Manoj Ranaweera – Page 5 – The man who built Manchester’s Tech Startup Ecosystem

Keeping the new year momentum

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on January 4, 2024

It’s no secret that 2023 has been a disappointing year for me. So far this year, at least for SkilledUp Life, we have decent momentum. Day 1 – disappointing. Failed to process salaries due to the failure of Flutterwave. Day 2 – A new customer signed up. I met them first on Linkedin in November. Flutterwave started to work magically but still got bugs. Day 3 – As promised, one of our customers upgraded to the Advanced Plan. We now have 3 customers on this plan and need a total of 40 to prove that we have reached the Problem/Solution…

Learning AI through #100DaysOfAI Challenge – Day 1 & 2

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on January 4, 2024

I discovered a course thanks to Chamara and decided to take it in given that the ask is for 30 minutes per day. Day 2 which I completed today instead of on the 2nd Jan is all about using ChatGPT to improve your existing work, in this case, an email was used as an example. Prompts: Rewrite the following email in a casual tone of voice: Rewrite the following email using less than 300 words: I’m writing an email. Add a new section to it with concise next steps: Once your sample email is added, it will execute your request.…

The art of building a tech startup

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on October 14, 2023

Building a tech startup and perhaps any business is all about having a vision, being able to articulate it, assembling a team and executing it. It helps execution if the know-how is there to start with. You know what needs to be done, how to do it and when to do it. You may not need to be a specialist in each area but you need to have the ability to find individuals who can be. You would need constant supervision to ensure the team does not divert from the path and this is where the knowledge and experiences come…

Removing unused image files from WordPress

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on May 26, 2023

As we are getting closer to breaching the file limit (300,000) on the current hosting subscription, I need to find a way to remove thousands of unused images and other file formats our users have uploaded. This is what ChatGPT says To find unused image files from WordPress folders, you can follow these steps: Backup your WordPress website: Before making any changes to your website’s files, it’s always a good practice to create a backup to avoid any potential data loss. Access your WordPress installation files: Use an FTP client or a file manager provided by your hosting provider to…

First 100 km ride in 2023

First 100 km ride in 2023

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on May 8, 2023

I’m still recovering from an unexpected 100 km ride yesterday. When I do not ride longer distances, I start to doubt myself. I went out yesterday hoping to improve from the previously longest ride in 2023, which was 55 km. My hope was for a 70 km ride, as I assumed I was unfit. If I plan to ride a long way, I normally go deep south with a pit stop at Holmes Chapel Costa. Yesterday’s ride was without a pit stop, i.e. no coffee and bacon butty. My wife and kids bought me an Apple Watch a few years…

A quick reintroduction to me

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on April 28, 2023

A quick introduction whilst I am here. I have been building tech companies and support businesses since 2004 with my fair share of failures. My 17 efforts are listed https://manojranaweera.me/who-is-manoj-ranaweera When I turned 50 about 5 years ago, I promised myself that I will build 5 businesses over the next 20 years. Here’s where I am today Community (know how): https://techcelerate.ventures – I speak about Techcelerate Way often these days. Building tech companies in a sustainable manner without chasing investors from the beginning. Get traction before investment. Intelligence (UK only though): https://deallite.uk and it’s assets – dedicated to tracking the UK’s tech investment landscape. Both…

How can hooks be used with plugins that are not part of the theme within child themes in WordPress?

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on April 26, 2023

What ChatGPT said. In WordPress, hooks can be used to modify or extend the functionality of a plugin or theme without directly editing the plugin or theme files. To use hooks with plugins that are not part of the theme within child themes, follow these steps: Create a child theme: To create a child theme, create a new folder in the “wp-content/themes/” directory of your WordPress installation and name it whatever you want. Within this folder, create a style.css file and add the following code: /* Theme Name: Your Child Theme Name Template: Name of the Parent Theme */ Replace…

Stay employed! Don’t leave to start a tech startup!

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on April 25, 2023

If you are employed, please don’t leave it to set up a new tech startup. If you do, it’s simply bad timing on your part. Most things are stacked against you, especially if you need external capital. It’s going to be a tough time for everyone – a blood bath for some. More and more venture backed tech companies are going under. Whilst I am only a Punt Investor and not a real investor, quite a number of my punts are proving to be, guess what, just PUNTS! Clim8 shut down recently Coconut is being sold for £1 And there are more. In some of these cases, the…

Trying to make sense of my world

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on April 19, 2023

Trying hard to make sense ???? Techcelerate Group includes: Techcelerate SkilledUp Life, previously incubated by Techcelerate Labs Techcelerate Labs Techcelerate Labs include: Deal Lite Progress Hero with Andrew Threlfall Leaderboard built 100% by SkilledUp Lifers and many more Sadly our Twitter App is buggered – Free API cancelled by Elon! I’ve not yet succeeded in building sales teams. Need to crack this! See you tomorrow morning https://lnkd.in/e_Uwdb3d

The New Gold!

Published by Manoj Ranaweera on April 18, 2023

Right now, the new gold seems to be in the data. Who has the most data on which AI Models can be run? Take edocr.com for example. They are sitting on so many documents. Just imagine unleashing ai models on extracted data from documents. Even Deal Lite has data. Our data sets are small due to our niche focus. Yet, it could have a greater value in the future.So, if you are building a business where there is data, whether extracted or not, you are accumulating gold. So keep doing what you do.

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