The idea is nice. Of course it is; encouraging entrepreneurship is brilliant, its very nice to have a lovely site that aggregates a few resources (it’s not like we had that already or anything) and I suppose this could grow into an ecosystem of support if the ‘coming soon’ features actually happen without bureaucracy.
But, it doesn’t solve the issues that are currently faced by entrepreneurs.
The reality is that there are lots of great entrepreneurs and lots of great companies already that are struggling to get funding in a climate/society where pre-revenue funding is not a regular thing. An issue that this does not address
@fmu tweeted me saying that the bigger issue in the UK is funding for growth and global ambitions. If he is right I dread to think what things are like at that stage. At seed stage, we have precious few investors/funds that are prepared to support very early stage companies. If you do not have a huge network built at a top university and/or are not from a background of money how does StartUp Britian/The PM envisage that these entrepreneurs get the money to make things happen?
I was lucky to be in a position where my exploits at quite a relatively young age enabled me to put a year unpaid and 20k into bluefields.com but most people are not in that situation. Recently at a ‘Springboard’ session I spoke to a VC who said (like all do – even the ’seed stage’ ones) that he wanted to see 50k users and a more committed team (a dev working full time) before he would invest. I asked him how much most companies spend and where do they get it from, to get to that stage. He said 100k and from family. This is the Seed problem.
@scoutu mentioned to me on twitter that the new EIS will help improve this, and I agree; but we need dramatic change if young companies are to be really encouraged. Springboard had over 280 applications, and I believe Seedcamp gets more than this (this is just tech!). There is just not enough seed money.
The EFG scheme is balls, banks don’t lend unless you know someone or have revenue or stock; to speak to angels you have to pay thousands and if you apply to a seed programme your odds are very short.
My point is that the amount of money needed to fix this early stage problem is not a big. For hardly any money the government could fund the set up of 10 Seedcamps for example. I also recently met a guy who believes that 5k is all that most entrepreneurs need (he works with Uni grads to get them money so they can get something going, but has too many people to fund and not enough cash).
We also need a way to being together the angel community and make them directly accessible (through tech ideally) at no cost, something that StartUp Britain could easily work at.
Then there is the StartUp Britain ’deal’….
Don’t even get me started on the deal. It’s basically 10% off from 15k worth of things that you don’t really need / should not be spending money on as a start up. Seriously, if you are a start up and you are paying for MS office you have a problem; and this deal it pails into insignificance compared to the recent AppSumo lean deal.
So, StartUp Britain is nice. That’s it. It’s more PR that substance, it won’t solve any problems, it won’t really help the community but it’s nice. If the idea is to bring together the experience and knowledge of successful entrepreneurs then that is great, but the deal is balls and the it goes nowhere to solve the issues currently faced by entrepreneurs.
I would highly recommend that you read all of the following books.
Excuse 1: I don’t get enough time to read Answer: Audiobooks Excuse 2: I don’t have the money to buy all these books / audiobooks Answer:Steal them and add them to the list of things you need to repent for / pay for when you have the money
A key requirement with all productivity tools is that they integrate well with other tools; and indeed your existing systems. Three months ago after moving into a new office I decided to take a look at how we manage all of our mail and productivity at Rachel Andrews and then looked at things that could help me personally manage everything. I’v ousted Outlook…
All of these tools allow work to be conducted easily from anywhere in the world, great when you work for results and not time. So here is what I use..
Goole Apps Premier- This is pretty great. No longer do you need an exchange server or have to rely on pop / imap for mail. This service nicely integrates Docs, Calendar, Tasks and Mail into a nicely branded service that is easy to use, can be synced off-line with Gears and can be integrated into many other services. It really is much better than the competition and can easily be accessed anywhere.
Google Mail (apps) - Simplistic and easy to use. Syncs pretty much any device or service wirelessly, can be used to manage other addresses through POP or IMAP and can be run offline with Gears.
Google Calendar(apps) - Once you get used to using colours as calendars rather than event types then its so much better than outlook. Very easy to share calendars, very easy to manage from iPhone or Android. On the iPhone I would recommend using CalenGoo as it syncs all your calendars. Also offline with Gears.
Google Tasks (apps) – Beautiful in its simplicity but lacking API’s to Sync. Previously I would use Outlook with Toodledo to Sync online and Appigo todo on the iPhone to manage tasks. Now that I have ousted Outlook from my life I decided to give Google Tasks a go. Google Tasks solves the age old problem of whether a task is a ‘todo’ or a calendar item. It is listed as a calendar and by selecting it Tasks appears on the right side of the screen. The clever bit however, is the ability to select a task and assign a date to it; making the task appear in the calendar. Tasks is also available as a mobile web app, however it would be nice to have the API for tasks so that it could easily be synced with a native mobile app.
Google Docs (apps) - An easy way to collaborate with your team on documents. Not nearly as powerful as MS Office but suites 90% of activities.
Syncplicity - A new one that I have just started using as a free trial but so far it is really good. Not on Mac yet which is a shame but great if you use more than one PC. It takes the folders you select and syncs them between any number of computers and backs-up online (and outputs to Google Docs) very good for small and large applications.
Batchbook – Batchbook is a very clever and simple online CRM. It has really made client organisation easy. Has so many useful features (including syncing with google contacts, which sync in turn with your mobile) but one of the main features that I love is the ability to ‘SuperTag’. SuperTags add customisable fields to the contact, making Batchbook easy to customise to your needs. Part of the Google Apps Marketplace so integrates nicely.
Rapportive- A nice little app that puts notes and social media information from your contact on the right in Google Mail. Integrates with Batchbook.
Evernote – A really good way to sync notes, webclips, and photos that you want to remember online and between devices. Really good OCR too so you can search by text that is in a photo.
Google Bookmarks - A central place to store your and manage your bookmarks.
Read-It-Later- A nice way to store articles that you want to read later. If you bookmark then you never come back….
Hoot Suite – A great way to manage and post to multiple twitter, facebook and linkedin accounts.
Google Reader – One stop to catch up on your feeds. Helps you to cut down on time spent reading by putting them on one place.
Chrome Application Shortcuts – If you are not using Chrome then you should be. Application shortcuts allow you to easily turn any of the above into easy links. Again only PC only at this time.
Andrew Crump
Entrepreneur, CEO+Co-Founder of Bluefields.com, Co-Founder of HairByRA, Co-Organiser of FlagonsDen. Lover of adrenaline, tech, two wheels, music, sport, learning, UX/IA and design.
