Analysis : Capital View
London calling?
30 June 2008
With the BBC under fire for being too London-centric, are allegations of bias really justified – and should we care?
Engaged to the office?
6 June 2008
What makes a great place to work? And how can London start-ups create it? A glut of surveys holds some clues
Prudent investment
16 May 2008
The DrinkTank meet-up provided an opportunity to gauge the feelings of entrepreneurs - and their more realistic expectations
Advice line
16 May 2008
Despite the economic gloom, VCs are investing – they’re just getting more demanding. So is it time to seek outside help?
Talking up the Thames Valley
15 May 2008
She’s Spanish born and ran her last business in New York - so why did Christina Domecq decide to base SpinVox in London?
The Mayor's radar
6 May 2008
As a new London mayor takes over, did we elect the person who will best look after business’ interests?
Olympic Gold for London’s small businesses?
23 April 2008
Thanks to a nifty web system, small businesses have finally got a chance to bid for a slice of the London Olympics action
Second wind
8 April 2008
Virtual worlds such as Second Life started out as consumer sites – but now the race is on to find the business angles
Environment minister
7 March 2008
Small firms doing their bit for the environment regard it as normal business practice – in contrast to their larger peers
The bigger picture
25 February 2008
Everyone's nervous about the current downturn - but other factors at play may be even more significant for your business
Finding good people - internally
11 December 2007
Are you struggling to recruit top people to help run your company? Do you envy bigger companies that offer better perks, larger salaries and more stability? Think again - it seems everyone's struggling with the same problem.
Expanding g2i's footprint
25 October 2007
'If someone has their cahunas on the table, you tend to take more notice of them.' Such was PR man Mark Borkowski's take on the impact of the entrepreneur at this week's relaunch event for g2i.
Following the money
24 October 2007
If you're still in two minds about whether to push ahead with a clean tech or healthcare project, take comfort from the latest VC investment figures. Funds are definitely out there to back good ideas - and record amounts of cash are now being poured into some sectors.
VCs on tour
19 October 2007
What would you give to get in front of EURO10bn worth of venture capital in one room, including big names like Advent Venture Partners, Atlas Ventures, Pond Venture Partners, Quester and many more?
The man with vision
28 September 2007
Walk down the high street almost anywhere in the world and you'll see the work of Roland Hill, chairman and founder of Contra Vision. What started as a simple idea to solve a problem has been tweaked by his company so many times it serves as a lesson in the creative application of innovation.
Whose horizons?
28 September 2007
The Science Horizons project, which earlier this month reported on a seven month study of attitudes to technology, reminded us yet again why it's so important to gauge public appetite for innovation. The harder question is - what do we do with the information?
Office 2.0 pioneers
20 September 2007
Good news and bad news for developers in the internet-based Office 2.0 space. The good news is that blue chip companies like Pfizer and Morgan Stanley are turning social networking, blogging, wikis and all the other paraphernalia of the web 2.0 world into real business tools.
Striking it rich
31 August 2007
Want to know how to grow your business 20,000 per cent over the next three years? Take a look at the September issue of US entrepreneur's magazine Inc., which contains this year's list of the fastest growing private companies in America.
Big Blue's boffins
17 August 2007
IBM claims that the 3,000 engineers at its Hursley lab aren't just doing a job, they're 'inventing the industry' - which probably comes as a surprise to everyone else doing their little bit to move the tech world forward. Still, we took a trip to the labs last week to see what the boffins are working on.
Just say no
7 August 2007
Thank goodness for James Barnham at About Time Design. The Dragons' Den 'Where are they now?' show, recently airing on the BBC, was largely an opportunity for smug tycoons to celebrate their successes and rub failures' noses in the poopy stuff. But g2i participant Barnham was an exception.
Loaded questions
20 July 2007
Is the internet close to overload? It's a question that's vexed the finest networking minds for the past couple of decades, but with the increasing use of bandwidth-hungry media streaming, everything-over-IP and rich internet applications, it's worth asking again.
Upwardly mobile
12 July 2007
Nujira has found a niche for its mobile phone technology and closed a second funding round this year. But would things have moved even faster if it had recruited more aggressively? asks CEO Tim Haynes
Come the resolution
3 July 2007
If you want to stay calm and focused on what's really important for your business, keep count of the significant unresolved issues (SUIs) in your work and home life. More than 35 and the chances are you are heading for trouble.
Water works
27 June 2007
Mention cleantech, and most people's thoughts turn to solar panels, wind turbines, biofuels, or some kind of nanotechnology. But why's there so little action around water? And where do 'clean' business processes fit in?
Beauty before age
15 June 2007
It seems the word is spreading. This week's g2i 'Meet the Companies' event included a group from Flagship Ventures in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who had come all the way to London to see the kind of companies our capital is producing.
Partner to clean up
8 June 2007
Are you tempted by the idea of applying your creative expertise to the fast-growing cleantech sector? If so, think big, think different - and think partnerships.
Cost of energy
30 May 2007
Which kills more birds - a wind turbine or a tall building? And why does it matter so much to clean technologists?
Letting go
18 May 2007
What makes a senior exec at Reuters jump ship to become an entrepreneur? And why would an entrepreneur want to hand over the reins to someone with a big industry background?
Show us the clean money
8 May 2007
Just how much money is available for clean tech entrepreneurs? If you listen to US investors, the sector is sucking up funds right now - so why are levels of European investment falling?
Foreign adventures
20 April 2007
Frank Lavin, under secretary for international trade at the US Department of Commerce, knows as well as anyone how difficult it is for tech entrepreneurs to market their wares internationally. Dubbed 'America's salesman-in-chief', part of his job is to help US businesses partner and collaborate abroad.
The science of appliance
20 April 2007
Technology vendors have long sold the benefits of 'plug and play', but it's only recently that users have actually been convinced. Today, complexity is seen as an unnecessary overhead for an IT department - it's all about making your technology work with the minimum fuss.
Upwardly mobile
13 April 2007
If you still need convincing that mobile communications and social networking are hot areas for entrepreneurs, g2i's latest 'Meet the Companies' event provided plenty of evidence.
Office politics
5 April 2007
Given all the challenges entrepreneurs face - from getting the product right to securing finance and building a team - finding office space should be the least of their worries. Too bad, then, that it's often a big headache.
Celebrity fame academy
22 March 2007
Why are we always looking for our entrepreneurs to be celebrity superstars? Conferences and media articles are constantly asking where the next Sir Chris Gent or Sir Stelios is coming from. But why should we care?
Hot topics of debate
16 March 2007
Whatever you think of Oracle boss Larry Ellison, you could never accuse him of defeatism. But for his one-time boardroom buddy Ray Lane, now a cleantech VC, tackling pessimism is becoming an occupational hazard.
Social skills
9 March 2007
Looking for new ways to reach out to your customers? Try Ning. Relaunched last week after two and a half years of development work, it's a social networking platform that makes it easier for people to set up their own sites - including businesses that want to connect to their customers.
TV - but not as we know it
22 February 2007
When you talk to people about IPTV, the first thing they invariably ask is: what will it look like on my 32in widescreen? But isn't that like asking whether your DVD player takes video cassettes? Why should a new paradigm be played out by the old rules?
Life sciences lifeline
16 February 2007
Unveiling Europe's largest ever VC fund dedicated to life sciences, Dr Stephen Bunting of Abingworth Ventures revealed that the fund had been oversubscribed - in fact, investors were falling over each other to get involved. But even he conceded that recent biotech funding has been scarce. So what exactly is the problem?
Brothers in arms
2 February 2007
It's not every day that the TUC and the CBI see eye to eye, so when they start issuing joint statements about workplace revolutions it's probably worth paying attention. Last week's agreement to encourage smarter working practices is a case in point.
Spending patterns
2 February 2007
If you're looking for capital for a life sciences, Internet software, wireless or clean energy venture, you're in luck - the VC community has got your sector firmly in its sights.
Seeds of unrest
18 January 2007
After looking for early-stage funding last year on both sides of the Atlantic, one entrepreneur has come to a stark conclusion about the UK. We hate start-ups.
The mother ship
5 January 2007
Of all the support structures that exist for people who want to make new ideas happen, corporate entrepreneurship has to be one of the most complicated - and perhaps controversial.
Patent progress
13 December 2006
Last week's Gowers Report on Intellectual Property is a weighty tome, spanning 141 pages with no less than 54 recommendations. Kicked off over a year ago by Chancellor Gordon Brown, a call for evidence in February was met with 500 written submissions. It must have taken weeks just to open the post.
Community service
1 December 2006
Everyone knows that the 'democratic web' is all about building communities - but what if you could get those communities to work for your business? That's the theory behind crowdsourcing.
Checking out
15 November 2006
It seems only proper to talk about innovation in the wake of Lord Sainsbury's resignation as science minister. Few can have done more to evangelise innovation in the UK government - but with how much real success?
Small is beautiful
9 November 2006
Do you ever worry that, somewhere inside their vast R&D departments, one of the industry giants might be working on a similar product to yours? At least you can take comfort from the fact that you're nimbler and quicker to market, right? Well, maybe not...
Hard day at the office
19 October 2006
The IT industry occasionally suffers from bouts of existentialist angst, and the Office 2.0 Conference last week was no exception. As vendors lined up to demonstrate their next generation technologies, one expert dared raise the question: Does anyone out there actually care?
Passage to India
12 October 2006
Do you know how to design a decent user interface? If so, now might be the time to pack your bags and jump on the next flight to Bangalore. While the West has been nervously watching IT jobs being sucked up by Indian technology companies, India is suffering from several skills shortages of its own.
The next industrial revolution?
12 October 2006
British companies are doing a lot of great work in the field of sustainable energy technologies - but at what price for Londoners?
Going up
29 September 2006
What is it about elevator pitches? They're supposed to tell you everything you need to know about a concept or product in minutes - but all too often they don't even get off the ground.
Family values
20 September 2006
If you're embarrassed about how little you've been earning from a business that was supposed to make you rich - don't be. In fact, shout it from the rooftops. Investors will love you for it - and there may be more benefits to being your own boss than you first thought.
Beta blockers
8 September 2006
How much do you spend - or do you plan to spend - on testing your product before releasing it to the great unwashed? How much will you blow on marketing? And if you're in the information technology field, have you ever considered the idea of handling both simultaneously?
Can clean tech clean up?
1 September 2006
What did Tony Blair slip into Arnie's coffee? A month after the British prime minister struck a deal with Arnold Schwarzenegger to share technologies for reducing greenhouse gases, the California governor has gone a step further and agreed new legislation to tackle global warming.
Bubble bath
17 August 2006
More evidence that Silicon Valley is at the cutting edge of technology. As the real world gradually gets comfortable with the idea of blogging, the San Francisco Chronicle has taken the concept to a new level - by reprinting its blogs on paper.
When Tony met Arnie
7 August 2006
While it was his speech on foreign policy and the 'arc of extremism' that grabbed the headlines this week, Tony Blair's visit to California has created a buzz in the high-tech community for very different reasons. The tour - which saw him rub shoulders with everyone from the CEO of Genentech to the rapper Snoop Dogg - was more about scientific collaboration between California and the UK than about global terrorism.
Doing your paperwork
21 July 2006
Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork... You set out to build a technology business, then end up spending half your time on admin - and you still can't get everything done. Worse, some of the formalities that you don't get round to fixing could have big repercussions further down the line.
Confessions of a VC
7 July 2006
You've spent years thinking through the concept, months building some kind of proof of concept, and more time than you'd care to recall analysing competitive products. But does your technology really matter to the people who invest in you?
Natural order
9 June 2006
It's a great irony - and irritation - of business life that we spend a lot of technical resource and time fending off irrelevant emails, while teams in the same office working on similar projects often fail to connect and share relevant information.
Love not money
25 May 2006
Is it possible to work at a multi-billion dollar global corporation and still keep your soul? Apparently so. Mariana Bozesan was previously European director of business development for Oracle, and prior to that, a marketing executive at Digital Equipment. In her time, she's also co-founded a German technology transfer company and invested widely in tech start-ups
Open for Business
2 May 2006
The pace continues to pick up in the open source software community, with rich functionality now on offer and industry stalwarts such as BEA Systems, Microsoft and Tibco Software embracing it in their own product development. But how many tech start-ups are really taking advantage?
Making a difference
21 April 2006
If you're wondering what it takes to be a successful innovator, take a look at Apple and Dell. One has done more than any company to revolutionise the user experience in personal devices, first through the Mac GUI and latterly through the iPod. The other has sold vast amounts of tin, most of which looks pretty similar to the tin sold by its many competitors. Yet both, in their own ways, are innovators.
Back to the USA
6 April 2006
No-one underestimates the time, money and commitment it takes to crack the US market - especially not the UK technology sector, which has a long and inglorious track record of pouring money into overseas ventures that don't quite make it. But what about companies that come here and then go back again?
How to orbit a bright sun - and not get burnt
22 March 2006
A good proportion of technology businesses operate in the ecosystems built up around large vendors - the Microsofts, IBMs and Oracles of this world. There's no shame in that - in fact, it vastly increases the odds of finding a ready buyer with deep pockets. But to make a living out of it, you have to stay ahead of the game.
Work in progress
15 March 2006
Businesses have been trying to improve inter-company collaboration for years, particularly in parts of the manufacturing sector where there's a never-ending quest for efficiencies in everything from design to supply chain management. But running in parallel - and with a little less fanfare - scientists are also trying to come up with their own collaborative models.
The new face of business angels
3 March 2006
The passing of another series of Dragon's Den, the BBC2 TV show that invites entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to a panel of five business angels, brings back memories of last summer's British Business Angels Association awards.
Bird flu - will a 'smart' vaccine work?
23 February 2006
As the bird flu virus creeps closer to our shores and the media stokes fears of a possible pandemic, there's more than a passing interest being shown in the efforts of one London biotech to take a potential vaccine to clinical trial.
Shedding more light on corporate recovery
23 February 2006
Great to catch up again last week with Marty Pichinson, the man who famously closed down 148 companies in Silicon Valley during the dot com crash and now puts his knowledge to work as a corporate recovery expert [TECHNICAL;188888;(see Industry Insight, 1 September 2005)].
Joined-up medicine
13 February 2006
It's one of the ironies of the medical world that we have enough technology to generate extraordinarily detailed scans of the human body - but we still haven't worked out how to get that data in front of all the people who actually need to see it.
