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Month: September 2015

Alternative perspective on developing the tech ecosystem of Manchester

Today, we are obsessed with turning Manchester into a thriving tech city, whether its adoption of technology or creating new technology startups. We even have folks who are championing Manchester to become the 5th largest tech city in Europe #MCRTop5. This is all credit to Doug Ward (worthy of a dedicated blog post) and his merry men. But this aspiration is not unique to Manchester. As tech has become so sexy, every major city aspires to become the next Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, they all fail as Silicon Valley is unique and cannot be replicated for many reasons. During the heyday of…

Night out with DotForge Accelerator

I was invited to dine with the DotForge team, their friends and the new cohort of 8 companies last night in China Town, Manchester. The most striking aspect of what I learned about DotForge last night was not that DotForge had come to Manchester, Colin Tan’s passion for helping startups nor how great the 8 companies are but their open invitation for others, who are not connected with DotForge to attend selected workshops. As far as I know, what goes inside a typical accelerator pretty much remains a secret, unless you are one of the Up Accelerator startups. Outsiders don’t even get…

Startup Sales Advice from 3 Sales Champions

It’s not everyday that southern tech companies run sales oriented events in Manchester. I was glad that I signed up to attend NewVoiceMedia’s CloudFest event at Manchester City Football Club. I asked for one advice from each of the panel member. Fergus Gloster, Non Executive Director, NewVoiceMedia: Only hire sales staff after proving the value proposition and the sales process. Maria McMenamin, Sales Manager, Emerging & SMB UK, Salesforce: Tap into the Salesforce network by listing on the AppExchange.  Basil Choudhry, Head of Marketing, EPOS Now: It does not matter if all the questions are not answered. Get out there and…

Thoughts from #TechNorth launch in #Leeds today

The Launch Until 8:00 am this morning, I couldn’t justify a reason to attend the launch of much hyped TechNorth in Leeds. By 8:15 am, I regretted my decision, and by 10:15 I was listening to TechCity CEO launching the event. Yes in Leeds! In 2006, except for few of us, tech entrepreneurship was not fashionable like today. Those naysayers then have become champions of the sector today. And it has been a pleasure for me to watch the transition. In early days, the effort of building the tech ecosystem rested with number of passionate individuals. In Sheffield you had Lee…

UnifiedVU is open for business

Whilst this is not the official channel, going public always help me to commit more as I know I need to avoid the forthcoming embarrassment of no delivery. Without further do, I like to state that we can finally move from initial product development to start of commercialisation. Its true that we are probably 80% ready, but hey, this help us to change our mindsets and start focusing on the customer. I will post a longer article on our official blog later. We’ve also given attention to http://app.livestax.com/unifiedvu/welcome/welcome first and will update the website http://unified.vu over the next few days to…