Northern Tech Awards 2018 Winners

Unfortunately I could not attend the 7th Northern Tech Awards held on 22nd March 2018 in Edinburgh. This was the first event I missed in its 7 year history. Now owned by GP Bullhound, it has grown significantly. Congratulations to all the winners. Top Northern Star (run with Tech North): BigChange Fastest Growing Company of the […]

Networks of Manchester’s Tech Ecosystem

Once upon a time (2006 to 2013), Techcelerate pioneered in building the Manchester’s Tech Ecosystem, when public sector could not care less about scalable technology businesses. Today, it’s a different story. Both public as well as the private sectors have come together to build the ecosystem from where Techcelerate had left off. Referred to as […]

Influential Players of Manchester Tech Startup Ecosystem

I just met a chap from Glasgow and spent two hours talking about the Manchester tech ecosystem. He is keen to get to know others, so here goes a list of players, in no particular order and how the tech ecosystem in Manchester was developed.   Before we get going, I have not included tech […]

Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) methodology of #TechNorth by Richard Gregory

I’ve known Richard Gregory for many years [Disclaimer: He was a customer of edocr.com at one point]. When I first heard of his appointment to head of TechNorth, I felt energised. Here is a man well known and respected in Manchester digital community, a sort of people’s champion. However, he was from the digital marketing […]

#NorthernStars – A celebration of Tech Entrepreneurship

I was late attending the finals of NorthernStars pitch event last night at UKFast organised by TechNorth missing all the 23 pitches, as a result of attending CommissioningLive, a healthcare event, but the feedback I got suggested that the quality of pitching in the North is now in par with London. This was perhaps the strongest […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

My first exit (asset sale) – Northern Tech Awards

This post should have been written on 1st August 2013 when I sold Northern Tech Awards to GP Bullhound, a boutique investment bank, as I was emotionally fired up on that great scorching day in Manchester. Since 2004, I founded few businesses, some have gone horribly wrong and others have thrived. Northern Tech Awards was not […]