London’s Tech City growth stunted by talent and capital shortage

tech_city_london
On the day of the launch of the annual Shoreditch Digital festival, a new report says that a shortage of skilled workers and a lack of funding is holding back the growth of London’s Tech City.

The ‘Tech City Futures’ Report was produced by reseearch company GfK and surveyed London’s businesses based out of Tech City. More than three quarters (77%) say a lack of skilled workers is restricting their growth
A third (33%) believe a lack of access to capital is hindering their business, and a similar number (29%) say as a consequence their company is missing significant business opportunities to expand. Continue reading

Secret ambitions, early exits and bootstrapped lessons

* This is the first post by James Devonport Wood, MD of accredited Facebook developer PageHub

There is a significant gap in Europe for early stage funding for startups seeking less than £500,000. While new funds and incubators are starting to emerge, the lack of finance available is leaving European tech businesses at a disadvantage to their North American counterparts.

For many startups, bootstrapping a business is the only method of starting a company although this does have its advantages. Bootstrapped startups are more likely to have a more realistic business model and to be profitable early on. Continue reading

If VCs are so clever, how come nobody follows them on Twitter?

How many of you are following venture capitalist companies on Twitter? Not many I would suggest and I doubt you would be surprised if I told you most VC companies on Twitter are utter rubbish.

VCs, I know, I know, are the devil but it is beyond belief that they treat social media with disdain at the same time as investing in social media. It’s almost as if they’re asking people to hate them.

Startups can’t live without VCs and in a proper, perfect world following VCs on Twitter would be imperative for any young company. Tweets about the companies they’re interested in, sectors they want to be involved in, engagement with the startup community, interesting tips, the whole works. Startups would LOVE to be led by VCs. Continue reading