Author: ManojRanaweera

This is my response to customer service post written by Andrew Scott, CEO of Rummble, mentor of Tech Mission London 09 and alum of Webmission08 Hey Andrew, interesting thought provoking article. What most of us would love to hear is how you scale Rummble’s own customer service. At http://edocr.com, most queries comes through “contact us”. We also use Twitter heavily, experimented with UserVoice and restarted using GetSatisfaction. Our FAQs are incomplete and we do not have a forum at present. There is a further distinction that need due attention. I assume this is true with most tech companies. Our queries…

This is my response to Sarah Lacy’s recent article on TechCrunch We have never met Sarah, but have heard a lot about you. I run http://www.edocr.com, which I have bootstrapped for well over 2 years and we are perhaps the first to come up with a commercial model in our market segment, if you ignore Scribd’s commercial entry to Amzon.com’s territory. We will continue to bootstrap until we are ready to raise funding on our terms. This is not a reflection of the market, but our own attitude regarding taking external finance. Secondly, I run http://www.nwstartup20.co.uk – (NS20) my attempt…

This newsletter covers: 1. Next Event: Tech StartUps and Digital Advocates – UMIC, Manchester on 22nd July 2. Membership 3. Sponsor an Administrator 4. Your Feedback 5. Partner Events (The Insider, Chinwag and Technology World 2009) 6. Contact Details 7. Our Partners 1. Next Event: Tech StartUps and Digital Advocates Programme: 22nd July 2009 – 6 to 9pm Venue: UMIC, Grafton Street, Manchester Two sessions, each with four early stage technology companies pitching to a panel of digital marketing agencies with the hope of convincing their account directors (digital advocates) to introduce the companies to their clients. 5 mins pitch…

This article was written in response to the story appeared on Telegraph FACTS: 1.  I organised an event titled "Tech Mission London 09" on 8th June 2009 hosted by Stewart Townsend of Sun Microsystems in London. If there were any deficiencies of the event, then I am the one who should be blamed for such an outcome. I am yet to hear a single negative comment from startups and investors who attended the event. 2. This was the first time that Northern StartUp 2.0 held an event outside the North West, and it formed a critical part of its geographical…

I have been glued to internet media channels and Twitter since yesterday morning to hear the end of LTTE and Prabhakaran. As the media was regugitating the same story over and over combining it with propaganda from pro-LTTE websites and old information from the UN and others, my frustration continued to grow. I came to the conclusion that the only way to get to the bottom of this story is to actually speak to the Sri Lankan Army. Around 12:30 hrs UK time on Sunday the 17th May 2009, I telephoned one of my school friends from Sri Lanka, an…

Northern StartUp 2.0 is becoming a much discussed topic these days within the tech entrepreneur community in the North of England. Among those who have spent few hours trying to understand, why a 41 year old man is so excited about Manchester and the tech scene is none other than Mr. Imran Hakim who is perhaps best known as Mr. iTeddy, since he appeared on our TV screen requesting funding for a startup from a tough looking bunch of business angels, known as BBC Dragons. Whilst these two characters are trying to work out the next steps in collaboration, it…

My analysis of Twitter is: It is the best tool after e-mail (and ofcourse after edocr.com) Twitter is here to stay for a while, and have a good chance of being bigger and more influential than Facebook, YouTube, etc, especially from a business perspective I have lately been frustrated by: Inability to build a holistic view of each of my Twitterers Inability to track tweets exchanged with each of my Twitterers Inability to set a strategy and actions for each Twitterer, both from NS20 and edocr perspectives Inability to view full details of each of my Twitterer on an spreadsheet…

In Feb 09, Phil Tapsell of TechVenture Solutions Ltd and Tom Cheesewright of The Lever Ltd joined Manoj on voluntary basis to steer NS20 forward, especially with respect to marketing and business development activities respectively. As you would have expected, one of the first activities of the team was to refine the vision, mission and strategy of Northern StartUp 2.0. Your comments and thoughts are most welcomed. Our Vision A thriving community of technology startups in Northern England, with access to all of the knowledge, services and capital that they need to grow rapidly. National and international recognition of the…

Imran Ali just pointed me to a blog post by Paul Graham of Y-Combinator titled "Can You Buy a Silicon Valley? Maybe". Even before I finished reading the second paragraph I knew I had to respond to it. So here I am reading and responding to Paul Graham. If you agree or disagree with what is written below, please do not hesitate to leave a comment.  I do not buy Paul’s argument that having a first-rate university in a place where rich people want to live will create a Silicon Valley. If you take Manchester (UK) as an example, University…