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| Hi and welcome to the first December issue of our weekly update newsletter! This edition comes to you from Boston and my last few weeks of the Saltire Fellowship programme (a little bit more on that later....) |
There has been lots happening in our Startup Grind Scotland community this week so let us keep you up to date with a quick round up!
November Events
We were fortunate to host two fantastic speakers in November with a wealth of insights shared. If you missed them, you missed out! (but here is a little summary, to tempt you along next time...)
Glasgow Chapter - On the 19th in Glasgow, we heard from Professor John Anderson, Co-founder of Entrepreneurial Scotland and former Chief Executive of The Entrepreneurial Exchange, a Par Equity Advisory Panel Member and Chairman of Gabriel Investments angel syndicate. He is a regular commentator on issues facing emerging and high growth companies and has worked extensively with the leaders of growth companies, sharing experiences of the realities of scaling up. John talked us through his own entrepreneurial journey, from his early experience as a CA in professional practice where he worked with several of Scotland’s most exciting growth companies including Atlantech Technologies, Award plc and Benedetti International after returning to Scotland from Chicago in 1989, to building his own venture (with very open insights on mistakes made and lessons learned) and his experiences now as an a non-executive chairman and director in growing businesses. A key takeaway I learned was that it's "easier to learn from failure than success" - which was caveated with "But don't fail too much!" The importance of asking for advice and being persistent was also a strong theme.
Edinburgh Chapter - On Monday 24th in Edinburgh, we heard from PJ Darling. PJ grew Spark Energy, a niche utility company servicing the needs of property management firms and tenants alike across the UK, to revehttp://startupgrind.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=wp_startupgrind_newsletters&action=newnues in excess of £100m with over 200 staff. With Spark now on a very solid footing, PJ stepped down as CEO in early 2014 to focus on new ventures with the first new venture, TenTel (www.tentel.co.uk), having launched in August 2014. TenTel provides phone and broadband services across the UK with a focus on residential tenants. The talk was extremely candid and insightful and attendees learned some great nuggets including the benefits of entering into "unsexy markets", of managing your finances well from Day 1 (PJ recommends to hire an FD as early as possible!) and of self-awareness for entrepreneurs "Know your own strengths and weaknesses".
We were also delighted in Edinburgh to showcase products from two of our community members - Stuart Richardson with his book Trim, on personal effectiveness, and "Acorn" Bunny Chow with delicious catering samples. Remember to get in touch if you would like to be showcased at a future event!
As usual, both our events were very interactive with audience members chipping in with questions and comments during the discussion and engaging with our speakers. Thanks again to everyone involved, particularly Ambassador Lisa MacAreiu of Media Bloom and Assistant Director Glasgow Hannah Dockery!
Other Community News
WES Ambassador
We were delighted to see that Leah Hutcheon of Appointedd has been announced as a Women's Enterprise Scotland Ambassador, as part of a programme to inspire, motivate, engage and connect with women-led start-up and growth businesses. Go Leah! http://wesambassadors.co.uk/2014/11/18/leah-hutche...
Entrepreneurial Scotland Launch and Awards
On Thursday 27th November Entrepreneurial Scotland was formally launched at the Awards Dinner at The Glasgow Hilton, formed with a merger of Entrepreneurial Exchange, and the Saltire Foundation. Sandy Kennedy, CEO of Entrepreneurial Scotland, set out the bold and inspirational vision for creating the most "entrepreneurial society in the world". Winners of the awards were also announced and we were delighted to see previous Startup Grind speakers Michael Welch, of Blackcircles.com, and Professor John Anderson both recognised - congratulations!
Mallzee - US app launch
Mobile shopping app Mallzee "Tinder for Fashion" continues to go from strength to strength with their US launch, just in time for the Thanksgiving shopping holiday and "Black Friday". Good luck to all the team!
That's about all for now, remember if you have community news you would like us to feature in the newsletter please get in touch with either myself (lisa@startupgrind.com) or Phin Mpofu (Phin@startupgrind.com).
I'll be out in Boston for one more week at Babson, then the Saltire Fellows travel to San Francisco to visit Silicon Valley, and to Shanghai in China before returning to Scotland in time for Christmas. As Startup Grind is such a vibrant global community, with chapters across the globe, I'll be lucky to have the opportunity to meet with our San Francisco chapter, including Startup Grind Founder Derek Andersen, and our Shanghai colleagues on my travels so I'll be sure to keep you posted! Remember, there are no Fireside Chat events this month as we are taking a break for December but be sure to check out fantastic line up for next year!
Thanks for reading
Best, Lisa
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