recruit a team to work on their idea.

Participants Pitching

This worked well and we have three teams and three excellent idea's:

Visual to-do list - lists aren't for everyone, a lot of people remember things through things like smell, sound and what they see. This team are looking into ways to help people remember things through visual representation of tasks all in a mobile app.
Simple Animations - everyone is creative. But digital tools for being creative are either complex, expensive or underpowered. This team want to make a web based tool to empower people to make high quality animations and distribute them online.
Tourist Information - there's so much noise on the internet. It's difficult to get the information that you want especially when travelling. This group want to make it easy to filter attractions and facilities by theme, culture and the strengths of each attraction so you can get the best experience possible in cities you visit.

What's next

Over the next week all the teams will be having a think about their idea, talking to people for feedback, getting advice and iterating on what they're doing. Next week Rohan Gunatillake from Mindfulness Everywhere will be on hand to share his experience and an overview of the products he's made like Buddhify on iOS and Android, Cards for Mindfulness a successful Kickstarter campaign, his book This is Happening and Sleepfulness App on iOS and Android.

Resources

Slides used in the day are available to download and use as you wish. Please do feel free to use them in your classroom, if you do let us know.

RookieOven Academy is supported by Glasgow City Council and Skills Development Scotland

Turing Festival 2016

Mon, 30 May 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Event wise in the Scottish tech community two events stand out, EIE which was at the start of May and Turing Festival which is on again this year in August. The two day conference has a focus on Product/People on day one and the return of Full Stack Marketing on the second day. The Turing Festival pulls in speakers from around the world and is insanely affordable at £149+VAT for an early bird two day ticket.

Product/People

At Product/People, you'll hear leaders in technology talk about what it takes to create great digital products and build growth businesses around them. The Turing team are lining up founders, CEOs, technologists, product leaders and designers to talk about topics like:

Product management
UI/UX and design
Hiring and culture
Process and tools
Engineering growth
Architecture and scalability
Data and analytics

Speakers include John Peebles of Administrate, David Cancel cofounder of Drift and Hilary Singer from Skyscanner.

Turing Festival 2016

Full Stack Marketing

Full Stack Marketing brings together digital marketers from a diverse range of backgrounds and disciplines for a sophisticated conversation about how the business and practice of marketing is changing in 2016.

You'll hear some of the biggest names in marketing and technology talk about how to create real, sustained growth in your business through smarter marketing. It's a full day of practical advice and cutting-edge insight, covering topics like:

Content marketing
SEO/search marketing
Conversion rate optimisation
Social and community
Analytics and data
Lead generation

Speakers include Rand Fishkin founder of Moz, Lexi Mills from PledgeMusic and Andy Young from 500 Startups.

Turing Festival 2016

Get your tickets

Tickets can be bought from the Turing Festival site and are currently for sale at an early bird discount. Venue is still to be announced as is the full speaker line up.

Keep calm and start talking

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Mental health is incredibly important yet something many founders neglect. We often pour ourselves into work and face the ups and downs of starting your own business. I think in general Scottish startups are good at being open about the challenges they're facing but rarely do we speak openly about our mental health. I'm excited to see Keep Calm and Start Talking taking place in RookieOven on the 21st of May. It's a free, one day, mental health awareness event being organised by Heather Evans.

What to expect

So what does a free mental health awareness event entail? On the day there's going to be crafts, tai chi demos, info for sufferers/carers and lots of cupcakes.

Keep Calm and Start Talking

Several local charities and services such as Breathing Space, CarrGomm, Bipolar Scotland, SeeMe, Scottish Recovery Network, Women’s Library, Sleep Scotland, Carers Trust, Mental Health Network Glasgow, VOX and the NHS Education Services are all offering support to the event and will be there on the day.

For updates check out the Keep Calm and Start Talking blog, like the Facebook page or follow Heather on Twitter.

Come for a cupcake

Keep Calm and Start Talking is on the 21st May from 10.00am to 4.00pm in the RookieOven Collaborative Space in Govan. See you there for a cupcake?

Punching above your weight

Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I think some people have a perception that RookieOven is a bit of a heavy weight. We have a stunning coworking space, our website is pretty nice, we've used an amazing photographer, we're active across social media and get a decent whack of press coverage. So obviously RookieOven has lots of resource, a lot of capital, public support and maybe even a private backer with deep pockets. That's not the case. RookieOven is entirely community led and has managed to do a lot for the Scottish startup community with very little resource. We really do punch above our weight and I hope it can serve as an example to others.

What we've achieved

RookieOven is now 5 years old. Starting as a crummy Wordpress site with a horrific theme and a meetup organised off the back of a few tweets. RookieOven has achieved a lot since those humble beginnings:

RookieOven Meets the Queen

RookieOven blagged press accreditation for major tech events like SXSW and Web Summit
Michael met the Queen
We helped organise the first Startup Weekend in Scotland
Created a strong, vibrant, open and collaborative community
Opened a fantastic collaborative space in Govan
Appeared in international press, from German Radio to major US publications.
Runner up for a ScotlandIS Digital Tech Award

It's that last point that inspired me to write this post. On the night it was RookieOven, largely a team of one, against Nucleus Finance who have a much larger team (and rightly deserved to win). It hit home how much RookieOven has been able to achieve with little resource.

So how did I manage it so far?

It's all about the people

If there's a single piece of advice I would like someone to take from the RookieOven story it's people. It's something I always bang on about. People are at the centre of everything you do.

In the case of RookieOven it's the excellent people that contribute to what we do. From the start people have responded to the idea of RookieOven (creating a better tech community) and that's allowed us to achieve so much with their help and support.

In your own business get this right and you can achieve so much. It's more important than raising money or holding onto your idea. Get a great founding team and continue to work with the best people possible as you grow your business.

Partner up

RookieOven wouldn't have the coworking space without Govan Workspace and Telcom. Govan Workspace work with us to provide the excellent working environment we have in Fairfield and Telcom provide us with one of the fastest internet connections in the city.

RookieOven collaborative space in Glasgow

It's again down to people, Pat and Rosie at Govan Workspace and Shaun at Telcom have faith in the RookieOven and responded to the idea of creating a better tech community.

In each of these partners they provide expertise and resource in areas RookieOven has no knowledge.

Just do it

Another secret to RookieOven, I just did it. I think a lot of my early drive and passion for RookieOven was fuelled by naivety but regardless of what caused me to do it the fact I actually acted on an idea means a lot.

One night I decided it would be a good idea to start a blog and 15 minutes later had the domain name and a site up. Not too long after I thought getting folk together for a regular meetup would be great too and I fired out a couple of tweets.

I didn't sweat over the details like a logo (still something we don't really have) or the name. I just went on a roll that hasn't really stopped over the last 5 years.

It was really the same with the collaborative space. I didn't know what I was truly getting into but I got off my bum and just did it. I was very proactive and I'm proud that we've now created a true asset for the Glasgow tech community.

Provide value, delight people

With everything I do I always try and provide some value. If that's Ashley taking our photo's I make sure and give credit as much as possible. If that's someone organising an event in RookieOven like Kyle Bremner or Stuart Mains I strive to make sure they're front and centre of it all.

Insurance By Jack in RookieOven, Glasgow

If it's a partner I likewise want to make sure they get value from working with RookieOven. I think over the years RookieOven has consistently been able to provide value and delight people in a number of ways despite not having a tonne of cash or people behind it.

In providing this value to people it's built loyalty, trust and a great reputation for us.

Be ambitious

Be ambitious and keep plodding on. I'm proud of RookieOven but it's by no means finished. We're just setting out on setting up the Academy and I'd love the space to grow and to see Govan once again become the forefront of Glasgow technology.

So let's see where the next 5 years will take RookieOven.

Insurance By Jack in RookieOven, Glasgow

Press Start

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT

We all work hard. From the startups in Glasgow to the giant organisations and even the public sector so let's get together, play some video games and doing a bit of light networking. Press Start is a new regular meetup in Glasgow aiming to do just that and the first event is coming up on the 21st of April.

What to expect

The first Press Start on the 21st of April and will feature:

The Glasgow Startups Pool Championship
Casual Table Tennis
Card games (Cards Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens etc)
Retro Video Games - SNES, N64
Mario Kart on the WiiU
VR Fun with Oculus and Google Cardboard

If you have a cool game or a piece of retro goodness feel free to bring that along too.

The event is non-profit and all equipment and games have been donated. Entry Price is £4 via Eventbrite this covers the cost of beer & pizza. Attendees can choose to donate £1 or £2 that will be used to buy more games and consoles for future events or if you have any old games you don't want, donations would be greatly appreciated.

RookieOven Collaborative space Glasgow

Getting there

Really easy to get to RookieOven for the event. The Govan Subway station is a 5 min walk from RookieOven and area is well served by Fast-Link buses from the city centre.

By car RookieOven is close to the M8 (Junction 25) and the Clyde Tunnel. There's secure onsite parking through the big gate of Fairfield Shipyard Offices.

Get involved

The night is being organised by a RookieOven tenant, Stuart Mains founder of ActiveREFER. Any questions or suggestions get in touch with Stuart - stuartmains@gmail.com

Launching our academy

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

RookieOven is actually approaching 5 years old. It all started in 2011. On the back of a failed startup I thought it would be a good idea to gather founders and enthusiasts from across Glasgow. My thinking being that by getting together for a few drinks we could offer advice and support to each other.

I fired out a tweet or two, set a date and surprisingly almost 30 folk showed up. From these simple beginnings we've grown a solid community of founders and people passionate about Scottish tech. I think we bring real value to the Scottish tech ecosystem but there's way more we could do. For a start what about the next generation of talent? I think RookieOven is well positioned to help them.

The Academy

We're working alongside Glasgow City Council and Skills Development Scotland to run a startup school for 16-18 year olds from Glasgow. Participants will be asked to come up with product ideas and over the course of the The Academy turn them into the foundations of a solid business. Each week we will call on some of the most talented founders in Scotland to come in and share their top tips, impart some amazing advice and provide inspiration to the young people.

RookieOven in Fairfield

RookieOven is home to businesses trading all over the world. From improving tourism in the Bahamas to making our farmers more efficient, companies in RookieOven are changing the world. And the people doing it are some of the brightest in the country. It will be an inspiring experience for the young people in The Academy to join us in our everyday work environment and have close proximity to this type of talent.

What will they learn

Our aim for The Academy is to unleash the creativity of the talent young people taking part. We'll work through creative and design thinking. We'll introduce participants to these concepts then take the output from this and make their idea's into viable and sustainable business with a valid, modern business model. We'll then work to market the product and communicating it effectively. This is all leading up to a Demo Day where participants will pitch their concept to a panel of industry experts. At this point participants will have the foundations of a business.

School is often a world away from the reality of the workplace never mind the reality of starting a digital business. We can make a huge difference to these young people.

Get involved

We're not necessarily looking for academic achievers. We want young people with a natural talent, that relish a challenge and have a passion for tech, design and innovation. Real passion will shine through on your application and will impress us more than straight A's and academic achievement.

All those accepted will have to commit to participating fully in the academy and will need availability from the 31st May until the 1st of July and able to come to the RookieOven Coworking Space in Govan.

Any questions get in touch on Facebook, Twitter or email michael@rookieoven.com

Press Pack available here but get in touch if you have any questions

Dress Me

Mon, 29 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

A lot of people are shocked to discover I've never been to San Francisco (in fact the last time I was even in America I was on a school trip at 13) but that's about to change. On Saturday I head over to California as part of the 2016 Cross Creative Programme with my Add Jam hat on. However I see an opportunity to help spread the word about the great businesses based in Scotland - I want you to dress me.

While in California I'm going to be visiting companies like Twitter, Facebook, IDEO, Dropbox, Unity and Pixar so why don't I wear branded tshirts and/or hoodies from Scottish startups?

I know it's pretty short notice but if anyone has tshirts or swag thy would like me to model in California drop me an email (michael@rookieoven.com) and I can arrange to pick it up from you.

I'm of course going to be posting my trip to the RookieOven social media (specifically Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) but also my personal accounts so keep an eye on my Twitter (@_MDHayes) or connect with me on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Tech Nation 2016

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Tech City, the London-based publicly funded, non-profit team focusing on creating the optimum conditions for digital technology businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive across the UK, has launched the 2016 Tech Nation report.

Tech Nation provides an overview of the UK tech industry. The research sheds light on the depth and breadth of the Digital Tech Economy across the UK, including Glasgow.

Tech Nation 2016

Glasgow was profiled by the Tech City team last year with Emma Swift, Senior Entrepreneur Relations Manager, paying Glasgow a visit in November. Thanks to input from across the Glasgow tech industry the Tech City team have been able to highlight the many assets our city has. The 2016 Tech Nation report shows our contribution to the UK industry as a whole and profiles local companies such as Adimo and Axis Animation.

You get get a copy of the report from Tech Nation 2016 homepage and I've included an infographic below with the findings of the report for Glasgow. The outcomes are encouraging. Particularly pleased to see our output of graduate talent highlighted as a strength, a great average salary (£46,864) and good growth in employment (13%).

Tech Nation 2016 infographic for Glasgow

Apply to take part in EIE16

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

A must attend event on the Scottish tech/startup calendar is the annual EIE (Engage Invest Exploit) event organised by the folks at Informatics Ventures. The event in Edinburgh takes place around May time each year and brings together companies across the tech, life sciences and energy sectors to showcase their organisations in front of a mix of press, investors and the public sector.

Now in it’s ninth year, EIE has grown to be the largest investor technology showcase in the UK. EIE Scotland focuses on technology investment opportunities from companies headquartered in Scotland. With events like EIE Scotland is fast becoming one of Europe’s most vibrant tech scenes.

Previous events have been covered on RookieOven such as the 2012 event where the amazing Sir Jackie Stewart delivered the keynote. Next year there will certainly be a great lineup of speakers that will inspire and educate startups however the main draw of the event is the startups exhibiting their products. EIE pulls in a fantastic mix of companies from across the country. From hardware to web and mobile there's a lot to see and it always show's the ability of Scotland to produce world class products and services.

EIE Signage

The EIE conference is the end point for companies exhibiting but their engagement with EIE starts much earlier with a series of workshops and bootcamps in the months leading up to the event. These include an excellent one day pitch workshop by 'Pitch Doctor' Bill Joos.

To take part in EIE 16 you need to get a move on. Applications close on the 30th of November and the programme of workshops will start early in the new year. Applications are through a form on the EIE website.

The work of Informatics Ventures doesn't stop with EIE. They also run events throughout the year such as iVenture Tuesday where business leaders share their experience and CEO masterclasses and workshops. There is one coming up this week in Edinburgh called "What CEO's Really Need To Know About New World Sales" with George Hall of Vistage leading the session. The event starts at 1.30 pm, with a sandwich buffet and networking available on arrival, and run through till 4pm. To take part sign up on the Eventbrite page.

Tis the season to party

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

2015 has been a mega year for the Scottish tech community. WE've had Fanduel crowned a Unicorn, CodeBase has continued to grow, Code Clan has started to educate the next generation of developers, 4J and Outplay are producing great things in Dundee and in Glasgow we opened the RookieOven Coworking Space and have grown even stronger as a community. Therefore it makes sense that as we approach Christmas and wind down 2015 we should get together an celebrate our hard work for the year. Thankfully across the country there's plenty of parties

Glasgow Tech Christmas Party

Tickets £10 - 22nd December

Come and join the creative crowds, digital disrupters, hustler entrepreneurs, the hackers, makers and shakers of Glasgow for one night in the city filled with holiday spirit, beer, delicious bites, good company and general merriment.

In 2014 the community had a great party with over 80 devs and entrepreneurs coming together and 2015 is going to be bigger. Unleash your best (ugliest) Christmas jumpers, Santa Hats and inner festive beast, and cheer to an awesome year in the Glasgow Tech world with likeminded people.

ScotStartups Christmas Party

Tickets £10-15 - 16th December

The community in Edinburgh know how to throw a party. Likely to be the largest social gathering of the Scottish tech community the ScotsStartup Party will be full of amazing companies and talent. All aiming to celebrate their hard work through the year.

There's sure to be plenty of drinks, food and entertainment to go along with the networking.

#Party Like a Boss

Tickets £10 - 17th December

You're the Boss? #PartyLikeABoss is a Christmas Party for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers and Self-Employed. Being held in The Whisky Bond on Thursday the 17th of December it's chance to have a Christmas Party of your own and have a chance to meet, party and network with other Creative and Business people from across Glasgow and Scotland.

A great line up of bands & DJ's, Drinks & Food all to be announced...

The Whisky Bond Christmas Party

Free - 10th December

Come and join the Whisky Bond community in The Distillery on Thursday 10th December from 6pm for music, food, drinks and general festive cheer. It's a great opportunity to meet those working in the building and the local area. There'll be food and drinks available until they last and then it's BYOB.

Celebrate Christmas with Snook

Free - 11th December

A double celebration for Christmas and Snook's 6h birthday.

The evening will start with a short welcome and ‘Best of the Year' showcase of our work from 2015 before getting underway with the festive party spirit. The event will take place on Friday 11th December from 17:00 until 23.00 and we will also be providing food courtesy of Social Bite.

So plenty going on in our community. Be great to catch up with folks at these events, got so much planned for 2016 would love to share it with you all in person.

Missed anything? Let me know.

Making new friends

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

RookieOven is actually approaching 5 years old and has came a long way since the first meet up held in the Bier Halle on Gordon Street. Back then I was frustrated at the lack of community in Glasgow and threw out a few tweets and a blog post to try get local tech talent to meet in the pub for a catch up. To my surprise people responded and I met some amazingly talented people. Meeting amazing people is something RookieOven has continually given me the opportunity to do over the years and I hope it's given those that are part of the community the same benefit. That certainly happened in a spectacular fashion recently when Sir Alex Ferguson paid RookieOven a visit.

Sir Alex is a proud Govan boy born and raised and he hasn't forgotten his roots. In fact he donated money to the newly restored Fairfield Shipyard Offices that we call home. He was in Fairfield for the day to see first hand the amazing job Govan Workspace have done renovating the building. While in he took the opportunity to visit RookieOven and meet the innovative tech talent of his home city.

Sir Alex was telling the RookieOven tenants how he was just over in Silicon Valley meeting the team behind WhatsApp and he has recently launched a book in collaboration with venture capitalist Michael Moritz. RookieOven tenant Stuart Ashworth met Sir Alex and says says "It’s not every day a footballing legend comes into your office, so having Sir Alex Ferguson pop by was a bit of a surprise. He was genuinely interested in the work we were doing and everything that RookieOven and Govan Workspace are trying to achieve in Glasgow."

Later on that week myself and John Hamelink attended the launch party of Govan startup, (https://thisismilk.co.uk)[This Is Milk]. This is Milk is a consultancy business based just along the road from RookieOven in the Orkney Street Enterprise Centre. Founder Angela had reached out to RookieOven to invite us down being neighbors and all. The launch party had two speakers, Leah Hutcheon founder of Appointedd and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Meeting Nicola Sturgeon

Orkney Street Enterprise Centre falls within the First Ministers constituency and it was great to have Nicola in Govan recognising the area for being a hive of entrepreneurial activity. I can't think of any other countries where the leader of the country would help launch a young business in this way.

Myself and John took the opportunity to grab a quick 'Sturgeon Selfie' with Nicola just before she left. Hopefully next time she is in Govan she can pay us a visit in RookieOven like Sir Alex did and meet the many talented businesses in the coworking space and alongside us in Fairfield.

Transform your Pi into a platform for creative applications

Tue, 03 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Tingbot is designed to get your Raspberry Pi out of the drawer and back into your life. It lives in your home or on your desk; an internet-connected product. Our custom hardware and software transforms your Raspberry Pi into a platform for creative applications. Whether you’re new to code or an experienced developer, Tingbot has something to offer everyone.

The team behind Tingbot, NORD collective, is a team of designers and developers with a passion for making things together. The team is made up of Glasgow School of Art graduates and one of my former lecturers from the University of Strathclyde, Duncan Smeed. NORD collective have designed Tingbot for anyone who wants to experience the fun and joy of being creative with technology. You can design graphics, draw, connect to simple data feeds and make fun interactive apps. Use the touchscreen to make a doodle pad or make the programmable buttons control a robot. With Tingbot you’re free to make anything.

The desire to make Tingbot came from frustration at the under utalisation of Raspberry Pi's. So the team wanted to make something that made Pi’s easy to use and fun to tinker with, whilst looking cool enough to sit pride and place on desks or in homes. Tide (the Tingbot development environment) is the gateway to making apps for Tingbot. Download or create apps and run them on your Tingbot in seconds. Tide’s clever libraries make writing apps for Tingbot really simple.

Tingbot has been extremely well received at the UK Maker Faires through the intial development process. Now the team have taken to Kickstarter to raise capital to manufacture Tingbot at scale. The Kickstarter is live and as of writing is a quarter of the way to being funded already. If you like the looks of Tingbot get behind it.

Come say hello to Tech City

Fri, 30 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Next Wednesday (4th of November) is your chance to meet Emma Swift, Senior Entrepreneur Relations Manager, from Tech City. Tech City is a London-based publicly funded, non-profit team with a focus on creating the optimum conditions for digital technology businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive across the UK.

Tech City are responsible for the annual Tech Nation report that provides an overview of the UK tech industry. The event, held at RookieOven on the 4th of November, is an opportunity to showcase the best of the Glasgow tech community to Tech City in anticipation of the 2016 Tech Nation report.

Tech City Logo

Emma is in Glasgow to visit the RookieOven Co-working space but let's look wider than that. Let's get the best of the Glasgow tech community down to RookieOven to show what our city can do. We have an abundance of talent and some truly amazing companies so let's show Emma what we can do and how we can play a part in the wider UK tech industry.

With Tech City coming to Glasgow, we’re hopeful that we can strengthen ties between the Glasgow tech and start-up community and the exciting communities in Shoreditch and across the UK such as Newcaslte and Manchester.

For the day I've put up a wee event page so to get involved, sign up now or drop me an email to attend next Wednesday.

Product Forge 4 - Digital Participation

Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

This weekend sees the return of Product Forge, a hackathon series organsied by Allan Lloyds. This weekend sees a room full of talented people spending 3 days and 3 nights side by side developing new business ideas, overcoming challenges and bonding - sound good?

This will be the 4th Product Forge to be held in Scotland and is focused on the theme of digital participation (with a specific focus on libraries, social housing and personal finance). The event is being supported by the Scottish Government Digital Directorate and their head of digital communities, Alexander Holt, will be in attendance alongside Steve Perry, former CTO of Visa Europe and founder and co-creator of Visa Europe Collab.

Product Forge logo

The aim to get makers, developers and designers to team up and deliver new product prototypes around the theme.

The event takes place across several venues (unusual for a hackathon) which will allow participants to experience different working environments. Venues include TechCube, Victoria Quay and Creative Exchange.

RookieOven readers can register for only £5 with the code RO20. All tickets include meals, mentoring and 24hr access to the venue.

Closing out 2014

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

2014 had been a big year for me personally (thinking of posting a ‘Year in Review’ type post in the next few weeks) and I know a lot has been happening across the Scottish tech community in 2014. Raising money, exits and lots of new products launching. What’s going on in December to bring it all to a close?

Glasgow Tech Christmas Party

Date: 11th December (7.30pm)
Link: https://glasgow-christmas.eventbrite.co.uk

Folks behind Refresh, TechMeetup, RookieOven and a few of the local user groups are putting their heads together to bring Glasgow tech together for a Christmas do. Nothing too fancy; some booze, some food and a bunch of good people. Taking place in The Raven on Renfield Street and starting at 7.30.

Tickets are £10 to cover the cost of food and at least one drink.

Scottish Startups Christmas Party Edinburgh

Date: 17th December (6.30pm)
Link: https://makeitsocial.com/c/xmas/

Running once again, the huge Edinburgh do it well worth attending. The event will be at the Mash House, Hasties Close, 37 Guthrie Street (in the cowgate of Edinburgh) and doors will open at 6.30pm. The party promises to finish in the wee hours of the morning.

Tickets are tiered, with super early bird starting at £30 (final ticket will be £50).

YourTaximeter Product Launch

Date: 16th December
Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/yourtaximeter-product-launch-registration-14450145775

2014 has managed to squeeze in one final product launch. Edinburgh startup YourTaxiMeter are launching as a means for taxi companies across the country to take bookings. The team are excited to show off 5 months of hard work and have an open invite for the tech community to join them.

Hello Again

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Hello and welcome back to the RookieOven blog. There's a new look (and a new technology stack, will expand on that soon) but it's been quiet on the blog for almost a year. Apologies for that but I do have two very good reasons. Firstly I've been head down with my startup Add Jam where I work alongside Chris Sloey and make products and take on client projects, such as my work on the Future City Project in Glasgow. Secondly I've been working on opening the fantastic RookieOven Coworking space in Govan.

A home for the community

I previously wrote a post asking where the heart of the Glasgow tech community is. We see Edinburgh with both Codebase and TechCube doing great things for the startup community over in the east. They serve as a central focal point and offer reliable, repeatable space for meetups and other events. Glasgow was lacking this.

I use the past tense there because there's now a space in Glasgow with flexible and affordable desk space for startups and freelancers, a dedicated space for meetups and the ability to host hackathons. That space is RookieOven.

Yes, RookieOven is now a physical space for startups in Glasgow.

RookieOven Coworking Space Govan

A place of engineering excellence

RookieOven has found a home in the Fairfield Shipyard Offices in Govan. Once one of the largest and most famous shipyard in the world. The Fairfield Shipyard was at the forefront of the industrial revolutions and produced some of the fastest ships in the world.

Engineering excellence was the reason for the fame and accolades. Fairfield was the birth place of new technologies and I think is therefore a fitting place to house the modern innovators and technology companies of our city.

The space has been newly refurbished by Govan Workspace at a cost of almost £6 million. Govan Workspace stripped the interior back, undoing the horrid 'modernisation' of the 1970's to reveal the simply stunning design from 1890.

RookieOven Coworking Space Govan mezzanines

We're based in the Ship Drawing office. This room was once filled with draftsmen hand drawing plans for the ships constructed on the yard. Therefore there's tonnes of natural light and wonderful tall ceilings. It is without doubt the nicest working environment I've ever worked in.

Work hard. Play Hard.

We've aimed to build on the wonderful architecture and make the space a nice place to be. Somewhere you're happy being in, happy working all hours and someplace you look forward to getting to each day.

The space has two mezzanines which are dedicated for social/break out areas. One serves as a quiet space or library with a big comfy sofa and classic wingback chair. The other is the gaming space, large TV, xbox and a mini fridge.

RookieOven Coworking Space Govan Pool Table

Then on the ground floor, actually in our events space we have the pub style pool table. At Add Jam we use it daily even although we're not the greatest at playing. We've found it to actually be a great place to go and talk over problems and gab over business.

Fat Friday. Come Join Us.

The whole reason for the space is community. Add Jam gets so much from being surrounded by talented individuals and brilliant young businesses. It makes us up our game and we hope the same is true for others.

The space is available if anyone wants to run events or meetups and we love to meet new people. If you're in town for the day pop in and say hello and if it just so happens to be a Friday you're in luck.

RookieOven Coworking Space Govan mezzanines

Each week we have #FatFriday. Cakes, pizza, beer and even cookie dough cheesecake have made an appearance on a Friday. We get together, we drink, we stuff our faces and we talk about our week, our hopes for the week ahead or even just informally about our plans for the weekend. We love it when people come join us so if you want to come down one Friday drop me an email - michael@rookieoven.com

CodeClan - Scotland’s first digital skills academy

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Scotland’s first digital skills academy has welcomed its initial intake of 15 students, who are due to graduate in January 2016. CodeClan provides opportunities in vibrant digital sector with the aim of meeting the immediate and short term need for skilled software developers in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s support has been drawn from the £6.6 million made available to Skills Development Scotland to drive forward the implementation of the ICT and Digital Technologies Skills Investment Plan (SIP).

CodeClan logo

Speaking at the launch, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said:

“I’m delighted to be here at CodeClan today and to meet the first intake of students. They are already learning the skills that will help them embrace the wide-ranging and vibrant career opportunities the digital sector has to offer.

“The digital and ICT sector is very important to Scotland. It contributes over £4 billion GVA to the economy. Estimates show there are over 84,000 people working in digital or IT jobs across the economy as a whole and this number is rising fast. Scotland needs an estimated 11,000 new digital / ICT workers each year to meet current and future demand in the sector and we need to take urgent action to close this gap.

“We know this challenge will not disappear overnight, but CodeClan is a strong step in the right direction. By providing a pool of job-ready talent, CodeClan will not only help businesses to achieve their full potential, but also help Scotland build its reputation as a global player in the digital economy.

“As the flagship action of the Skills Investment Plan, and with business driving its design and offering, we welcome CodeClan’s potential to help meet the immediate need for software developers across Scotland, support for young people in becoming work ready and to play a part in the growth of both the digital / IT sector and the wider economy.”

An additional aim of CodeClan is to achieve a 40/60 female to male students balance. With tech being such a male dominated industry it's great to see a proactive approach in trying to improve the gender blance.

What's on in Scotland

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Been quiet on here (sorry about that but life and business get in the way) but thought it would be worth while and useful to do a quick rounding up of some great events that are happening over the coming weeks in Scotland. First up one up is on this weekend in Glasgow.

The Whisky Bond Summer Party

When: Saturday 30th August 2pm onwards
Cost: Free
Link: www.thewhiskybond.co.uk/summer-party/
I think we can get away with still saying it’s summer. The Whisky Bond is quickly establishing itself as a hub for arts and creatives but they are also engaging the tech community. The building is already home to Dynamically Loaded and IC Mobile Lab and at the Summer Party they have a few tech focused workshops through the day such as a session on soldering with the Arduino and a session called Contribute which aims to get people contributing to Open Source projects.

Ignite Office Hours

When: Friday 5th August
Cost: Free
Link: https://doodle.com/c52yqyyuantvuwmp
Paul Smith (@paul_a_smith) from the Ignite Accelerator in Newcastle is coming to Glasgow to run an office hours session through the afternoon on the 5th of September. Limited spaces available but free, you just need to book a slot on the Doodle. Great opportunity to get a grilling and advice from Paul.

Product Forge September

When: Friday 19th – Sunday 21st of September
Cost: free – £100
Link: https://productforge.io
Product Forge weekends are an opportunity for you to develop your career through practical experience. The events brings together entrepreneurially minded designers, developers and product managers. Participants form small cross-functional teams who work on a product concept over a weekend. Anyone is free to pitch an idea and everyone receives mentoring, meals and 24 hour access to the venue.

Also remember the September RookieOven Meetup is this Monday, 1st of September, in Arches Cafe from 6.30. We’ll be on the top floor on the couches as usual.

Anythings I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments.

Turing Festival 2015

Sat, 16 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMT

It's Festival Season over in the Capital with the Turing Festival brings digital technology into the Edinburgh Festival. It's a celebration of digital culture and creativity and previous years have been host to speakers such as Richard Stallman, Steve Wozniak and Jim McKelvey of Square.

After a year off in 2014 it's back this year and is now taking place over 3 days (21st-23rd August). Again it has a great line up that's relevant to the tech community in Scotland.

Day One: Full Stack Marketing

Day one is being billed as 'Scotlands best marketing event'. Organised by the guys at Stipso the speaker line up includes some of the biggest names in inbound marketing such as Moz, Unbounce and Hubspot.

Full Stack Marketing lineup

I think across Scotland there's no lack of technical and design talent. Where I do think we often fall short is our ability to market our products. Having some of the leading minds in marketing come to Scotland to share knowledge and advice is invaluable.

But it's not all about the folks coming to Scotland. I like the fact we have local marketing talent on stage as well with Mike McGrail of Velocity Digital doing a session on "pay to play or fade away".

Day Two: Scaleups

Day two has Codebase pulling together an amazing line up of 'Billion Dollar Scaleups' for a single track day featuring the top minds in startup growth, with analysis from founders and investors with deep industry knowledge.

Billion Dollar Scaleups

Names like Eileen Burbidge, Gil Dibner and Damian Kimmelman join local founders like Gareth Williams, Lesley Eccles and Ed Molyneux to share actionable and practicable advice.

I always love hearing from founders their story in their own words. You often see the non-linear path to success they take. The ups and downs we all face can lead to success at the scale these guys have achieved. We're lucky in Scotland that we have companies such as Fanduel and Skyscanner who have achieved massive scale in recent years and are so willing to share their advice and experience with local companies.

Day Three: Ethereum Developer Workshop

Day three promises to be a little different. It's a full day workshop for developers who want to learn more about blockchain technology. Specifically Ethereum.

Ethereum is a decentralised platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference.

Laptop is required, it's a hands on day.

Get your tickets

Tickets are still available from the Turing Festival website and are bought on a per day basis. Not into marketing but want to know more about billion dollar scaleups? Then just buy what you want to take part in.

There will also be nightlife and plenty of networking opportunities at Turing, which in all honest no matter how good a lineup there is often proves to be the best part of these kinds of events. The chance to meet talented, diverse people from around the world over a few drinks is invaluable.

Events in Scotland 2014

Mon, 28 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I thought it would be useful to do a quick roundup of some of the interesting events taking place across the Scottish tech community in the coming months. These are just a few of the event in the community if you think there’s anything I’ve missed add it to the comments or drop me an email.

Engage Invest Exploit 2014

8th May 2014
https://eie14.com
Tickets – Free

The long running talent showcase by Informatics Ventures is back for 2014. Bigger in scale and in partnership with the Edinburgh BioQuarter and Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, EIE will put some of the countries best startups and more established tech businesses in contact with investors, mentors and press.

The keynote speaker this year is Julie Meyer MBE, one of the Dragons on the online version of BBC’s Dragons Den.

Edinburgh Publishing Conference – ‘Disruption in Publishing’

20th June 2014
https://edinpubconf.net
Tickets – £99/149 (early bird until end of April 2014)

Following the success of last year’s Edinburgh Publishing Conference it returns in 2014 with a brilliant line up of speakers. Pick of the bunch for me are:

Cory Doctorow: award-winning writer, journalist, activist. His talk at O’Reilly’s 2013 “Tools of Change” conference was one of the highlights, and we’re delighted to have him as our main speaker.
Ian Ritchie CBE: Ian is well known in the Scottish tech community with International Computers Limited and Office Workstations Limited. Ian will be telling a short story about information, connectivity and learning from mistakes.
Rachel Willmer: founder of the ebook search site, Luzme and is a well known attendee of TechMeetups (and the odd RookieOven Meetup). With a host of domain experience it will be interesting to hear what Rachel has to say about disruption in the publishing industry.

The event in in June and if you’re quick you can get yourself an early bird ticket for £99.

Crossover Edinburgh Events

5th – 8th June 2014
https://2014.crossoveredinburgh.com/
Tickets – various

A bunch of events organised by Edinburgh based startup Insight Arcade aimed more towards HR and training professionals.

Throughout the event there will be discussions on how learning technology is affecting workforce skills development. Improve your learning and development programs and drive efficiencies through the crossover of technology and best practice.

The event includes Product Forge a weekend of design, development and innovation with the objective of prototyping new learning technology products.

Whether you have an idea already or would simply like to spend a rewarding weekend meeting new people and developing your skills, join us for a weekend of networking and collaboration.

UX Scotland

19th/20th June 2014
https://uxscotland.net
Tickets: £195-£390

Another event returning for 2014 is UX Scotland. Once again taking place in Edinburgh and UX Scotland is ideal for those working in UX, Service Design and Digital communities. The two day event has a programme full of talks and workshops.

SOTR – Scotch on the Rocks

5/6th June 2014
https://www.sotr.eu/
Tickets: £155 + VAT (currently sold out and on waiting list)

Scotch on the Rocks is an annual gathering of web technologists organised by Glasgow based Fuzzy Orange. SOTR brings together some of the brightest minds from across the globe. Focusing on development, best practices and human experience, Scotch on the Rocks has built a reputation as a must attend event.

So that’s just a few of the events coming up in the short term. There’s also many great events for particular user groups in the community such as:

ScotlandJS – 9th/10th May 2014
Scottish Ruby Conference - 12th/13 May 2014
Drupal Camp Scotland – 9th/10th May 2014

Also worth once again highlighting Open Tech Calendar and the StartupDigest Scotland which will both keep you up-to-date with events taking place across the Scottish community.

Trip to San Francisco for young Scottish based founders

Wed, 23 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMT

This summer We Are The Future are taking 5 young entrepreneurs to San Francisco from 21st to 27th July. The aim being to inspire, educate and accelerate the entrepreneurs taking part in the trip.

The 7 day trip includes the flights and accommodation paid for and an opportunity to meet some of the best known Silicon Valley companies such as Apple, HP and Ebay. The 5 entrepreneurs will be staying at Startup Basecamp in the centre of San Francisco.

The full itinerary planned by We Are The Future is:

Day 1: Arrive, rest and acclimatisation. Attendance at reception event including dinner with UKTI and SDI.
Day 2: US and Scottish Start-Ups. Meetings and tours are planned with US entrepreneurs and Scottish entrepreneurs based in San Francisco.
Day 3: What’s it like to be a Start Up. Visits are planned to leading incubators to provide a flavour of what it is like to be a US Start-Up, as well as exclusive access to the CEO of Bebo in an open questions session at their HQ.
Day 4: It’s all about the Pitch. Meetings with VC’s to get tips and advice about what US investors look for in a start-up
Day 5: Silicon Valley. We have organised visits to some of the worlds largest organisations, including Apple and Hewlett Packard.
Day 6: Scottish Start-Up Summit in San Francisco. Pulling the week together with the Start-Up Summit in the heart of San Francisco.
Day 7: Fly Home

The competition closes on 28th April at 1pm and the only criteria to enter the competition is:

Under 30 years old (by 26th July 2014)
Trading for less than 18 months (by 26th July 2014)
Business Registered in Scotland (by 26th July 2014)
One applicant per business (not necessarily the founder, but preferable)

To enter you simply need to record a 30 second video for consideration. This video should answer “How would you benefit from attending the “Scottish Start-Up Summit in San Francisco?”.

Will you be entering? If so, best of luck.

The Scottish startup community and crowdfunding

Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Recently Kickstarter announced the had facilitated $1 Billion in pledges to projects from startups to charities in over 224 countries around the world. So I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the Scottish based companies using the platform to kickstart their products and what else is happening in the crowdfunding space in Scotland.

Lupo

The Lupo ‘smart tag’ is a piece of wearable tech that has several useful use cases. Out the box Lupo along with it’s companion app on smartphones will allow you to track and locate the Lupo tag with the classic example being finding your keys.

Lupo is empowered through an SDK open to developers to extend the functionality of the device. Some proposed use cases of the SDK are using the Lupo as a motion controller for games and media or using it to auto lock computers when you step away from them.

The team behind Lupo are based in Glasgow in the Strathclyde University Incubator and founder says “We are confident that the benefits of the Lupo extend far beyond simple ‘lost and found’ as it has significant feature and performance advantages over Bluetooth item finders. The combined range of features offered by the Lupo in one single device coupled with the SDK option makes it a very compelling proposition both for consumers and developers and we look forward to introducing it first to the Kickstarter community.”

The funding goal for Lupo on Kickstarter is £20,000.

Cycle Hack

Founder of the well known service design consultancy Snook based in Glasgow, Sarah Drummond along with Johanna Holton is organising a hack event which is focused around one of their hobbies – cycling. As hack events go it’s largely the same as most, get a ticket (priced at at £10), go on the Friday for a pitch, get fed and watered as you power through the weekend and display your product on the Sunday night.

Where the Cycle Hack differs is with what Sarah and Johanna are doing with Kickstarter. The crowdfund is being used to fund an ‘Open Source Catalogue’. This open source catalogue is envisioned to empower cyclists around the world by providing 2D and 3D renders, 3d printing models, code, documentation and other outputs of the hack.

The funding goal for Cycle Hack on Kickstarter is £5,000.

ShareIn

So Kickstarter is without doubt the largest crowdfunding platform out there just now but there are plenty more, Indiegogo, Crowdcube etc but there are also some local services such as BloomVC and the recently launched ShareIn.

ShareIn is baed in Edinburgh and is focused on crowdfunding for British technology and health focussed companies. Billed as “TED with an invest button” as it specifically aims to provide equity investment from £40,000 to £1m for inspirational UK companies looking to change the world through innovation, engineering and science.

Unlike other equity crowdfunding platforms, ShareIn offers investors a best-of-breed share structure, where every share carries voting rights and establishes professional, fair legal arrangements between the shareholder and the investee company, without forcing the use of a middle-man and the associated fees.

ShareIn also sets itself apart by focussing closely on company valuations, asking companies to justify their valuation to potential investors in an extensive section containing data on actual money spent to date and the estimated costs to replicate the company to its current state. In addition, ShareIn provides investors with a secondary market for their shares, providing a bulletin board to allow investors to sell their shares.

Avenues such as Kickstarter and ShareIn give Scottish startups the ability to raise capital outside of traditional methods. This is allowing idea’s perceived as too niche or perhaps to risky to shine and reach not only audience but also advocates. It’s a strong proposition.

Have you backed a crowdfund project? Maybe now is the right time to start.

Open Glasgow Hackathons

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMT

In 2013 Glasgow beat 29 other UK cities to win the Technology Strategy Board Future City Demonstrator competition. This awarded the city £24 million to showcase how other UK cities can become smarter, more efficient and perhaps most importantly more open. As part of the project the city is running a series of Hackathons called ‘Future Hacks’.

The Future Hacks take the format adopted by the likes of Startup Weekend and Launch48 – pitch on the Friday, work over the weekend and pitch to win on the Sunday. The teams use the 48 hours to form teams, validate their idea, find customers and build something meaningful. Food and drinks included and experts on hand to help you.

The Future Hacks differs from most hacks (and is applicable to startups) because there is a £20,000 cash prize for the winner. It’s effectively a launch pad for your idea, a sizable stack of seed money. A comparative example is spending a few days to write a funding proposal, business plan or even producing a deck for an investor pitch in all these scenarios you’re up against a host of other startups.

At the very worst the Future Hack weekends are an opportunity to validate the idea, work with domain experts and by the Monday morning have a stack of experience, contact book full or talented people and a product as a showcase of your talent. At best you walk away with all the above plus a meaningful amount of money to take forward into a sustainable business.

Future Hack One – Public Safety

South Block, February 2014
The first Future Hack actually took place in February of this year around the theme of public safety. There were 11 teams with a mix of participants from designers, developers, marketers to domain experts from the public sector. With the core principle of ‘Open’ many of the teams open sourced their work and made it available for others to extend and work on.

Future Hack Two – Energy

Whisky Bond, March 2014
The second hack (taking place this weekend) is around the theme of energy. Modern life is fuelling massive energy consumption. From transport, to manufacture and industry to our homes and media we are using more and more energy each year. We are reliant on finite supplies of energy and costs are increasing so a lot of good can come from a weekend of talented people hacking together new products and ideas.

Future Hack Three – Health

TBA, April 2014
Health is a topic which affects all of us and health issues are increasingly found in the public spotlight. Rise of diabetes and obesity, the ageing population, the over use of antibiotics. What can we as a technically able community do to provide services and products to empower citizens and the NHS to provide better health care, better preventative measures?

Future Hack Four – Transport

TBA, May 2014
A hack that will be also touch many Glasgow citizens is transport. Those who sit on the M8 stuck in yet another traffic jam, or those using our public transport infrastructure and no to forget the cyclists dodging pot holes and buses. This is a means to produce products which can directly impact your ability traverse the city. Make the journey shorter? Quicker? More enjoyable?

The hacks are all free to attend and open to all, not just designers and developers. For more information on the Future Hacks and the Open Glasgow project follow the @openglasgow Twitter or check out the Open Glasgow homepage.

For disclosure: I’m currently working as part of the Open Glasgow team on the Active Travel demonstrator.

What's happening in the Scottish tech community for Christmas?

Fri, 06 Dec 2013 00:00:00 GMT

We’ve had the first snow fall of the winter and it’s just a little over two weeks until Christmas. Workplaces across the country will be heading out on Christmas nights outs but what about the startups of Scotland? Well Colin Hewitt of Float has put together an amazing line up for Scotland Startup Christmas Party which will take place in Edinburgh on Thursday the 12th December.

Tickets are £25 and for that you’l be treated to food, drinks and excellent entertainment. Plus you’ll of course be mingling with the best of the Scottish tech community. The likes of Kotikan, Float, Insight Arcade, Mallzee, FreeAgent and more will be there.

Event Registration Online for Scottish Tech Startups Christmas Party 2013 powered by Eventbrite

Glasgow Tech Community Christmas Meetup

In Glasgow there will be gathering of the Scottish tech community at the Christmas market on Wednesday 18th. With there being no Refresh, RookieOven Meetup or TechMeetup in December this is a good opportunity to meet up with peers across the Glasgow tech community for a final banter of 2013.

From 6.30 at the Christmas Market let’s get together to celebrate successes in 2013 and look ahead to what we will be doing in 2014.

Lessons from Organising an Event

Sat, 23 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT

So a week ago we had the first RookieOven Galleries event in Glasgow. They day worked out pretty well and we had good fun but I thought it would be worthwhile collating some feedback and my own views to share with the community what worked with the event and what didn’t. Hopefully it will help others.

What Worked

The Venue

The CCA in Glasgow was great. The staff were on hand to help with set up and the audio visual side of things. It left the organising team (David, Stewart and I) little to do other than register attendees and get the speakers hooked up.

We were in the CCA cinema which opens out onto the cafe/bar where their great selection of beers was thoroughly enjoyed in the networking session.

The Speakers & Sponsors

We were very grateful to our three sponsors, FreeAgent, Boyd Digital and Twig World who not only helped cover the venue and bar costs for the event but also came along on the day to support us. All three companies helped to facilitate discussion and were eager to share knowledge and experience.

We struck gold with the speakers. Colin, Aaron and Brian all gave talks with advice that was distinctly different from the typical event focused on career advice. Colin kicked the event off by sharing his and a frank overview of the realities of ‘Startup Life’.

This was followed by Aaron who looked at the theme of working in startups from the side of an employee and highlighted what they should be looking for in a tech company. As Aaron stressed it’s a two way street and the employer should be trying to woo you as much as you should be trying to woo them.

Brian brought the day to a close with a wide ranging talk which touched on the Scottish startup eco-system. One of the attendees, Kenny Fraser, enjoyed the talk saying “Brian had some excellent insights into how startups build teams and recruit at different stages of their development. He also showed some quality thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of the technology industry in Scotland. I especially liked his point that we all nee to focus on solving real world problems”.

All three talks kicked off debate which engaged the audience. The debates and conversation spilled over to the networking.

The Beer & Networking

I was keen to ensure the best of the monthly RookieOven Meetups would carry over into the Galleries events and that’s the laid back and open atmosphere. I’m happy that in the post talks networking we had guys like David Gauld, Michael Carruthers, Colin Boyd and Alasdair Gunn mixing with young founders and student.

The atmosphere allowed some great conversations to flow with input from those with experience and knowledge being shared not only from the more experience attendees but also from the other direction. In all I would say we succeeded with our goal here.

Getting the word out

We managed to get the word out in a short amount of time (roughly 3 weeks before the day) to not only quite a lot of people but also to interest a varied bunch of people to sign up and attend. to be honest I feel this was more down to luck than anything in particular we tried.

Although I have to say the likes of Tadas Labudis and Allan Lloyds spreading the word through their mailing lists (SIE and StartupDigest respectively) were most definitely a huge aid.

I also found the RookieOven Facebook page to be a great place to promote the event but thats hardly ground breaking.

What Didn’t Work

Social Media on the day

On the day we had little to no engagement on social media. We didn’t have a hashtag, we didn’t do a good enough job connecting attendees online as well as off and we didn’t follow up particularly well (this post is a going up a whole week after the event).

I think the errors are pretty clear and easy to rectify. They might appear obvious now but they were an oversight and we will be sure to try something to improve this next time round.

Free Ticket Hypothesis

Free events are great; clearly. They cost nothing so there’s no pain in signing up. But equally there’s no pain in not turning up. We had 1/3 of our expected attendees on the day.

We are clearly identifying the fact it was a free event caused the number of attendees on the day to be s low. Although that assumption may be wrong (Time of the Year? Day of week? Time of day? are all valid reasons for this), we feel it’s the most likely candidate and the easier one to validate against by introducing a small fee. £5 a ticket sound fair?

Structure

I think the last bit we were poor on is down to me. I had the attitude let’s suck it and see.

The event was free. It was out first time. Expectations were low. But i think that’s a poor excuse for how poorly we scheduled the day and how poorly I communicated what was actually happening.

It wasn’t great but it wasn’t a deal breaker as, I feel, we all had a good time and got a lot out of the day. However for next time we will definitely try have to up our game here.

What Next

The next step for RookieOven Galleries is to run another event in 3 or 4 months time. We have identified several themes we would love to explore (some of the based of your feedback):

Failcon type – Have you failed? Stand up and shout about it. Share it with the community so we can learn off of your failures.
Demo Day – 10 minutes to pitch your product to your peers. No investors, just a room of could be advocates who could possibly become your best sales team.
Engaging Education – the talent coming out of our Universities is key to the community. What are they currently failing to teach students to make them successful in the tech community?
CoFounder Dating – can we help marry up product talent (developers, designers etc) with business talent (finance, marketing etc)?

That’s a few suggestions what would you chose or what would you add?

Great startup and tech events to end 2013

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Earlier this year I highlighted some top events taking place across Scotland and it seemed to go down pretty well so I figured worth highlighting what Scottish startup and tech events are coming up in the closing weeks of 2013.

Startup Summit 2013

Date: 20th November

Returning to Edinburgh for its second running and once again taking place during Global Entreprenuer Week, Startup Summit is the UK’s largest national, not-for-profit event for entrepreneurs. It features a varied, interactive, day-long schedule: inspiring speakers, workshops, presentations, network opportunities. The venue is Edinburgh’s prestigious Assembly Rooms and as of writing there a few hours left to secure your ticket.
Around 500 young entrepreneurs will attend. They’ll hear from a wide range of inspiring expert speakers but who share one attribute: massive business success. Their fields include marketing, retail, technology, food, film and media, recruitment, and entertainment.

Life’s a Pitch Bill Joos

Date: 20th November (Glasgow) 21st November (Edinburgh)

Just go book your place on one of these workshops immediately. Excellent workshop with a former sales executive and ex-VC who knows what the perfect deck should contain and how you should be delivering it. Bill Joos has been running these workshops with Informatics Ventures for several years and the quality is consistently high.

There are main workshop sessions in both Glasgow and Edinburgh and likewise a smaller taster session in the evening in both cities.

STV Tech Talks

Date: 22nd November

The 4th STV Tech Talks focuses on Javascript with Phil Leggeter talking Building front-end JavaScript apps that scale and Stuart Memo talking The Amazing Sounds of JavaScript. There will be free beer and pizza and a chance to meet/network with other developers.

RookieOven Edinburgh

Date: 2nd December

To my shame we’ve never ran a RookieOven Meetup in Edinburgh but I’m pleased to announce we will be having out first Edinburgh Meetup on the 2nd of December. Huge thanks to Allan Lloyds of Insight Arcade/Startup Digest and Callum Stuart of Mallzee for helping get the Edinburgh Meetup off the ground. The Meetup will follow the same format as the Glasgow Meetup. Grab a beer and chat with your peers following only two simple rules. No Sales! No Stealth!

Startup Christmas Parties

There will almost certainly be another excellent Edinburgh Startups Christmas Party and if there’s interest (this is where I would appreciate your feedback, or if you’re in a position to your support) there is also likely to be a Glasgow Startup Christmas Party. Dates and venues to be confirmed but will be sharing on this site and on our Facebook and Twitter when we find out.

Anything I’ve missed out? Let me know in the comments or tweet RookieOven and it can be added in.

Find your gadgets with SmartTAG

Thu, 07 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT

When one of his close friends lost her iPhone in a taxi while in Glasgow Raj Sark decided to do something to reduce the risk of losing expensive gadgets. This led him to think if there was a way to not lose portable gadgets by monitoring them in the context of a wireless personal area network. Raj developed the idea into what would become SmartTAG.

At this stage, 2009, the concept had been validated but the technology was some way behind; battery life drain and cost were simply far too high for the idea to be practical. However with the adoption of Bluetooth 4.0 with the launch of the iPhone 4S in autumn 2011 the technology had reached a level where the concept could be converted into reality.

The company has been well received winning multiple awards and even being supported by Nokia (6 months of Incubation support in Copenhagen). In January 2013 a seed investment from Gabriel Syndicate brought SmartTAG from Copenhagen back to Glasgow where it all started. By summer 2013 SmartTAG team won a second round of funding from the TSB to help them invest in further R&D.

Following this the team started detailed product design of a keyfob device which is now manufacture ready and the team are preparing for a Christmas launch of the SmartTAG keyfob which can be attached to valuable belongings. In the meantime the team have been proactive in getting an App Store presence have have launched SmartTAG on iOS for device location between devices.

The iOS app (Store link) has three modes:

Anti Theft: Sends a notification to your iPhone when your 2nd device is moved or touched.
Proximity Mode: Alerts you when either device moves outside of the user defined proximity zone.
Finder: Allows you to ring your devices

The current SmartTAG app (which is free and currently only on iOS) must be installed and running on both devices as well as them being synced through bluetooth. This initial app is aimed at gaining insight into user needs so the team would appreciate downloads and feedback to be fed back to them.

Personally think it’s a good way to secure our expensive devices which also house pretty much all our personal information. I look forward to using the SmartTAG keyfob when it is launched later this year.

Scots at the Web Summit

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Flexiant

Tony Lucas is founder and SVP of Product at Flexiant and will be taking the stage at Web Summit on day one for a session held on the cloud stage. Flexiant are provide cloud management and are based in Livingston.

Twitter: @tonylucas

RE.Work

Nikita Johnson is from Shetland and the founder of RE.Work; a series of events across the UK (and potentially the world) with the focus on emerging tech. Nikita has been involved in the Startup Weekend series of events, being an organiser of the Manchester event in 2012 and the Nottingham event in 2013.

Twitter: @nikitaJohnson

Swarmly

Represetned at the Web Summit by founder Marco De Nichilo. Swarmly is a real time location based service available on iOS and Android. Perhaps best described as a passive Foursquare with an element of sentiment analysis.

Twitter: @Swarmly

IC Mobile

Both founder, Lee McLoughlin and lead creative Alex Mitchie will be at the Web Summit to display the work of IC Mobile. Biggest piece of work being iOS augmented reality app PrintAR which is aimed at digital marketers.

Twitter: icMobileLab

Mallzee

Founded by Cally Russell in 2011 at RecommendedBy the startup has pivoted into social shopping with the aim of replicating the high street shopping experience online and mobile. The team are nearing launch of their new iOS app.

Twitter: @mallzeehq

Float

Colin Hewitt of CEO and founder of cash flow forecasting web app Float will be at the WebSummit. Having recently raised investment and grown the team Colin will be keen to share his vision for Float of the coming months.

Twitter: @floatapp

StorkUp

StorkUp helps mums navigate the world of kids’ products. It’s a unique shopping experience where a growing community of mums can discover products and help. The team will be on a stall in the main area for the event.

Twitter: @storkup

miiCard

miiCard will be at the Web Summit with their new miiTag. A tag which you can attached to belonging to verify they are yours. Cassie and James will be on hand to show you more of the miiCard product.

Twitter: @miicard

RookieOven

I will also be at the Web Summit (@_MDHayes), if you want to find out about the Scottish startup community and how you can engage with companies and individuals in it please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Startup Weekend Glasgow 2013 - Sustainability and Clean Tech

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

This Friday, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs with a passion for technology and the environment will gather for 54 hours in Glasgow for Startup Weekend Glasgow: Sustainability and Clean Tech.

Up to 100 hackers, designers and industry professionals will meet at the city’s SocietyM on Renfrew Street on Friday October 25th. Apart from sleep breaks, the groups will work constantly throughout the weekend creating and validating business ideas relating to environmental sustainability.

As with all Startup Weekends the event has been organised over the past few months by a team of volunteers based in the Scottish community. The team has been led by Allan Lloyds, founder of InisghtArcade and have pulled out all the stops to ensure this is the biggest and best Startup Weekend to hit Scotland.

Despite there being over 1000+ previous Startup Weekends events in over 475 cities all around the world this is the very first event focused on environmental sustainability and cleantech. Right here in Scotland.

Scotland has led the way in biological and environmental science. The phrase, “Think Global, Act Local” – one of the most successful and memorable environmental slogans – is attributed to the Scot, Sir Patrick Geddes, who made significant contributions to environmental thinking and urban planning a century ago. Now our country is leading the way in the development of sustainable technologies to protect our environment.

If you’d like to think global, then support a local volunteer run event and get yourself along to SocietyM this weekend.

The whole weekend event culminates on Sunday October 27th from 4.30pm, when the groups will present their business ideas to a panel of experts including Andrew Mitchell of the Clean Web Factory, Fiona Godsman of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise and Stuart Deed of The Launch Point at the Lighthouse on Mitchell Lane. It is hoped some of the ideas will be developed into environmental and clean technology businesses.

To find out more and get your ticket go to – https://glasgow.startupweekend.org/

One year on - an update on GatherContent

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

There have been a few notable changes since RookieOven last covered GatherContent, which we described as Basecamp meets Google Docs with structure. They were last mentioned here on RookieOven on a Startup Spotlight feature last year and have since celebrated their first birthday and working on a host of exciting new updates.

Some of the new features coming to GatherContent include:

A new WordPress plugin
A New Drupal Module
A comprehensive Helpdesk
Doc.x and HTML export of projects and pages
WordPress and Gathercontent

So why build these features? Mark Young of GatherContent gave some insights into the Product Development environment in GatherContent and why they chose to build these features.

WordPress

To us, and more importantly, to GatherContent users, connecting a powerful content production platform to a popular content publishing platform made sense.

Our WordPress plugin lets Gatherers export their content straight from GatherContent into their WordPress. We wanted to make the whole process of moving content into the CMS a lot easier. Mapping bits of content to specific fields within the CMS was a priority, so you can now import GatherContent pages as Pages, Posts, Media and various Custom Post Types.

We think it’s a much simpler way of importing to the CMS rather than copying and pasting bits of text from a word document! You can read more about it on our blog.

Drupal module

This add on sets out to do a lot of what our WordPress plugin does, and we aim to make it available within the next few weeks. Much like our WordPress update, The plugin will let you map content to certain fields in Drupalto allow you retain your structure and heavily customise your import.

New export options

Previously, we only had the option of exporting a whole project (not specific pages), and users could only export in .pdf format. Now our new functionality lets you export single pages to whole documents and you can choose to migrate content in a DocX or pdf. formal.

We will also be making a start on modules for ExpressionEngine and Joomla, and an extension for Magento too.

Helpdesk

Our help documentation was limited, so we spent some time making up in-depth walkthroughs and help videos.

New Writing Experience

As well as creating a cleaner writing interface (with fewer fields etc.), we are hoping to implement track changes too. That way, everybody knows who made alterations to a bit of content.

Mark tells me there’s lots more to come from the GatherContent team and urges you all to keep up with their developments on twitter or through their public roadmap.

ScotSoft 2013 - Funding Growth

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Last week I was invited along to the ScotlandIS ScotSoft 2013 Global Forum. It was a fantastic event with an utterly brilliant line up of speakers including ‘father of the internet’ Vint Cerf, Larry Cable of Salesforce and Heidi Roizen, Venture Partner at DFJ.

The day was split into three sessions:

First session was on ‘Funding Growth’ with Ann Winblad, MD of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Eddie Anderson of Pentech Ventures, and Heidi Roizen.
Second session was on ‘Scaling Fast’ with Wendy Lea, CEO of Get Satisfaction, John Innes, CEO of Amor Group and Karen White, President & COO of Addepar.
Thirdly ScotlandIS had Principal Architect, Platform of Salesforce Larry Cable opening up for ‘father of the internet’ Vint Cerf.

The day presented loads of material I’m going to be sharing on RookieOven over the course of the next week or so but first up, here’s what the investors had to say on Funding Growth.

Know your stuff

It seems like common sense but yet the invesotrs felt the need to stress it so I guess a lot of people miss this. Know your stuff! What is the market like – size, competition, routes, hurdles and avenues; what do you need to execute; and what are your forecasts?

Eddie Anderson sized up a deal as 70% objective and 30% subjective (more on that later). The objective part is clear since the investor will want a return and the hard (non-vanity) figures won’t lie.

Deals take time

The notion you can rock up to an investor, show them a couple of slides and walk away with a briefcase of notes is a fallacy. If that’s the basis on which you’ve been building your startup then go back to the drawing board.

All the investors stated that they’re highly unlikely to make an investment on the back of a proposal landing on their desk or a 10 slide deck. Imagine it was your money that you were investing. Would you do so on the back of a flashy slide deck? Of course not and an investor is no different. Their job is to get a return on the money, not simply to give it out. To that end all three members of the panel agreed you must build a relationship.

Over the course of 9-12 months and potentially over 60 meetings you need to build a relationship with the investor. The panellists shared their views on how to do this:

Can you do it? – Set targets and stick to them. Show an investor before they invest that you can achieve these targets. Set targets on growth, revenue, product features etc. and at least meet them but preferably exceed them in a given timeframe.
Dangle a carrot – when you meet an investor do something to win the next meeting. This is your goal, not to pitch. Investors are busy folk too, pique their interest and get a date in the diary for the next meeting.
Keep the deck away and grow excitement – as the process of courting an investor goes on, your aim is to slowly grow their excitement. Once you’ve excited the investor to a point let them lead on when you can pitch. When they make the offer jump at it.

30% subjective

Why is the relationship so important? Well, although undoubtedly important, numbers will only take you so far. There’s the remaining 30% that comes from the gut and feel. This is established over the course of building that relationship. The investor is looking for international growth and scale, the ability to give a return of 10 times or more and to do so in a timely fashion.

The investor will trust their gut and feel for the team’s talent and ability to do so. This is something they can’t glean from a term sheet. They can only do it from a working relationship with the team.

‘But you can’t in the UK’

A lot is made of the state of the UK investment scene and in particular the scene in Scotland. Personally my view is the money will go to where the talent is and in Scotland we currently lack a critical mass of talent to attract the money. Therefore we must flip that notion and those with the ability must go to where the money is.

This is something Sir Jackie Stewart spoke of in his keynote at EIE 2012. Although there has been a global financial crisis there are still plenty of cash-rich countries, companies and individuals. Stocks are volatile and there’s a lack of trust with banks, so where can you grow your wealth? Investment is a real option. Heidi Roizen summed this up with“Go to where the money is”.

I will be posting more thoughts and content from ScotSoft 2013 throughout the week and hope that it’s helpful. A big thank you to ScotlandIS for running an event that was startup friendly and had such great content for young businesses. I look forward to them continuing to engage more with the startup community.

Tech Events in Scotland 2013 [Update]

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMT

So far this year Scotland has been home to many brilliant tech events and that trend looks to continue as we close out 2013. Here are a selection of top tech events this small country of ours is hosting up until the end of 2013. Any events I’ve missed? Add them in the comments or tweet them to @RookieOven.

Turing Festival

Date: 23rd -24th August
Tickets: £249 + £15.22 booking fee
Hashtag: #turingfest

Turing is a festival that brings together digital technology and the web within the world’s largest arts and creative gathering in a celebration of digital culture and creativity. Named in honour of Alan Turing, father of modern computing, the festival moves beyond traditional tech conferences to explore the ways in which technology is affecting all aspects of culture and society.

Speakers include D.J. Powers from Valve, Neal Stephenson and Jim McKelvey co-founder of Square. Now in its third year Turing is continually growing and I highly recommend attending.

Also worth checking out the various Fringe events such as Tech Jobs Scotland and Mostly Functional Conf.

Lean Agile Scotland

Date: 19th-20th September
Tickets: £275-£300
Hashtag: #lascot13

Lean Agile Scotland brings leading figures from the Lean Agile community to Edinburgh for a two day conference. Set in the contemporary Dynamic Earth in Holyrood, Edinburgh and hosting Lean and Agile thought leaders, practitioners and enthusiasts from across the UK and beyond.

Speakers from a range of background will be covering topics such as TDD, Kanban and LeanUX.

Startup Weekend Glasgow

Date: 25th-27th October
Tickets: TBC
Hashtag: #swglas

One of the key members of the 2012 Startup Weekend Glasgow organising team, Allan Lloyds (@5L) is bringing back Startup Weekend to Glasgow in 2013. Take an idea, form a team, validate, pitch and have fun all over 54 hours. This will be the third Startup Weekend to take place in Scotland and previous events have been hugely popular.

The 2013 edition of Startup Weekend Glasgow will have a ‘Clean Web’ focus and will offer an opportunity to validate sustainable tech ideas. Never been to a Startup Weekend before? Check out coverage of previous Startup Weekends on RookieOven and also these top tips from Michael.

ScotlandIS Scotsoft

Date: 29th August
Tickets: £48-£72
Hashtag: #scotsoft2013

The Global Forum brings together software entrepreneurs and technology professionals across the industry with cutting-edge ideas and delivers insights from leading industry figures. Discuss the challenges of “Scaling Fast” , and “Funding Growth” in the workshops, and debate the future of the internet.

Speakers include Dr Vint Cerf, Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Larry Cable, Principal Architect at Salesforce.com and Heidi Roizen.

NSScotland

Date: 19th-20th October
Tickets: £199-£259
Hashtag: #nsscotland

The second running of Scotland’s first conference for Mac and iOS developers is loaded with content for both beginners and more experienced programmers.

In addition to the single-track two day weekend conference, there are a choice of two full day tutorials for just an extra £50. Choose either a full days intro course from Pragmatic Studio instructor and author Daniel Steinberg, or a bootcamp tutorial for experienced iOS developers taught by consultant Lori Olson in building a custom server side for your apps with Ruby and Rails.

EuroIA 2013

Date: 26th-28th September
Tickets: €280-€460
Hashtag: #EuroIA

The 9th European Information Architecture Conference. EuroIA is based around the concept of learn, share and network. There will be case stories from some of the world’s most influential organisations, including Facebook, eBay, Virgin, UCLA, and the BBC. EuroIA aims to break down cultural barriers and facilitate the sharing of knowledge and ideas across Europe and further afield.

Other Events:

CloudOpen Europe is a conference celebrating and exploring the open source projects, technologies and companies who make up the cloud and takes place in October.
BarCamp Glasgow is being organised by @richquick and @markprovan and will take place in September.
Random Hacks of Kindness on the 7th and 8th of September is a cyber security special and aims to create a self-sustaining global community of innovators building practical open technology for a better world, and to ensure their work creates impact in society.
Girl Geeks Scotland Conversations with Silicon Valley and Startup Party - Girl Geek Scotland is hosting an exciting double event on 30 August Edinburgh. There will be a dinner: “Conversations with Silicon Valley”, followed by the “Summer Start-up Party”. Readers can use the code ‘EARLYBIRD’ for a discounted rate.

Also remember the many regular events going on across the Scottish tech and startup community such as:

CoderDojo – regular events across the country. Teaching kids to code and develop their own applications and services.
Refresh – bringing great minds together across the country. Taking place in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
TechMeetup – monthly meetup with talks, beer and pizza in Glasgow, Edinburgh Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee.
RookieOven – monthly meetup organised through this site for startups in Glasgow.
ScotRUG - Scottish Ruby User Group meet monthly in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
AngularJS - Meetup for those using AngularJS in their projects.
STV Tech Talks – monthly tech talks hosted by STV at their Glasgow HQ at Pacific Quay. Free to attend just grab a ticket from the Eventbrite page.

Scottish Tech - Who's Hiring?

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMT

A great resource on the Hacker News community is the monthly ‘Who’s Hiring’ thread where startups can promote openings. I figured it would be useful to do something similar for Scotland so I sent a tweet out a few days ago asking who in the Scottish tech community is hiring. The response was great and highlighted a variety of openings across the country working on some really interesting products in businesses of various sizes (some young, some mature). So here goes:

Float App – Edinburgh

Float has been in development for over 2 years and has a growing (paying) customer base. Float are looking to hire two developers and rather than having a long list of platform experience they’re looking for developers that are committed to their craft, to continuously honing their skills, and possessing a willingness to learn.

float are based in the Edinburgh TechCube which offers a host of benefits such as a microbrewery and a plethora of other great minds such as Neo, FanDuel and PlanForCloud.

STV – Glasgow

One of Scotland’s most visited websites; STV are looking for both front end and back end talent. For the front end STV are looking for people with a passion for user-focused, standards-based world-class development. While for the back end role STV primiraly use PHP and MySQL using a MVC frameworks such as CodeIgniter and Zend.

Current products include the STV Player, the highly regarded TV catch-up service; stv.tv, offering the best of Scottish content to mass audiences; and STV Local. STV services are also delivered on a variety of platforms such as iOS and Android devices, YouTube, PS3, Windows 8 and Smart TVs

Mallzee – Edinburgh

Mallzee are looking for a variety of talent in areas such as design and development as well as marketing. Mallzee offers bespoke personal shopping to it’s users and a social setting to shop online.

Mallzee are keen to hire developers with strong web development skills, particularly in regards to Javascript (Angular and NodeJS).

itison – Glasgow

Glasgow based daily deals site itison is currently looking for a talented, experienced digital designer to lead all aspects of design for itison.

itison are looking for a candidate who will help lead projects such as new online products & services, full-scale redesigns and iterative enhancements to every aspect of the site. They will also be responsible for overseeing offline design requirements, from training documents to billboard posters.

x Design365 – Edinburgh

xDesign365 is looking for fun, motivated and talented people to join an ever growing team. Based in Edinburgh, xDesign365 are looking for web, iOS and Android developers as well as UI/UX designers. xDesign365 have previously designed both the Swarmly iOS and Android apps among others.

So plenty of openings in the Scottish tech community. Know of any more? Why not mention them in the comments.

Happy first birthday to Open Tech Calendar

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Open Tech Calendar, the Edinburgh based website that lists local technology events, is going to be one year old on 24th July 2013. In it’s first year the Open Tech Calendar has listed more than 600 events from Aberdeen to Manchester and attracted 33,000 page-views.

The site was started by James Baster following his experiences with the popular Tech Meetup series of events. Tech Meetups are held monthly in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness and I would highly recommend getting along to your local one and, if possible, paying a visit to a neighbouring cities meetup. James presented the Edinburgh event for 1 year and in this time there was a calendar on the Tech Meetup website which was widely used in the tech community, but this relied on Google Calendar and they didn’t take backups. Google Calendar was ill suited for the task and on 20th July 2012 the Tech Meetup team noticed that almost all the events had been deleted and there was no way to get them back. Therefore James set out to write a better replacement and just 4 days later on the 24th July 2012 it was born.

Since they early days of Open Tech Calendar James been expanding the site with new features he has developed over the course of the past year. The site follows the principles of Wikipedia; anyone is welcome to sign up and become a community member and then add or edit events. The beauty of this self curation is in keeping the data up to date and relevant. So far over 175 people have signed up. Open Tech Calendar has embraced the principle of Open Data, allowing anyone to use the events data they have collected and providing open APIs to make this possible.

Events from the site are sent around several local email lists, shown on several other websites such as the new TechCube incubator at Summer Hall and shown on screens in a large local technology office to employees.

James Baster said “I’ve meet people at events who were new to town and found events to go to with my site, and local regular attendees tell me how handy it is. It’s great to have made something that so many people find useful, and I look forwards to another year.” James Baster is a freelance programmer. He advises several local technology meetups, has talked at conferences and blogs on the topic of running technology events.

Jamie Coleman, Director at TechCube said: “James is well known in Edinburgh as a programmer who is driven to build tools to help communities. Whilst superficially simple, the Open Tech Calendar has already become a key factor in helping to catalyse the tech ecosystem in Scotland. There are a huge number of events but many were often hidden in particular silos or known only to a few within specific groups. Open Tech Calendar has changed this for the better.”

Open Tech Calendar, like the Tech Meetup Google Group and Scottish Startup Digest, is an excellent resource for the local tech community. I would encourage those with an interest in technical events to sign up to the mailing list and to contribute to the Open Tech Calendar.

How to Get Inside Your Users

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Two weeks ago, the great and the good (and the very keen) of the UX community gathered together for the first UX Scotland conference. It was a chance for designers and researchers to share their thoughts on all things user-experience and how to figure out what users want.

There was something about it that reminded of high school. I don’t mean that it was immature. Just that a group of people were there to obsess over what essentially boils down to “What do they really think about me?”, “How do I KNOW?” and “What can I do to make them like me?” – or if you want to be a Mean Girl about it, they were trying to be easy and usable. UX Scotland had a packed schedule of different talks and workshops, so there were a lot of different answers to these questions.

I want to focus in this post on some of the tips from Paul-Jervis Heath’s session. The talk was on “What Users Don’t Say: Uncovering Latent Needs Through Contextual Design Research“, which I’d probably explain to a 5-year old child as working out what people actually want by watching them in the wild. We all know that we should be out there getting to know our customers. As Steve Blank says “Get out the building” and test your assumptions. The problem is that speaking to people doesn’t always give you the full story, so whilst things like focus groups are good for getting people’s opinions on things you don’t necessarily dig into the hidden needs that you could be addressing. At this point it is customary to wheel out Henry Ford to say “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

How do we find out what people really need then? Paul suggested a few approaches that you can use.

Diary studies

Asking people to keep a diary can track the more mundane everyday thoughts that lead to unexpected insights - as well as recording the expected emotional highs and lows that come to mind more immediately in an interview. The diaries can take the form of a paper diary, a video diary or a blog diary.

‘Context’ was a consistent undercurrent running through the whole conference and in this case it was to bear in mind what context people make their buying decisions in. Using the example of a new washing machine, it could be that (1) it’s an emergency because the machine has broken; (2) they’re replacing an old one; or (3) they’ve just moved into a new place. In the analysis of the data, you can then look for things like how long the buying process is and which group is the most valuable.

Shadowing

Shadowing is following people and observing them as they go about their day while they’re shopping or using some service. You can either recruit people beforehand and give them a task and observe them doing that, or you can ‘intercept’ and go find people where they are already (for example, in a department store).

All this real-world testing is crucial in uncovering people’s behaviour because what you want to do is find out how people shop rather than only working out how they shop online. Problems like ‘showrooming’ (going to a shop to try a product and then buying it online) wouldn’t come to light with a purely online shadowing process.

Contextual interviews

Again, this is something that takes place in the user’s own environment. Typically, contextual interviews are used in order to see how the person works when they’re carrying out their own tasks (rather than one that’s been assigned to them for a scenario, which you’ve assumed is relevant). You can get a sense of what their set-up is and what other people are around.

The ‘interview’ part of a contextual interview should really only be at the start when you want to get a bit of basic information about the person and what they’re about to do. For the most part, it’s like shadowing.

In all these methods, there should be as little interference as possible because the point is to get data. The analysis and interpretation comes afterwards so that you aren’t unduly influencing the person.

There was a whole lot more to Paul’s session, but I wanted to highlight just a few techniques that might come in handy.

I’ve already carried out some shadowing for my own startup, Plantedd, and I’ll be doing some more in other contexts so that I can get a deeper understanding of how people buy plants. It’s been very useful for me, so I hope that some of these techniques help you to develop a better product too.

The dates for the next UX Scotland will be 19 and 20 June 2014 and it’s going to be taking place at the Dynamic Earth centre in Edinburgh again. You can keep up with all the news on the Lanyrd page.

RE.WORK Technology Summit

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The RE.WORK Technology Summit is a one-day event that brings together entrepreneurship, science and technology to re-work the future and tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges. The event will showcase the opportunities of breakthrough technologies and their potential for a positive impact on business and society.

Emerging technology is providing an unprecedented era of opportunity for entrepreneurs and scientists to progress business and solve global challenges. By 2050 there will be around 9 billion people on the planet, so understanding, knowledge and collaboration is vital to help steer the way to a better world. RE.WORK is focused on generating innovative ideas and encouraging collaboration to solve big, global problems in areas such as increased urbanisation levels, efficient healthcare, sustainable energy solutions, and equal opportunities for all. Technology can have a revolutionary impact on these issues and some of the new products and advances explored at RE.WORK will include progress in the internet of things, sensors, 3D printing, wearable technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence.

The event takes place on the 19 September in London and will certainly have a Scottish presence with Scot Nikita Johnson part of the organising team. As part of RE.WORK there will be a Startup Showcase where startups can display their wares and have access to investors and advisors during networking opportunities.

Tickets are available now at an early bird rate from the RE.WORK website with there being an added 20% discount for RookieOven readers by using the code - ROOKIE20.

What's on at UX Scotland 2013

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

UX Scotland lands in Edinburgh in two weeks’ time, setting up home at the Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh over the two days from Thursday, 20 June to Friday, 21 June.

The programme of events is now up and there are some great speakers who will be taking to the stage to pass on practical advice about all things user experience.

Each day kicks off with a keynote. Jeff Gothelf is speaking on Wednesday about Lean UX and looking at how to get to the right solutions better, faster, stronger. On Thursday, Giles Colborne will be talking about designing for context and giving examples of how to adapt to smartphones, tablets and other environments.

A quick spin through the UX Scotland lineup shows that UX is something that everybody from startups and the big institutions are all giving a lot of thought to. It’ll be interesting to contrast whether the likes of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Life approach UX differently from Prezi and FreeAgent.

Some of the events that have caught my eye are “The Mind’s Eye: How We Perceive Data” with Graham Odds, “Designing ‘The Bottom Half of the Internet’” with Martin Belam, ”Design Just Enough” with David Gauquelin and “The Future in Designing for the Sex(es)” with Cathy Wang.

UX Scotland is a great opportunity to brush up on the latest thinking and to meet the top designers, entrepreneurs and executives who care about UX.

Tickets are still available.

Keep on building Scotland

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

This is a guest post from Callum Stuart COO of Mallzee.

A lot has changed here at MallzeeHQ over the past month. We’ve raised investment, moved into our own startup hub (@siliconwalk), hired a bunch of awesome people to drive forward our vision and last but by no means least – launched a product! Cue the fanfare…

We know it’s not perfect, we know it took longer than we wanted and we know there’s tons of ideas about how to improve it, but there’s something very satisfying about getting a product out there and seeing hundreds of people using it. Can you tell we’re pretty chuffed?

So what’s next? Well for us, we need to be a data driven company. It’s easy to say, but what exactly does that mean? It means the decisions we make about our product now and in the future need to be based on data. It means we’ve invested a lot of time before launch into our analytics platform to generate data about how people use Mallzee. In the real world that means we already know how many people who hit our landing page and watch the video to the end, go on to actually purchase a product. For us, for our investors and even for our customers that sort of data is absolutely critical to the product success and any future fund raising.

What have we learned? Consumer products are hard. Doing it in Edinburgh over London, Boston or The Valley probably makes it harder still. But there’s a movement happening up here and the rest of the world is starting to sit up and take notice, we’re proud to be part of it and proud to say we’re doing it from Scotland.

Our plan is to spend the next few months promoting what we’ve got, building the data on how people use it and analysing that data to shape the next version. Everything inline with our mission to make online shopping an experience.

Sometimes in our startup world of driving faster, pushing harder, doing more, just sometimes it’s nice to look back, take a moment and remind yourself what you’ve achieved and how far you’ve come. We’ve come a long way. Anyone who actually gets a product out there definately has our respect!

So check out our product at Mallzee.com and feel free to drop us a line with some feedback. Meanwhile, we’ll get back to crunching data and building wireframes for the next version – keep on building Scotland!

RookieOven Meetup May 2013

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

RookieOven has been pretty quite of late, apologies for that, but I do hope to explain the reasons behind that in a post later this week but from here forward I hope for RookieOven to return to providing regular commentary, advice and shout outs to the Scottish startup community. Oh and of course the regular meetup; speaking of which…

The RookieOven Meetup will be running as usual on the first Monday of May (which will be the 6th) after a hiatus over Easter. The RookieOven Meetup once again will be in Vespbar which is a short walk from either Glasgow Central or Queen Street Station. It has a great selection of beers and they do pizza by the metre. We will be in the upstairs section but any problems finding the venue on the night tweet me (@_1) or the RookieOven twitter account.

The meetup is a platform for the Scottish startup community to interact on a regular basis. At the meetup there are no talks, presentations or set agendas just great conversations between Scottish startup founders, employees and enthusiasts. There are only two rules for the meetup:

No sales: this isn’t an opportunity to sell to startups
No stealth mode: Talk! Share your idea’s and experiences with fellow Scottish startups

This month I hope to see a good crowd of people passionate about tech in Scotland. If that’s you then come along and grab a beer. After all what better way to kick the month off than to come together with your peers for a few drinks?

UX Scotland: RookieOven are the official bloggers

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

In Scotland? Into UX? Well you’re in luck as UX Scotland is just round the corner and what’s more you can get all your news about UX Scotland here!

I’m happy to announce that RookieOven will be the official bloggers at this year’s UX Scotland conference. The event is taking place over two days at the Dynamic Earth centre in Edinburgh on 20 and 21 June.

We’re looking forward to reporting at UX Scotland and finding out what the latest developments are in user experience design. The conference will be keeping things practical. It’s a UX event after all! Come along to meet designers and others who are interested in UX and learn how to design better user experiences. And feel free to say hello if you’re there and want to have a chat – hunt me down on Twitter (@daviddobleve).

The keynote speakers are Jeff Gothelf and Giles Colborne. Full details of other speakers and workshops will be published soon so stay tuned.

Keep an eye on #uxscot on Twitter to get the latest info about UX Scotland. Follow @RookieOven and @UXScotland.

Tickets are now available on Eventbrite.

Want to help startups? Just give them money

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Would the government be better giving money directly to startups and letting them decide what to do with it?

The question crossed my mind a few days ago when I read an article that was on the front page of Hacker News. Its title was “Want to Help People? Just Give Them Money” and it was written by Google’s Director of Charitable Giving about GiveDirectly. GiveDirectly are a charity that help the poor in Kenya by transferring money to households in need and they do so without stipulating how the people should spend it.

There’s maybe something a little counter-intuitive about this approach that can provoke an initial scepticism. Perhaps it’s because people are used to their donations going towards the provision of food or shelter or medicine. Or because there’s a risk that recipients could spend the money on drink or gambling, or some sort of worry that it breeds a ‘dependency culture’. However, there’s evidence to suggest that transferring donations directly to people can be more effective than traditional help and GiveDirectly are carrying out their own randomised controlled trials to measure the impact of their work.

Google have backed GiveDirectly to the tune of $2.4 million so that they can test out their model in other countries.

What if the likes of Scottish Enterprise or Enterprise Ireland did this with startups? These government bodies have a constellation of different schemes and funds and grants and programmes and competitions. To paraphrase the article, what if every government organisation that focused on supporting businesses had to prove that they could do more for the entrepreneurs with a pound or a euro than the entrepreneurs could do for themselves? In this world, cash transfers could play a role like index funds play for private investors. They could be a sizeable share of these organisations’ budget and a benchmark used to evaluate more expensive, “actively managed” investments. We’d learn more about which programmes need additional funding and which are falling below the “direct to the entrepreneurs” mark.

I’d be confident that I could do more for my startup, Plantedd, with whatever equivalent amount spent by government organisations to pay consultants to help us with marketing or IT or training. I might very well choose to spend it on these things, but there are any number of other areas that could help the business. I’d be entrusted with the faith that I can decide for my own business whether marketing would make more of a difference than say, optimising the product pages of the website.

This would also be a more cost-effective way to distribute financial support to startups. There’s no need for panels to convene and decide on the awards because selection would be randomised (a lottery, effectively). There would still be an initial appraisal, of course, to make sure that startups are eligible but apart from that, the process of determining which startups actually receive the support would be random.

I imagine that the criticisms of such a system would echo some of the criticisms of GiveDirectly. It all boils down to the fact that it’s a lot harder for a startup to misuse the time with a marketing agency, for example, than to misuse money. The risk exists. No form of support can be guaranteed to be entirely effective, but to fixate on that would be to miss the point. The crucial consideration is to look at what the relative impact is when you compare the different ways of supporting startups.

So is it worth trying this “direct to the entrepreneurs” method?

I’m not suggesting that this is a silver bullet for achieving business growth in the UK or anywhere else. The issue of stimulating entrepreneurial activity is one of wider economics, so there are many component parts.

However, as far as targeted support for startups is concerned, I think this is at least worth a pilot programme because it’s potentially a more efficient and effective way to do it – both for the government to administer and for the recipient to spend. This could arguably unlock time and resources that are currently tied up in the paperwork and processes that characterise any application.

Will it ever happen though? Well, apparently entrepreneurs are extreme optimists.

Join the discussion on Hacker News

SayWhere.co - An experiment

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been gathering feedback and data on my first product, Seeu.at, since launching previews in mid-2012. One of the major pieces of feedback given is that people often weren’t comfortable signing-in with Facebook. It was difficult to tell if this was just a segment of the internet who were less comfortable with Facebook (early adopters, those that work in tech) or if it was a wider issue.

We checked the data gathered, which backed up the assertion that Facebook sign-in can be a problem. There was a significant fall-off in the number of people going through the Facebook sign-in funnel. We adjusted our permission requests, and monitored for a while longer. Still a problem.

So what to do? Well, we could change Seeu.at around – but that would require a fundamental re-write of the way we handle the user model and permissions.

Instead, to test, we have launched SayWhere.co to provide a similar tool – but this time using the principle of gradual enagement and anonymous usage. We hypothesise that people will be more likely to use the service and engage with it once they see what the functionality of the site does. We can compare this to Seeu.at usage, to run simultanous tests, tackling the same problems from a different angle.

Our key metric will be the level of sharing. Are people engaged enough to want to pass it on? One people have created a poll to share and vote on places to go – do they go on to share it with friends? Do their friends click through and interact? We have the data for Seeu.at – now we’re gathering data for SayWhere.co

We launched a few days ago – with a quick posting on Reddit to get some traffic. The feedback has been positive. People are stepping through the plan process – and giving us valuable data on our funnel of engagement. We have already make some tweaks to our process – and will continue to do so as more data arrives.

So please do take a look at www.saywhere.co – and feed back on Twitter to @saywhere

We will update RookieOven with details of our funnel tweaks, and the comparison between the two sites.

Pub Summit comes to Scotland

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Last year the guys behind the Web Summit confrences and F.ounders started a global networking event called Pub Summit and 2013 sees the return of these events but this time on a large scale.. Instead of connecting with 50 communities; in 2012 there will be 100 cities in every corner of the world to brought together over a pint. And Scotland will be providing not one but two of these cities.

The Glasgow Pub Summit, cohosted by RookieOven, will take place tonight (4th February) in Vespbar, Drury St, Glasgow from 6.30 onwards. To get your ticket apply here. Tickets are complimentary. Simply RSVP and invite 3 friends.

This will be followed by the Edinburgh Pub Summit on the 21st of February and it will be cohosted by the Float **team, Colin Hewitt and Philip Roberts, and **TechCube. Again; attendees will need to register for a ticket.

Pub Summits are informal and give a chance for people to unwind with a pint and meet fellow foudners and enthusiasts. It’s very much in the spirit of the regular RookieOven Meetup which takes place each month in Glasgow.

The Pub Summit events are an excellent opportunity for the Scottish tech community to connect with other tech communities around the world. The likes of London, Berlin, Madrid, Paris and San Francisco will also be hosting Pub Summits in the coming weeks.

Will you be there to represent the Scottish tech community?

Time and Money

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Time equals money, apparently. But how do we value each?

When starting a tech startup it is often easy to get going on a limited budget. The tools that you use to code are free. A domain is pennies, and starter hosting can cost virtually nothing. You can make considerable progress on limited resources.

But time is a finite resource too. You have limited hours in the day and “the arrow of time moves in one direction”. Are you trading your time for money saved?

With my startup Seeu.at we’ve been able to get by on very limited resources. We built bits of the product, tested them out, spoke to potential customers and to potential users. We launched a trial version of the site – that allows people to plan nights out with their friends and find local offers. We shouted about it on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

A trickle of users came in. Enough for us to subjectively learn what worked, and what didn’t work. Often it was fairly obvious in retrospect! But now the product is a little more refined, and we need to test with a larger volume of users in order to get a higher quality of data. We needed to start being objective about our decisions.

We can, and will, continue to build our presence on social media, blogs and with word-of-mouth marketing. But that will take time. The longer we go on, the longer we may be heading down the wrong route.

*We know what we need to learn. *

Our business model has variables for which we only have guess-timates. So I asked: “what are we waiting for?”

That’s why we launched a Facebook and Google AdWords campaign last week. The dynamic of our efforts has changed now – we know that every click costs, and optimisation is at the forefront of our minds.

Nothing focuses the mind like spending money!

But we know that time is valuable too – so why does it not provide the same personal incentive as money? It’s all to easy to justify a little more time to yourself. We are good at rationalising time spent. Particularly time developing the product!

In the long-run, it’s better to put your money where your mouth is and get the idea tested quickly. So take the plunge – set out an advertising budget. How much is finding out about your users worth to you? How much is your time worth to you? If you are serious, spend something!

A Startups New Years Resolutions (kinda)

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Well 2012 is behind us and 2013 is shaping up nicely for the Scottish tech scene. As we’re all getting back into the flow of work and trying to shift that extra Christmas weight I thought it would be beneficial to look back at 2012 and share some areas that I’m going to focus on in 2013.

These aren’t my New Year resolutions, I never manage to stick to them anyway, but just improvements for 2013 that will help us make Mallzee as successful as possible.

The Past is the Past

Life’s too short to worry about what’s gone before, who’s wronged you, who said what or any other bull. If you focus on the past then you’ll never create the future you want. That’s why I’m not worrying about any of the things from 2012. The web developers who wronged us, who said what about our efforts, not winning an award or anything else. 2013 is about the future and putting all thats gone before aside and focusing on being the best company we can be.

Global Ambition

I love Scotland. It’s a great country and we’ve given the world some of the greatest inventions ever. In 2013 lets keep changing the world! We’ve got all the resources if we’re willing to work for it and I know with some of the awesome startups we have here that we can make 2013 a global year for Scotland.

Work Together

In 2013 I’m going to work with as many people as I can. Not just to benefit myself but to try and help others as well. The more we collaborate – the better we’ll all become. I’ve learnt some great things from others this year and I’m sure you will have as well. Lets keep it going, open doors for each other and work together.

Focus on the Customer

In any startup they are the life blood and this year put them at the heart of everything you do. In the case of my startup, that’s why we released a very early stage beta to a small group of users just after Christmas. The feedback we’ve had from them is astonishing and has already helped us develop. To make sure we keep getting this feedback we’re going to keep ship, ship, shipping.

Awesome People

This year is all about meeting awesome people. In 2012 I spent time in the Dublin, London and Tel Aviv start up communities and I met many awesome people in the process. In 2013 I’m going to meet even more. By connecting, collaborating and even just being around awesome people you improve and grow. With this in mind I’m also going to go to as many events in Scotland as possible and meet every awesome person I can. (Apologies for the use of the word awesome).

Learn and Move Forward

In the first half of 2012 I had my eyes and my ears shut. I didn’t learn cause I thought I knew it all. In 2013 I won’t be making the same mistake. This year I’m going to learn something new every day and not make the same mistakes as I did in 2012. In the last six months we’ve moved forward a lot and this momentum is something we’re not going to let stop.

Thats my (kinda) New Year resolutions, wither you agree with my choices or not it would be great to hear what areas you’re going to focus on in 2013 and why in the comments below.

The power of association

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I say “shot”, you’ll likely think “gun”. I say “black” you’ll likely think “white”. It’s more than a popular word game; association can be a powerful tool for businesses. For example I say “van” there’s a good chance “Transit” would pop into your head.

Having that association can be powerful in regards to marketing but how about when it comes to business? Can your association with partners and associates drive your success? Can it aid in raising investment and attracting customers?

Lets look at YCombinator. Through having an association with the most successful accelerator program in the world alumni and participants will undoubtedly find it easier to gain investment, get customers and users and ultimately create a successful business.

Most investors would love to have a YCombinator company in their portfolio, customers will sign up so as they can tap into that deep and diverse YCombinator network. Sure there are a lot of other factors that play into it (first class mentoring, advice and support) but having that association undoubtedly helps.

However what happens when there’s a negative association, what then?

Look at the companies who were once proudly associated with the likes of Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong drop them as the negativity built around them in recent years. This was out of a fear the association would lead to the negativity having an impact on their brand and performance.

At a personal level I now know I will never use certain service providers, who incidentally are positioning themselves as startup specialists, for their services through the association they have with their clients. That is a direct way in which a negative association has had a detrimental impact on a business I have dealings with.

And to look at the inverse of YCombinator. As a startup an association with a derided and looked down upon accelerator will almost certainly make it even more challenging when raising investment, attracting customers and ultimately being successful.

I suspect an investor would not want the negativity to leach into their portfolio. I also suspect companies would be unwilling to do business due to the fear of the negativity seeping into their brand and turning their customers away.

As with YCombinator the same factors apply outwith the association (lack of quality mentoring, advice and inadequate support) however I strongly believe the negative association here can be terminal to businesses.

My advice, no matter what your company’s size, pick and choose your partners and associates carefully. It seems there’s a new accelerator or incubator opening up every day. Just because you get accepted to *an* accelerator does not mean it’s the right accelerator for your business and therefore your business should not be joining it. Look longer term and think of the damage it could be doing.

Everyone can make wrong and ill informed choices (I’ve made more than most) but be quick to retract and rectify the situation before the association damages your business.

Scumbag marketing

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Not once, not twice but three times last week I was very ‘kindly’ added to a startups mailing list without consent. This is all kinds of wrong. It’s scumbag marketing and it’s spam.

Firstly it’s illegal. In the UK data protection and privacy is governed by the Information Commissioners Office and specifically in regards to email marketing the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. This protects individuals from receiving spam which is defined as:

“Spam emails are emails sent to you without consent. It is email that you don’t want and didn’t ask for, and its content can cause embarrassment and distress. However, it’s worth remembering that the sender generally doesn’t target recipients personally. The same spam email can be sent to millions of people at the same time and the addresses can often be guessed.”

On three occasions in the last week Scottish startups that I don’t use and have never subscribed to started to send me marketing emails. It’s disappointing to see and is not only illegal but also entirely unprofessional.

Privacy and data protection is of the upmost importance for any organisation but especially so for a startup which needs to build trust with their users and customers. If I’m receiving spam from your startup what makes you think I would go on to to entrust you with more valuable data? Fat chance I’ll ever give you payment details if you’re already misusing my data.

How did these startups get my email address in the first place? It’s certainly wasn’t in anyway where I had given explicit consent. In the case of two of the companies I suspect I know how they obtained my email address. One of them; the founder was a subscriber to a mailing list I do, the Scottish StartupDigest, and had added my to there marketing campaign. Subscribing to a service I provide does not equal consent to subscribe me to your mailing lists.

The second startup was more distressing. I had connected with one of the founders on LinkedIn, just because I’m a connection in a personal capacity on a social network does not give you the right to add me to mailing list.

As ever I won’t name the companies publicly, that’s entirely unfair. But I do hope this post will be of some use and prevent others from making the same mistake.

For more information on spam and how to make sure you’re not spamming people check out the ICO.

Final RookieOven Meetup of 2012

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The next RookieOven Meetup, and last of 2012, is taking place in Glasgow this coming Monday, 3rd or December. The RookieOven December Meetup will be attended by some of Scotland’s most promising tech startups and is a fantastic opportunity to meet like minded folk and discuss startups with your peers.

The venue for the RookieOven meetup is Vespbar which is a short walk from either Glasgow Central or Queen Street Station. It has a great selection of beers and they do pizza by the metre. We will be in the downstairs section but any problems finding the venue on the night tweet me (@_1) or the RookieOven twitter account.

No sales: this isn’t an opportunity to sell to startups
No stealth mode: Talk! Share your idea’s and experiences with fellow Scottish startups

November was a busy month in the Scottish tech community. In regards to events there was Startup Summit and Startup Weekend Edinburgh just days apart in the middle of the month. Many startups launched new features or versions such as WallaBee, Seeu.at and FreeAgent and TechCube unveiled their website and an excellent video overview of the Edinburgh startup community. So plenty to discuss and evaluate over a drink and some pizza.

For the final meetup of 2012 I hope we not only reflect upon the prior month but also the whole year. The likes of EIE12, Startup Weekend Glasgow and the Turing Festival have provided first rate events for our community and OpenTechCalendar and the Scottish StartupDigest are great resources for keeping tabs on such events. We’ve seen exits, plenty of launches, exciting startups emerging and a fair few talking points throughout the year. All round it’s been a positive year for Scottish startups but one that I feel is really laying the ground work for what will be a humongous year in 2013.

More immediately looking ahead to December we have the Edinburgh Startups Christmas Party/TechCube Launch party on Thursday the 13th December, TechMeetups, the return of Girl Geeks Scotland and I’m sure plenty more fantastic events that I hope to be able to attend plus there’s plenty time left in 2012 for more startups to launch and start generating revenue.

See you all on Monday.

Startup Spotlight: Tech Britain

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each week the RookieOven Startup Spotlight ordinarily aims to highlight a member of the Scottish tech startup community. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on the best startups from across the country however this week I’m throwing the net a bit wider to highlight something that I feel the Scottish community should be embracing – Tech Britain.

Founded earlier this year by Shaun Gibson and Doug Ward, Tech Britain is an ambitious attempt to map out, not just an area or community but the entire UK tech scene. The guys have spend most of the year travelling the country by any means possible to connect hubs such as Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh with others in England Wales and Northern Ireland.

I can highly relate to their reasons for founding Tech Britain. A failed startup behind them and a frustration at a lack of cohesion amongst our geographically small nation, a dissatisfaction with the focus on a single ‘hub’ for the UK startup scene (London) and deep passion to see the country be able to produce world class startups on a regularly basis.

The guys started out by touring the UK and conducting interviews with members of communities and then sharing these videos on their YouTube channel. Since then they have developed the Tech Britain map:

The map clearly lists the startups, incubators, accelerators and investors that make up the various tech communities of the UK. The map has the potential to become a powerful tool for startups in the UK and a ‘go to’ place for those wishing to discover the UK tech scene. If you feel you belong on the map you can add yourself or suggest an addition on the Tech Britain site.

Entirely self funded, Shaun and Doug couch surfed the UK to foster the links amongst the communities that have made Tech Britain possible. The guys have invested a lot of their time, effort and money into the Tech Britain initiative. It’s a massive undertaking for two young guys and I personally think they’ve achieved something remarkable.

I think the least we can do, as a community in Scotland, is to get behind Tech Britain.

Let's embrace Ambition

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Ambition! It’s a word a lot of us shy away from in Scotland. It’s dirty, a bit self-indulgent and no one likes someone that thinks they’re a bit special. Right?

Forget that, let’s embrace ambition.

Last month I had the good fortune of spending 10 days in TelAviv after winning a competition for startup concepts. I spent the time with 9 other founders from across Europe and met the heads of some of Israelis most exciting startups and corporates. The one thing that I found with all of these amazing people, and especially guys like Eden Shochat the founder of Face.com, was that ambition was something they embraced.

In TelAviv they talk about making $100m companies as if it’s as easy as popping down the shops for some milk.

Too often we feel like we need to snipe at people with ambition in Scotland, hold them down, mock their big dreams and rejoice when they fail. In reality their ambition and the confidence they show to set out to change the world should be something we embrace, support, nurture and strive for. Ambition is a vital ingredient in a startup’s, and an ecosystems, mix and one of the areas that I think might be the most difficult to get right.

There are great things happening in the Scottish tech community from the launch of TechCube in Edinburgh to the work of TechMeetup across the country. We’re lucky to have numerous companies/organisations, love or hate them, all trying to provide support to our ambitious founders. Heck, hopefully even this very blog helps in this regard. It’s due to all of these factors that makes me think, as a nation, we’re starting to show the ambition that is needed to make this a great, thriving, successful community and ultimately somewhere that we can continually create truly world class companies.

And that’s what we all want right?

A Scotland where multi million exits are the norm, where we make world-changing products and where people from all around the world want to start their companies?

Okay, we might have allowed places like Dublin, TelAviv and London to get a wee bit of a head start but let’s all pull together, show some ambition and put Scotland and all of the amazing companies we have here on the world map.

Who wouldn’t love to see Edinburgh, or Glasgow, break into The Startup Genome top 20 Startup Cities? Maybe it could be a New Years resolution from every founder?

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of ambition!

Taking Funding for your Startup is not Evil

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Do you know that way you shouldn’t get annoyed by other peoples’ opinions too much? Well I just can’t help myself sometimes. There is literally nothing like the internet to incite a massive ill informed debate.

So with this in mind I’m going to impart my slant on the 100lb gorilla that is funding your startup.

I find it absolutely amazing how this divides opinion. On one extreme you have a subset of the population that received investment and see it as the only way to start a company and on the other extreme are people who have never even tried to start a company informing you it’s the root of all evil. Now like any good story the actual truth lies somewhere in-between.

As much as I’m ashamed to admit, I used to think that there was only one way, and that was that you do not need outside investment. I’d read Rework by DHH and Jason Fried and thought I knew it all. The fact is, I didn’t know it all then, and I certainly don’t now. However what I have done, is to talk to other people and listen to their views. Doing this has given me a whole new perspective from which I now understood how important investment is for certain people and products.

Consider, for example, two young grads leaving school/university/college. They have a great idea for a product and have started work on it. Given that any product large or small requires some form of capital, the question is, how do they build their product?

First up, let’s face up to it, working a full-time job and building a product in your spare time is hard. If this is not the case for you then I bow down. Building anything meaningful takes time and in general this approach is not going to be the one that gets you to market quickly. It’s worth remembering that a software business is not just about writing code, a business is normally successful due to many other influencing factors.

None-the-less, this is how many products are built but it’s important to remember it ain’t the only way for certain people and certain types of product. It’s certainly not how most of the large software companies formed.

Now, let’s clear up something, the investment naysayers will say “These two guys can just move back home with their parents, and have them provide their food/shelter/water”. Well, that just isn’t possible for many people. Also, what makes anyone think that everyone’s parents could afford to do that anyway, and why should we stop people who can’t from creating a business? If you do think like this then you really need to get out more and understand that circumstances exist that are different from your own. Furthermore, there are other costs associated with running a business in addition to your time, these are getting cheaper but they are not free, and if you have got no money then you can’t pay for anything.

So what exactly is wrong with these guys getting VC money? We need to separate how useful VC money is from all the other bullshit that goes with it – think here inflated valuations, “dipshit” companies and unconstrained spending. Without investment these two guys don’t start a company, is that what we want? I think we should be encouraging those who are young, have a great idea and want to start a business, rather than let them drift off to an investment bank, never to be seen again.

The fact is that in the world without investment, we are left with 30-somethings who have build up enough savings to properly seed a startup. The problem is though, these people tend to be scared shitless about losing all that hard earned cash! They may talk about it, but very few will ever get past the talking phase. They are too entrenched in the system to leave it. Age only increases the number of dependencies you have on a regular income.

Now on the flip side. Everyone has heard enough stories about VCs to know that you don’t take their money unless you really really really need it. They only care about one thing and that is a return on their money (and so they should because it’s not really their money!). You may be happy with your turnover but they are not going to give a shit, they want a liquidity event, not a 10¢ dividend on their 1 million shares. This makes it hard for startups in Europe (and in particular Scotland) as these types of liquidity events are few and far between.

I think my point is: try to work on your product for as long as you can, doing everything and anything possible, before you take that outside investment. However, let’s not perpetuate this myth that taking investment is beyond evil, it’s getting old. If you happen to come across people delivering such a message, then just ignore anything they say, as do you really want to be taking advice from someone that can only ever see something as either black or white and is missing out everything else in-between?

Comments on Hacker News - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4803426

Startup Spotlight: Insight Arcade

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each week the RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a member of the Scottish tech startup community. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on the best startups from across the country. In creating a more cohesive startup community in Scotland I feel it’s important to share information about exciting Scottish startups you may not have heard of. With the Startup Spotlight I give a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. This week the spotlight falls on a startup with it’s origin in the small town of Tullibody; Insight Arcade.

Insight Arcade, founded by Allan Lloyds, has thus far been self funded. The mission is to match skills gaps with learning opportunities through an online marketplace. To achieve this they’re aggregating course information from training providers worldwide and will provide learners with personalised curriculums backed with the group purchasing power of an entire marketplace.

Allan started work on the concept in Tullibody in 2011 to assist independent teachers who were leaving community education. Subsequently however he realised there was no fully comprehensive marketplace of training opportunities and pivoted towards aggregation. Work began in earnest on the new model in May 2012.

Insight Arcade recently joined the ranks of “TempCube”, the temporary working space in Edinburgh being used by several companies in anticipation of the full Edinburgh TechCube opening. Being based in TechCube/TempCube is advantageous to Insight Arcade as the team are constantly put in contact with talented founders and mentors. Allan says “what TechCube offers Scottish tech startups is unparalleled across the country and will surely drive the growth and development of the Scottish tech scene”.

Insight Arcade are currently running a closed alpha and will be opening a beta program in the coming weeks.

5 tips for a Startup Weekend

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last weekend I attended Startup Weekend Manchester where I was a member of the winning team with GoAnnotate; a tool for writers to receive feedback on their work. With Startup Weekend coming to the Scottish community this weekend, with Startup Weekend Edinburgh, I figured it was worth sharing my views on why we won. So here are my 5 tips for a Startup Weekend:

Teaming up

At Startup Weekend you have 54 hours to turn an idea into a viable business. 54 hours during which you’ll need to sleep, eat and socialise (Startup Weekends are fantastic for networking) so you may be fooled into thinking many hands make light work. Wrong.

In my opinion a large number of people working on the same idea leads to either a disgruntled team working under a dictatorship or a process of decision making by committee. Neither work.

In our case we initially only had two members. The decision that took us the longest to settle on was probably what font to use. We each deferred when something fell outwith our area of expertise and let each other work on what we were good at.

Just start small

At Startup Weekend you should really be testing out your base assumption. Sure you’re idea may scale to encompass several revenue streams and verticals but over the weekend focus on a market, a customer and a base product.

Being distracted by other potential happenings for the business will get you nowhere. Definitely identify them, make it clear there is potential but at the weekend don’t get hung up on them.

A great read on this topic is this recent blog post by Joel Gascoigne of Buffer, Start something small.

Build and validate effectively

I would ward off doing a vague, airy fairy survey monkey. This is not quality validation. A competing team boasted how they had been on the street and received feedback from a whole 40 people. Sorry but they 40 people on their Saturday shop likely didn’t give a toss about your instagram for cats with daily deals. The responses are next to worthless.

With GoAnnotate we had a rough V1 up on Saturday night. Over night we had over 200 users, by the time we pitched on Sunday night with was over 350. These users were giving us qualitative feedback and of course quantitative feedback (huge thanks to GoSquared). It showed us the idea had some legs and we should iterate and now try to test the assumption people would pay for the service by turning our users into customers.

We were only a couple of hours shy of incorporating payments (thanks to GoCardless). To my understanding no other team was close to taking payments during Startup Weekend Manchester.

Hone the deck

Good practice applies here. Few words, plenty of graphics and visualisations of what you’re trying to communicate. Leave off the fine grain numbers. Keep it to at most 10 slides. Keep a good flow and tell a story – problem, solution, potential and viability. Close with a summary.

Here is the GoAnnotate deck that won us Startup Weekend Manchester for reference:

Don’t get caught up on the design (ours mimicked the website). The content is king. If you have a designer on hand utalise them but if you don’t a poor looking yet well constructed pitch is better than a good looking poorly constructed pitch.

One last thing to remember when making your deck is long is easy, short is hard.

Make the most of it

Make sure to grab people who can help you. They could be the organisers or coaches or they could even be from a competing team. Grab them!

Every Startup Weekend I’ve ever attended shares an open culture of collaboration. Get their opinions, use their skills or ‘borrow’ their ideas. Likewise offer the same in return. It’s cheesy to say but ultimately it’s less about the ‘winning’ and more about expanding your capabilities and skillset.

So in summary, it’s all pretty much good practice for your own startups. This is why Startup Weekend is so successful globally. It’s the perfect opportunity to brush up on your skills, maybe scratch an itch and meet new people (who could become future employees, employers or cofoudners).

I’ve shared my tips for a Startup Weekend, what are yours?

P.S. tickets still available for Startup Weekend Edinburgh and there will likely be a Startup Weekend coming to somewhere near you shortly.

Dangerous People

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There hasn’t been much posted on RookieOven over the past week or so. I’ve been in a bit of a trough. Over the past 18 months or so I’ve been working hard through various projects to do my bit in creating a ‘better’ startup community in Scotland. By this I mean one that is cohesive and well connected (both internally and externally) whilst also being open with a keen sense of collaboration. With that in place I firmly believe Scotland will be a world class place to found and grow a tech startup. I’ve invested a lot of my own time and effort through RookieOven, StartupDigest Scotland and the likes of Startup Weekend to attain this goal but recently I’ve been getting disheartened. Why? Well it’s all because of dangerous people.

It has been disheartening to see people engineer themselves into a position of authority over startups and yet provide advice that in my eyes can only be described as ill informed and dangerous. Now I’ve never claimed to be a startup expert, in fact I’m far from it. I have plenty to learn, but if someone asks me for advice or an opinion I always offer it at face value. The person can take it or leave it.

I know my limitations. Despite my comparative youth and inexperience I do feel I’m in a position to give quality advice to those developing products in areas I’ve worked before however I know for a fact my opinions may be ill-suited. I’m also aware of the fact my skill set and knowledge is limited when it comes to businesses outwith my comfort zone. For example those selling physical products or an entirely service based business. Yeah I still have an opinion but there is really little to no value in it.

There are people in the community, I believe/suspect, are force feeding startups with advice that is entirely ill-suited to them. This is dangerous. A key aspect of assisting startups is knowing your limitations and then being able identify those who can effectively assist.

So for a case where someone is looking for help in area I have little to no knowledge about, whilst I might not be able to help there will almost certainly be someone in the community who can. If I know who ‘that’ is I will almost always introduce. Pointing in the right direction is more beneficial than grabbing the startup to bump up a ‘KPI’ followed by forcing an inappropriate opinion upon them.

The counter argument is that more resources being available to startups, regardless of quality, is beneficial. These people are putting the topic on the table, raising awareness and being visible and this can only help stimulate the ecosystem and the community. To this end there’s a saying I’ve been seeing bandied about “a rising tide floats many boats”. It makes sense I guess but I’ve seen Jaws. It only takes one big dangerous shark to sink them all.

Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen here.

Startup Spotlight: Float App

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each Friday the RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a member of the Scottish tech startup community. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on the best startups from across the country. In creating a more cohesive startup community in Scotland I feel it’s important to share information about exciting Scottish startups you may not have heard of. With the Startup Spotlight I give a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. This week the spotlight falls on Edinburgh based Float App.

Float comprises of Philip Roberts, CTO, and Colin Hewitt, CEO. Based in the Edinburgh TechCube (on the 4th Floor); Float provide cash flow forecasting software for small businesses. This is done by syncing with various online accounting software services. Float allows users to set up budgets and sales forecasting. The aim for Float is to produce a forecasting tool that business owners with no accountancy background can actually use and understand.

Float have raised small amounts of money thus far, £5k initially from Edinburgh University to get started and then £20k from a private investor. Colin’s previous company, IfLooksCouldKill, supported Float for the first 18 months however in April Colin sold IfLooksCouldKill. With Float no longer receiving supported from the company, Float has relocated to TechCube. It’s also worth noting that Float is also generating revenue; this has been done through selling “Founders Plans” which has created revenue of £15k.

The idea for Float was born in IfLooksCouldKill. Colin was spending a lot of time keeping all the company financials in a spreadsheet and it was “getting out of control”. After coming back from Startup School in 2009, Colin approached Phil about helping replacing the spreadsheet with a web app. The idea being to remove all the manual bank reconciliation by connecting in with their new accounting software (Edinburgh based FreeAgent).

Things accelerated for Float in 2010 when they were accepted for Seedcamp in London. Phil quit his job and Colin started devoting more and more time to it. During this time Colin was effectively a customer for his own startup; as the Float product was being developed Colin was constantly testing it as a user within IfLooksCouldKill. This was invaluable in defining features and functionality in the product.

Float is now in it’s forth iteration and the guys are about to release integration with Xero, another service providing online accounting software and services for small and medium businesses. With Xero integration in the pipeline Float are looking for Xero users to test the new functionality*.*

With the online accounting market growing massively at the moment things are looking good for the guys at Float.

P.S. Also worth pointing out the excellent blog by Phil - https://blog.latentflip.com/. On the blog Phil shares his startup experience and a lot of invaluable advice.

Fluid UI and the Mobile Gold Rush

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Previously, on “thoughts from the Dublin Web Summit”… we saw that The Next Big Thing is mobile. But before you swing your bag-on-a-stick over the shoulder and go off to join the Mobile Gold Rush, bear in mind that the landscape is still settling. It might be startups like Fluid UI that end up being the ones who manage to harness this bandwagon.

That is to say that the surer bet may be one step removed and lie in serving this expanding market. To paraphrase Uncle Ben from Spider-Man, “With great bandwagons come great opportunities.” In the Wild West gold rushes, I’d wager that the saloons did pretty well for themselves by keeping the gold panners well-watered and entertained.

A study a few months ago indicated that 70% of those using mobile apps either don’t spend anything at all or spend very little on apps. The app economy is still disproportionately dependent on the minority of big spenders; the top 3% make up 20% of the total spend. It may be that the increasing role of mobile and its value is as part of the mix – blending with a company’s web presence, rather than as a stand-alone channel that supplants the traditional web.

Whatever the underlying reasons are for the growth in mobile, it’s got its own growing ecosystem of startups that cater to those who are creating mobile apps and there are interesting market opportunities in this space.

One of my favourite startups from the Dublin Web Summit was Fluid UI. It’s a tool for creating prototypes of mobile interfaces, and it enables the designer to do so quickly. In the age of the Lean Startup, where it’s important to have rapid learning from short development cycles, an intuitive tool like Fluid UI can really help to speed up the process of adapting your designs.

You can use it to create either simple wireframes or more fully specced-out prototypes. Rather than listing what it does, you’ll get a more immediate idea of whether the Fluid UI tool works for you if you just go and take it for a test drive and get a feel for the interface; the features; and the library of UI elements. (I feel it’s very important to point out that you can clone a screen by clicking on a sheep icon – nice touch. In Memoriam Dolly.)

Personally, I can see that Fluid UI would be useful for working on UX screen flows because it’s easy to link pages and see how the navigation for your app works.

I like that the interface is very minimalist. I did speak to somebody at the Dublin Web Summit who thought it looked a bit ‘bare’ but I know that the guys at Fluid UI made a deliberate decision to have it that way so that the focus stays on the user’s prototype. I think it was the right call. The danger of too much furniture is that it influences the user, whether they’re consciously copying or subliminally ‘inspired’ by it.

There’s a team of seven behind the Fluid UI tool, headed up by the founders Dave Kearney and Ian Hannigan. Progress has been steady. Development of the tool began in earnest in January 2011; Enterprise Ireland put in €50,000 for a 10% stake in Fluid in June 2011; they launched in July 2012; and in August 2012 they joined Dogpatch Labs Europe in Dublin (which offers free office space for entrepreneurs).

Fluid UI has a free option if you’re just working on one project. The paid plans follow the familiar three-tier pricing model of many SaaS businesses – 3 projects cost $29/month, 10 projects cost $49/month and for unlimited projects it costs $129.

I’ll be keeping an interested and friendly eye on Fluid UI to see how they develop. I liked the team and I liked how they interact with one another, and I think that the open and supportive company culture that they’re cultivating bodes well for their future.

If I ever take Plantedd to join the mobile gold rush, I know which saloon’s swing doors I’ll be passing through.

Startup Summit 2012

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

From the 12th to the 18th of November it’s Global Entrepreneurship Week and around this time there are 3 excellent events taking place across the UK; Startup Weekend Manchester which runs from 9th-11th November, Startup Weekend Edinburgh 16th-18th November and sandwiched inbetween the Startup Weekends on the 14th of November is Startup Summit 2012 in Edinburgh.

The Startup Summit is a not-for-profit event founded by a group of entrepreneurs led by Sam Zawadzki from AdvanceToGo, the aim of Startup Summit 2012 is to inspire and assist new entrepreneurs.

As I said, Startup Summit is taking place on the 14th November in Edinburgh from 9.00am. The venue is the Assembly Rooms which is a short walk from Waverly Station. Speakers include John Waddell of angel investment syndicate Archangels, Lucy Frankel is Communications Manager at Vegware and Stephen Ng Managing Director of Cubic Blue. Further to this there will be various panels with panelists such as Hilary Roberts, founder of the excellent Turing Town, and Jo Young of the Edinburgh Entrepreneurship Club.

Tickets are currently being sold at an early bird rate of only £10 for students or startup founders, this will be rising to £20 from the 1st of November. There is also the opportunity to exhibit your startup at the event, this costs £50 which also includes two passes to the event.

There will be amble opportunity to network and meet fellow founders and there will also be at least 23 support organisations there that will be able to guide and assist startups. This will also serve as a fantastic opportunity for these organisations to interact with talented founders.

The organising team are offering RookieOven readers a 25% discount (that’s only £7.50 a ticket at the early bird rate) using the discount code “RookieOven”.

Will you be going to Startup Summit 2012? Which speakers are you looking forward to hearing from?

Startup Spotlight: Stipso

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Stipso is all about Market Engagement. Specifically using market research to co-create content. Along the lines of using an infographic as a visual blog. The Stipso team comprise Steven Drost, CEO, Brian Corcoran, VP Sales, Yaniv Mazor, VP Marketing, and David Farquhar, Exec Chairman.

Stipso was initially funded by two of the founders, but they are currently putting together a round with European and US Smart Angels and Scottish Enterprise.

Stipso allow companies to build ‘live’ infographics that not only display data, but customers to collect data, too. This approach differs from traditional surveys as the ones available through Stipso are visual, exciting and social, not just computerised versions of paper questionnaires put behind a screen. These ‘live’ infographics are also constantly updating as users interact with them, contributing data. Below is an example of a Stipso powered infographic:

The founders have a professional background in market research and online marketing. Stipso was started based on their inside knowledge of (and frustration with) the online data collection and surveys world of market research. We are solving a well-known problem in the industry: respondent motivation. This is a big problem in a big industry. By solving this problem, Stipso are bringing online research into the Web 2.0 world: strong UX focus, social sharing, content creation and inbound marketing via strong Calls To Action.

The team are currently developing Stipso into a SaaS offering, letting customers set up their own data gathering infographics, and dashboards allowing them to monitor data and sharing metrics.

To find out more about Stipso you can contact the team by email – info@stipso.com.

Startup School and back

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I tend to find that the things you remember most are those which involve a certain element of disaster. I’m not trying to suggest for one second that a disaster is a prerequisite for having a good time but they sure stick in your memory. Therefore, given the immediacy of things going wrong on my 5000 mile trek to Startup School, I was hoping this symbolism was something refreshing rather than the gloom I was feeling.

There cannot be anyone anywhere in the world that has not experienced an “oh no” moment, however, I’d like to think that there are not too many at 36,000ft!

As I was going through the steps in my mind of the day ahead I realised that there was a problem with one of them, namely picking up the car, as I had conveniently failed to pack my driving licence. Some rapid cancelling of hotels and subsequent rebooking closer to public transport was hastily carried out on a layover at Philly. So by the time I reached San Francisco sleep was just about the only thing I could think about.

The next morning was the day of Startup School and I’d tasked myself with taking notes to see what, in my opinion, advice also applies to startups here in Scotland (although obviously many of the points will inevitably apply more broadly).

One reason often cited as to why The Bay Area has been so successful in producing startups is the culture. This was brought home before I even arrived at the auditorium. Sitting quietly having some breakfast at a cafe in Palo Alto I noticed that I just happened to be sitting directly next to Paul Graham. In Scotland there is no way you will ever be sitting in a random cafe where people are talking about startups, never mind sitting 5 feet away from one of the most well known investors and a founder of the most successful startup accelerator. I then happened to bump into one of the speakers (Joel Spolsky) on the way to the auditorium, both of us apparently lost, and had a little chat with him and his buddy – wonder if he ever did get that backstage spa treatment he was hoping speakers would be offered!!

To be honest, I could probably end this post here and it would be immediate as to why basing your startup outside The Valley is more likely to be a tougher route to success. However, given that the single most consistent message of Startup School was that startups are hard, well, what the hell. As Jessica Livingston (a partner in Y Combinator) emphasised: startups are hard, NOT IMPOSSIBLE.

As to be expected, a significant amount of the information being disseminated was based on obtaining investment in the form of VC or angel money. I’m not convinced how useful this info is to a startup in Scotland, given that big liquidity events in Scotland are rare (non-existent?), and therefore large investments of this type will be few and far between. That said, a quick summary would be: delay taking money for as long as you can (because then you’ll have more control over the terms), it’s not a deal until the money is in the bank, and investors only tend to be interested if other investors are interested (a chicken-and-egg problem).

So what can Scottish startups do then? To be honest, this is hard to say (and take), but work harder and be sure to be building something you believe in. Many of the founders did not see any kind of traction for over 6 months and even then it was slow. Patrick Collison of Stripe said that everything happens much much slower than you think it will. Weebly took 20 months before any real sign of traction – this was despite being featured on Newsweek, TechCrunch and Time. Weebly founder David Rusenko’s best piece of advice was that you can’t succeed at anything if you quit in 6-12 months, also reiterated by Ben Silbermann (Pinterest). Even apparent overnight successes like Facebook took over a year to get a million users.

Great, so work harder, as if you didn’t know that already, but what else? It was noted by Ben Silbermann that Pinterest’s lack of traction was only really addressed when they acknowledged that the problem wasn’t an engineering problem and instead a community problem. When they engaged their potential users by creating (and sponsoring) events the site took off. Tom Preston-Werner also provided a similar message with regards to Github. Interestingly, one of Facebook’s marketing tactics was targeting universities that already had a product similar to theirs, hence they knew there was a market, and gave these communities something that was much better than the existing solution. So, take time to think about the people that will use your product and invest in them. Above all else you need to focus on the data and listen to what these users are saying, i.e. measure everything.

Now, what about those thinking about about doing a startup? As Ben Silbermann’s wife said “just do it or stop talking about it”. The dependent variable was him, the only reason it wasn’t happening was because he wasn’t committing. It’s worth stressing again though that you have to make sure you are creating something you believe in. Mark Zuckerburg was creating Facebook because it’s something that he wanted to use. There is no doubt that it’s difficult and as Ben Horowitz said “there are two emotions euphoria and terror”.

One thing I recommend more than anything else about Startup School is to go just to get a feeling for the atmosphere and culture in Silicon Valley. It will not provide you with a sudden great revelation with regards to your product but talking with so many like-minded people is refreshing and motivating. Even my bumpy start could not take that away. It feels like you are part of something and this is what we really need over here more than anything. So don’t be put off by doubters as they will always doubt. If you’re going to do it then throw away the distractions and concentrate on building something great. As Ben Silbermann’s said “the future is unwritten“.

Videos from the Startup School 2012 speakers can be found on the Startup School website and you can comment on this post on HackerNews.

The Next Big Thing: thoughts from the Dublin Web Summit

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It’s the sign of an impressive tech conference when you can walk past the top guys from Skype, Sequoia Capital, 4chan and Stripe without thinking too much of it. The Dublin Web Summit, which took place over two days last week on 17 and 18 October, had a stellar line-up of speakers and it was attended by around 4,000 people from the web tech scene. It was a gathering of enthusiastic minds all driven to make a difference, whether it was to change the way we travel, the way we search or the way we shop – and in their company, it was easy to forget the gloomy sentiments dominating the front pages of the news.

Although the Dublin Web Summit is less brash than its US counterparts, there’s still a lot of noise (and there’s just as much sleep-deprivation). With the benefit of a week’s distance from the event, I’ve tried to thread together the topics that rose to the surface.

One of the sessions was a panel of investors discussing The Next Big Thing. It gave a useful overview, but because each slot was only around 20 minutes it meant that points were raised without pursuing them for long enough to uncover real insight. Nevertheless, it was good to get the investors’ perspective on what areas they thought would take off.

There were many who looked into the crystal ball for the next big thing and saw mobile, mobile, mobile. It became a bit of a stuck record throughout much of the web summit overall, but as Mattias Ljungman from Atomico pointed out, mobile is deservedly hyped.

The news yesterday that 14% of Facebook’s ad revenues in the third quarter came from ads served on mobile devices underlines the opportunities presented by mobile.

Not every sector has been affected yet, and Megan Quinn from KPCB thought that there was another 5 years’ worth of potential. Mobile has the ability to serve as the glue between the online world and the real world. For example, from the perspective of ecommerce it means that customers can see something online and buy it in the physical store, or they can buy something online if it isn’t available in-store.

The panel also highlighted the fact that technology can disrupt any industry and they drew attention to traditional, real-world industries. Hailo was an example. It’s an app which you can use to get a London black cab “in just two taps”.

Another area that the investors wanted to see more of was startups working on hardware. The falling costs and the increasing speed with which products can be made have opened up this space. There’s a palpable sense that there is a resurgence of interest in hardware, and commentators and investors are paying attention. The New York Times recently had an article on it.

Wesley Chan from Google Ventures picked computational biology as a field with big potential. I suspect that this is something less readily accessible to most of us and that the progress will be made in university corridors with collaborations between computer science, biology, medicine and mathematics departments. Wesley Chan’s view was that it would revolutionise personalised medicine.

Last of all, and certainly very much the least… there were cupcakes everywhere at the web summit. Bear with me. There’s a (tenuous) point. I’m not sure that devotees of the Great British Bake Off and Mary Berry would consider cupcakes as the next big thing anymore, so I’ll leave you with this final thought from Megan Quinn. “You can’t listen to the hype too much but equally, you can’t wash your hands of any sector because there’s always opportunities for disruption.”

Lessons from Eventbrite - product and community

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last week RookieOven attended the Dublin Web Summit 2012 to cover the event and seek out interviews with some of the most talented and successful founders in the world. At the Dublin Web summit I met with the CTO and co-founder of Eventbrite Renaud Visage. I took notes on how Eventbrite started, and Renaud’s tips for building a successful startup community.

How did Eventbrite start out?

Eventbrite is an online ticketing system. It allows people to create events, market them, sell tickets, collect information from, and engage their attendees. Eventbrite was founded by Renaud and two co-founders Kevin Hartz and Julia Hartz in 2006.

Eventbrite was started when they identified a suitable space in the market. At that time the ‘long tail’ of small events organisers had no suitable tools to serve their needs.

Their vision was to revolutionise the space.

They saw that event organises needed cash quickly. Using PayPal allowed Eventbrite to quickly meet this need for direct cash. Eventbrite also avoided having to develop payment processing features, which has both development time and security implications. The initial package was attractive to event organisers.

They identified the key features to put in their first product: gathering information on the attendees alongside the purchase of the ticket, something that was not previously done with traditional ticket selling.

Eventbrite learnt from their users in the early period, but also worked on the features that fit with the vision of what the tool could be. When users made specific demands they then looked at how the request could apply across all ticket sellers.

Key ingredients of a startup community?

Mentors
Finance
Incubators

Mentors give you access to networks that you can tap for experience and advice. Eventbrite was lucky in the early days, as the co-founders has already built a good network of contacts, and a positive reputation.

Finance is key for getting your idea up and running. Eventbrite lasted for two years on their initial $250k finance round.

Incubators can provide a sense of validity to a startup. Simply being screened for entry to an incubator can provide a signal that your company has an interesting or worthy idea. It is important to develop your credentials and establish a reputation.

When growing a team Renaud says that it’s a case of working with the resources you have. You find out what talent you can attract on your reputation and finance and build your personal activity around it.

Is it getting harder for startups to build successful products?

Today startups can build a viable product quickly with the tools available now, but the hard thing is building a sustainable business around that product.

The tech space is crowded, but don’t give up hope. Even if there are similar features in other products, just take the example of Facebook and Instagram, people like dedicated tools.

Renaud’s top priority for a new startup founder? Define your product well. Have a specific solution to solve a specific problem for a specific audience.

You can find out more about Eventbrite at www.eventbrite.com and you can follow Renaud on Twitter at: twitter.com/renaudvisage

Startup Spotlight: Interstate

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each Friday the RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a member of the Scottish tech startup community. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups. It’a an opportunity to share information about an exciting tech startup from Scotland you may not have heard of. Giving a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. I think it’s important that RookieOven not only highlights Scottish success and talent within the country but also the talent we export, a perfect example of this is Greg Cooper, cofounder of Interstate.

Interstate is a project management tool, providing users with a way to manage their projects using easy and powerful roadmaps. Based in San Francisco, Greg and his cofounder Simon were part of the YCombinator summer intake of 2011. This provided the guys money, mentoring, advice and access to an unparalleled alumni network.

Interstate is a SAAS product using a subscription model of $9 per user per month and is aimed at web developers but the guys have customers using it in a range of industries. A powerful aspect of Interstate is the REST API, this customers to display their development roadmap publicly or internally without the need for people to ever visit Interstate.

The public Roadmap allows companies to engage with their own customers and engage with them in the product development process. For example Media Temple are using the roadmap (pictured below) to inform their customers of upcoming features and developments.

Although not a Scottish based company I think it’s important that Scottish startup community gets behind ambitious young founders such as Greg and that we offer our support and encouragement. To that end; Interstate has a 30 day free trial, give it a go and provide Greg with your feedback and help spread the word and share your product roadmap in the comments.

Frames of reference for a startup community

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

What ingredients go in to making a successful startup community? Here in Scotland we need to change our frames of reference when thinking about the way we nurture early stage startups.

RookieOven is at the Dublin Web Summit 2012, speaking to individuals and startups from around the world about their own vision, community and support.

I asked Josh Elman of Greylock on what we can do to build a bigger and better startup community here in Scotland. Josh believes that startups can be built anywhere in the world. The difference between Silicon Valley, the other successful startups hubs, and other cities is that people aren’t focused exclusively on revenue. Instead, they are thinking about how to change the world. The question that people have to ask themselves is:

“Can I see a world where 100m people use my product?”

Josh explained that the key to reaching that goal is building and iterating towards your goal. Is your activity growing your user numbers towards that vision? If not, why not?

So what can we do in Scotland to nurture to community around startups and install in entrepreneurs the confidence that they can build a high growth company?

Is it the frames of reference we use?

Firstly, a more traditional view of product development takes the steps to success in sequence: planning, developing, building, marketing and selling. With tech startups that process is repeated in often very short bursts. Asking when you are finished with the ‘build’ stage is nonsense, as the product will always be under active development!

Secondly, comparing early stage startups in our community to the outstanding successes of others is often not helpful. We have an outsiders perspective, and so may be at risk of drawing the wrong conclusions if we don’t understand the context of their community and network. We should be looking at Scottish success stories and tapping into their networks.

Thirdly, we should be inspired by the success of others. Wherever they are in the world, startups are built by people, no different to anyone else anywhere. The successful startup hubs use proximity and serendipity to leverage the power, skills and vision of people in the community. We should take confidence that here in Scotland we have the foundations of success, we just need to build on them.

Gogobot - building an engaged user base

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Gogobot is a social discovery engine for travellers. Launched in 2010 and with $19M in funding, the company is going from strength to strength. I spoke to Travis Katz, CEO of Gogobot and former Myspace exec, at the Dublin Web Summit about building an engaged user base.

Gogobot have had over 18 million pieces of content shared from their site and app. They developed their initial user base by reaching out to groups of travel writers. These people are passionate about travel and wanted to share their experiences. Their initial user base wanted to use the product, but could also see ahead to what the product could be. Gogobot actively nurtured the community, iterating their development over feedback and suggestions.

For the first six months after launch “nothing was happening”, but then the user base hit a tipping point, gaining users and a favourable critical reception.

What advice does Travis have for new startup founders?

Focus on key metrics. Look for both growth and engagement. You need early users need to commit to the product. Growth without engagement isn’t good enough to build a sustainable product.

Gogobot segments their users giving them a custom experience based on what they are looking for. Some users want game mechanics and interaction, other just want a simple browsing experience. Find out what your users want, and tailor their experience.

For building a startup community Travis recommends identifying who has money and who is excited about investing in the local area. For tech companies they don’t need to be tech savvy, but they do need to understand and be excited about the product.

You can download Gogobot from the iOS App Store, or check it out at www.gogobot.com

Scottish talent at the Dublin Web Summit

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

RookieOven is currently at the Dublin Web Summit with the intention of connecting Scotland with startups from hubs across Europe and relay opinions and news from the event to the Scottish community. But we also hope to shine a light on the Scots here exhibiting as part of START150.

Float

Float provide cashflow forecasting to SME’s. Float consists of founder Colin Hewitt and Philip Roberts and is based in Edinburgh, inside the recently opened TechCube. Float aims to make forecasting accessible for small business owners. Helping them avoid sleepless nights, painful spreadsheets and ultimately running out of money.

Float are on stand 243 in the main hub.

Stipso

Stipso provide smart market engagement. Based in Edinburgh, Stipso helps businesses create market engagement in the social web using dynamic infographics. Stipso are being represented at the Dublin Web Summit by founders Brian Corcoran and Steven Drost.

Stipso are on stand 229 in the main hub.

My1Login

My1Login is a free, online password manager that gives you highly-secure access to your passwords from anywhere. Based in Glasgow and part of the Glasgow University business incubator, My1Login are represented by founder Mike Newman and community manage Norman Begg.

My1Login are on stand 190 in the main hub.

Aside from the Scottish companies on display as part of START150 there is a range of talent from around the world, exciting companies such as [GoSquared][4], Seedrs, Chirp and Twocial

[4]: is a free, online password manager that gives you highly-secure access to your passwords from anywhere. "GoSquared"

Droidcon London 2012 - October 25th-26th

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Scotland has a fair few startups with a presence on the Android platform such as Gifty, Zappar, Poker Hands and Flexpansion and in the not too distant future Swarmly, WallaBee and travelbit will also have Android versions. So there’s clearly a breadth of talent in the Scottish community focusing on mobile applications, and specifically Android. That’s why I think the fourth consecutive Droidcon will be of use to many in the Scottish community.

Droidcon London, taking place 25th-26th October this year, is Europe’s largest Android event. It brings together various parts of the Android community, from talented developers to brilliant designers with the aim to discuss the best of business, design, and development on the Android platform. Droidcon also has three excellent keynote speakers for the event; they are:

Julie Uhrman CEO of OUYA. The first Android based gaming console that had huge success on Kickstarter earlier this year
Paresh Patel Founder of Vendscreen. Makers of an Andorid vending machine
Frederic Albinet Marketing Group Manager at Parrot makers of the AR.Drone quadricopter

Day One of the conference is ‘community day’ with a Barcamp. This is an ‘unconference’-style day where attendees are invited to present short talks based on their professional interests. Everyone’s participation is encouraged: debates, presentations, experience sharing, are all welcome. In the evening there will be Democamp. This is an opportunity to launch and showcase the latest Android apps.

Day Two is conference day. There will be talks from industry experts alongside large Android players such as Google, Facebook, Sony, Intel, Airpush, Barnes and Nobles and many more. Talks include developing for Google TV, AI in Android apps and gaming on Android.

If you’re currently developing on Android, or are considering doing so soon, Droidcon 2012 should be beneficial to you. Will you be going?

What's the worst that could happen?

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I used to work with a successful and experienced chairman of a top-name mega-corp pharmaceutical. He used to say that the problem with Americans is that they are all “ready, fire, aim”. At first I was inclined to agreed with him despite being a confirmed Yankophile, but over the years I came to realised there was more to it than that. There really were times when “Ready, fire, aim” was the best option. For when you have no clear idea what to do. When you don’t have statistically significant data. When what you are currently doing isn’t working. When any action is better than no action at all.

This is has developed into the idea of – “What’s the worst that could happen? – I don’t know let’s find out”. Explicitly accepting the worst but working for better is extremely liberating. Facing the fear at the outset and working to improve on the worst means even small gains appear as noteworthy victories. It has echoes of some of my favourite philosophies – “Screw it, let’s do it” of Richard Branson, MVP and iterate of Eric Ries, BATANA – Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement, “Move fast and break things” Zuckerberg, “If it aint working then break it” – me, “Get off the bitch train” – Gary V, and numerous Comp Sci/AI optimisation techniques such as GAs, Hill-climbing, SA etc..

The “Ready, Fire, Aim” translates as take your idea, try it, then evaluate and reposition. Couple this with iterations and and you have a powerful process.

Now many startups battle to get into big name Accelerators – and generally with very good reason. Getting that golden ticket gets up 6-12 weeks of time to focus on your start-up, mentoring, a chance to mix with others start ups, get feedback and at the end of it all the opportunity to present your business to the world. This is seen as the quickest way to get that kick start to your company – to a get 2 or 3 iterations - loops around the fire-aim cycle. It’s intense but not that fast, not cheap and not for everyone.

Startup Weekends are designed to get you from zero to early start-up it 54 hours. It’s a Accelerator in a weekend. If it doesn’t work out you have found that out in a few days, not weeks or months. You haven’t blown your (perhaps) one and only chance at a fancy high profile accelerator, you haven’t spent thousands on salary, offices, design, market research, and the unmeasureable (sic) goodwill of your supporters - and your own precious stamina. With a Startup Weekend you travel miles along the road in just a single weekend. You’ve sped through your first iteration at virtually zero cost. You’ve begun the journey, shone the light in those dark places and moved forward.

That’s why I think you should join in at Startup Weekend Edinburgh. Form a team or join a team. Take an idea from fuzzy concept to prize-winning. Have fun, pizza, code, create, meet, laugh, talk, design, be nervous, be excited, be happy, come to the Edinburgh Startup Weekend and change your world! What’s the worst that could happen?

Startup Spotlight: Denki

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each Friday the RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a Scottish tech startup. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups. It’a an opportunity to share information about an exciting tech company Scotland you may not have previously been aware of. Startup Spotlight gives a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. This week the spotlight falls on Dundee based games developer Denki.

Denki is a BAFTA-winning boutique games label with the key team of Colin Anderson (Managing Director), Gary Penn (Creative Director) and Aaron Puzey (Technical Director). Based within the University of Abertay campus as commercial tenants, Denki are on the doorstep an International Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education.

Denki started trading in March 2000 due to a myriad of reasons; some rational, others entirely emotional. Among the most important reasons were: a dissatisfaction with the inefficiencies of game development methods at that time and a frustration that so much effort was being wasted on getting games finished rather than making them great. Additionally there was a realisation that the company the founders were working for intended to make products bigger and use bigger teams for even longer, while they founders of Denki wanted to focus on faster development of smaller products with smaller teams and a they had a longing to get back to the original pioneering spirit of the early days of game development.

Denki, have crafted a creative assembly line which not only empowers teams to unlock their true potential but also enables them to build appreciative audiences whilst they build out their ideas. This design-led, process-driven approach has seen Denki release over 200 games in just over 12 years with their most recent release, Quarrel an innovative word game, receiving wide spread acclaim.

In November, Denki will be unleashing their latest game, Save the Day, a delightful arcade ‘Save ‘Em Up’, and their first ever platform-independent game. Save the Day is unique for three reasons:

It’s a console-quality game which is fully playable in the browser.
It’s powered by the highly disruptive Turbulenz HTML 5 platform.
It’s the first game ever to be created specifically for the “Postcore player“.

Denki cover running costs from the revenues they generate from Business-to-Business work, and invest any margins and cash reserves into establishing their Business-to-Consumer indie-games label. In this way Denki intend to sacrifice the kind of short-term growth they could achieve through B2B activity for long-term growth centred around our B2C games label.

It’s interesting to see the Lean Startup principles applied to game development and it’s clearly working for Denki.

RookieOven will be at the Dublin Web Summit

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Over 200 international speakers and more than 3,000 attendees from over 50 countries will descend on Dublin next Wednesday and Thursday for the Dublin Web Summit. The good news is RookieOven will be there too.

Why exactly is RookieOven going? Well the reason for RookieOven going is three fold:

Learn: How can Scotland get better? There are wealth of international talent heading to Dublin, the likes of Kevin Rose, Max Niederhofer, Robert Scoble and Mike McCue. A range of amazing talent from around the world that I’m certain will be sharing nuggets of knowledge that we will be able to rely on RookieOven.
Connect: Scotland at times can be too inward looking and when it isn’t it tends to look to either London or The Valley. We should be reaching out to startup hubs around the world and making connections to the many interesting startups and talented individuals within them. The Dublin Web Summit is a fantastic platform for RookieOven to meet some of Europe’s best startups and bring them to the attention of the Scottish community.
Promote: Quite a few Scottish companies are taking part in the Dublin Web Summit as exhibitors, Float, Stipso and PlanForCloud to name a few, and there will be many Scottish attendees. Through RookieOven we hope to promote these Scottish startups and founders and provide support to them whilst they are at the Web Summit.

I would ask those of you unable to make it to have a look over the attendees list, who do you think we should be speaking to? Who do you think could add a lot to the Scottish community? Leave a comment or get in touch and we will be sure to try our best.

Finally if you are an attendee or exhibitor at Dublin Web Summit and would like to talk to RookieOven, drop me (Michael) an email or a tweet.

ProductTank Edinburgh

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

ProductTank is a series of local events by product managers, for product managers. They started in London in March 2010 and have since spread to Tel Aviv, New York, Amsterdam and now Edinburgh. The inaugural ProductTank Edinburgh event will be taking place on Tuesday 23rd of October.

As I said ProductTank is organised by product managers for their peers and ProductTank Edinburgh is being organised by one of the leading product managers in the country; Rachel Evatt, Product Director of Skyscanner. The inaugural ProductTank Edinburgh will be taking place in the brand new Skyscanner offices.

ProductTank takes the form of a presentation but also provides plenty opportunity to mingle and chat matters product management with peers. For the first Edinburgh event Martin Ericksson*,* Chief Product Officer at Covestor, the founder of ProductTank will be presenting on what exactly is product management, what ProductTank is and a will share a bit about the recent conference MindTheProduct 2012 which was held in London.

Product management has been a hot topic of late in the Scottish startup community, fuelled no doubt by the recent ScotlandIS event with Chris Dolezalek of IMVU. In Scotland there are now Tech Meetups across the country and developer events such as user groups and conferences are a regular occurrence. However there are very few events focusing on product, this is despite product management being integral to many startups.

ProductTank Edinburgh is a valuable addition to the community and it would be great to see a large turnout at the inaugural event on 23rd of October. Rachel is making use of a Meetup group to organise the group and those interested in attending should join and RSVP.

Great to see ProductTank come to Scotland and hopefully it will spread to other cities in the country.

P.S. To keep up to date with the best events for Scottish startups sign up to the Scottish StartupDigest: https://startupdigest.com/scotland

People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last week one of my friends sent me a link that has had a profound effect on my thinking and outlook on things and I thought it would be worthwhile sharing it on RookieOven. The link was to a TED talk from 2009 by Simon Sinek called Golden Circle which has the main message of “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”.

The Golden Circle

In the video (embedded below) Simon identifies 3 aspects to what a companies does – what, how and most importantly why. Simon suggests that why you do something should be at the core of how and what you do as visualised in the Golden Circle above.

The theories Simon talks about really hit a chord with me so I decided to put it into practice. You may have noticed I’ve been tinkering with the RookieOven website over the past week, nothing major just subtle changes to the copy on a few pages and a few other discrete incremental tweaks. Two of the area’s to get some attention are the ‘About‘ and ‘Meetup‘ pages. Previously they were doing a decent job of saying what RookieOven does – a blog and meetup focusing on the Scottish tech community – and how it does it – posts from startup founders in Scotland and monthly meetup – but I failed to communicate why they even exist.

So lets take a closer look at the first paragraph of the current About page:

“We passionately believe Scotland has the potential to produce world class technology companies. Each contributor to RookieOven is a founder of a Scottish tech startup and shares this passion for our tech community. We truly feel we can have a positive impact on the Scottish startup community whilst we are all striving to build our own successful businesses by giving back to fellow startups across Scotland and beyond.”

Whilst I welcome feedback, I personally think it’s a more effective ’About’ page. The only change is it now communicates to visitors the why behind aims of RookieOven rather than simply stating the how and what.

In the video Simon highlights another reason why is important using the examples of the Wright brothers. They were the first to achieve powered flight not through having the best financial backing or best resources at hand but because they had passion. Passion was their why, it wasn’t for fame or financial reward as it was for their competitors.

I think it would be benefical to many startups to also stop to consider their why; adding this to the core of their communications and decision making.

Do you know why you do what you do?

Startup Spotlight: theCADcube

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each Friday the RookieOven Startup Spotlight highlights a Scottish tech startup. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups. It’a an opportunity to share information about an exciting tech start from Scotland. Giving a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. This week the spotlight falls on Edinburgh based theCADcube.

theCADcube provides architecture and design professionals with a free library of 3D CAD models, which they can download and drop straight into their design projects. Offering a free alternative to existing CAD libraries which generally provide generic, user-generated content which you have to pay to download.

All of the CAD models come directly from manufacturers of furniture, lighting and building products, so theCADcube also provide a really powerful and measurable marketing channel for manufacturers, allowing them to reach out directly to an influential audience.

theCADcube was founded by Darren Lester who studied Architecture Technology at Edinburgh Napier University. The idea was initially born out of frustration at the lack of tools available to speed up the CAD modeling process whilst Darren was at University. Research into the idea revealed that there was a demand for CAD models of real products as opposed to generic content and that most manufacturers had either outdated or non-existent processes for getting their products in front of the very influential architecture and design professionals.

theCADcube is based on the fifth floor of Evolution House as one of the University of Edinburgh’s Design Informatics resident entrepreneurs. theCADcube has been funded by the Technology Strategy Board, this covered the initial startup costs to get the idea off the ground then recieved further funding from the PSYBT which helped with early cash flow.

In the coming months theCADcube will release a plug-in for AutoCAD, this will allow users to drag and drop content from theCADcube straight into their designs without ever having to leave the software programme. Additionally theCADcube will start to host BIM (Building Information Modeling) content as well as CAD.

For a young startup theCADcube has came a long way in a short space of time. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Finding a voice for your startup

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I had the great pleasure of attending the Social Media Week Glasgow retail event hosted by Incentive Media and Harper McLeod last week. The event focused on how you could use social media in regards to a retail business and it got me thinking about the ‘voice’ adopted by companies, young and old, on social media.

Before setting off on my own ventures I worked for an award winning global PR agency and one of the most important things I took from my time there was how vital it is to ensure your message comes across with the correct ‘voice’.

What do I mean by ‘voice’?

How your message sounds to others, the tone within it, the level of knowledge that is portrayed and most importantly a message people feel they can connect with.

This is something I am putting into practice with my startup Mallzee. We’re a company that’s about online retail and changing the way people shop. Our audience via social media is one that is style conscious and with this audience getting the ‘voice’ right is vital. That’s why everything that is user-facing, whether it’s a tweet, a flyer or an email to our prelaunch; we think about the ‘voice’ and make sure it fits our company and most importantly, our users.

The voice we use isn’t mine. My voice simply doesn’t fit. My tone isn’t the same as our customers and a lot of the time our interests aren’t the same.

Find yours

We know who our customers and we have identified keywords for our voice: Young, Popular, Chic, On Trend and High End. From here, everyone on the team thinks about these words whenever they’re doing something user facing. This is vital.

That’s how our customers talk so that’s the voice we need to adopt. It’s difficult at times to make sure we always use this ‘voice’ but we know that it needs to be right or we could put off potential users.

What I’m trying to say is that sometimes your own voice and your companies voice aren’t the same thing. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s worth doing something about it. Getting your voice right gives you a much better connection to your users, potential users and gives you an ideal opportunity to create a bond – no matter the industry.

That’s what it’s all about, right? Connecting with people in a manner that they feel comfortable with and that gives you the best possible opportunity to keep their custom or win them over.

So what is your voice? Have you defined it yet?

Entitlement

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Some startups I’ve came across recently have an appalling sense of entitlement. From founders I’ve heard cries of “but I’m building something new and exciting”, “we’re creating jobs” or “we are disrupting a £## million market”… so what?

It’s perhaps an unpopular view but I feel it’s simply wrong for startups, particularly in Scotland, to expect any kind of support as a given.

In Scotland the likes of Scottish Enterprise get a bad rap (and in many respects rightly so) but I think the sense of entitlement from startups is shocking. You might well be building the next big thing but I think it’s a terrible attitude to found a business and for your first thought to be to chase grants and funds instead of trying to make the business work.

To me this shows little faith in your business or little passion for what you’re trying to achieve. If you truly feel your business is going to be successful then why enter into a world of box ticking and a circus of pitching instead of trying to generate revenues?

In many cases the businesses aren’t getting the support (both public and private) they feel they’re entitled to because they’re simply not good enough. It’s a hard truth but the sooner these companies realise this and strive to improve the better.

In my mind the best way to enter things is to expect nothing will be provided. Wether it’s financial support, promotion or media coverage. Strive to earn every morsel of support you receive. If you aren’t getting the support you need re-double your efforts, hunker down and put the hours in to make your business better and most importantly yourself. It’s probably for a very good reason you’re not getting the support.

There’s no point beating about the bush, in many cases the main type of support these businesses seek is financial. They cry it’s because they’re under resourced but it’s worth remembering money is only one type of resource. There many others which founders can utilise. Be clever, get creative and utilise those.

Startup Spotlight: Swarmly

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each Friday Startup Spotlight highlights a Scottish tech startup. Giving a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups. This week Glasgow based Swarmly.

Founded in November 2011 and based in the Entrepreneurial Spark incubator; Swarmly is an iOS app which can be view as social satnav. It’s an easy way to quickly find social hotspots and areas of interest in real time. The aim being to help you decide where to go by helping you find out where people are congregating and what they’re doing.

Founded by Marco De Nichilo and David McNabb based on a frustration with current location apps. They found them useful for finding places nearby or finding places friends had been to but lacking in information for where is busy that instant. Marco says “There was nothing to just tell me where was busy right now. I know where my friends are, but where is everyone else going?”.

Additionally the Swarmly team felt check-in services only tell you where a place is and maybe some high level user generated information (like Foursquare tips). These services lack fine grain information such as the average age of people in a location or the busiest day of the week for a particular venue. Basically the kind of information that would help you make a decision on whether to go to a venue or not.

Long term the aim is for Swarmly to become a real time map of activity and swarms of people.

Swarmly has thus far been bootstrapped by the founding team however they are planning to seek investment in the near future. In regards to business model Swarmly are introducing an instant offers platform and plan to build value into the data they can provide to business such as sentiment analysis and anonymous foot fall monitoring.

Swarmly is currently available for download from the iOS App Store with versions for other mobile platforms such as Android in the pipeline. Marco and his team are looking for feedback and ways to improve the product; if you have an iPhone get it downloaded and let the guys know what you think about it.

Maybes kills startups

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last week I had the good fortune of attending the inaugural HEAT (High Growth Entrepreneurial Action Team) run by High Net World magazine in Edinburgh. The event was a great opportunity to talk to some other next stage entrepreneurs and focused on the challenges we all face. It also allowed me to remove a word from the startup dictionary.

This came about thanks to an insightful talk from Tom Walls, the CEO of Ciqual, and I think provides a great lesson to anyone running or dealing with a startup company.

“Yes or No is fine, but Maybes kills startups!”

With an early stage company, or even an idea for a company, being able to make fast and insightful decision is a must! In reality that’s all you’ve got that big corporates don’t. You can change your whole ethos and direction in a heartbeat whilst they’re stuck talking about arranging a meeting to discuss it or trying to figure out to book a meeting room.

It’s with this thought in mind that we banned the use of the word “Maybe” from MallzeeHQ this week!

We have no use for it anymore – we won’t be using it within the team, we won’t allow it from our partners and we won’t be accepting it from potential clients. I just wish we learnt his lessons months ago for our MVP whilst we were working with external teams of developers.

It’s not just within startup companies that this word is relevant, in fact I believe it’s even more important to banish this word if you’re a third party dealing with a startup.

Here your ‘maybes’ can kill a startup before it even gets a chance to succeed. It might be a case of you “maybe buying a service” or “maybe finishing that work by a certain date” but both can have disastrous consequences for a young company.

Your ‘maybe’ to a startup is a drain on resources – something many startups don’t have a lot of – that could be spent in other areas. I’ve heard it said that some companies say ‘maybe’ to startups as they think it’ll keep their spirits up, or allow them access to a deal in the future – in reality it’s just harming the chances of that startup becoming a success.

Even if you say no to a young company, you’re giving them the chance to get closer to a yes from someone else!

So, wether you’re involved in a young company or deal with young companies let’s abolish the word Maybe – Yes and No are just fine!

RookieOven October Meetup

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

September draws to a close this week and that means the next RookieOven meetup is on the horizon. Taking place on Monday 1st of October in the city centre of Glasgow. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet like minded folk and discuss startups with your peers.

September has been an eventful month in the Scottish tech scene. Tickets for Startup Weekend Edinburgh went on sale, several Scottish startups recieved major coverage in the likes of TechCrunch and RookieOven itself was on the front page of Hacker News. The meetup in October also marks the one month anniversary of the excellent new RookieOven design by @awfy, cofounder of Interstate.

October is bound to be an eventful month for Scottish startups with CEO Masterclasses, workshops and I expect a few product launches so lets kick it off together.

See you there?

A pandemic in the community

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Today marks the start of Social Media Week and as Glasgow is one of the 13 host cities I thought it would be appropriate to highlight a bit of a pandemic I’ve noticed within the Scottish startup community in regards to social media.

Whilst I’m not a marketer by trade on the whole I’d like to think I’m pretty competent and do a decent, if not spectacular, job marketing RookieOven with the resources available to me. However I feel there are several high profile initiatives out there with the intention of helping startups in Scotland that I’m worried are having a net detrimental effect on the local community through their use of social media. I feel these initiatives are failing Scottish startups through their spammy communications.

In regards to their use of social media it’s all about creating *buzz*. That is poisonous.

To me it’s a fundamental of the trade that marketing isn’t a scale game, it’s quality. The numbers you should be focusing on are click through, ROI and other quality metrics. Not mentions, RT’s, likes or follows. Seemingly from the outside looking in these institutions are obsessed with the latter. The result, effectively spam.

This spam not only means their message, whatever it is, is completely lost but it also makes me questions the quality of their service. A fixation on these vanity metrics sets the alarm bells going.

The Crime

Peppering tweets with emoji, a shotgun approach to using hashtags and tagging people in messages with utterly no relevance are among my major gripes I see on Twitter. However the spam is spreading, the use of other services stimulating this spread which is further fuelled by cross posting betweens services.

There’s also what effectively boils down to a social media circle jerk; RT’s and #FF’s (yes in 2012) among a merry little gang of followers. To me this adds no value to the those taking part, in fact to me it certainly has a negative impact.

Concern

Why am I writing this post? Because I’m worried. There are interesting startups and very talented founders associated with these initiatives and I’m worried about the negative impact this association is having on their brands and their ambitions to create successful businesses. I’m also worried about the knock on affect this can have on the wider Scottish startup community, we could all far too easily be tainted with the same brush.

You may notice I’ve not called out these spammers. Why won’t I name names? Because I hope they’ll learn. As an initiative with the intention of aiding startups it must also act in itself as a startup. In my eyes this means an ability to build, measure and learn. Hopefully they see the folly in what they’re doing and rectify it.

I only hope the damage hasn’t already been done.

Startup Spotlight: Lucky Frame

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each Friday Startup Spotlight features a Scottish tech startup, giving a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. The aim is to, as the name suggests, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups. This week Edinburgh based Lucky Frame.

Lucky Frame is a creative studio. They make products that focus on new approaches to music and games. Their work tends to be quirky, strange, and wonderful such as the crazy Pugs Luv Beats and the brilliant Bad Hotel.

The Lucky Frame team is made up of Yann Seznec, who handles the sound and music side of things, as well as most of the physical hardware building for the projects that need it. Jonathan Brodsky is the technical/coder/programmer, who also does a lot of game design and prototyping and Sean McIlroy is the artist and designer.

The Lucky Frame office is in Out Of The Blue, on Dalmeny Street in Edinburgh. Out Of The Blue is a collection of studios for artists and creative companies. This fits Lucky Frame nicely as they all three members of the team come from an artistic background originally.

In the four years since being founded Lucky Frame has been funded in a number of different ways. They started out with support from EPIS and NESTA Starter for 6, which helped get Lucky Frame going. They undertook a fair amount of consulting and contract development before starting to seriously release our their apps, which eventually led to investment from Channel 4 and Creative Scotland.

Yann founded Lucky Frame after his Wii controller music hack received a large amount of attention on the internet and eventually in more traditional media (resulting in an appearance on Dragons’ Den). Making music software for the Wii turned out to not be a very good idea, but it did lead to him focusing on interesting approaches to music and game design in general. Yann says “On a personal level, I am somebody that really likes working on my own projects. Over the past few years having a small company has been the best way to develop my crazy ideas and projects at as high a level as possible.”

For a taste of what to expect from Lucky Frame hop over to the Lucky Frame YouTube Channel and check out the many excellent videos such as this one for Pugs Luv Beats:

Lucky Frame recently launched a new version of Bad Hotel and did a fantastic follow up post on their blog which I would also encourage you to have a look at. It includes facts, figures and a lot of fantastic suggestions for those releasing mobile apps in the near future.

Their apps are a lot of fun, if you have an iOS device I can highly recommend giving them a shot.

Informatics Ventures: iVenture Tuesday & CEO Master Class

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I cannot praise highly enough the work Informatics Ventures do for Scottish tech startups. The likes of EIE each year and the Bill Joos workshop are events of the highest quality and I know I personally have benefitted greatly from them.

First date for your diary is the return of iVenture Tuesday on the 25th September in Assembly Rooms Edinburgh. This series of events started last year and involves talks given by prominent members of the Scottish business community. The programme seeks to inspire and motivate those who wish to develop their careers in different directions or have entrepreneurial ambitions. Speakers at previous iVenture Tuesday talks include Jim McColl and Sir Tom Farmer.

At iVenture Tuesday in the evening of the 25th of September Alistair Brown, Chief Technology & Platforms Officer of STV Group, will talk Digital Media & Beyond. Subsequent iVenture Tuesdays include Bill Joos and Calum Paterson talking Venture Capital in October and Gareth Williams of SkyScanner talking about his experiences in November.

Another event from Informatics Ventures to check out is the CEO Master Class in Glasgow on the 10th of October. Taking place in Glasgow University, David Farquhar will be helping you answer “why is nobody buying my stuff?” drawing on aspects of Lean Startup methodology. The master class will deal with the key aspects of how to get the right products into customers’ hands quicker.

David Farquhar has a wealth of experience so this is an excellent opportunity to learn from a seasoned entrepreneur and engage with fellow founders. The CEO Master Class, like iVenture Tuesday, is free to attend.

Can highly recommend iVenture Tuesdays and I’ve already booked into the CEO Master Class as I’m sure it will be beneficial to CodeCreatedMe. Will I be seeing you at any of these events?

Startup Spotlight: Musemantik

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Each Friday Startup Spotlight features a Scottish startup, giving a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. The aim is to, as the name suggest, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups. This week Edinburgh based Musemantik.

The team behind Musemantik are Maciej Zurawski, Founder and CEO, Ronen Barzel, CTO and Diwakar Thakore, COO and co-founder. Musemantik was grown out of the EPIS Incubator in Edinburgh in 2009 and was formally founded in December of that year.

Since 2009 Musemantik has been funded through a SMART award and some other grants, by a Silicon Valley business angel and with investment from friends and family from all over the world.

Musemantik are the creators of the online music creation service MusicFlow. Currently in beta, it is the first cloud-based music creation service in the world where anyone can create a track for their movie, video, photo slideshow, trailer or game, by controlling the length and the emotion of the music, so that it fits perfectly. The foundation for MusicFlow was Maciej’s personal interest in computer science, AI, music composition and the emotional impact of music.

The guys have created a walkthrough video which has an awesome example of MusicFlow set to an underwater tour.

Anyone can try out MusicFlow for free. Musemantik only charge for every download of a customised track, either a personal license ($0.79 for 4 minutes of music) or commercial license ($7.90 for 4 minutes of music) then for every sold track Musemantik pay the original composer a royalty on sales.

The guys have some great updates in the pipeline that will improve the service further so definitely one to watch.

Looking beyond the border

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

On Tuesday night I was down in Manchester for TechBasin Beers, a monthly informal meetup for Manchester based tech startups, where Doug Ward and Shaun Gibson of Tech Britain along with Ben Hookway and Martin Bryant announced TechHub Manchester. I really enjoyed my time there and met some fantastic folk and thought it would be worthwhile sharing some of my takeaways.

Feels a bit like home

The similarities between Manchester and Scotland (namely Glasgow as it’s the city on my doorstep) are striking. Scotland has the likes of James Baster, Joe Wright and Aaron Bassett (among others) organising and facilitating quality events and services which have become the backbone of the Scottish community. Likewise Manchester has the likes of Sean Handley, Gemma Cameron and Nathan Rae who are passionate about technology and are keen to see their local community prosper.

Outwith the similarities in the strong community, Manchester also shares many of the benefits I think Scotland has such as a talent pool and successful companies (i.e. Late Rooms). It’s reassuring to know there are others facing the same problems but also tackling them with the same attitude and enthusiasm.

Opportunity

The announcement of a facility like TechHub is massive for Manchester. In the short while Edinburgh has had TechCube we have already seen it take strides to becoming the de facto venue for most startup activity in the city. With TechHub, Manchester will now have a similar focal point for the local community. The benefit of such a focal point are obvious; foster chance meetings, community spirit, build relationships, facilitate collaboration and convenience.

Going forward

I really think all the tech communities of the UK should be working closely together and not just Manchester and Scotland. As can be seen from the Tech Britain tour the likes of Newcastle, Birmingham and beyond share many of the same traits. Each community is not competing with each other and it’s not the case there can only be one or at most two cities in the UK capable of producing world class tech startups.

I believe we are capable of growing together and I look forward to further trips down to Manchester and to their TechHub.

PS on that note two upcoming event it would be great to see Scottish startups involved in are [*HackManchester]3 in October and [*Startup Weekend Manchester]4* in November.*

Making mistakes

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A couple of months ago I was talking to a tech startup who went to great lengths to tell me how ‘lean’ they were being. The classic terms and phrases were being thrown about, MVP, validation accounting etc. etc. then the startup said their aim was to do ‘it’ right the first time and not make any mistakes….

It was clear the founder had read ‘the book’ and jotted down all the right the terms but to me had totally missed the essence of a lean startup. The purpose of being lean is to make mistakes and make them when they’re cheap. Don’t assume you’re right. Test your assumptions in a way that is quick, effective and cheap.

Quick

Taking too long to ship is a chronic problem with Scottish startups. Whilst I think Scottish founders are finding it easier to talk about ideas and share amongst peers they’re still struggling to let go of their ‘baby’ and release it to the public.

It’s tough to ship a product when it isn’t where you want it to be. It’s likely there will be tough questions and negative comments but these questions and comments (along with the positives) will define your weaknesses and make your product better. So why avoid them?

Effective

When you’re making mistakes, make them well. When trying to build a business you always need assurances that what you’re doing isn’t crazy. However when you’re pouring yourself into a product it’s all too easy to seek reassurance from those who are not your customer. Where will this lead you?

It’s something I’ve experienced first hand, having a large groups of people saying they would buy a product when they were never our customer in the first place. Sure we felt good, we were confident we were building the right product but ultimately it lead to a lot of wasted development.

Cheap

You don’t have to build to learn. Your idea might be for a tech startup but in many cases the processes and operations behind the product can be replicated without needing to write a single line of code. Testing your idea’s this way is applicable to technical founders as well as non-technical.

However whilst it’s true you don’t have to build to learn it’s quite often the case that you can build something you can learn from in a cost effective manner. A classic example of this is Groupon testing their assumptions out using a WordPress blog which has a famed 5 minute install.

Ultimately how you test your ideas is up to one person, yourself. In the case of the founder I was speaking to I hope they do have a deeper understanding of lean principles than what came across and are able to apply them quickly, effectively and cheaply.

Startup Spotlight: GatherContent

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A new regular feature on RookieOven will be Startup Spotlight. Each Friday a Scottish startup will be highlight giving a brief overview of the company, what they do, where they are and who they are. The aim is to, as the name suggest, put the spotlight on Scotland’s best startups. First up, GatherContent.

Based in the city centre of Aberdeen; GatherContent has been founded by James Deer and his team (Managing Director Alice, Engineer Peter and Product Manager Angus).

GatherContent aim to become 37Signals Basecamp meets Google Docs with structure. GatherContent uses a SaaS business model using monthly subscriptions which are based on the number of active projects a user has. Monthly subscriptions start at $24 rising to $99.

Here’s a two minute video the team have made to describe the product:

GatherContent was started just over a year ago as a side project to solve the problem of ‘email tennis’ James was facing in his previous business Deer Digital. Thus far GatherContent has been self funded and James says they hope to hold off seeking investment until they have grown the company with the resources available.

Just launched and already covered in TechCrunch it’s great to see Scottish tech startups doing well!

5 benefits of basing your startup in Scotland

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Being a blog focusing on the Scottish startup community I thought it would be wise to remind ourselves why Scotland is the ideal place to base your tech startup. So here are my top 5 benefits of basing your startup in Scotland:

Talent

Scotland has traditionally been a country of innovators; linked no doubt to Scotland having a long history of providing excellent education, from primary through to further education. Take Glasgow as an example, within a 7 mile area it has the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of West of Scotland and Glasgow University (and I include in that the Glasgow School of Art).

Glasgow alone is churning out talent, this is replicated in all of Scotland’s major cities with each one having 2-3 Universities and of course there are a ton of colleges around Scotland as well providing excellent courses relevant to tech startups.

Community Spirit

While I do like to moan Scotland is lacking a cohesive community across the country there are excellent communities within our cities. The likes of Edinburgh and Glasgow have groups and activities bringing together the various tech startups and enthusiasts within the cities.

These communities are always welcoming and keen to integrate new people. It really is one of our strength that we are not as inward looking as some other tech hubs in, if not in Europe, certainly the UK.

Success

There are some amazing success stories from Scotland in recent years and the people involved are more than willing to give back to the community. Take the recent CEO to CEO event in Edinburgh, Nigel Eccels of FanDuel, Bonamy Grimes of SkyScanner, Ed Molyneux of FreeAgent and Gordon Guthrie of Vixo were all immensely open and very giving of their time to young startups. Having that access to experience and knowledge is a great strength for Scottish based startups.

Also I believe success breeds success, when you have someone operating at a higher level to you it’s human nature to drag up your game to be on the same level (or better).

Pull

Scotland as a country has a great pull on people for many reasons, I assume the likes of our quirky food, beautiful scenery and fascinating history are some of the reasons (it’s certainly not our weather). This pull works on many levels, for example some of the most interesting startups I’ve seen in based in Scotland are founded by a settler in Scotland. Whatever the pull it’s capable of bringing in more talent that can bolster our startups and provide a fresh perspective.

Another way in which the pull works is it brings interesting folk over for events. Recently Turing Festival, Startup Weekend Glasgow, Edinburgh Tech Week all pulled in a crowd from across the world. This pull can be aided by the community as seen recently with Turing Town.

Travellers

We might have a pull that attracts folk to Scotland, yet Scots aren’t put off leaving ourselves. There are Scots spread throughout the world and one thing common among them is they don’t forget ‘home’. In recent years there have been Scots in 500 Startups and YCombinator flying the flag for Scotland and showing just what we can achieve. First hand I can say the guys who have been left for the like of California are hugely giving of their time to young Scottish based businesses and are more than willing to provide advice and insight.

So there are my 5 reasons Scotland is a good place to base your tech startup, what do you think I’ve missed or that Scotland is missing?

Join in the discussion on HackerNews - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4478326

A new lick of paint

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the new look RookieOven. The site has been given a fresh new look thanks to Greg Cooper (aka @Awfy), co-founder of Interstate, and the timing couldn’t be better.

Today I finish studying my Masters Degree; up until now RookieOven has mainly been done whilst I was studying, fitting in blog posts between lectures, adding features between pieces of coursework etc. However now I’m finished I want to focus on RookieOven to ensure it really does add a substantial amount to the Scottish tech startup community. I plan to have more regular posts, more varied posts and most importantly more posts from across Scotland.

It’s something I’ve been saying since starting RookieOven; Scotland is a small country. As a community we can’t afford to be locked up in our own little clusters. A short train journey can take you the breadth of the country yet we seem to have an issue traversing this distance; hopefully this is where RookieOven comes in. I would love it if members of the Scottish startup community would contribute to the site with issue’s affecting them in their area or to share their experiences.

Over the coming months I’m eager to see it come to fruition that the community contribute to the site and for RookieOven to become a valuable asset to the Scottish community. For this to happen it’s going to need the community pulling together. You in?

P.S. Any problems with the new design drop me an email.

Made in Ayrshire: Poker Hands

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Most of the focus on the Scottish tech scene is on the major hubs such as Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh however this is remiss as there are a loads of talented people across Scotland. For example Ayrshire based Michael Byers; developer of the popular Android app Poker Hands.

Originally released in September 2010, over the following two years Michael has iterated, improved and refined Poker Hands. Adding features such as multiple language support and a basic blinds timer. Poker Hands now has over 60,000 active users, with that number ever increasing. As of now the app features:

Poker Blinds Timer.
Official poker hand rank from best to worst.
A guide to Position Play pre-flop.
Top 10 Best Starting Hands.
Top 10 Worst Starting Hands.
Calculate Out Odds.
Starting Hand Odds

The Poker Hands feature set is always increasing and Michael is always building from user feedback. If you’re a poker player and in need of some help you should definitely give the app a go. It’s available for free from the Google Play Store.

Michael is also behind TwitAyr, a gathering of local developers, designers and tech enthusiasts. If you’re in the area and fit the bill keep an eye on the TwitAyr website for the date of the next meet.

Overcoming the Fear of Feedback

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

One of the biggest hurdles you face as a new entrepreneur, building an online product, is the ‘fear’ of feedback. Overcoming that fear can start a learning process that can help your business.

It’s a familiar scenario: you have worked hard at your product, but it isn’t quite ready yet. If you can just grab a couple of more days to fix the obvious bugs, tweak the design, add another social network integration…and days turn to weeks, and weeks into months. You fear the reaction of your friends, mentors and the public. “Is this what you have been working on?!”. You want to do better. You know you can do better.

Isolated development: it’s an easy trap to fall into. Your team feel like you are building your business, but yet you are learning virtually nothing that will help.

The learning process is key to your success. Yes, you have a long list of features to develop, but do the users really want those features? Is your core proposition right? Is there enough demand for your product?

Without putting the product in front of users it is impossible to learn the answer to these questions! Anything else is just speculation.

Getting over that fear brings three things:

Immediate feedback and help. You can now show people your work. They will help you. Mentors and friends will better understand what you are trying to achieve. Support and opportunities will present themselves.
A surge of productivity – you have to make things better if it’s out there. Nothing is quite as motivating as other people being able to see your work. You have something tangible to build on. Iterative improvement will get you there.
A sense of relief – it’s out there, and now there is nothing you can do about it! You’ve taken the next step on your journey, and it’s exciting.

So on that note, please do come and help me build Seeu.at – my startup. We’re helping people find the ‘right deals in the right places’ with their friends. Because who do you want to hear from when you’re planning a night out? Groupon? Living Social? …or your friends?

We’ve launched a Glasgow preview and are looking for feedback. So if you have any feedback then please do leave it either using the feedback link on Seeu.at, via my Twitter, or commenting here.

What I Want From Turing Festival 2012

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As you may have seen in one or two posts on RookieOven the Turing Festival returns to Edinburgh in 2012, in fact it starts today. So I thought it would be worth sharing what I would like to see as a result of the three days of talks, meetups and hacks.

Community

Scroll back up to the top (but do remember to come back down). What do you see? “Creating a more vibrant startup community”, that’s what I’ve been trying to do in my own small way through RookieOven. It’s something of a bugbear of mine that we have an east/west split; we’re a small country we simply can’t afford to be so travel shy. I hope Turing Festival provides a platform for founders from across Scotland to socialise and get to know each other. Then from these connections – collaborations, introductions and a lot more beneficial happenings will emerge.

Bringing Real Problems to the Table

I hope through events like CEO to CEO we can bring real problems facing Scottish startups to the forefront of the discussion. Personally I feel there’s too much of a focus on money, yes cash is essential to grow a business and it can be hard to come by but I (perhaps naively) believe if your product is good enough and you have a team capable of executing you either won’t need it or it will be easy to acquire.

I feel Scotland has much more pressing issues such as the inability to retain talent. >70% of my year that graduated in Computer Science now work in the financial sector, many out with Scotland. There is a severe talent shortage in Scotland; we need more talented people able to excel in a startup and I don’t just limit that to developers (although they are the talent that is most in short supply).

Spotlight on Tech

With the amazing line up of speakers I hope Turing Festival puts the spotlight on the Scottish tech scene (note not solely Edinburgh) for the weekend (and ideally beyond) and we receive some decent exposure. Whilst UK wide coverage would be great I would be happy with the Scottish media taking a look at the amazing tech companies on their doorstep.

Learning

I hate to sound like a know it all (because I patently don’t) or a battle hardened founder (I’m not) but I see a lot of naivety in many startups. A notion that the technology is the easy bit and putting little value into the implementation or the flip side of investing all their effort in the tech without a thought on how to sell it. Hopefully Turing Festival will come at a good time for some and help them learn cheaply.

Paying it Forward

I’d love to see Scottish companies helping each other out, not for short term gains but for wider longer term benefits. Scottish companies helping each other to succeed is mutually beneficial. Recently I’ve been at the brunt of founders out to screw young startups for their own gain, this goes against my ethos and I hope Turing Festival will foster a similar opinion among Scottish startups. This is a bit of a cultural change within the community but the events on offer at Turing Festival should help.

So they are a few things I would like to see as a result of Turing Festival, what about you? What do you like to see?

Glasgow based entrant to Shell LiveWire

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Shell LiveWIRE is one of the UK’s longest running youth enterprise schemes, established in 1982. One of the current schemes is the Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Award. Offering a chance to win £1,000 cash, PR and kudos for entrepreneurs aged 16-30, based in the UK who have been running a business for less than 12 months. Each month entrants are shortlisted to 10 finalists; of the 10 shortlisted businesses 4 will receive £1,000.

Glasgow based* *Eventhread is one of the current batch of finalists. Eventhread is a new location-based event and venue discovery platform for web and mobile devices. Eventhread mash up live event data from different ticket vendors and event listing websites and make it really easy for people to find events nearby wherever they are in the UK. You can vote for Eventhread any time before the 31st of August. Winning a Grand Ideas Award automatically enters the startup into the £10,000 Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in November 2012.

Looks like a good opportunity for Eventhread, be good to see the Scottish community get behind them and make sure they win.

Turing Festival: Essential Events

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Just over a week to go until the Turing Festival 2012 so I thought I would round up some more events which I think are essential for Scottish tech startups. Some events have an entrance fee although many of the events across the Festival are free to attend.

Startup Pitch Clinic

Startup pitch clinic is taking place on the afternoon of the first day of the Turing Festival. All too often, tech entrepreneurs get out-dated advice on “how to pitch”, “what investors need” etc. Turing’s Startup Pitch Clinic will provide hands on lessons from someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Brian Caulfield is former tech entrepreneur who now sits on the other side of the table as an investor. He is leading the session and going to be helping Scottish startups get their investment pitch sharp.

Ticket Price: Free

Link: https://startuppitchclinic-turing.eventbrite.com

Produce Management Debate

On the second day of the Turing Festival David Farquhar and Mike Kennedy from Northface Ventures will host this open debate. The aim of this session is to discuss how can lean principles be applied to the role of Product Management in enterprise class software development.

Ticket Price: Free

Link: https://debate-turing.eventbrite.com

Music Hack Day Scotland
Ticket Price: FreeStarting on the Friday and running through the night until Saturday evening; Music Hack brings together musicians, makers, experimentalists and digital tinkerers to craft ingenious musical projects in 24 hours. musical archive footage from National Museum Scotland, gig and band information from concert website Songkick and music available on services like Soundcloud and This Is My Jam. Participants may choose to make apps, web services, hardware, art, instruments or just plain music – it’s wide open, provided it’s music-related.

Ticket Price: Free

Link: https://www.turingfestival.com/music-hack-scotland

Startup Party

Wrapping up Turing Festival is the Startup Party. DJ’s, An amazing not to be missed party at Summerhall, home of the TechCube. With peers celebrate the highlights of this year’s festival, with DJs and Musicians from the Music Hack Day Scotland event. One of the ticketed event at the Turing Festival however the price includes drinks and nibbles.

Ticket Price:£10

Link: https://startupparty-turing.eventbrite.com

As well as these great events there is also the headline act on the opening day of the Festival, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. There is a great competition where you can win free tickets to the talk, all you have to do is submit a questions you would like to ask Woz and RT the link to enter.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to the Turing Festival and hope to attend as many sessions as possible. What will you be going to? Have I missed something out?

Turing Festival: Aligning Interests

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

With the Turing Festival round the corner over the next few weeks I’m going to highlight some of the events being run that I think startups in Scotland should be attending. Now obviously the big draw is the headline act, Steve Wozniak on the 23rd of August, but from 9-12 on the 23rd is Aligning Interests being organised by Brian Corcoran of Stipso.

One of the aims of Turing is help develop the considerable latent potential of the Scottish startup ecosystem. To that end this event is bringing together an international panel of preeminent folk from both sides of the table to discuss both the general question of what makes a great startup ecosystem, as well as specifically looking at the issue of Scotland’s critical lack of seed funding for tech startups & how to remedy it. Participating from the floor will be members of Scotland’s investment community as well as the country’s best technology entrepreneurs.

The panel will be made up of:

Brian Caulfield, DFJ Esprit - Brian is a 2x successful technology entrepreneur turned angel investor and venture capitalist. Two of the technology businesses he founded were acquired for a combined total of over $100M. Since those exits Brian has been heavily involved in technology investing, both in his native Dublin and in London. He is a partner at pan-European VC DFJ Esprit.
Brendan Richardson, ex Vision Capital – Brendan is a 17 year veteran of Silicon Valley venture capital and PE investing. During his eight years at Vision Capital he was responsible for sourcing and funding deals throughout Europe. He is a Global Scot and has been heavily involved with NorthFace Ventures, a group that aims to raise a Scottish-based seed fund for investing in very early stage tech.
Nigel Eccles, CEO of Fanduel - Nigel is co-founder & CEO of Fanduel, the leading developer and operator of daily fantasy sports games. Originally Edinburgh based, where it raised its seed and Series A round, Fanduel has cornered a rapidly growing market in the US. The company is now headquartered in New York, is growing fast and approaching profitability.
Sam Collins, CEO of Eventasaurus and an “exiled” entrepreneur - one of the early advocates of Edinburgh’s startup scene, Sam founded TechMeetup to help build the tech community in Scotland. After some frustrating engagement with the Scottish investment community, Sam moved to London and promptly raised a seed round for his startup Eventasaurus. He is also Editor of MindTheProduct, the first blog for European Product Managers.
Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp – Carlos is a Partner at early-stage micro seed investment fund and mentoring programme, Seedcamp. Hailing from across the Atlantic, but based in London, Carlos is amongst Europe’s most active seed investors and is at the forefront of trying to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe.

Tickets are £10 and the event will be taking place in the Appleton Tower of Edinburgh University. For any more information get in touch with Brian.

Less than 3 weeks to go, what are you looking forward to at the Turing Festival?

Dare ProtoPlay, Scotland's Biggest Video Games Festival

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Dare to be Digital is an international student game design competition run by Abertay University; each year 15 teams go to Abertay University to build a game in nine weeks, with three winners then nominated for for an exclusive BAFTA ‘Ones to Watch’ new talent award. The Dare to be Digital process is currently running and will come to a close on the 12th August with Dare ProtoPlay.

Dare ProtoPlay is Scotland’s biggest video games festival and which this year has an Indie Fest aimed at supporting games startups. Running from the 10th to the 12th of August Dare Indie Fest is designed to help indies become more successful in their pursuit of a career in making games. There are two elements in the Dare Indie Fest: a showcase of your game and a conference with an amazing line-up of speakers.

The Dare Indie Fest is bringing practical advice from internationally successful companies to indie games developers as as well as an opportunity to make contacts and do business, as major publishers and funders like Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide will be there to meet indies and hear about their new games. Other top names in attendance include Andrew Smith of Spilt Milk Studios, Martin Beeby of Microsoft and Agostino Simonetta of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Over on the Dare Indie Fest website you can get your tickets for the event and find out some further information. It’s sure to be a busy three days with attendance last year over 9,000 and the venue this year having twice the capacity.

Oxygen Accelerator in Birmingham

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Although in Scotland we have the recently started Entrepreneurial Spark and the soon to be fully functional TechCube I think Oxygen Accelerator in Birmingham could be of interest to Scottish tech startups. Oxygen is a pre-seed accelerator programme like YCombinator and provides:

The 13-week acceleration phase between October and December
Equity investment
Founder of €7,500k per founder, maximum of 3 founders per team
Up to €6k re-location allowance
The total investment for the accelerator is €28,500k for 8% equity
Programme now includes a 13-week incubation period which starts straight after the 13-week accelerator
We have introduced €12,500k of investment for the incubation phase for a further 2% of equity
So the total potential investment for the whole 26 weeks is €41,000 for 10% equity
€100,000 worth of free services are also available from companies like Rackspace and Paypal
Office space for the full 26 weeks

Oxygen are interested to hear form companies from a range of spaces including:

Ecommerce
Social Media
Mobile
Data Analysis
Publishing
Developer Tools
Video
Gaming
Education
SaaS

If the offering is to your taste and your startup is working in that area you can apply via the Oxygen Accelerator homepage although you’ll have to be quick. The closing date for applications is the 31st of July. If you do choose to apply best of luck to you, be great to see some Scottish companies heading down to showcase the kind of talent the local community can produce.

Host a Guest for the Turing Festival

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’m sure you’ll be aware that the Turing Festival is running from 23rd to the 25th of August this year and the organisers have announced an awesome line up including headliner Steve Wozniak. There are top events throughout the festival including, CEO to CEO, MusicHack and a Startup Pitch Clinic. However one of the best elements of TuringFestival is one you may not be aware of – Turing Town.

Turing Town uses incredibly low-tech methods to match Edinburgh-based hosts with Turing Festival guests (startups and entrepreneurs who want to come to Edinburgh for the Turing Festival). Turing Town is the brainchild of Hilary Singer Roberts of StartupCafe. The aim of Turing Town is to enable as many startups to visit Edinburgh during the Turing Festival by eliminating the cost of accommodation and to allow guest startups to interact with and get to know locals. Personally I think its a great idea as two of the biggest hurdles facing guests to Turing Festival are finding cheap accommodation (especially during the Festival) and coming to a strange city where they don’t know anyone.

If if you have the ability to host a guest startup you will not only get to know an awesome visiting startup pretty well but you also get free entry to see Steve Wozniak on the opening day of the Turing Festival (Thursday 23rd of August). The process to apply to be a host is quite simple and you need only fill out a short form found on the Turing Town site.

Likewise if you are from out with commuting distance to Edinburgh you can apply to be a guest and get free accommodation for Turing Town. Free accommodation aside you will have a lovely host who will have local knowledge and is already part of the local startup scene. Get signed up to Turing Town then get signed up to some Turing Festival events.

Turing Town is a home-grown community movement which I think is excellent. Hopefully see more of the same with future events, it’s certainly something Startup Weekend Glasgow would have benefited from.

TaxiApp Launches in Aberdeen

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There is now a new way of booking a taxi in Aberdeen. TaxiApp has been launched by Aberdeen based company Whaapp. The app is available from today in the App Store and enables users to instantly book a taxi through their smart phone for immediate or future travel requirements.

Taxiapp, is a GPS based taxi booking service that will alert ComCab, who will fulfill the taxi pick-up service in Aberdeen, to accept the fare and collect the customer. Craig Angus, CEO, says: “It’s a very exciting day for the entire Whaapp team and the people who have helped us to reach this milestone. It’s been almost a year in the making and to finally be able to see the app in action will be a great moment for us”.

TaxiApp is initially available on iPhone, iPad and iPod, with future versions planned for Android and Blackberry devices. Whaapp Limited was established by Craig Angus, Eleanor Powell-Jackson and Craig Burnett, in 2011 to develop web and smart phone based multimedia applications.

Good to see a startup from outside the central belt emerging and launching their product. Will be keeping an eye on the guys and wish them every success.

ShopForCloud Acquired; Now PlanForCloud

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Yes, ShopForCloud has been acquired by RightScale, the cloud computing management solution. As part of the acquisition ShopForCloud has now been rebranded as PlanForCloud.

PlanForCloud makes it easy to budget future cloud costs by providing a set of tools to model deployments and usage patterns and then automatically calculate costs across a variety of clouds. PlanForCloud currently includes support for a range of cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Compute Engine, Rackspace and Microsoft Windows Azure with more clouds coming soon.

PlanForCloud will continue to operate in Edinburgh, in the new TechCube working space, and the tool will be kept free of charge to everyone with co-founder Hassan saying “It is fantastic that RightScale has given us the flexibility to setup office in Edinburgh and enabled us to keep providing great new features for free”.

Users of ShopForCloud can use their username and password on PlanForCloud. As part of this they have a new new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service; the guys have been open about this and are allowing users to opt-out of the transition to PlanForCloud.

Congratulations to both Hassan and Ali.

More Awesome Events in Glasgow

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This past week has to be one of the busiest yet in Glasgow for tech folk. Last Monday we had the UX Book Club, then on Tuesday the first ever PopupHack and on Wednesday Lean Agile Glasgow. Great to see so much activity in the local community and the good news is it’s set to continue.

This week there is Refresh Glasgow, a monthly meetup for wed developers and designers which takes place on the third Wednesday of each month. Not too dissimilar to the monthly RookieOven meetup in atmosphere, likeminded people get together and enjoy a few beers. This Wednesday the venue is a relatively new bar in Glasgow called Vespbar, on Drury Street.

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Good range of beers and selling pizza by the metre it’s easy to see the attraction for a tech event plus if you sign up for the newsletter you get a voucher for a free pizza. Sign up is via the homepage. I can highly recommend going, it’s a fantastic opportunity to meet Glasgow’s most talented web developers and designers.

Another new regular event in Glasgow is GlasgowJS. The first GlasgowJS meetup will be on the 7th of August in as yet undetermined location and will be kicking off at half 6. GlasgowJS wont be all talks and presentations; the organiser plan to include hack sessions, katas over the meetups. Speaking at the first GlasgowJS will be Paul Cowan, his talk will be no slides all code.

I do like to see so much activity in Glasgow and it’s something that I see reflected in other areas of the country. The likes of TwitAyr and the announced TechUp Inverness are awesome to see. To make sure you don’t miss anything I would suggest:

Bookmarking both https://glasgow2.com and https://edinburgh2.com to know what’s going on in each city
Sign up to the TechMeetup Google Group and the Scottish StartupDigest (which I curate), for email updates. In the case of the StartupDigest this is once a week on a Monday morning
And of course keep an eye on RookieOven

Will I be seeing you at Refresh Glasgow on Wednesday?

Peaks and Troughs

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Life, in general, is full of peaks and troughs; one minute you’re up and the next you can be knocked back down. However with startup life the peaks and troughs seem to be so much bigger and so much more frequent. Well that’s at least my experience.

It’s crazy, literally within a day I find my state of mind and mood can yo-yo with the simple flow of emails into my inbox. One message takes you one steps closer to ‘success’ whilst the next one will knock you two steps back.

The troughs can be tough; they strip your confidence, make you question your skills and abilities and can make you wonder why you bother. However equally the peaks are exciting and engaging, make you think you can conquer the world and for me at least are the reason I do what I’m doing.

Is it a weakness to have peaks and troughs? I don’t think so, I reckon it’s being human. I would be hugely impressed if there is someone out there who doesn’t have moments when they feel down and questions themselves. The important thing is to learn from them and a few bits of advice I would share from my own personal peaks and troughs are:

Firstly peaks and troughs are the extremes, it’s best to remember you belong somewhere in the middle. When it all equals out it’s usually where you find yourself.
When in a trough remember others have been there and they will likely find themselves there too so reach out to them for help. Also remember however bad it seems, it’s only temporary this will help keep you in ‘the middle’.
When in a peak be mindful that it’s potentially short lived. Stay grounded and again that will help keep you in ‘the middle’.

As the famous modern philosopher/fictional TV character David Brent once said:

“Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. And you don’t know whether you’re in a trough until you’re climbing out, or on a peak until you’re coming down. And that’s it you know, you never know what’s round the corner. But it’s all good. “If you want the rainbow, you’ve gotta put up with the rain.” Do you know which “philosopher” said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she’s just a big pair of tits.”

Applications Closing Soon For Seedcamp London

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Seedcamp London is due to take place on August 7th in the newly opened Google Campus. Seedcamp aims to bring together 20 of the best early stage tech startups from all over the world and expose them to top entrepreneurs, investors and developers to participate in a day of intense mentoring and networking.

Seedcamp offers a lot to early stage startups besides investment, they become members of the Seedcamp family which is a huge peer network and benefit from the founder’s pack worth over €100k with the lately added Amazon Web Services credits. Seedcamp London is the last chance to be part of Seedcamp Week 2012, Seedcamps annual flagship event, immersing our teams into an incredible pool of mentors during an intense week, topped by a huge Demo day.

For a taste of what to expect check out this video from the Demo day of Seedcamp Week 2011:

Seedcamp London and Seedcamp Week 2012 are amazing opportunities for Scottish tech startup, applications close on the 18th of July and you can apply on the Seedcamp website – https://www.seedcamp.com/events/seedcamp-london-7-august-apply-now.

So will you be applying?

Startup Weekend Glasgow - The Video

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Startup Weekend Glasgow at the end of May this year was the first Startup Weekend to take place in Scotland. It was a fantastic weekend which I’ve written about before on RookieOven but throughout the weekend a film crew from 29 Studios where on hand to capture the event.

The outcome was a fantastic video.

Great to finally see Startup Weekend happen in Scotland and hopefully it will be the first of many. Where in Scotland should hold the next Startup Weekend?

RookieOven Meetup - July

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

For July the monthly RookieOven meetup will be using a new venue as the usual venue, the Bier Halle on Sauchiehall Street, has closed for refurbishment we will be moving the meetup to the Gordon Street branch of Bier Halle (which is just off Buchanan Street). As usual the meetup will be from half 6 onwards and the first Monday of the month (i.e. the 2nd of July/this Monday coming).

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For this meetup how about we try something a little different? Up until now the meetups have had no agenda with founders and enthusiasts coming along to talk startups, development, design, marketing and whatever takes their fancy. However in the past 6 weeks I’ve been seeing a bit of a problem in the community and I really think we should be talking about. So for the meetup in July I propose we set a little topic of discussion; how we can foster more talent in the local startup community.

So many companies in Scotland are looking for talented developers, designers, marketers and bright talented people in many more disciplines that have the attitude and work ethic required to be part of tech startup team. This is a problem we need to address and the RookieOven meetup is a great opportunity for the local community to get together to discuss and share opinions. Do you agree this is a good idea?

Hopefully you do and we can have a productive meetup with some great outcomes we can use to improve the community. See you there on Monday?

EIE12 Keynote Video

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There were a few posts on RookieOven about EIE after the event, one highlighting some of the startups exhibiting and presenting and another with an overview of the talk by Sir Jackie Stewart. I’ve just came across the video of the keynote by Sir Jackie and I encourage everyone to watch it. The keynote was recorded by Informatics Ventures, the organisers of EIE12, on the day and they have uploaded the video to Vimeo (embedded below).

I hope you agree that he was a fantastic speaker; I feel I gained a lot from listening to him and the experiences he shared. Next year at EIE13 Informatics Ventures have Sir Tom Hunter presenting the Keynote which I’m sure will be just as awesome.

RookieOven About The Web

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday morning I created a new LinkedIn Group for RookieOven with the aim of creating a place for Scottish tech startups to discuss matters with their peers. Thought it would be worthwhile doing a quick post to highlight some of the places online RookieOven can be found. The various services used allow blog readers and meetup attendees to interact and share ideas so definitely check them out.

LinkedIn – I’ve connected with a lot of interesting people through LinkedIn so it makes sense to create a LinkedIn Group so we can share thoughts and ideas. Despite only being a day old some fantastic discussions are already taking place on it so definitely check it out.
Facebook – The RookieOven Facebook page is a place where new blog posts will be shared as well as interetsting content relevant to Scottish startups. If you’re a Facebook user (are there many folk who aren’t?) then like the page to join in. Also for the regular RookieOven meetups there are Facebook events so you can see who else will be coming along.
Twitter – You can follow the RookieOven Twitter account to keep up to date with posts and articles that I think are relevant to startups. I post all the tweets so it will be me (Michael) you will be talking to if you tweet the account.
Google Plus – Not the busiest place on the internet but it’s a service I think will be important for Scottish startups to use. You can add RookieOven to a circle and follow the RookieOven updates.

So that’s the places RookieOven lives online (aside from the blog), anywhere else you think RookieOven should be?

P.S. Be sure to check out this earlier post with some more great resources for Scottish tech startups.

Bootstrapd Open Space Event for Self-Funded Startups

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Of interest to Scottish startups is Bootstrapd, a non-profit event for software professionals with an independent spirit. Bootstrapd is a gathering for the growing community of skilled software practitioners who are starting their own software product businesses, without external funding. The ethos of this community derives from the term bootstrapping, a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help.

There are no keynote speakers. All sessions will be organised by the participants themselves, and the programme will be decided during the introductory session on the day. Bootstrapd is timed to coincide with the Scottish Ruby Conference, an established international event.

This full-day event takes place on Wednesday 27th June 2012 at Abden House in Edinburgh. Tickets cost £75, including lunch and refreshments throughout the day. All surplus revenue will be put behind the bar for the post-conference drinks. Bootstrapd is being organised by Matt Wynne and Steve Tooke; Matt is bootstrapping Relish App, a niche product for software development teams. Steve runs Heavies, a design and development agency that aspires to move into product development.

When asked the difference between the bootstrapping community and the regualar startup community, Matt said “we don’t want VC funding, we aren’t looking for a big exit. We just want to create a sustainable lifestyle where we can enjoy building products that other people love.” That’s an outlook I agree with and I look forward to seeing what comes out of the event.

Further information about the event check out the site at https://bootstrapd.com/ or contact the organisers at hello@bootstrapd.com

WallaBee is a Finalist in the Startup2.0 Competition

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The ultimate collection game WallaBee is one of 5 finalists in the Startup2.0 competition in Bilbao. Taking place 15-16th of June WallaBee CEO and founder Ben Dodson is heading off to the Nonick Conference to present WallaBee to the prestigious jury.

WallaBee is a social location based mobile application (or as the cool kids call it ‘SoLoMo’) where you forage at the over 2 million in game locations to collect items or the in game currency of Honeycombs. The game is an iOS app and is a free download from the App Store where it has been available since February this year. Despite its youth WallaBee has grown a solid user base and a great community and with a major update due for release in the coming weeks it’s set to only get better.

WallaBee is a part-Scottish startup with co-founder and Head of Creative Alan Shaw based in Glasgow. Alan won’t be going to Bilbao but will be cheering Ben on and is grateful for the chance to be a finalist, “Its just a great opportunity to go and showcase our hard work. We wouldn’t have been able to get this far without our users.”.

It’s fantastic to see a British startup do well (and as a Scot its even better when its a part-Scottish one). Will have my fingers crossed for the guys this weekend.

Cake Time for RookieOven

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last Friday we held a one year birthday party for RookieOven. Kev O’Neil of 29 Studios and Moviecom.tv was kind enough to offer the use of his amazing city centre studio for us to celebrate.

It was organised at quite short notice with my time of late being taken up by the organising of Startup Weekend Glasgow but despite only putting the word out on Wednesday we had a fantastic turn out and as has always been the case with RookieOven, fantastic diversity. Developers, designers, journalists and more with a mix of students and experience. It really encapsulated what RookieOven is all about – bringing the whole startup community together.

The party also served as a reflection point on Startup Weekend Glasgow, a bunch of the mentors were there and a collection of participants came along too. A week isn’t really enough time for it all to settle but it was enough to take stock on some of the successes and failures of the weekend, especially in regards to organisation and facilitation, and how things can improve going forward with future Startup Weekends in Scotland.

So why have the party in June when the first RookieOven post was in mid May? Well the first RookieOven meetup was on the 6th of June last year and since then it’s been so beneficial to me personally. I’ve met a ton of cool people who are working on some awesome products and it has also given me support and encouragement at times when things aren’t going particularly well. I hope I’m not alone in this and others have had the same positive experience with the RookieOven meetups.

I hope RookieOven will be around to see its second birthday and I hope you will be around to come to future meetups and events. I think RookieOven is a valuable contribution to the Scottish startup scene but can you think of any ways we can make it even better?

P.S. There will be no meetup tomorrow due to the party on Friday and the fact it’s the bank holiday but see you all on the 2nd of July

Ten Tips For Young Entrepreneurs

Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Cally Russell, founder of RecommendedBy, recently won the Entrepreneurial Spark #startuptweetday with his campaign of 10 tips for start-ups.

Here are his ten tips in full for young entrepreneurs,

Know your market inside out.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help, actually actively look for it.
Learn from mistakes and move on. They will make you stronger in time.
Play to your strengths, whatever they might be
Embrace the pivot, customers and ideas change. Adapt before you have to!
Keep it lean. Don’t spend money if you can avoid it until you’ve proven the concept.
Follow your gut. If it doesn’t feel right – it isn’t!
Cash is king but not in the early days. Don’t spend all your time chasing grants. Grow a business!
Age is but a number. If you’re good enough you’re old enough.
1. 10. Try, try and try again. Dust yourself off and try again. You will crack it – one day!

What do you think? Agree with Cally? Love to hear what tips you would share with a young entrepreneur.

RookieOven First Birthday Party

Wed, 30 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

RookieOven website was one year old a few weeks back, for the past year I’ve been trying my best to promote Scottish tech startups, give advice and share relevant information. As well as the site I’ve been doing the RookieOven metup which is coming up for being one year old too so for the first birthday lets do something a little different.

The guys at 29 Studios have been kind enough to open up their city centre studio to RookieOven and allow us to host a little get together on Friday 1st of June (bit short notice I know but)

It’s going to be BYOB in the 29 Studios office, 84 Miller Street, Glasgow, G1 1DT from 7 o’clock onwards. As always free to come along just get a ticket from the Eventbrite page – https://rookieoven.eventbrite.com/.

Spaces are limited so get your tickets quickly and I look forward to seeing you there Friday.

Startup Weekend Glasgow: The Teams

Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

From the awesome pitches at Startup Weekend Glasgow we settled on 12 teams (in no particular order):

Gifty: your friends, the perfect gifts. The best way of taking guess work out of buying gifts for your close ones: Gifty lets you organise and collaborate on gift buying by making use of your friends’ Amazon Wishlist information and their Facebook likes.
Tasteomatic: good local food! Your online market for local and artisan foods.
Project Chutney: Your personal postbox at the airport. Helping you send home the goods you can’t take on the plane.
BetMate: customised tablet PC which enables users to place realtime bets at sporting events along with sports live streaming.
Veg Pin: Helping vegans find quality food. Helpful app providing a clear concise way for vegans to find quality food.
TeamFunded.com: Build a team, get funded. Joining the community, forming teams not just based on skill but personality as well then get them funded.
SaveMeNet: creating a safer community. Voice recognition mobile app which sends your location to contacts and law enforcement when you scream for help.
Appurchase: the m-commerce solution for retailers. Brings the simplicity of e-commerce into the store by enabling the consumers mobile device to be the point of sale.
Fabricbook: the fabric search engine. Fabricbook is the ultimate resource for fabrics online. Find the fabric you’ve been looking for and order a sample.
X-Tribe: Right here, right now, find your tribe. Ever needed a last minute sports-buddy? X-tribe is an online platform that matches adventurous people through their sport, location and skills.
Sport Hack: Bring hacking to sports, competition to hacking. SportHack is an national event for sports related hardware and software hacks to compete against each other at a live final.

There is also a lot of great content being generated on the Startup Weekend Glasgow Flicker Group.

YouTube Mobile/Google TV London Hackathon

Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I recieved an email about the YouTube Mobile/Google TV London Hackathon on 6th-8th of July and thought it would be of interest to the readers of RookieOven. YouTube and Google TV teams are hosting a VIP hackathon in London, UK at the Google offices and The Campus.

If you are building Android smartphone, tablet, or Google TV Android applications and need to incorporate high-quality YouTube video playback in your product this event is for you. At this event you will learn more and have an opportunity to provide feedback about this new YouTube Android and Google TV API. To help you get the most out of this event, there will be dedicated on-site support provided by Google engineers. Attendees are invited to build their dream app, get some cool swag, compete for best app prizes and, most importantly, have fun hacking!

There are a limited number of slots available, so if you are interested in participating RSVP as soon as possible, and no later than Friday, June 1st. To RSVP, please fill in this form. The event is a Google one so you need to have prior experience of developing Android apps.

So are you developing Android app with YouTube playback? Best get yourself down to London for 6th-8th July.

EIE12 Keynote Speaker - Sir Jackie Stewart

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As I highlighted in my last post it was Engage Invest Exploit ’12 at the University of Edinburgh last week. EIE aims to put promising Scottish tech companies in front of potential investors. The event is a typical affair with exhibitors, pitches and speakers and this year they had an utterly awesome keynote speaker – Sir Jackie Stewart.

You might be wondering why a man famous for driving a car round in circles was the ideal speaker at an event for entrepreneurs and investors but Sir Jackie has achieved so much out with his amazing motorsport career. Having dyslexia and whilst at school being labelled as “thick” (to this day he still can’t recite the alphabet) hasn’t stopped Jackie from achieving in all walks of life.

One of the biggest things to take away from the talk was Jackie’s story of breaking his nose, surprisingly it wasn’t through crashing in a glamourous location such as Monaco or Monza but instead it was just off the high street in Dumbarton. Whilst at school and being classed as “thick” Jackie fell in with the wrong crowd who one day set about him resulting in the broken nose. It dawned on him he was hanging around with “crows”, which are vermin and are shot. The lesson Jackie shared was:

“Hang out with the crows and you may get shot, hang with eagles and you will soar”

Surround yourself with the best and you will be better for it. Being perhaps a tad modest Sir Jackie said the mechanics, engineers and designers in the team at Tyrell were better at their jobs than he ever was at his. He achieved his 3 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship titles thanks to surrounding himself with the best, a lesson I feel is highly relevant to startups.

Jackie spoke of his attention to detail being a key factor in his success. Before his days in motorsport Sir Jackie was a champion shooter, in this sport there were no second chances. If you missed a shot the best you could score was 99/100, not good enough. This attention to detail stayed with Jackie through his career in motorsport into his business career and is noted by him as being one of the keys to his success. He paraphrased the old proverb look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves; in business at first the scale of the task at hand is huge but by focusing on the details the larger picture will take care of itself.

Integrity and Care – photo by @MurrayBuchanan

Another thing to take from the talk was Sir Jackie’s motto – “Integrity and Care”. Jackie has represented some of the largest organisations in the world – Ford, Rolex and RBS to name a few – and in all cases Jackie acted with integrity and care. This has let to long lasting relationships such as the one with Ford that lasted for exactly, to the day, 40 years.

For me, as a massive fan of F1 fan, it was fantastic to be in the audience but aside from the amazing motorsport career Sir Jackie is a fantastic businessman, patriotic Scot and international icon. Not bad for a guy classed as ‘thick’, wouldn’t you agree?

Pick of the bunch from EIE12

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last Thursday (the 10th May) was Engage Invest Exploit in Edinburgh. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the event which puts investors in front of a range of high quality technology prospects.

For me the stand out pitch was RecommendedBy, a social shopping companion aimed squarely at the student market. Founder Cally Russell was first up and opened with a bold statement – £100 million exit in 4 years time. This went on to be a bit of a contentious issue throughout the day with advice given later from speaker Deborah Magid, of the IBM Venture Capital Group, being not to mention exits as investors want to see entrepreneurs build a sustainable business. Regardless of that Cally was confident, concise and had clearly taken the lessons from Bill Joos to heart. Another stand out of was the design of the deck, uncluttered, clean and with nice graphical effects and attention to detail.

Another standout pitch was by Sofant Technologies who aim to improve smartphone antenna performance (and therefore battery performance) whilst reducing the number of antenna required. The presentation by CEO Sergio was a bit dry but the technology is interesting and anything that can improve the battery life of my phone I’m all for.

Another few companies with talented people behind them that I’m going to be keeping an eye on are:

Insight Arcade – Founded by Allan Lloyds, Insight Arcade is an online platform for learners aiming to connect with learners with peers and enable the discovery of training opportunities such as classes, courses and workshops and provide a framework for lifelong self directed learning.
theCADcube – I liken theCADcube to a kind of GitHub for designers and architects. Providing a library of 3D CAD models from leading and niche manufacturers.
PureVLC – pitching on the day and on a stall with some impressive demos PureVLC are the creators of Li-Fi, a solution to the radio spectrum crisis. They use visible light for high speed wireless communication using standard LED lightbulbs. They were demoing a world first – text messaging via light.

EIE12 was full of plenty more cool startups including seeu.at and Plantedd from Jamie McHale and David Wong who have written for RookieOven. Big thanks to Informatics Ventures for organising, hopefully next year will have some more startups there.

Events Coming Up May

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Been rather busy of late, University, Startup Weekend Glasgow and a few other things in the works have meant I’ve not had the time to add content to RookieOven. So I thought it would be a good idea to share some cool events coming up in the weeks ahead:

Think Business with Biggart Bailie: free event to discuss a variety of issues facing new and established businesses in the current market. There will be lawyers on-hand to talk about business matters including intellectual property, employment, doing business on-line, debt recovery, structuring your business, leasing or buying property, negotiating with the bank, finance and litigation. Hosts Damien Bechelli and Chris McLeish, Partners in the Biggart Baillie Corporate and Property departments plus other experts, will be on hand to discuss your specific questions or concerns with you on a one-to-one basis.
Engage Invest Exploit 12: I’ve already sung the praises of EIE a few weeks back but it really is an excellent event. It is an annual showcase of high-quality companies spinning out of Scotland’s world leading Informatics and Computer Science departments and startup companies in our wider entrepreneurial ecosystem. Taking place on the 10th May in the Informatics Forum in Edinburgh, Jackie Stewart is the keynote speaker of the event. Impressive list of exhibitors such as Seeu.at, RecommendedBy, Float App and Insight Arcade.
RookieOven Meetup: yip it’s that time of the month again. RookieOven meetup will again be taking place first Monday of the month in Glasgow. From half 6 onwards come along to the Bier Halle Hippo Lounge on Sauchiehall Street. Chat with other founders and enthusiasts over a few beers and some free pizza.
Startup Weekend Glasgow: The first Startup Weekend to take place in Scotland is at the end of the month (25th-27th). Excellent opportunity to meet fellow startup enthusiasts, pitch a new idea, work on an MVP and see where things go. Tickets are available from the Eventbrite page and cost £40.

Any other events coming up you think startups should know about? I’m always looking for great events not only to attend but to add to the Scottish StartupDigest which is a free weekly mailing list highlighting the best events going on across Scotland.

Essential Scottish Tech Startup Resources

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Being a startup founder isn’t easy and you need all the help you can get thankfully for Scottish tech startups there are lots of excellent resources. As with anything there are a lot of dubs out there but some of these resources every founder in Scotland should be aware of. Here are, in my opinion, 10 essential tech startup resources:

StartupDigest Scotland - this weekly email is something I curate. Comes out every Monday morning and highlights the best events in the week ahead and provides a recap on the weekly happenings in the Scottish startup scene. Free to sign up to and unobtrusive.
TechMeetup Mailing List – Jobs, discussions, announcements and a bit of banter all happen on this great mailing list. Currently sitting at 656 members the list is a great place to find out what is going on in Scotland.
Edinburgh Lean Circle Mailing List – another brilliant Google Group. These guys arrange some fantastic events so well worth signing up for these alone.
StartupCafe RSS - Although a bit quiet of late Startup Cafe still produces great content for startups and has a great archive of posts.
Start It Lean Mailing List – Blog by non-technical founder Scott Torrance. Focusing on his journey developing his idea using lean methodologies and lean thinking.
Informatics Ventures Mailing List – Keep up to date with the work of Informatics Ventures. Some awesome events take place in Scotland thanks to these guys, the likes of the Bill Joos pitching workshop and Engage Invest Exploit each year.
Entrepreneurial Spark LinkedIn Group - One of the most active LinkedIn groups I’m a member of. Lots of great content and discussion going on.
Edinburgh2 – simple yet effective site. You can quickly see what regular meetups and user group meetings are meeting each month in Edinburgh.
Glasgow2 - There is now also Glasgow2 which serves the same purpose as Edinburgh2 but for, you guessed it, Glasgow.
1. Dundee Web Standards - a monthly social gathering of like-minded individuals in the creative industries based in and around Dundee. Be sure to keep an eye on the blog and the twitter account.

Here are some other important resource you can sign up to, although I’m maybe a bit biased:

These are the resources I think Scottish tech startup founders can’t afford to not to be aware of. Can you suggest some more?

Glasgow Startup Spotlight: My1Login

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

At London Web Summit I met up with My1Login, a Glasgow startup who aim to change the way we store and use our online passwords. Having secured £250,000 in funding they are taking the service worldwide.

The website allows users to securely store usernames and strong passwords in the My1Login online vault. They can then get 1-click access to these sites easily through the web-based interface. The passwords are encrypted, so not even My1Login has access to your data.

My1Login are based in an incubator space in the West End of Glasgow, provided by Digital Enterprise Glasgow, who are funded by Glasgow City Council. Their £250k in funding has been raised from Scottish Enterprise. You can find them at www.my1login.com and @my1login.

It’s great to see Scottish tech startups doing well!

YouTube Comes to Glasgow

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Glasgow based Moviecom.tv is bringing a bit of Silicon Valley to Glasgow. On Monday 16th April YouTube Developer Advocate Shannon “JJ” Behrens will be giving several talks in The Corinthian, Glasgow. Kicking off at 5.30PM JJ will be giving two talks:

SESSION 1: Mobile YouTube API Apps for Content Creators, Curators, Gamers, and Consumers

One hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second and four billion video views happen globally every day. A fast growing portion of YouTube uploads and consumption takes place on mobile devices. The intersection of these trends presents new opportunities for mobile application developers. Come and learn about how the YouTube API is used to build engaging mobile apps for content creators, curators (VJs), gamers, and video consumers. See innovative mobile application examples from early adopters.

SESSION 2: Dart

Dart is a new class-based programming language for creating structured web applications. Developed with the goals of simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, the Dart language combines powerful new language features with familiar language constructs into a clear, readable syntax.

JJ coming to Glasgow all kicked off with Moviecom.tv winning the Global Red Herring award in October of last year, from the team being in Silicon Valley for a couple of weeks they established a great relationship with the guys in the Googleplex. Moviecom.tv CEO, Gillian O’Neil said “Moviecom.tv is growing and expanding rapidly and we are exploring US horizons as part of the growth plan for the company. Meeting up with YouTube and exploring where we can integrate both our companies super cool technologies is a great opportunity for Moviecom.tv, I’m delighted YouTube are coming to hang out with us in Glasgow”.

It’s also a great opportunity on so many levels for Scottish startups, from a cultural perspective to listen to and quizing JJ on the Silicon Valley culture to an engineering perspective with the scale of YouTube and Google. The event is free to attend but requires registration through Eventbrite.

See you there?

Being Adventurous at the Amazon Hackathon

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last Friday saw the first Amazon UK Hackthon take place in Glasgow University. With a top prize of $1000 of AWS credit on offer over 50 of Glasgows most talented CS students were in attendance.

I formed a team with two very talented University of Strathclyde Computer Science students, Daniel Reilly from first year and Chris Sloey from fourth year. Our idea was to create a shopping list for your travels. You input your destination and when you’re going and we return a list of things you’re going to need, so say your heading to Glasgow in July we’ll let you know you’re going to need an umbrella.

The team had a stack of knowledge and experience in Java, PHP, Ruby, Javascript with a touch of Objective-C. However we figured we were there to learn so we may as well be adventurous and try something new so we decided to build our hack with a language we had never used before so we went with Python. We set out to develop an API and from there we would build a mobile app and with time permitting a web front end.

With such an adventurous target we set out working the lean way – fail fast! We initially intended on using the go-to Python framework Django however we ran into a few problems and found the learning curve a tad too steep and with time against us we had a pivot and used the microframework Flask. We powered on made great progress and were ready to deploy, all attendees were given $50 AWS credit which would allow us to use EC2 but as feature packed as EC2 is we found it too time consuming getting set up and since we were using a git repository anyway we went with Heroku for hosting. Then we moved onto the front end, again the easy route was to do a web app but we wanted a bit of a challenge and decided to develop a mobile app, the outcome was Travel Bit for iOS.

the bits and bobs you’ll need on your travels

After a night of lean working we pitched to a panel of ‘Amazonians’ along with the other teams. Hacks that caught my eye include an awesome implementation of voice control for the Amazon store via the browser by Mark Provan (and his team the Bogus Gasmen) and winner of the People’s Choice Award a crowd sourced tool for decision making by Giraffa Cakes. Whilst we didn’t win me and the guys are well chuffed with how we worked as a team and what we achieved. We hope to work on Travel Bit a bit more and hopefully launch it in the coming weeks.

Big thank you to Glasgow University for hosting and to the Edinburgh Amazon Development Centre for putting it on, hopefully see a lot more Amazon Hackathons across Scotland in the future.

*If you missed out on the Amazon Hackathon remember Startup Weekend Glasgow is coming up on May 25th-27th with £30 early bird tickets now available.

London Web Summit - A roundup

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last week I attended the London Web Summit for RookieOven. I curated the best tweets, quotes and pictures on my Storify, which is embedded below.

The London Web Summit was a great chance to see the newest startups in the tech scene, and hear from some experienced industry leaders.

Over the next few weeks I will blog some more thoughts on what we can learn from the London startup scene here in Scotland.

https://storify.com/jamiemchale/london-web-summit

Time Flies - April RookieOven Meetup Round the Corner

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Time really is flying in 2012, almost at April already!! The good news with a new month is that it means another RookieOven meetup. As usual taking place in the Bier Halle Hippo Lounge (on Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow) on the first Monday of the month from half 6 onwards there will be free pizza to help fuel the startup talk.

March has been a busy month so there will be been plenty to catch up with. Firstly the announcement of Startup Weekend Glasgow which will be taking place over the weekend of 25th-27th May. Come along with business idea, pitch on the Friday night, form a team and build an awesome product. Early bird tickets are now on sale and costing £30 which covers the cost of all our meals over the weekend and a constant supply of caffeine to keep you coding through the night. I’m part of the team organising Startup Weekend so will be able to answer any burning questions on Monday.

Also in March we had a few product launches and new releases, one of which we can give a whirl on Monday with the BeerDog from Zendit. Allowing you to share your beer finds with friends, The BeerDog should be the perfect companion for the meetup on Monday.

RookieOven itself had an eventful month even with a new contributor, David Wong of Plantedd, sharing what he feel should be in a great startup logo and RookieOven attended the London Web Summit with Jamie McHale going down to check things out.

So what have you been getting up to this month? Look forward to finding out on the 2nd.

Amazon Student Hackathon Glasgow

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As you will have seen in the Scottish StartupDigest this morning Startup Weekend is coming to Glasgow at the end of May (if you missed the StartupDigest you can read more about Startup Weekend Glasgow on the Startup Weekend Glasgow blog) but before then there are other hack events going on across Scotland. First one up is Amazon Student Hackathon Glasgow on 30th May.

Taking place in Glasgow University from 9am on the 3oth until 1pm on the 31st, this is the first UK Hackathon organised by Amazon. Open only to students it’s great to see a large company such as Amazon support the local community and encouraging students to get involved in events such as this.

Each team gets $50 of AWS credit to use and Amazonians from the Amazon Scotland Development Centre will be on hand for advice and support. The schedule for the day is:

Team Check-in 09:30 – 10:00 (Friday 30th March) – flexibility available for exam clashes etc.
Welcome! 10:00 – 10:30
Unconference 10:30 – 12:00
Hackathon 13:00 – 09:00 (overnight)
Breakfast 09:00 – 10:00 (Saturday 31st March)
Presentation & Judging 10:00 – 11:30
Prizes 11:30 – 13:00

This is event is only for students although if it’s a success I’m sure Amazon will organise more and large hack events in Scotland. Being a student at the moment it mean’s I can attend so will tweeting on the day and will report back on how it goes.

If you’re interested in going you can sign up at the Amazon UK Hackathon meetup group.

Making a First Impression

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a lazy writer will start by butchering a well-known quote. As a way of making a first impression it risks losing the reader’s interest somewhere along the path between over-used familiarity and simply being a little bit staid. (Happily, if you’re now in fact about to doze off then I’ve at least proved my point.)

That isn’t to say that an introductory quote is the sign of a bad writer. Only that it is a fine line to tread to find something that encapsulates what you want to say in a pithy manner without being unoriginal.

A logo has to perform much the same role as a quote. It acts as a signpost which distils what you want to say to people. Of course, a logo’s message may be more subliminal, but it should still strive to be succinct.

Here is the logo of my own startup, Plantedd – an online marketplace for nurseries to sell plants, bulbs and seeds.

Some people have been kind enough to say that it’s a good logo, so I’m hoping that it’ll be useful to share a few thoughts. You can refer to it throughout the post and judge whether it ticks the boxes. I’m not a graphic designer, so these are purely my thoughts from my own experience as a startup on what to look out for in a logo.

The experts will tell you that you shouldn’t design the logo yourself, but that’s essentially a counsel of perfection for a startup because the reality is that you probably don’t have the luxury of paying a professional to do it nor do you happen to know a friend of a friend who is a top-notch graphic designer and who works for an international agency (as one you-can-do-it-too business book recounted in their startup story). Just try to be honest and critical of what you come up with, and show it to others who will tell you the unvarnished truth.

This is my shopping list for a good logo:

*1. Simple *

****You’re asking a lot of your logo. It has to appear on your website, blog, letterhead, business card, Facebook page, Twitter account, adverts, tattoos of dedicated customers (that’s you, Apple fanboys and girls) and so on.

The logo needs to work across all these different sizes and mediums, so stretch it out and squash it down to see whether you can still recognise it at a glance. It also means that you should design your logo as a vector graphic so that it can scale up without looking pixellated. There are free vector graphics editors out there that you can use. I know some folk who use Inkscape, but I haven’t used it myself so I can’t say whether it’s any good or not.

Make sure that your logo works in black and white as well. In fact, if you start by designing your logo in black and white then it should actually help you to keep the logo simple. Simplicity ensures that it’s flexible and that your logo will, more likely, stand out better and translate well to things like branded mugs and USB sticks.

You want people to remember your logo easily and a simple logo is easier to remember.

2. Original

This is also a good guiding principle in life… “Don’t use stock photos or artwork.”

It’s not that I’m worried about you ripping off somebody’s copyright, I just don’t want to see a lazy logo. It’s like the clichéd quote. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people have already used it and it will continue to be used. You really don’t want to see the exact same image of shaking hands or jigsaw pieces that you have chosen for your logo appearing elsewhere on things that have nothing to do with your business. The point in having a logo is that it is instantly recognisable as you. It defeats the purpose if you are using something generic.

That is not to say that you need to be blisteringly unique. Take inspiration from logos that you like by all means, but do make the effort to create something of your own.

3. Relevant

I almost didn’t put this on the list. It’s stating the obvious to say that your logo should be relevant to your business. The chances are that you will manage to go for something that’s suitably playful if it’s a games company, or appropriately respectable if it’s business software. Nevertheless, it’s worth mentioning because it is vitally important, but in fact it’s so inherent in the logo that it probably happens by default.

There we go, my first guest post for RookieOven. Do you agree? What else is there to look for in a logo?

The Lean Startup

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Last week I wrote a guest post for Mike McGrail over on The Social Penguin Blog about The Lean Startup. I imagine most of the folk reading RookieOven have already read the book or now the principles so I won’t syndicate the post here (you can enjoy the original post) but I would like to draw your attention to this video. It’s Mark Suster on This Week in Venture Capital interviewing the author of The Lean Startup Eric Ries:

Excellent watch. So what do you think of The Lean Startup?

Exhibit at EIE12

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I thoroughly enjoyed EIE11 which was yet another one of the quality events put on by Informatics Ventures, in fact one of the first posts I put up on RookieOven was to highlight some of the startups that caught my eye at Engage Invest Exploit (EIE11). By a long way it’s one of the best events for tech startups in Scotland and the good news is EIE is back for 2012 and will be taking place on the 10th May.

Applications are open for exhibitors and I would encourage every startup to apply. Not only do you get excellent exposure to investors and press on the day but in the lead up to EIE Informatics Ventures have various training workshops and seminars for exhibitors. Exhibiting also allows you to meet fellow startups from across Scotland.

The benefits above aren’t even the main reason to attend, the real reason is the keynote speaker – none other than 3 time World Drivers’ Champion Sir Jackie Stewart. I personally can’t think of a better keynote speaker, a patriotic Scot who fought adversity (being an undiagnosed dyslexic) to become world champion of one of the most dangerous sports in the world. He campaigned tirelessly to improve safety standard in motorsport and become a successful businessman running the Stewart team in the late 90′s. If listening to this man can’t inspire you I don’t know what will.

Applications for exhibitors close on Thursday 23nd February. Are you going to apply to exhibit?

WallaBee: The Ultimate Location-Based Item Game

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Location based collection game WallaBee is now on the App Store. Built by a varied team from across the UK, including Glasgow based Alan Shaw, the app has been in development over the past 6 months.

The history of WallaBee is closely aligned to that another location game – Gowalla. In 2011 Gowalla removed the item collection element of the service to the dismay of many users as CEO Ben Dodson explains, “We built WallaBee as we realised there was a huge amount of disappointment when Gowalla announced they were removing items from their service. We felt their assertion that only 0.5% of their users were using items in their app was based on spurious figures and the research we did showed there was a huge number of fans for such a game”. With Gowalla being acquired by Facebook you have to think there is scope in this space to create a business.

Wallabee is first and foremost a game, not a check-in service. The aim of WallaBee is to forage at locations and pick up one of the many items in the game. These items are kept in your pouch and can be combined and traded with the aim being to obtain the best sets. Strong social features are tied into the game, including Twitter and Facebook integration and the Apple Game Center service, allowing uers to compete with friends and against the leaderboard.

Exciting times for the team, not only are they launching their app into the App Store but they’re also taking WallaBee out to SXSW in March. I’ll be sure to follow the progress of WallaBee as the guys go out to Austin. Also of note is the WallaBee API. It’s nice to see a startup launch their product with their API in place. The guys have listed some suggested implementations with the data but I think there could be scope for some really interesting apps built on top of the data.

Currently available only on iOS, WallaBee is a free download and free to play. However, users have the ability to buy in-game currency via in-app purchases or to upgrade to a Pro Account which has a number of perks. Check it out and give the guys some feedback – Alan is always open to suggestions for improvements to the game so give him a tweet or maybe catch him at one of the RookieOven events.

Long is Easy, Short is Hard

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

At the start of the week I attended the Pitch Presentation Workshop with Bill Joos ‘The Pitch Doctor’ organised by Informatics Ventures. It was fantastic!

Bill Joos was co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures along with Guy Kawasaki and previously held senior positions in Apple and IBM. The aim of the workshop was to improve our ability to pitch to investors and was split into 4 sessions:

Top Ten Mistakes in Business Plans
Perfecting You “Short Building Elevator” Pitch
Perfecting your Pitching
The Power of an Advisory Board

Now I wont go into detail on the hole workshop, not least cos it lasted a whole day, but I want to highlight a few of the ‘Ah Ha’ moments from day. Bill had a guarantee of at lest 6 ‘Ah Ha’ moments where the content was immensely important to pitching, of these the biggest ‘Ah Ha’ was -** long is easy, short is hard**.

KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid

This was the core message of the day with Bill using this quote from Mark Twain to encapsulate it:

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

To nail down what you do and why you do it succinctly is a lot of hard work but essential. This ties into yet another ‘Ah Ha’ moment from the day, the how is pretty much irrelevant. The fact you’re using Node.js with a MongoDB backend means little to an investor in the pitch, what the business is doing and the pain it solves is the information relevant to investors.

7 Words or Less

To be brief is difficult but not impossible. Even with the most complex business you should aim to describe it in 7 words or less. Bill gave a short example with the Ig Noble Prize 24-7 lectures, first the speaker has 24 seconds to describe their subject area then they have to do the same in only 7 words – world economics, theoretical chemistry and quantum physics are all boiled down to 7 words anyone can understand. Can you do that with your business?

It’s only 50% content

When pitching it’s easy to pour yourself into the content after all it is the meat of the pitch but don’t forget the delivery – it’s the essential garnish. Bill said it’s typical to spend 70% of your time focusing on the content when it should really be 50/50. Practice, practice, practice and get your timing nailed, know the order of the slides and give yourself a good transition from one to another. It’s simple advice and it’s advice I’m sure you’ve heard before but never followed. Well, take it from Bill and give more time to your delivery!

The day really was fantastic and I’m grateful Informatics Ventures brought Bill over, I’m sure the benefits of Bills workshops will be evident at the Engage Invest Exploit (EIE12) conference in May. I hope Informatics Ventures can bring Bill back to Scotland next year, if they do I highly recommend going.

What Next For RookieOven?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

So what next for RookieOven? Well firstly there is the RookieOven meetup in Glasgow on the 6th February. This will be the first one of 2012 and I’m looking forward to catching up with familiar faces and hopefully seeing some new ones too. The meetup will take place in the usual place (Hippo Lounge Sauchiehall Street) from half 6 onwards tho get there sharpish if you fancy some free pizza.

Secondly, you may have noticed I’ve not been updating the site too regularly and it’s basically because I’m snowed under with work. Now I’m under no illusions, all the RookieOven stuff I’ve been doing is small fry but I do feel that through the blog and meetup I’ve had a positive impact on the local startup community. For me at least I’ve regularly met people who inspire that are successful and making money through the internet, then there’s the talented developers, the lawyers into their tech, excellent designers and I’ve met the people behind some awesome products and services.

I currently don’t have any ads or affiliate links or any funding for the site or meetup and I intend to keep it that way, nice and impartial, but what I would like to see change is the content on the site. Up til now it has mainly been my wrambling but I would like to see more content from around the community.

I’ve always been open to folk posting on the site and in fact Jamie McHale of seeu.at has written excellent posts on several occasions. If a local startup has something to share I’d love them to put it on RookieOven. So if anyone wants to post about their experience in anything startup related then get in touch. I’m really open to almost any type of content as long as it’s startup relevant – tips for development, clever ways to monitize, experience obtaining funding, experience hiring or being hired, marketing tips or maybe something you would like to callout. So if you have something to say that will help tech startups in Scotland get in touch.

As I was saying RookieOven in the grand scheme of things is small fry and I don’t think the site is going to rival TechCrunch or The Next Web anytime soon (ever) but I feel there are enough eyes coming here for it to beneficial on many levels to have a mix of content from a range of people in the community.

Agree? Would love to hear your thoughts…

Snap to it! Springboard Application Deadline Approaching

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

If you’re thinking about applying to UK accelerator Springboard London as the title suggests you better snap to it. The application deadline is on the 29th January for the 13 week programme beginning in April this year.

So why go to Springboard? Well to start there’s the awesome list of mentors, with the likes of Immad Akhund of HeyZap, Danielle Morrill of Twilio and Alex Barrera of Inkzee. There is also the funding and support, with £5000 per founder (up to three founders) in funding for 6% of founders shares per startup and office space, legal services and a range of other important services for startups. If all that wasn’t incentive enough the Springboard 13 week programme ends with an investor day where the teams pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists.

This short video was made at the end of the last programme and gives a taste of what is on offer:

Springboard has a host of partners from the tech industry who are providing a load of swag for a startup goodie bag for applicants to the London programme with a value of over $500. Providing contents for the goodie bag are Microsoft, Rackspace, SendGrid, Twilio, Google, 99 designs, Pivotal Tracker and Edinburgh based FreeAgent.

Closing date for applications is the 29th so if you’re going for it get your application in now.

Pugs and Spreadsheets: Edinburgh TechMeetup

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Lava Pug in Shark Gear

Last night was the first Edinburgh TechMeetup of 2012 and was also the first one organised by Dale Harvey who takes over from James Baster. As usual the meetup kicked off with a scrum for pizza followed by the introductions then it was onto the first talk which was given by Gordon Guthrie, CEO of Hypernumbers.

Gordon was sharing his experience of using The Lean Startup principles, such as the MVP, when building Hypernumbers. Gordon also ran through the Hypernumbers product and demonstrated some nice implementations of the product with real big name customers like Pret A Manger. Gordon noted 2011 was a year of value for Hypernumbers and 2012 is going to be a year of growth. If you know any heavy spreadsheet users I’m Gordon would love to hear from them so get in touch.

Second talk of the evening was Yann Seznec, founder of Lucky Frame. Yann was showing off the latest product from Lucky Frame – Pugs Luv Beats - an iOS game that marries Yann’s love of music and games to the internets love of animals in cute costumes. Sounds weird and well it is totally bizarre but looks great fun as you use your pugs and the variety of costumes you can dress them in to them to make music. This video explains the concept and even has dogs in cute costumes:

Pugs Luv Beats is a universal app on the App Store priced at £1.99. The Lucky Frame guys are finalist in the Independent Games Festival in the category of “Excellence in Audio”, IGF is on 5th-9th March so best of luck to the guys with that.

As always with TechMeetup I met lots of great new people and caught up with some familiar faces and enjoyed the excellent talks. TechMeetups are monthly, going on across Scotland and I would highly recommend getting along to one. The next one in Glasgow is on the 25th of January with Jamie Boyd talking about responsive design and Sebastien Lambla giving a talk titled “HTTP Caching 101″.

So on the 25th, see you there?

Personally Taking Stock

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It’s been a busy year for me, as clichéd as it is, there have been plenty of up and downs and as the year is finishing thought it would be a good idea to stick some of my experiences on RookieOven.

Uncertainty

At the start of 2011 there was a lot of uncertainty, dizeo had little to no traction but at the same time the team had made Parental Circle a niche Q&A that we would use to roll out a simple clean Q&A across other niches. The team had learned a bucket load from the failed launch of dizeo and we did a much better job of it with Parental Circle; unfortunately time/money ran out. Parental Circle may not have saved the operation but as with dizeo I did learn a lot, this time through what I was doing right – meeting people. Through Parental Circle I met some really great people who were more than happy to help, it was a community thing. There are some really strong online communities in Glasgow and it was through being part of the parent one (without actually being a parent) I realised there was something missing for startups which ultimately led to RookieOven.

Moving On

So at the end of April I was out of a job and quickly moved to working again with Chris and also with Finbarr on what would become (or not) Vesume. That didn’t work out, as I explained, but yet again it really wasn’t time wasted. Working with they guys was a treat, you always want to work with the best and for that wee while I was working with two hugely talented guys.

Improve

It’s hard to believe that a year ago I had practically no online presence, a hastily made LinkedIn profile, a barely used Twitter account, and offline my ‘professional network’ was limited to say the least. The reason for this is I’m far from the most confident person in the world but when I look back I think this is one respect where I’ve improved a monumental amount. 12 months ago I would never attend a meetup or conference by myself never mind organise one. I’m still horrifically shy and severely lacking in confidence but it’s definitely something I can (and will) work on further in 2012.

Where I am

When talking to people in 2011 I found the converstation would usuall go something like this:

Person: “So what do you do?”

Me: “I’m worked as a Software Engineer at at a startup now founding my own…”

Person: “So you’re a coder? Can you do apps?”

That’s not really a new conversation, a few years ago you would take away “apps” and add in “websites” or if you were talking to someone under 12 you would substitute “apps” for ”games”. I felt I was being put in a bucket when I really feel my talents are multifaceted and I could easily put myself into other buckets so rightly or wrongly I decided to return to University to study a Masters in Product Development. Of late the ups and downs are coming from University, there is a lot to like and quite often even more to dislike but at the moment I feel in the long run this is going to be something beneficial to me.

Looking Back

When I look back the first 3 years of my undergraduate at University it really was Mickey Mouse stuff, I was a typical drunk student for most of that time, but in the 4th Year (2010) I knuckled down and developed my skill set massively but even then I feel this year has been one where I’ve easily learned twice as much.

Looking Forward

Going forward in 2012 I clearly have a lot to look forward to but I also have a few fears, I’m going to be 25 this year (geez!!) and currently I’ve got no stable source of income and I’m mainly living on savings. With University and other interests such as RookieOven and hopefully organising Startup Weekend in Glasgow that leaves me with little time to work on anything I can make money on. It’s a tough one for me to balance but I’m determined to get my Masters and I’m certain I will get a few products launched before too long that I will monetize.

What will you be doing in 2012 and how was 2011 for you?

Inbound Marketing: A Startup Essential

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A few week ago Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz gave a presentation at a Hackers and Founders event in Silicon Valley. The aim of Rands presentation was to share some tips on how to get the most mythical of things for your startup – “traction”.

The presentation is well worth a watch but it does run to 80 odd minutes so if you’re pressed for time there the slides are on SlideShare to skim through although I highly recommend watching the video.

If you skipped the video or the slides and jumped to here (spoiler alert) Rand does a great job of showing how important inbound marketing is to a startup; especially in regards to getting traction and growth. So its great that Edinburgh University are hosting “Entrepreneurial Inbound Marketing” on the 11th of January next year. The main attraction of the day is Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, who will explore inbound marketing with his talk titled “Listening to the voice of the customer”.

Others speakers include Andrew Girdwood of of BigMouthMedia and Maz Nadjmof TSL Education. Regular tickets are priced at £89.00 but there are a range of options including a discounted early bird ticket. The Eventbrite page has a ton of information and of course is where you can pick up your ticket.

Looks to be yet another quality event being organised by Edinburgh University, will you be going?

5 Christmas Gift Ideas for a Tech Startup Founder

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Two weeks today (or as I prefer to put it – in 13 sleeps) it’s Christmas and I’ve yet to start my Christmas shopping and I assume I’m not alone in being so disorganised. So I thought it would be a good idea to list 5 things I think a tech startup founder would love to get for Christmas.

1. Kindle

I’ve been doing stacks of reading of late and with that I’ve been lugging books about in a bag. Lightweight, no losing pages or getting them dog eared – I hardly need to sell the Kindle (Amazon are doing a pretty good job of that themselves) but do think it would be a welcome addition to many founders collection of hardware.

2. Whiteboard

Nothing high tech or fancy here. Just a simple whiteboard. I find whiteboards so useful for sticking notes and todo’s on and even better for sketching out ideas. Obviously you need a wall to hang it on and a tree big enough to stick it under but would highly recommend one.

3. Eric Ries – The Lean Startup

The Lean Startup (or to give it its full name “The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses”) is phenomenal. Really is the best book I’ve read in a long time with excellent advice that’s applicable to so many markets and business types – not just tech. It’s a bargain for about a tenner and the perfect accompaniment to the Kindle Santa might bring.

4. Walter Isaacson – Steve Jobs

Some people really hate Apple, others are fanatical but whatever your opinion on the company you have to admit Steve Jobs had an immense impact on the tech industry (and beyond). Walter Isaacson’s book is weighty at 656 pages but is well worth a read if you’re into tech.

5. Decent Laptop Bag

When it comes to bags its really a subjective thing but one thing I really appreciate is a decent bag for my laptop. The point of a laptop is to be portable but it also contains all my work so I want to make sure its safe. Also it’s also hardly as light as a feather so a decent bag will allow you to carry it about in comfort.

That’s 5 things I would appreciate to find under my tree in a couple of weeks time but what would you like Santa to bring? Let me know in the comments.

A Proper Interview With ‘The Zuck'

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Last week the BBC aired a documentary called “Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook” that strangely had very little Mark Zuckerberg in it. I’m the first to admit Facebook is far from my cup of tea and the Facebook stance on privacy grinds my gears but love him or hate him you have to admire Mark Zuckerberg for growing Facebook into the company it is today. So I think it’s worthwhile listening to what he has to say, in the video below from the 2011 YCombinator Startup School Jessica Livingston interviews Zuckerberg. He talks openly about the early days of Facebook, his opinion on investment and his approach to management.

Much better than the BBC program, don’t you agree?

Have You Spoken to Your Customers Yet?

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Two questions that are key for any startup are: who will my paying customers be? Will they even like what I have to offer? As Michael has covered previously on Rookie Oven – it’s the hard questions that need to be tackled in order to succeed.

I spoke to Jim Duffy at Entrepreneurial Spark about my plans for Seeu.at – a ‘pre-checkin’ service for arranging to meet your friends. Jim asked me how many people I had spoken to who were potential paying customers. Not just users of the front-end service, but businesses that would pay to partner with us. I had been sharing the idea with other developers and users – but not with businesses that would be the source of income.

I needed to speak to people who will be paying customers before I rushed further into product development.

“If you can’t find ten people who say they’ll buy it, your company is bullshit”
- Jason Cohen, Yes, but who said they’d BUY the damn thing, Smart Bear

An obvious point, but you have to get out there and actually do it!

So I did. I called up a few local businesses who I thought might be potential customers and I asked them about how they run their businesses.

I didn’t pitch them my idea. I listened to what they had to say, then I asked them questions.

This approach helped me define the problems that they were facing – and then I could explain my idea in those terms.

So what are the key advantages that I have found of getting out there and speaking to your potential customers?

It helps you define your offering clearly in your mind. You have to be able to explain clearly what your business is, and how it could help the customer.
It forces you to look at the issues from a real customer perspective. You can hear about their problems, the language they use to describe the problems, and how they are currently trying to tackle them. It also helps you clearly identify your customers. Some businesses were keener than others. Now I have an improved understanding of the types of business that may be interested in becoming customers.
It helps generate interest in your product, making progress towards business objectives rather than ‘product development’ objectives. Without a business product development is just a hobby.

So what are you doing to help you identify and speak with your customers?

What's on in December?

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

You would think with the end of the year quickly approaching and the weather getting even worse the number of quality events for startups to attend wold be drying up. Well that’s not the case and there are plenty of great events taking place in the month ahead. Obviously I’m going to be adding all the events to the Startup Digest which comes out each Monday but I thought it would be a good idea to highlight a couple of the stand out events.

Of course there is the last RookieOven meetup of 2011, although the plans changed I’m looking forward to having a few pints with familiar faces and hopefully some new ones on Monday. Starting from the usual time of half 6, all welcome and there are no tickets just turn up.

Northern Lights on the 2nd in Aberdeen. Short notice I know but it’s looking to be a cracking event with Joe O’Brien of Edge Case and CTO of GitHub Tom Preston-Werner speaking. The theme for the day is ‘taking you and your business to the next level’ so should be ideal for startup types. Northern Lights also has tied to it a pre-conference dinner followed by a GitHub Drinkup in Musa and they are happening tonight.

The following day Joe Wright, who organises the Glasgow TechMeetup, Adrian Mowat and Rob Lally are bringing the Global Day of Code Retreat to Glasgow. Worldwide there will be 600 developers taking part to practice the craft of software development. It’s free to attend although spaces are limited.

There is an excellent doubleheader in Edinburgh in the middle of the month with the regular TechMeetup on the 14th then on the 15th of December there is the Edinburgh Startup Christmas Party. The party sounds like the ideal way to celebrate 2011. Food, drinks, a ‘magical’ DJ and likeminded people, what else could you want? The party is in Cargo from half 6 onwards with tickets £15 (£10 early bird).

These are the events I’ve came across and think look brilliant but have I missed anything?

Slight Change of Plan - Sorry

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Last week I announced something a little different for the December meetup however I’m sorry to say there is a slight change of plan and we will have to resort to the usual venue and set up for the 5th of December. This means pizza and a few beers in Bier Halle Hippo Lounge in Sauchiehall Street Glasgow.

The response to the pitch night from the local community has been excellent so it’s definitely not being cancelled, instead the event will be held on yet to be confirmed date in January as a way to kick off 2012. Moving the date back will allow more time to organise the evening and ensure its done properly to a standard the local startup community deserves. Moving back to January is also beneficial to our host, Entrepreneurial Spark. Jim Duffy is working flat-out preparing the space for the first batch of startups for the Entrepreneurial Spark opening in January. So taking place at the start of 2012 will also allow the pitch event to coincide with the launch of the Entrepreneurial Spark accelerator which will undoubtedly bring some new faces to pitch.

I would appreciate if everyone could help spread the word that the meetup will be in the usual place on Monday and accept my apologise on the late notice.

Whilst the delay means the local community won’t be saying cheerio to 2011 in the way I had hoped it does mean we can kick off 2012 with a bang. That’s not to say we won’t have fun this Monday in Hippo Lounge and I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Something a Little Different for Christmas (Updated)

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The plans for the December 5th meetup have changed. Please see the post Slight Change of Plan – Sorry for more details.

The RookieOven meetup has been running for a while now (since June actually – time flies) and speaking for myself I’ve gotten a lot out of it and met so many like minded people. Up until now the Bier Hall has been the venue and the free pizzas have went down a treat but with the December meetup being the last of 2011 I thought it would be fun to do something a little different for Christmas.

The meetup in December will again be the first Monday of the month (5th) but it’s going to be held in the new Entrepreneurial Spark space and have a little twist. In a few posts recently I’ve been talking about answering hard questions and getting your idea out and the meetup this month is the perfect opportunity to do it – it’s going to be a small pitching competition.

Well when I say competition it’s really more just a bit of fun but pitching will allow people to get comfortable speaking about their idea’s plus it’s always good to practice speaking in front of a crowd (and you’re as well doing that in a friendly environment). This meetup will also allow everyone to have a look at the Entrepreneurial Spark office area and founder Jim Duffy will be there to share his vision for Entrepreneurial Spark. Entrepreneurial Spark may not be for you but I think its important to know what’s on your doorstep and to know the kind of startups that are in the same city as you.

So I’m looking for people willing to pitch, nothing too large or in depth. I’m thinking a maximum of four slides along the lines of:

Team – who is behind this idea and why is this team going to make an amazing product
Product – what is it the team is making
Plans – when, where’s and what’s of your startups
Where you’re at – as it stands what have you got

The meetup will start at the usual time of half 6 and there will be free pizza (courtesy of Jim Duffy) and although we wont be able to have any beer in the Entrepreneurial Spark building there is a high probability of a visit to a pub afterwards. For those that haven’t been already the Entrepreneurial Spark office is based in Caledonia House on the south side of the river:

View Larger Map

Attending previous meetups we’ve had a fantastic mix of people from folk with successful businesses to those who only have an excellent idea and I hope both types would be willing to take part on the 5th. If you’d like to pitch email me (1@gmx.com) and I would also appreciate if your planning on coming to let me know so we have an idea of numbers for the night but as always no need to book a ticket.

So tell me, think it sounds good?

The plans for the December 5th meetup have changed. Please see the post Slight Change of Plan – Sorry for more details.

Thinking Outside the Box

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Connect the dots

Almost all tech startups I hear about are software based. It makes sense; margins in hardware are brutal and as Marc Andreessen pointed out, in his Wall Street Journal article “Software is eating the world”, most of todays most successful/largest companies have made their success through software. So you would be mad to consider making hardware right?

I say why not? Arduino makes it easy to jump into hardware and prototype some ideas. Arduino is low cost, has a cross platform IDE and the syntax is C/C++. There is a fantastic community and countless cool Arduino hacks out there, some of them are simply amazing. Adding to the appeal of Arduino is the Android@Home framework by Google which aims to automate areas of the household in conjunction with the Android platform.

An excellent example of a hardware based startup was announced last week, Swivl an iPhone motion tracking dock. Or how about the following from Bristol based startup TangibleFX:

When creating concepts for your tech startup why limit yourself to software? Think outside the box and consider what you could do with hardware.

Exciting Times Ahead For Glasgow Startups

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

On Monday Mike Butcher, Editor of TechCrunch Europe, wrote about a new startup accelerator called Accelerator Academy. In the post Mike talks of the accelerator ‘arms race’ and how Accelerator Academy has attempted to one up the competition with some unique features. However I feel Accelerator Academy need not try as a truly game changing accelerator/incubator has launched here in Scotland - Entrepreneurial Spark.

Based in Glasgow and founded by Jim Duff, Entrepreneurial Spark offers startups:

Office space 1 mile from the city centre
Telecoms
Hardware
Meeting rooms
On site parking
Coffee (a startup essential)
Discounted food

The cost to the startup for all of that? Nothing. Not even equity. This is possible as Entrepreneurial Spark is not for profit and has attracted some impressive names to back it such as entrepreneurs Sir Tom Hunter, Willie Haughey OBE and Brian McGuire and a range of companies such as Teamly, Kiltr, The BIG partnership and Harper McLeod LLP.

In the coming months Entrepreneurial Spark will open it’s doors for startups to enter and it’s hoped that in the first batch entering the Entrepreneurial Spark hatchery there will be 20-25 startups. The startups will be part of a 6 month program that is broken down into 4 distinct stages with the aim being participants graduating as startups well on the road to success. Whilst in Entrepreneurial Spark startups will have access to top business mentors (such as the backers mentioned earlier) and to ‘Entrepreneurial Facilitators” who have been trained at the world renowned Babson College.

As fantastic as all this sounds I don’t even think the best thing about Entrepreneurial Spark is the costs, the access to mentors or the free coffee but the low barrier to entry. Jim has stressed he wants the process of entry to be painless, in fact it’s a simple one sheet agreement between the startup founder or founders and Entrepreneurial Spark.

Scotland: The Foundations Of A Startup Community

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

There was a guest post on TechCrunch over the weekend by American entrepreneur Brenden Mulligan. In it, based on his travels to visit startups around the world, Brenden outlines what he feels makes Siliocon Valley such a startup friendly environment. Personally I think the post is excellent and I was wondering how Scotland stacks up.

Support

In Scotland there has always been support for startups, things like Scottish Enterprise, Business Gateway and PSYBT. This kind of support is highly visible and accessible however I (rightly or wrongly) have a always felt startups shouldn’t rely on such services. If you want support and help go out and get it yourself. For example financially the bank is always there or for mentoring there are a large number of successful entrepreneurs willing to give their time to startups. I think support is something that Scotland isn’t short of.

Collaboration

I think this is one that Scotland is getting better at. Even informal meetups like the RookieOven ones in Glasgow play a part and get people taking to each other. The amount of meetups and user groups popping up across Scotland is fantastic, for example there is TwitAyr in Ayr, Dundee Web Standards, Glasgow UX Bookclub and of course TechMeetup.

Transparency

This is an area Scotland doesn’t do too well at. People are often very timid about sharing ideas for fear of them being stolen, some going as far as to ask to sign an NDA. Personally I don’t mind talking about ideas, I find it’s the best way to flesh them out. A viable business idea is hard to reach but it’s really not worth a lot, the thing that matters is the implementation. As I’ve written in previous posts ‘hard questions‘ are coming and you won’t be prepared for them if you don’t talk about your idea.

Embrace Failure

Failure in Scotland isn’t handled well. Doing something wrong is the quickest way to learn how to do it right. So you balls something up, in my opinion great because next time you wont make the same mistakes. That isn’t an automatic pass to success but as long as you learn from doing things wrong it certainly means it’s one less thing you can balls up.

Form Startup Hubs

Scotland performs well here, the Edinburgh University Appleton Towers is packed full of great startups, not only that but others have sprung up around that core. On Friday there was the announcement of Entrepreneurial Spark, a totally free incubator in Glasgow offering free office space, meeting rooms and mentoring. So things are looking up in this respect but that doesn’t mean more can’t be done, for example how about a Startup Weekend in Scotland?

Invite Outsiders In

We are doing a decent job here, its difficult to get Scotland on the startup radar when a short hop away are the big players such as London and Berlin. Getting big names to Scotland regularly isn’t easy but some pretty big names do come on occasion, Dave McClure came to Edinburgh a few years ago and the Turing Festival had some amazing international speakers in August this year.

Send Insiders Out

All around the world there are people with a strong link back to bonnie Scotland, so it’s safe to say Scotland has never had a problem in sending people out. In past few months both Anne Johnson and Andrew McCalister who are now based in Silicon Valley have came back to Scotland to share their insight and I expect many more Scots do the same.**

Be Patient

Apparently Rome wasn’t built in a day and the same goes for startup communities. The problem is as things stand Scotland is quite a bit behind other European startup communities such as London and Berlin never mind Silicon Valley. A lot of talent is being drawn to other locations as they simply can’t afford to be patient.

That’s not to say in Scotland there isn’t a lot of great stuff happening because there clearly is from the small (RookieOven Meetup) to the big such as Entrepreneurial Spark so with a bit of patience we will eventually get there. We’re doing a lot right and as Brenden says get the foundation right and the rest will come.

So You've Been Asked a Hard Question…

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the inevitable hard questions startups will have to face. I feel it’s a very important subject and the post was quite timely as I posted it shortly after a pitch event as part of Social Media Week Glasgow where I watched Finbarr Taylor and Jamie McHale pitch their startup ideas. After pitching both guys were bombarded with these ‘hard questions’ and seeing first hand the way the guys dealt with the questions and used them to adapt their idea’s and their approach to the product I felt it was important to share that experience.

In the weeks following I’ve spoken quite a bit about idea generation and development with a few people but one discussion in particular really stood out as it was with the man pitching in the competition himself, Finbarr. Here is what Finbarr had to say:

As simple as that sounds it can be difficult to follow. If you’re passionate about your idea or product it’s far too easy to jump in and sound off. Let the person speak their mind, their worries or questions will not be unique other people (i.e. your customers) will likely have the exact same problem. Be patient, respectful and when it comes to giving a response firstly be grateful for the insight and be prepared to accept that problems exist with your idea or product.

I also think it’s important to point out that if you’re listen to a pitch or about an idea be brutally honest. It’s true ideas are fragile but if you hear an idea and you think it’s a bit rubbish be honest. Be honest but also give reason, in my eyes it’s the most helpful thing you can do.

Return of the Glasgow TechMeetup

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I’m sure you already know (because it was in the Scottish Startup Digest) that this Wednesday TechMeetup returns to Glasgow. The venue for Wednesday evening is the 5th floor of the Glasgow University School of Computing and it kicks off at 6.30 with some free beer and pizza. To find out some more information about the evening best have a look at the TechMeetup website – https://www.techmeetup.co.uk

Events such as TechMeetup are invaluable in Scotland. Scott Allison, CEO of Teamly, recently blogged on why “Location Matters for Your Startup“, in the post Scott shows how the right location will provided a higher density of the people you need to make your startup successful. In Scotland we don’t have anywhere near the entrepreneurial density of London never mind Boulder or San Francisco. Regular events like TechMeetup or the RookieOven meetups (next one November 7th) allow us Scots who are not currently in a position to move to an entrepreneurial dense area the opportunity to perhaps bump into the person (designer, developer, investor – really could be anyone) who will transform your business.

TechMeetup has been running for over 3 years now in Edinburgh but the Glasgow one stalled, as I understand it, due to difficulties with the venue and securing funding. With a good group getting involved and supporting TechMeetup Glasgow I’m sure it won’t stall again. It’s going to be good fun with beer, pizza and some exciting tech talks. So see you there on Wednesday?

Big thanks to Ijonas Kisselbach and Joe Wright for organising TechMeetup Glasgow.

Startup Looking to Hire in Glasgow

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Kevin Brolly, who many of you may know from the RookieOven meetups, is currently working as a web developer at video based education startup Twig. Kevin got in touch to say Twig are looking to expand the development team. Specifically Kevin is looking for both a front end and a back end developer with the talent, attitude and right personality to join his development team based in Glasgow.

Twig describe themselves as a “Dynamic Teaching Resource” and provide over 500 high quality short clips to teachers at KS2, KS3 and GCSE levels. From my experience at dizeo.com, education startups are a lot of fun and throw up a lot of unique challenges so would be an interesting team to join.

The Twig website is undergoing redevelopment and expansion and the developers will need to be skilled in the usual web standards and requirements of such roles. Twig are looking for the back end developer to be skilled in Python and Django and Kevin also says experience with AWS and Git would be a bonus. That you? Email Rachel Taylor (rtaylor@twig-it.com) with a CV, covering letter and any relevant links you may have about the web (GitHub, StackOverflow etc).

If you have a passion for startups but aren’t in a position to start your own this could be the ideal opportunity. As I said education startups are great fun with some unique challenges and problems.

Feel I should just declare I’m receiving no payment for this post from either Kevin or Twig. Just raising awareness of a Scottish startup looking for talent.

Learning from Mistakes

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I came across this slide deck from Tara Hunt CEO of Buyosphere titled The 10 Mistakes I’ve made… so you don’t have to. It’s fantastic Tara has shared her mistakes in this way as hopefully it can stop others from making the same ones. It’s not a short deck at 69 slides but if you have 20 mins its really worth flicking through them.

The 10 Mistakes I’ve made…so you don’t have to

View more presentations from Tara Hunt

Making mistakes is inevitable. I hopefully have many years ahead of me but at 24 I’ve already made enough mistakes to fill a book with more pages than the last Harry Potter. Making mistakes is the quickest way to learn – fact!

We have all been doing it from an early age, take for example a child who touches a boiled kettle, they should now know not to do again but of course thats a painful way of learning and the usual way for the child to learn is by learning from the mistakes of others i.e. the parent. With a startup its the same you can learn from the mistakes of others or do things the painful way and make the mistakes yourself. If you do make them yourself I think that’s no bad thing; in my book mistakes are only a bad thing if you don’t learn from them.

Startup Folk to Follow on Twitter

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It’s no secret Twitter is a great place to discover new content and connect with new people but that’s only if you’re following the right people. It’s easy to follow the @arrington’s and the @jason’s on Twitter but what about people who aren’t on the suggested follow list? Here are a few startup folk to follow on Twitter due to their content, banter, advice and everything else you would expect to see from a good tweeter.

@sohear - Steve O’Hear was contributing editor at TechCrunch Europe and is now CEO and co-founder of ‘expertise platform’ Beepl. Switching from being a writer commenting on tech startups to being a founder gives Steve a unique perspective and his caffeine fuelled tweets show the time, effort and dedication required to be a founder.
@joelgascoigne – A Brit who has moved to San Francisco, Joel is founder of BufferApp for Twitter. Joel and his fellow co-founder @LeoWid share a lot of great content and are always happy to interact and share advice and pointers. The guys are, in my experience, happy to share their time and advice with fellow startups.
@AndrewBrackin - A British youngster, 17 years old, very much into his startups. Andrew is currently working on GetDealy which offers “Awesome deals on the hottest Mac titles”. Andrew often shares great tech startup content and has massively championed some brilliant startups such as Turntable.fm before the big boys.
@weblivz – Steven Livingstone is in my opinion the most prolific tweeter on startup matters from my neck of the woods. Steven is a tech advisor to Glasgow based startup Kiltr and often tweets about startup life, technology, developemnt and a Glasgow football team (all good in my book).
@JessInBlue – Not only is Jessica Williamson part of the excellent Startup Cafe team along but she is also Community Manager at Cambridge based startup accelerator Springboard. I don’t think there is anyone who knows the UK startup scene better than Jessica (and I think she really does only ever wear blue).
@evarley - Elizabeth Varley is CEO and co-founder of London tech workspace TechHub. It was through following Elizabeth I heard of a TechHub open day back in May of this year which I went to and met a bucket load of top startup talent, well worth the trip.

I know its hardly an exhaustive list, in fact its really little more like an extended Follow Friday but thats where you come in. It’s great fun to find new people to follow so who am I missing?

All the Best Finbarr

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Bye, Bye!

This is just a short post to wish all the best to Mr. Finbarr Taylor. If you’ve read a few of my previous blog posts or been to one of the RookieOven meetups in Glasgow you will have came across Finbarr. Finbarr and I studied Computer Science together at Strathclyde University and over the last few months have been working together on a few projects, such as the stillborn Vesume.

Whilst the Vesume venture didn’t pan out as we had hoped Finbarr is today starting a new exciting venture as he moves 5000 miles away to California. Finbarr is one hell of a talented guy and an amazing software engineer and I will not be surprised when I see him as a leading CEO or CTO in the years to come. It’s going to be worthwhile following him on Twitter (@fbta) and keeping an eye on his personal page to see the exciting things he is working on. I like to image, rightly or wrongly, Silicon Valley is a bit like a Disneyland for developers so I really can’t wait to see and hear all the cool things Finbarr will be able to get involved in.

So big thank you to Finbarr for all his help, time and brilliant games of badminton over the past few months and best of luck to both you and B. in California.

AARRR! Startup Metrics for Pirates

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It’s pretty much impossible to be serious about tech startups and you not have came across Dave McClure. Dave McClure is an angel investor, runs the 500 startups incubator and is on the board of one of the hottest startups of the moment Twilio, basically he knows his stuff.

In 2008 the Edinburgh Entreprenuers Club invited Dave over to talk. Although it’s over 3 years old the advice is still very relevant and his presentation is worth a read:

Startup Metrics For Scottish Pirates (AARRR!) v1.3

View more presentations from Dave McClure

If the slide doesn’t quite hit the spot there is this short video as Dave rapidly fires through the AARRR concept. Older than the presentation but the message is the same and, I think, still very valid:

A lot of good content there from Dave McClure, would suggest looking at some more of his slides especially the one on “How to Pitch a VC”. His blog, 500 hats, is on hold at the moment but there is lots of great content that he has added over the past few years.

So will I be seeing skull and crossbones flying from startup headquarters across Scotland?

Answering the Hard Questions

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

When getting any startup off the ground (regardless of the industry, tech or not) you will inevitably have to deal with some hard questions. By answering the hard questions I don’t mean telling me the 333rd Fibonacci number off the top of your head or finding a new prime number, I’m talking about the ones regarding your startup that make you squirm.

Hard questions will effect any startup but in the tech space it could be a concern over privacy, being legitimate, data security or competitors already in the space to name a few examples. To give an example from my experience, when developing dizeo.com, the safe social network, when telling anyone about the business I can guarantee you I would always be asked at least one of the following:

How will you keep kids safe?
How will you be able to scale?
What if a child gets bullied on your service?
How can you be sure the ‘child’ is in fact a child?

All reasonable questions and questions that everyone would ask, that included our users (ie the people you need to make the product into a business). The thing is with dizeo, we worked our socks off to have procedures and failsafes to ensure all users on the site would be as safe as we could possible make them online. For each of the hard questions we had a rock solid excellent answer. Granted dizeo was a failure (we did attract users but nowhere near enough to sustain ourselves) but the whole team were able to walk into any room and talk about our product knowing there was an answer to every hard questions about the product and the business.

Anyone who would ask us one of these questions was just another opportunity to tell people about the fantastic fallbacks we had in place when things would inevitably go wrong. It was key we had that ability to stick up for our product and its was great to hear the doubts and queries from anyone who would care to share an opinion because these are the exact same doubts our users would have.

It’s also inevitable another set of stakeholders will be asking these questions – the investors. If someone is going to put their hand in their own pocket, risk their own hard cash on something they want to know every in and out of the product, the sector and the team. This is where the team can shine by showing supreme knowledge and passion. Knowing your stuff inside out will mean you can never be flummoxed even when they come to asking the hard questions.

I had first hand experience of people being asked hard questions on Wednesday. This week Jamie McHale (who regularly contributes guest posts to RookieOven) and my ex-co-founder Finbarr Taylor pitched at an event as part of Social Media Week. Both guys excelled not by just having a great product but by being able to answer most of the hard questions. The fact the guys found it difficult to answer some hard questions wasn’t a bad thing, the questions being asked were ones they hadn’t considered. These questions are the very same questions that will be being asked by the users of their product or potential investors. The guys left with a better clue on where to work on and what was needing more attention. It was a help not a hinderance to be asked the hard questions.

So the point of all this? If you have your idea, brilliant now get out there and get feedback. If someone critiques an area of your business don’t get upset get energised! Fix that fault or correct them on how you have overcome the concern because I can assure you that person wont be alone in having that hard question.

Advice for Success and Happiness

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

If you can spare 30 minutes this commencement speech at the 2011 graduation at University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management by Chris Sacca is immense.

Some great advice for success and happiness don’t you agree?

Got Any Plans For the Start of 2012?

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Got a good startup team, an idea with a clear market a some notion of how to make it profitable? Then why not apply to Y Combinator winter 2012 program? If you don’t have a clue what Y Combinator is then here is the what, when, how of it all.

What

****YC is a seed stage funding program. If accepted you get roughly $20,000 funding for 7% (although these figures can vary) of your company and then on top of that 3 months of expert help and guidance to turn your business into an opportunity that investors cannot turn down.

Started in 2005 some of the most successful tech companies of late have graduated from YC, such as Hipmunk, Reddit, Dropbox, Disqus and Airbnb.

If you were to need more convincing then this video explains it all pretty well:

When

Now!! The application process for 2012 has already started. To apply you need to first read this post by Paul Graham then submit your application before 8pm PT on the 10th of October.

How

The application process consists of an online form (sooner you submit the better) then there is a face to face interview. If you get to this stage, firstly congratulations, you need to get your team to Mountain View and be prepared to be grilled by Paul Graham and the rest of the YC partners.

But…

But nothing. There have been plenty of teams accepted from the UK, in the summer 2011 program Baked Code makers of Interstate App were made of a UK team – Greg Cooper (a Scot) and Simon Fletcher. Other notable teams from the UK are MinoMonsters and Heyzap.

It’s an amazing opportunity if you can get on the program (there is only a 2-3% acceptance rate) but there is nothing to lose in trying.

Are you going to apply then?

Essential Blogs for a Start-up Education

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This post written by me originally appeared on The Social Penguin Blog by Mike McGrail on 31/08/11.

Being a startup founder of any kind is a daunting undertaking but there are plenty of resources out there with excellent advice on how to get your startup off the ground. But how do you find it and know what to trust? Obviously first up is the Social Penguin Blog but you already knew that ‘cos you’re here (editor – aw schucks Michael!). So what else is essential for the startup reading list?

A Smart Bear by Jason Cohen the founder of SmartBear Software is a consistently brilliant read. The blog covers a wide range of topics and often has guest posts by other startup founders. If you can set aside an hour or two its well worth spending the time looking through the back catalogue of posts. There are so many posts filled with simply awesome advice from people who have been there, done it and done it successfully.

Next on the list is Both Sides of the Table by Mark Suster, this is an interesting read because as the name suggests Mark has been on both sides of the investment game. Mark describes himself as “a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC”. In my opinion his posts are essential reading and give a fantastic insight into funding and investment. Even if investment is not your thing Both Sides of the Table is well worth a read; Mark also covers topics such as social media and marketing in his posts.

Another quality addition to the list is Scott Allison’s blog. Scott is the founder of team management web app Teamly which is based in London. Scott doesn’t blog too often but its worth a visit for the “advice” tab alone. Scott is also active on Twitter and links to a lot of great content.

Angel investors can be essential when getting your startup idea up and running and transformed into a successful business so it goes without saying one should feature on the Startup Reading List and that would be Business Angel Blog by Permjot Valia. Permjot has a acted as an angel investor for a variety of startups, including those not strictly tech and has interests globally from Canada to Cape Town. His posts are of a very high quality and insightful on a range of topics.

Whilst relevant to all tech startups for startups from the homeland of Dave, Startup Cafe andRookieOven (hands up, I run this blog) should be of great interest. Both are trying to raise awareness of startups in Scotland and give great advice. My last post on The Social Penguin Blog highlighted the bad points of the Scottish startup scene but these two sites are working hard to highlight the best and there is plenty of it.

So there is my take on essential reading for a startup but what blogs would you say a startup should be reading?

5 Useful Web Apps for Productivity

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Rich web apps are undoubtedly the future (if you’re in doubt just have a play with Angry Birds in your browser) but what is there that you can use for productivity? Google Apps and the offerings form 37Signals are hugely popular but who else is trying to replicate experiences from the desktop online?

Pixlr

Pixlr is basically Photoshop for the web. Made by Autodesk Pixlr has a lot of features and an interface that’s not a million miles off what Adobe offer. For power users Pixlr is unlikely to replace Photoshop but for a bit of light use it certainly beats paying funny money for CS5.

Familiar Interface

MockFlow

If you ever have wireframing to do MockFlow is the tool for you. Nice web app with a bunch of excellent features such as Google App integration and collaboration tools. There is a free ‘Basic’ account and a ‘Premium’ account costing $69 a year. Perhaps a good investment if wireframing is something you’re required to do often.

SlideRocket

For creating a slide deck there are no shortage of online tools to create and run your presentations. Its the web at it’s best, how often have you went to present when you find the equipment given to you wont read the slide or doesn’t have the correct software? Using the web means you only need to have a modern browser (IE6 could be the downfall here) and an internet connection. Of all the apps for creating decks SlideRocket is the daddy, feature rich and with the ability to import/export powerpoint files (unfortunately the de facto for creating presentations). SlideRocket comes in Free or Premium versions and could come in handy at you’re next pitch.

Screenr

Screencasts are a powerful way of getting across what you’re product or service actually offers. A 60 second video can quickly inform potential clients or users and greatly increase conversion. Screencasts can be made in a variety of ways but Screenr is by far the simplest I’ve ever seen just watch their own short screencast:

Screenr in 60 seconds

box.net

Cloud storage is gaining in popularity and the service I’ve taken to using is Box.net. Similar to Dropbox although aimed more at enterprise, Box.net works a dream with Chrome or Firefox allowing you to drag and drop files from the desktop into the browser to upload. There is also some nice social integration with LinkedIn and a range of native apps. Also of note is the Box.net API allowing developers to make their own apps utilising the platform.

A few other apps of note are Grooveshark, Doodle and Mindmeister. All great to use and could come in handy regardless of what you’re working on. I’ve given a few of the apps I like, what would you suggest?

Reminder - Meetup on Monday

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Monday the 5th is the first Monday of September therefore it’s meetup time! There has been a lot happening since the last meetup on the 8th of August, for me personally there was the end of Vesume, there have been massive acquisitions, a major hardware manufacturer turning to software, a CEO resigned, the startup scene in Scotland was profiled on TheNextWeb and there has been a launch or two of local startups (zendit on the App Store and Bon Voyage for buying your next cruise).

Kevin McCallum from FreeAgent, accounting software for freelancers and small businesses, will be at the meetup and will share advice and tell the FreeAgent story so far. It’s great to have Kevin coming along to share his experience, it’s exactly what the community should be about.

The meetup will be in the usual venue Bier Halle Hippo Lounge on Sauchiehall Street who from half six onwards.

View Larger Map

All welcome, just come along anytime although if you’re a bit late I can’t guarantee that I won’t have eaten all the pizza.

Skate Where the Puck's Going, Not Where it's Been

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Last Friday Eric Schmidt gave a speech at the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. In his speech he called out Computer Science education (and wider education) in UK schools. His speech highlighted that computing teaching in the UK is all about how to ‘use’ and not how to ‘make’ in regards to software and I whole heartidly agree. I feel I’m in a good position to pass comment on the subject, I left school in the recent past and have developed several pieces of software aimed at pupils and in doing so worked closely with pupils and educators in Scotland.

When I look back at my time in High School (ok I’ll admit it was a wee while ago now) the computing teaching was all about how to use the (Microsoft) software with the rare high level discussion on the principles and techniques of making software. My computing teacher in high school was fantastic, one of the teachers who would round out his teaching and teach you how to be successful in the wider world not just in his classroom but at the end of the day he was tied to a syllabus that was horrendously irrelevant to the technology industry.

As I pointed out in my guest post on The Social Penguin Blog back in June and as Eric Schmidt highlighted in his talk last Friday Scotland has a fantastic history of great thinkers and innovators but today pupils are being taught to be consumers of technology not innovators. Thats not to say there aren’t talented young people who are in high school, or indeed primary, who are eager to learn and create.

In all the talk about Steve Jobs in the past few days a reference Mr. Jobs made to a famous quote by Wayne Gretzky jumped out at me:

“I skate where the puck’s going, not where it’s been”

The educators need to think where the puck is going and think quick because in technology the puck is moving faster than in any other subject area or industry. I wonder how mobile, social, local, scalability, analytics, SEO and the many languages, frameworks and technologies widely in use on the web today are featured in the current computing syllabus.

Get Away From It All: Doing the 'Someday' Tasks

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Thanks to the organisational efficiency of one of the UK’s largest broadband providers I was recently left without Internet access for a period of over a week. I used the chance to take a working holiday. I found it amazing how much can be achieved when you change your day-to-day environment.

Everyone has a bucket list of ‘someday’ tasks that would be useful for their startup, business, or personal development. However, these lower priority tasks never get the attention they deserve.

When you are working on a startup idea – particularly if you are generating some income from client work on the side – you can easily fall into a routine pattern of work. You focus on the same goals. You churn out the same work. You develop bad work habits (BBC News, Facebook, Twitter, repeat).

Yes, you might be working productively, but are you really laying the ground for growth?

Getting away from it all can help you get those ‘someday’ tasks done. It is these tasks, although they seem less important, that can really help you achieve your main goals in the long run.

It may be simple things, such as setting up all the spreadsheets to account for your time and effort properly; tweaking the company blog to develop a community of interested users; or providing some general support materials on your website. The completion of tasks which provide small but important building blocks for your business will provide you with a psychological boost that progress is being made.

So, rather than worrying about taking some time away from the desk why not change your surroundings for a few days and see what you can achieve.

Some Weekend Viewing

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

As Rebecca Black would say “it’s Friday Friday Friday” so perfect time to get a movie for yourself to watch. With the events of this week I would suggest watching Pirates of Silicon Valley.

Made in the late 90′s the film tells the stories of both Apple and Microsoft from the early 70′s up to the point the film was made. The birth and early life of two of the biggest companies in the world today is a fantastic story. I also find it fascinating watching it today as the film was made at a time when Microsoft was riding high with Windows and Apple was on the cusp of collapse.

As you might be able to tell from the trailer above the film was made for TV so don’t expect The Social Network levels of polish and writing. Saying that the film stars Noah Wyle from ER as Steve Jobs and the voice of Bender John DiMaggio as Steve Ballmer who are pretty good calls for casting.

As far as I know the film isn’t on iTunes (or any other place you can download it legally) but if you don’t mind watching the film split into parts and not in 1080p it is on YouTube.

Getting Your Startup Blog Up and Running

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

First post from Jamie McHale (@jamiemchale), a frequent attendee of the monthly meetup. Jamie is Director of Telaco based in Glasgow.

Generating interest, getting feedback and building a community are all essentials for most startups. Blogging is a key way of hitting all those bases and starting to build connections. Just look at Rookie Oven!

WordPress is a very popular tool for blogging. It is a great content management system that helps you get up and running quickly.

Here are five points as to why WordPress might be suitable for your startup blog:

1. Quick Install

The famous ‘Five minute install’ is usually painless. Many web hosts offer 1-click installs of WordPress.

2. Customisability

WordPress is highly extensible. You can customise the look, feel and functionality of your blog. This makes WordPress a great choice for those who don’t know how their blog will develop. If you are worried about choosing a platform that will support future technologies then WordPress should be a safe bet.

3. Your content is yours

WordPress makes it easy to export content. Other paid providers may make it difficult to export data. Your content is yours when you have a WordPress site.

4. Easily share content with plugins

There are many great plugins that are available to use on your site that allow you to share content. From Twitter, Facebook and Google +1 buttons through to commenting plugins such as Disqus, MailChimp Social and IntenseDebate.

Sharing content means you are more likely to get the feedback, ideas and community that you need.

5. Great developer community

If you are stuck with WordPress there is a great developer community on WordPress.org. Closer to home there is the WPScotland group.

What tools do you use to build your websites and blogs? What other packages are good for those starting a company blog?

Why Be a Startup Founder?

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Juan Manuel Fangio also know as “The Master” is a five time Formula One World Champion. Incredible achievement but he did this whilst racing in cars with body work like tinfoil, no seatbelt, wearing a tshirt and with an almost 100% chance of death if he crashed. So what would posses someone to race?

Well I came across this quote by Juan Manuel Fangio on why racing drivers do what they do:

“There are those who keep out of mischief, and there are the adventurers. We racing drivers are adventurers; the more difficult something is, the greater the attraction that comes from it.” - Juan Manuel Fangio

I feel you could easily substitute in startup founder. Its strikingly similar, granted I think the mortality rate for startup founders is quite low in comparison but there is a massive chance of failure. Some stats put the failure rate for startups at 90%, thats an insanely high number. Being a startup founder has to be on of the most difficult things someone could undertake but that really is part of the attraction. Do you agree?

What Would You Like From The Next Meetup?

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Although things with Vesume haven’t quite gone to plan I intend fully to continue this blog and to make the monthly meetups even better. My personal view is the meetups should remain informal get togethers to allow local startups to get to know each other. Basically just a gab over a few beers and a couple slices of pizza but what would you like to see?

I’ve had a few attendees suggest having speakers who will give a 5-10 min talk about a particular topic relevant of course to startups and technology. Is that something that would be worthwhile and if so who would you like to speak? Feel free to nominate yourself as a speaker.

Another option is to have a show and tell. With the talent that is in the room it would be an excellent opportunity for some fellow startups to come and show off their early builds and get some meaningful feedback from others in the same boat. Who better to provide feedback than those who have been at the same stage already?

So what do you think? Would love some feedback in the comments or you can tweet me @_mdhayes. Remember the next meetup is on the 5th of September so if you have an excellent idea get the comment down as soon as possible because there isn’t long to go to get the plan in place for the coming meetup.

What Happened to Vesume…

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

What Could Have Been

With Vesume we were planning to visualise CV’s, now if that sounds familiar that’s because vizualize.me beat us to the punch. We had been working on the project for 6 weeks or so when visualize.me was first announced. The guys and I were sure we could do a better job however things aren’t quite panning out that way and the short of it is the startup I’ve been working on with Christopher and Finbarr is now dead.

The reason Vesume is no more is our amazing team is disbanding. Finbarr has an amazing opportunity ahead of him and he is moving out to the Valley to work for one of the hottest startups of recent times. It’s an exciting time for him and I wish him and his lovely wife Barbara all the best over there.

Chris had what you would label a ‘calling’ to become a Doctor and has decided to return to University to study medicine. Which was a bit out of the blue to say the least. I’d never imagined Chris, who started his first startup whilst in University, doing anything other than being an entrepreneur but it’s clear this is what he wants to do. Again I wish him the best of luck but at the same time fingers crossed he never treats me.

So that now leaves me. Well I’m determined to build a successful startup and will continue to develop further a few projects I’ve been working on. I also hope to round out my skill set by returning to University to gain a Masters. In the coming year I will be a busy boy with the Masters and my own projects but I am committed to this blog and to maintain it and continue the meetup on the first Monday of each month.

Exciting times ahead for all three of us but not as we would have thought 2 months ago.

First Post in a While… My Bad

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Apologies for not writing a post in a wee while. Had a crazy busy few weeks but the good news is… I’m away on holiday tomorrow. So being away the week before the next meetup in Glasgow is less than ideal but hopefully the word will get out and we can get an even bigger crowd along.

Since the last meetup a lot has happened in the world of tech, Google Plus is now at 10 million plus users and has an iOS app, Spotify hit the US, there has been much debate about the European VC scene and European startups have been accused of being copy cats and of course OSX Lion has been released. So lots to discuss in the wider industry and I’m sure lots of stuff happening with everyone else.

Also since the last meetup the guys at the Bier Halle Hippo Lounge in Sauchiehall Street have been in touch and have offered the place as the regular venue and have said they will provide us with pizza’s. The place has wifi so if anyone wants to bring along some of their work to run it past a few like minded folk feel free. The meetup kicks off as usual at half 6 on first Monday of the month which for August is the 1st. I’ve made an Event for the meetup over on the RookieOven Facebook page, would appreciate if you could let me know if you’re coming along.

If anyone has any suggestions about the meetup leave a comment or send me a tweet @_MDHayes.

My take on a Video Blog

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Kev, from Moviecom.tv suggested to me that I do a Video Blog which I thought was quite a good idea so here we go….

Don’t worry your not going to see a video with my ugly mug droning on into the camera I think this video is all I need to share.

It was actually Kev who reintroduced this video to me recently as he has the text up on his wall in the Moviecom.tv-plex. Really hit a cord and I thought worth sharing. Are you a crazy one going to change the world?

Glad People Care to Debate

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

You may have seen the post on RookieOven last week which was originally posted on The Social Penguin Blog on 15th June called

A Rallying Call for the Scottish Startup Scene. It kicked off a great bit of debate in the post comments and on Twitter and also not one but two responses from The Startup Cafe crew. Some people agree with our perspective others don’t either way I’m happy they care enough to have an opinion and to voice it.

I do however want to clarify a few points; firstly I wasn’t expecting readers to play the worlds saddest song on the worlds smallest violin for me. The post called out what we see and what we don’t like, it will not hold us back but we feel these problems exist and are potentially holding back others. It’s something that maybe wasn’t communicated adequately in the last post but me and the guys are determined and we are going to become a success story for Scotland but along the way we would like to make a difference in Scotland and see others succeed with us. I know that sounds a bit idealistic and maybe I have my head in the clouds but you’ve got to have ambition. I don’t see (or expect) anyone coming in with a magic wand to ‘fix’ things; the people who are going to change things are us, the community.

On the subject of the community, I did not say there was no community but one that is disjointed. Why limited yourself to one city? Scotland is a small place so why do we make a big deal about jumping in the car or letting the train take the strain and get supporting and promoting each other? Regardless if the startup is in Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh or elsewhere. Is it due to the traditional divides we have in Scotland such as the East/West divide?

The Divide

I really didn’t see the last post as pulling out excuses or being negative because there are a lot of great, diverse tech companies in Scotland just look at Interface3, Moviecom.tv, Kiltr and many more from Informatics Forum to name a few but just because a lot of good is happening doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive for more or better.

The Week That Was - 6

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This week kicked off with me, Chris and Finbarr going along to #PoolTweetUp2 on Monday. The event was organised by Allan Barr of TheBIGPartnership and I truly embarrassed myself when I started setting up a game of pool when there was already a tense game going on… oops. I but the blame on Kev Oneil from Moviecom.tv, everyone knows if you shake hands at near a pool table its cos its game over. It was good fun and I hope Allan will set up a #PoolTweetup3.

The rest of the week involved me and the guys pressing ahead with making Vesume. There was a recently announced product that came out of a startup weekend in Canada that is very very similar to what we are doing. This won’t put us off and I will be doing a post in the coming weeks to elaborate on why. Suffice to say its made us more determined to make an amazing product that will blow them out the water.

The other stand out for the past week was #themeet140 on Thursday night. Aside from being in the hardest to find bar in Glasgow it was a great night. It was my first time along to #themeet140 and I didn’t quite know what to expect but it was brilliant to put faces to @names and there was a nice relaxed atmosphere that you don’t always get a tweetups. There was also a an excellent mix of people, from the young to the not quite as young and all from a range of professions. As good as it was it was nowhere near as good as the RookieOven meetup with the next one coming up on the 4th of July. Looking forward to seeing the guys who came along to the first meetup but also hope to see some new faces. Would appreciate if everyone can spread the word and get more folk along, its not a night just for developers. Would love to see people with a passion for tech and startups even if its just a hobby for now.

So lets get the word out, 4th July at half 6 in Bier Halle Gordon Street, using the hashtag #ROtweetup.

A Rallying Call for Scottish Startups

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Scotland has a long tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship, from the Logarithms of John Napier to James Watt’s work on the steam engine. But who from Scotland has innovated in the modern age? Scotland has fallen behind on the world stage of innovation and we must seize that back and once again become a global centre of excellence in technology and entrepreneurship.

The Internet has provided an outlet for a new breed of entrepreneurs but the Scottish mindset has not moved with the times. We are a country with a mindset for manufacturing but that can now no longer compete with the emerging markets of China and India. So how can Scotland compete with other countries? Well, we should look to our strengths; in particular we have a long tradition of excellent education giving Scotland a highly skilled workforce.

We have the skills in Scotland to compete internationally in the tech industry but what is holding us back? In our opinion there are several things that must change before we can truly realize our potential.

Firstly, our universities need to recognize their role in shaping future entrepreneurs and members of the community. Becoming an entrepreneur is not for everyone but it must be presented as an option and inspiration should be provided at every opportunity. We believe it to be crucial that inspirational and successful entrepreneurs are welcomed into our universities on a regular basis and that students are actively encouraged to consider starting their own businesses. Instead, 90% of computer science graduates will enter the financial sector. This must change.

We must also challenge a lack of ambition and a “someone else will do it” attitude, which is prevalent in Scotland. We have been told on many occasions 99.99% of businesses fail and not to get ahead of ourselves. We don’t think this is the right attitude. You can be the next Facebook. Why not? No one will be the next Facebook until someone just does it!

We also have a startup community in Scotland, which is disjointed and incohesive. In our opinion it is essential that a tight startup community exists to assist, nurture and support entrepreneurs and startups. A close community can swap skills, support and advice and it is essential to the success of Scotland on a global stage. We must all take the time to go out and meet one another, attend events and create a close community of support and exchange.

Lastly, there is the investment community and a risk-averse and hidden culture that exists throughout Scotland and the UK as a whole. In our view investors must be willing to take a step forward to support the tech startup community. Capital must be available to allow good startups to succeed and investors must look towards a new mindset. We meet a lot of business-to-business and service-based startups in Scotland as opposed to in the US where there are more business to consumer and product-based startups. A lot of this is due to UK (and probably EU) investor fear of consumer-based business models. That isn’t to say all investors are that way inclined but a healthy proportion are. We have to change that.

Scotland has the skills and the talent to become a global icon for technology and entrepreneurship but there must be changes. Our universities must promote entrepreneurship and show it as an exciting and reward opportunity. Communities must be grown to support fledgling startups and capital must be available from investors who truly understand the technology industry. These are just some changes that we believe must happen for Scotland to truly flourish in the global technology industry.

The Week That Was - 5

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Another busy week for me and the guys. This week we made great strides forward on Vesume (slight name change there). Unfortunately this meant we couldn’t make it along to Social Innovation Camp but a big well done to FoodRadar on winning.

During the week we met with Scott Allison, Founder and CEO at Teamly. Scott has been unbelievably helpful to us and has given some exceptional advice. We are very grateful for all of Scotts help so much so we asked him to join us as an advisor. We also have another excellent advisor on board in Jonathan May, Jonathan has a wealth of experience and has been very generous in sharing it with us.

So another week down and we have made big strides forward in building the product. Will be looking for beta testers in no time…

The Week That Was - 4

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Well what a busy week. Started with the meetup on Monday which was a great success, lot of cool folk came along so looking forward to the next one in July. Lots of exciting things happening with Visume this week as well.

On Wednesday I went to the FatBuzz New Media BBQ at the Golf Lounge in Glasgow, the evening was based around bringing the Silicon Valey mindset to Scotland. Was a great night where I got to meet the teams from Attacat, FatBuzz, The BIG Partnership and meet Andrew McCalister of HeyZap. HeyZap are doing checkins for mobile games, kinda like a FourSquare but for games. Andrew is a Scot based in Silicon Valley and hearing his advice was invaluable. Andrew was very gracious and gave me and the guys more of his time on Friday and went through our plans for Visume and gave us a load of help.

On Thursday I actually spent a little bit of time developing an Android app I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Nothing too complex its a cool twist on the conventional weather app. Hope to get some time to finish it this week so will be looking for some testers, get in touch if your interested.

Thursday night me and Finbarr went to Social Media Unleashed in the Lighthouse. This was an event organised by the Twintangibles guys Tim and Daniella. These guys are also bringing Social Media Week to Glasgow in September which is a great accolade for the city and will help put us on the world stage.

In all a great week with lots happening. Looking forward to developing Visume in the weeks ahead, are you intrigued to know more about it?

How was the Glasgow Meetup - UPDATE

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Last night in Glasgow we had a small get together in the Bier Halle on Gordon Street. My thinking was beer and good pizza would be a good incentive to get people along to talk tech, startups, social media, business models, languages, platforms, frameworks and well whatever really and I wasn’t wrong. There was a great turnout of folk, although sadly I didn’t take any pics (eejit that I am).

Even more encouraging there were a lot of people keen to get along who couldn’t make it for various reasons so I’m thinking we try do it again, well when I say again I mean we make it a recurring event on the first Monday of the month. Sounds good? So in July that would be the 4th and seems as the centrally located beer and pizza combo worked a treat this time we should do it again in the Bier Halle. Plus last night we managed to get the big back bit all to ourselves which was an ideal space for us to mingle and chat away.

I think its was a success but I’m happy to listen to feedback so please let me know what you thought of the evening. If anyone else has something on in Glasgow be sure to let me know so firstly I can come along but also so I can let the Chris know so he can add it to the Startup Digest for Scotland.

Lastly big thanks to all those who came along and helped spread the word, can wait to meet you all again on the 4th of July.

UPDATE

Had to change from the Gordon Street Bier Halle to the other one in Sauchiehall Street. Still half 6 on Monday the 4th but please spread the word.

The Week That Was - 3

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This week was a weird one. We didn’t get a lot done product wise but I feel we’ve came a long way through several important discussions. We finalised what the product we are going to build our product around and we are calling it Visume. Visume deserves a post of it’s own which I will do in the coming days.

During the week the final ideas for Social Innovation Camp Scotland were announced. From 17th-19th June developers and designers get together to tackle social problems. This year the theme is social isolation. You need to apply for a place which I have done, all you need to do is pick which idea is your favourite one to work on. Looking forward to it if I get picked to go.

During the week I was through in Edinburgh again for yet another event being held out there. Hopefully the meet up tomorrow in Glasgow can be even half as good an lead to more regular events over this side of the country. Looking forward to it and the chance to meet a lot of new faces from the Glasgow Tech Scene.

It felt like the rest of my week was spent at the cinema. I do enjoy watching movies but I don’t get to the cinema too often but this week I ended up there twice to see X-Men First Class and Senna. Would highly recommend both films, Senna in particular.

Doing my bit

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The last few posts on here I’ve been banging on about how in Glasgow we should have a better community for tech folk so I’m not going to sit by and just moan. I’m going to act!

I want to get anyone who has an interest in the internet, technology, design, social media or being an entrepreneur to meet up, grab a couple of beers and get to know each other. Quite informal, not set topics or rules just a get together for some great chat. So you interested?

I’m thinking Monday 6th June in Republic Bier Halle on Gordon Street, Glasgow at half 6. Great beers, great pizza and better chat. Hopefully if there is a good turn out we can turn this into a monthly catch up over a few beers. Sound good?

If you’re interested leave a comment or get in touch with me via Twitter.

The Week That Was - 2

Sat, 28 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Another busy week for me and the guys. As I pointed out in my last post there has to be change in the Scottish startup scene, we need to create a community and I think this week we have started to lay the foundation for change.

On Monday myself and Chris were talking to a local successful entrepreneur who is desperate to see change happening in Glasgow. He has a vision to help and support fledgling startups. This is hopefully going to be a game changer, so more on that as the project develops.

Me and the guys shared a pint and some delicious pizza with the Social Penguin himself Mike McGrail and got some great feedback about our first service we are currently building. We have been asked to provide some guest posts to The Social Penguin Blog about startups. One of the team has actually contributed to The Social Penguin Blog already with a post on Humanising Your Startup Through Social Media by Chris posted yesterday.

This week me and the guys also had another wee trip over to the capital. On Friday we went over to the Start Up Café 2nd birthday party where firstly there was a free bar and secondly there was a whole host of talented tech folk. Was great to meet again some of the faces for EIE11 the previous week but was also brilliant to meet the Startup Cafe crew. They are doing a hell of a lot of good work and are looking to expand their reach over into Glasgow. Very exciting!

This week has been a good week for creating a better startup community across the whole of Scotland but also we have made some real headway with our first product. We hope to very shortly (as in within the next two weeks) launch our first service into alpha testing and we are going to need some tester. If your interested in helping out leave a comment or tweet me or one of the guys. Would greatly appreciate all helpers.

Time for change in Scotland

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

When the guys and I set out with this venture we went down to London and went to a TechHub event. When we got there all the attendees couldn’t believe we had driven all the way down from Glasgow mainly for the meetup. It became apparent that these meetups and get togethers are a common occurrence. These events are more than just a jolly they create a community where members can support each other and grow.

It’s just not like that up here, sure there’s the odd tweetup or pub gathering but just not in the same volume as down in London. This is something that I’m sure is going to change and a community will grow.

Another problem aside from volume of events is making the events that are on visible. More has to be done to publicise these events as so many are not on the radar of the very people who should be attending. This is where Chris is doing his bit by curating the Scottish Startup Digest which collates all the best events happening in the coming week in Scotland. You can sign up to the Digest. If you are organising an event get in touch with Chris to get yourself added. I’m going to be doing my little bit to change things too and hope to organise an evening in the coming months so stay tuned to my tweets or look out for it on the Digest.

The Week That Was - 1

Sat, 21 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

My hope for this blog is to share my experiences as I, along with Finbarr and Chris, build a successful business. I feel a good way to do this will be every Saturday to sum up the week I had and also tell you a bit about my plans for the week ahead.

This week has mainly been about meeting new people. I hate to label things but do believe ‘Networking’ is the term used to describe this week. Chris and I met Kev O’Neil from 29 Studios and Moviecom.tv, was brilliant to hear from someone like minded. Kev has an amazing team and the nicest office I have ever been in. All his advice was excellent but the main thing to take from meeting him was chase the dream not the money. I like this outlook, obviously money is essential to live but its a way thinking I like. Money can taint you decisions to the detriment of your customers.

We also met with Fiona Godsman and Liz Walsh from SIE the Scottish Institute for Enterprise. This was an useful meeting to have the ear of people who are not from a development or tech background. Both Fiona and Liz have a background in Marketing and thinking more of the product. This allowed us to get some useful insight that I feel will prove to be invaluable in the weeks ahead as we develop our product.

We also made the trip over to Edinburgh for Informatics Ventures EIE11 event. This was worth the £25 (yes £25) in rail fares and early start to get over for. We saw some excellent pitches and some not quite as good ones but it was a fantastic opportunity for the team to soak it all up for when it comes to us pitching next year.

Then on Friday I had an excellent opportunity, I went to meet with Steve Young of WeeWorld. Steve has been there from the start and scaled the company up into the successful and profitable organisation it is today. Was great to learn from him and to also get his opinion on where dizeo went wrong. He made a lot of valid points and I’m very grateful he gave me his time.

I feel I have learned a lot in the past year working at Arkly but there is still lots to learn and this week I have been all ears doing so. Although myself and the guys have been busy meeting lots of great people we have also been getting to work on our first service. We are hoping to make an innovative way for people to Mingle online. The week ahead will mainly be spent working on that so more info very soon so stay tuned.

Pick of the bunch from EIE11

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday myself, Chris and Finbarr got up at a ridiculous time and made our way across to Edinburgh for the final day of the Informatics Ventures Engage Invest Exploit event. The event puts investors in front of a range of high quality technology prospects. Sadly the event was a bit too soon for us to have anything to show but we had the excellent opportunity to observe and learn.

For me the stand out was Cosneta, a pen like tool that turns any monitor into an interactive whiteboard. Very nice bit of kit and Stuart Jamieson, Director of Cosneta, gave an excellent pitch. Confident and comfortable on stage in front of a room full of potential investors, Stuart was excellent and sold his business and product very well. The Cosneta website is currently under construction Cosneta but will keep an eye on it, could be the perfect companion to a Pico Projector.

Another standout pitch was HuzuTech. This a business all about social games, an area where there is plenty of money these days. Zynga are raking in money at rate of knots with games like Farmville so social gaming is something companies will need to consider either as a pormotional tool or as a source of income. This is where HuzuTech come in with their platform to create virtual worlds. HuzuTech is bit further along than Cosneta but again well worth watching.

Another few companies with talented people behind them that I’m going to be keeping an eye on are:

TigaTag by Bruno Panara is a new take on location based checkins. Playing games with your friends and those around you. Tigatag could be a nice twist on location checkin services and will hopefully make its way over to Glasgow soon.
SourceRail by Stephen Shepard for tracking online media. Allowing webmasters or PR agencies to track what is being said across the web about a given topic or product. Had a nice working demo with a nice interface.
Zoom2Work by Jonathan Millin based around car pooling. This is a neat idea in theory and would be great if it could work in practice here in the UK. Selling branded social car pooling tools to companies is an innovative approach to a problem that nobody has been able to solve.

EIE was full of plenty more cool startups and talented people that I hope to meet again and see doing well. Big thanks to Danny Helson for being able to fit us in at the last minute was an excellent experience and I hope at EIE12 (with a Keynote by Sir Jackie Stewart) I will be there to pitch.

Welcome to Rookie Oven

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

So I figure if I’m going to co-found a startup I may as well share my experiences. Its going to be an interesting journey, regardless of whether things pan out as planned.

I may as well at this stage introduce my fellow co-founders because I will likely mention them quite a bit in this blog. Finbarr and Chris are two fellow graduates from Strathclyde (although they will be quick to point out they have Masters degree’s and I only have an Honors). This venture is actually my second bite at the startup cherry with Chris as I had previously joined him at Arkly where we built two fantastic products, dizeo.com and Parental Circle.

I would also like to use this blog to review and promote UK based tech startups. I found in my time at Arkly getting the word out about your startup is the most important thing but also one of the most difficult. If you have a startup and want me to have a shot send me an email or tweet me.

So with all these hopes and ambitions for this blog I feel the name Rookie Oven is ideal. Agree?