Leicester Startups

MBA, bootstrapping, strategic planning, non executive, investor,

Business Plans (for VC/Angel investment)
Marketing Planning, Implementation and Evaluation
Idea Validation
Generational Motivational Advice

Can provide advice on my learnings to date. The things that I have maybe done wrong and what I would do differently. Can also provide advice on raising finance, finding investors and the importance of creating efficient sales funnels.

Web apps, software engineering, ed-tech

I have experience in both the public and private sectors and public-private partnerships. I have a particularly strong understanding of the UK start-up and scale-up enterprises, issues faced by underrepresented founders and scaling of social projects.

Logistics support, virtual inventory management, clinical trials, E2E sales to delivery processes and Series A pitches. Generalist skill set and keen to lend a hand where possible across a variety of industries.

ICF Professional Coach, Mentor and Professional Facilitator. 20+ years in technology space, started in tech ops, moved into service delivery and optimising tech operations, in 2014 moved into the agile space. Part time, I help companies discover, orient and pilot change initiatives. Very familiar with building delivery teams and orienting the work around agile, lean and design thinking ways of working.

I am a Digital Transformation expert with 21 years of experience in large technology providers including Microsoft and Hitachi, and I have led many multi-million projects for enterprise customers. I have an MSc in Engineering Management and an MBA from the University of Leicester.

Business coaching – supporting scaling companies by being a sounding board, actively helping where I can or signposting to useful content/people in the ecosystem

Branding, marketing, communications, business start-up and support with entrepreneurial/intrepreneurial mindset learning.

I am a Full Stack JavaScript Specialist specialising on React & Node JS. I can help with Careers and Full Stack Web Development. I am a YouTuber, Speaker, Author and I have a community of almost 30k members.

17 years running own business and supporting others’ business growth. Access to funding specialist. Business Angel (limited). Significant experience in securing grant funding (local, regional and national) for client businesses, as well as helping businesses to raise equity funding (and some debt). Well connected to public sources of funding and business support.
Many years of supporting new start and early stage businesses through advice, guidance, mentoring, coaching and signposting.

"Very informative regarding the local investment and funding landscape"

As an experienced lawyer and platform trust and safety advocate and speaker, I can offer the community unique and considered insights. As a director at a FTSE listed tech unicorn, having gone through grassroots funding with a bootlegged start-up, to a huge scale-up to IPO, I’m well positioned to help start-ups at any stage of their journey.

Legal, policy, trust and safety, and beyond are my bag. If that speaks to you, reach out.

Guidance on how to start a tech business, scaling the business. Advice on what to look out for. Good listener. I can inspire and encourage through the growing pains.

Pay per click (Google Ads, Bing Ads, Linkedin Ads, Facebook Ads)
Analytics (Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Reporting, CRMs)
Marketing strategy
e-commerce

Team management – managing a team in a scaling business / recruitment / employee engagement
Marketing – print, digital, design – specialism in Social Media
Sales – pitching to clients, identifying new markets

Experienced at helping start-ups figure out their position and messaging in the market, acting as a sounding board and outside advisor to help ideas develop. Experience working with multiple companies ranging from Seed – Series A funding, helping them build credibility with customers, the media and potential investors.

I have over 13 years experience in online retail growing retailers very quickly whilst also working with extremely large retailers. This varies from tech development, user experience design, digital marketing including paid media to operational setups for scaling a business. Most recently I started and grew an e-commerce business to £40million in revenue from inception in just 20 months.

Im not just an ecomm guy though. I have lots of experience in Customer Success, Product Management and scaling businesses outside of commerce through traditional and digital marketing.

This includes strategy from working out product market fit to onboarding processes and growth plans

A usefully short guide to software pricing

How do you price your software? Is it art, science or magic? How much attention should you pay to your competitors? This short handbook will provide you with the theory, practical advice and case studies you need to stop yourself from reaching for the dice.

I’m a Video Game Producer, specialising in start-up and scale-up studios. It”s quite a niche role! It encompasses aspects of Project Management and Change Management but basically it is a facilitation role designed to keep the team on track and aligned with delivering their goal. Sometimes it involves helping them find out what their goal is! Through enthusiastic cheer-leading and use of interrogative and investigative questions, my role is to help the team deliver high quality output at a sustainable pace. The Producer is never the star of the show – our job is to help all the members of the team work together better.
I Can Help With:
Refining Ideas – What problem are you actually trying to solve?
Formulating A Plan – How are you going to go about solving your problem?
Presentation – Let’s proof-read your pitch together.
Mentoring – I’m also a failed entrepreneur! Learn from my mistakes!

35 years’ experience in one aspect or another of accounts & tax. Have sold one practice, now building a new one using modern (off the shelf) cloud tech.

2 startups, 2 exits, ran an accelerator, run a fund. I can help with most things relating to startups. I am really good at founder coaching/mentoring and with helping people preparing their pitches.

I have a background in Venture Capital and have a strong network in the local investor community (angels & institutions). I can work with you to help you establish your short/medium/long-term cashflow & funding requirements, so you can plan your funding rounds accordingly. Happy to help guide founders as to what investors do & don’t want to see and how to refine your pitch to secure funding as efficiently as possible.

Commercial lawyer and founder building a network of lawyers and accountants around the world. Happy to help with any general legal issues for small businesses or find you other lawyers or accountants with suitable expertise.

I’ve got over a decade of sales and marketing experience, 3 of which were in the EdTech space and 4 years in MarTech.

Today, I help Fintech Founders build a scalable sales strategy and process. Expertise and background:
– 20 years with a range of multi-national organisations to enterprising companies, start ups and scale ups in Financial Services, Banking, Payment Solutions, Credit Services, Risk and Fraud, Fintech, FMCG and IT & Software
– Broad knowledge of product development and analytics
– Impacted growth revenue for businesses and NPS Scores for Customer Experience
– Operated at director and senior consultancy level
– Client management/sales and customer life cycle
– Business development and sales – Start up’s – Scale up
– IT software infrastructure implementation/project management – change/training practice
– General and sales leadership development – programme design and delivery
– Owned and ran a high end executive recruitment agency
– Owned and ran a local thriving public house in Nottinghamshire
– Build high performing sales academy programmes includes products, customer experience, induction and methodologies
– BESMA Award winner in Sales Excellence/Enablement, Insights, Customer Experience and Leadership GrowthI can draw upon

Connections across Financial Services

Innovator, to do something different and the ability to sell this vision. Specialist in producing structural calculations for residential properties

I have experience in Project Management, Team Leadership, Mentoring, and a Full-Stack Developer. I love coding, networking, team-building, SaaS products, IoT, STEM activities, and new ideas.

James Currier & the NFX team

Comprehensive guide to leveraging network effects to grow startups

13 Years experience helping businesses start-up, develop and grow. I’m a well rounded business adviser who understands marketing, finance, operations, project management and innovation. I’m particularly interested in helping businesses gain access to finance and know quite a bit about what it takes to become investment ready.

Advice on fundraising generally and on Fintech particularly

I have 30 years of experience in manufacturing. My speciality is driving excellence in organisations. My company is recognised as being the best at what it produces. This did not come easy and I have made so many mistakes along the way. Those mistakes have toughened me, hardened me, and forged me but never dimmed my passion for what I was trying to achieve.
If you are looking for someone who is a relentless and passionate grafter to advise and encourage you on walking the hard miles, then I may be able to help.

I have experience in technology based start ups, taking them from idea through to exit. My strengths are in leadership, strategy, sales and marketing and finance (raising money).

Building tech and startup communities
Connecting the right people together
Public speaking & Events planning
Signposting
Startup knowledge and networks

"Brilliant connector who can help you reach out to anyone in the UK tech ecosystem"

Gigi Levy-Weiss. General Partner at NFX seed stage venture firm

Good guide to recruiting for startups. Covers the conflict between recruiting quickly and recruiting well. Advocates using your network to find candidates due to increased likelihood of them being a good fit

Marketing, raising funds, product vision, business development

Product design lead in B2B Saas

10 years of experience working for tech startups building SaaS for SMEs. Currently, I lead design on the bookings, scheduling and payments features at a series D (£150m in funding) scale-up. Previously, I worked for several early-stage startups (£250k-£1m seed), the last being a sustainability platform where I helped them increase MRR by 100% in the 2.5yrs I was there. I can advise with customer/product development, product vision/metrics and product-led growth motions.

I’ve spent 18+ years working in start-ups, businesses, charities and social enterprises. This involved leading programmes, managing grant funds, operations, fundraising, strategic planning and building partnerships across Senior Management Teams. 

Launched my own startup and worked at early stage startups, so have experience most aspects of launching and growing a business. Happy to help with product ideation, business models, sales and business development and fundraising strategies.

I am a dual qualified solicitor and chartered trade mark attorney and the founder of an Intellectual Property Consultancy Startup. I advise my clients on how to protect their brands worldwide in the most cost-effective way. I provide straightforward advice on trade marks, design and copyright law without the legal jargon.

Email and CRM strategies including onboarding customers, dealing with churn and any other CRM Comms. Big part of how I help is to look at the right way to analyse your customer base and their behavioural attributes.

Knowledge of finance options in the East and South-East Midlands.

Really good understanding of the investment landscape in the Midlands region - great for introductions.

Supply chain management within the Leather and Footwear Industry. Consultancy and matching brands with both raw material and finished product vendors. Also many years helping and mentoring new business start-ups. Using a wide range of contacts for both funding and signposting for professional input.

I look at business models, see how they work, then help you disassemble them and put them back together. Like a car mechanic rebuilding an engine to give you a lot more oomph.

Why am I good at this? 20 years of startup experience; 1,000+ startups; weird background in philosophy, engineering and economic history; insatiable curiosity and total passion for the companies and founders I work with

What else? I’ve been a board member, advisor, CEO, COO, CMO and got my hands dirty solving problems all across the business

I have been the founder of 2 companies, one was a company aimed at connecting suppliers and manufacturers together. The other business was based in recruitment. I have also worked at national and international law firms within the area of commercial litigation. I have experience drafting many different types of legal documents and I am happy to share my experiences when it comes to commercial litigation. I can help you at the information stage by sharing more information on these types of documents. This will then pave the way for you to reach out to a solicitor who can actually draft these documents. You will be gaining industry insight into the legal side of things when you are talking to me.

Alex Turnbull at Groove

The onboarding experience can be the difference between life and death for your product. Here’s everything we learned about improving it.

Great little article about what to say to people in your first (onboarding) email when they first sign-up.

CEO and Entrepreneur with an original background in Automotive R&D and in developing immersive and tracking technologies for vehicle development, before moving into applications in Simulation and Training (Defence), Entertainment, Attractions and Experiential sectors. Innovator and developer of high-end immersive visualisation, motion tracking systems and adoption of emerging technologies (VR, MxR) with next-generation software platforms for attractions and experiences.

Spent the past 20 years building a technology-focused solutions business, managing strategic business growth, leading innovation and development of patentable technologies and IP, sales management, go-to-market strategy, and strategic partnerships, including globalisation of the business with expansion into the US, GCC, Far East and China. Experienced in managing strategic, value-adding investors supporting business growth, development of unique IP, new products and leveraging synergies of the businesses core IP and software platforms for further market diversification.

Very happy to share my knowledge, experiences, networks and generally support with any value-add I can bring around growth, strategic planning, innovation, development, and investment to start-ups or to established businesses.

Currently building an online wills and lasting powers of attorney startup.

– leading teams/development teams
– automating your processes without knowing how to code
– hiring great people
– team dynamics
– finding the right tools to run your business
– telling people they don’t need an app

Martin Babinec

When creating a new product, one of the most important strategic decisions a startup can make is selecting the right vertical market to point all development and marketing resources towards.

Great piece on choosing an initial narrow market segment or vertical rather than trying to sell to everyone

– Director-level experience in media and communications
– Various post-graduate qualifications in business administration and marketing
– Insight into regional business networks
– Corporate, public sector and startup experience

Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown

A highly accessible, practical, method for growth that involves cross-functional teams and continuous testing and iteration.

Good for not only understanding the sorts of experiments one can run but also how to organise your business around experiments (cross-functional teams, etc)

A serial entrepreneur who has set up and run various successful business in the insurance sector. I have invested in a number of business’ from music, to sports clothing to the insurance sector, and worked with a range of Private Equity Houses in their insurance related investments. I am now taking on Life insurance with the aim of completely changing the customer experience and purpose.

Specialties: leadership, strategic planning, account management, budgeting, business development, business plans, change management, contract management, delivery, direct marketing, executive management, finance, marketing, relationship management, sales, tender writing,

Eric Reis

The Lean Startup is about learning what your customers really want. It’s about testing your vision continuously, adapting and adjusting before it’s too late.

“Essential reading for any new innovative startup – how to validate your idea quickly and cope with the uncertainties of an untested idea.”

"Don't build anything until you've read this book!"

Use of data, artificial intelligence and automation

I am an MBA qualified Start-Up & Innovation coach, Leanstack coach, certified pretotyper & growth master, with a passion for developing innovation opportunities within organisations and with startups.

I have over 20 years of experience of product management in global organisations, managing complex relationships at a strategic level and driving business change.

Focus on working with pre-and-early startups to develop their ideas and to gain traction.

Have worked in SEO for 9 years, and now in SaaS for around 3 years

Led a programme of support for student and graduate start-ups across various industries. The programme focuses on early stage (pre-trading/ registration) start-ups and I can provide coaching, mentoring and connect individuals with the local start-up community and further start-up support. I also have experience in start-up social media and business modelling of start-ups. I currently run my own start-up in the camping industry.

Product development | Managing Director roles | Agency model and SaaS models | Coaching | Cost analysis | Enterprise software requirements | Global markets with SaaS product | Overseas subsidiary business | PLC and Global brand SaaS customers

Rob Fitzpatrick

"How to do customer development and avoid lipservice when talking to customers"

Experience of running B2B software-as-a-startup (SaaS) businesses, app and website development, SaaS pricing and onboarding. Experience of running community organisations and helping startups. Good at helping work out early stage startups validate their business ideas/models.

Jose Cayaso at Slidebean

How to test you’re charging the right amount and at the right frequency. Mostly aimed at B2B Saas.

David Spinks

Great guide to using communities as a growth engine for startups

General business advice – strategy, planning, financial, business plan review, pitch deck review
Several years experience in real estate and interested in supporting PropTech startups to identify and refine use cases + identify target customers
Also interested in placemaking, sustainability, regeneration, emerging tech, personal finance, wellbeing
Limited network in East Mids currently, having moved here recently – majority of connections are London based – including startups, investors

Made lots of mistakes over the last 7 years as we have take the team from just myself with an idea to a team of 14. Bootstrapped. Small amount of venture. Got to profitability. My key skills are in sales and marketing. Just started a diploma in coaching as long term goals is to be a mentor / coach / investor to small businesses

Co-founder of tech startup that validates your work achievements and skills. Background as consultant and Head of Talent and Performance at various tech startups.

"Knows HR and employment but has also worked on his own startups"

Started and exited various businesses in a wide range of sectors so have experience to offer in creative, food and drink, social enterprise, retail, building trades, event management
Strategy development
Connector
Mentor
Small investment interest

Freelance full-stack software developer specialised in Microsoft .Net technologies with more than 20 years of experience delivering enterprise solutions with 1+ years in scaled agile framework (SaFE) implementation. Familiar with working in agile teams, following scrum, BDD and Domain Driven Development methodology. Experience of the following industries and sectors: Utility, Retail, Banking, E-Commerce, Digital Signage, Kiosk, Small Office Home Office, Information Technology, Logistics, Automated Trading, Warehouse Management.

20+ years experience in founding/working in tech startups in UK/Silicon Valley. Expertise in lean startups, software engineering, product management, business development, marketing strategy, and funding.

"Hugely experienced tech founder and member. Cyber security and fintech a speciality"

My field of expertise is Artificial Intelligence, more specifically Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing.  I can help in technical stuff, since this is my speciality. I can also help with other management-related tasks or make introductions, when possible.

– 5+ years working for the BBC as a broadcast journalist (radio)
– 4 years working in PR/communications
– Independent podcast producer (recording, editing and publishing)

Business consultant, branding, e-commerce. Expert investment advisor helping start ups and companies get investment ready.

Broad experience cross-sector of designing, building and launching products and services globally. Experience with everything from Ideation to Launch and Operation. Most recent experience PropTech; FinTech; EdTech; LegalTech; HRTech; Enterprise SaaS;

Passionate about storytelling. Succinct and intelligent communications, and creative media production. We lead an opinionated, funny and direct discourse on the effectiveness of B2B Marketing AND Internal communications.

"inspirational speaker, really good at helping people untangle their USPs and tell their stories"

Experience around Personal and Business development
Expertise around Sport Science-related product development
Expertise around Business Management Software (ERP, CRM, E-commerce)

Legal framework, documentation & Regulation
Having worked in a range of (national & international) law firms in multiple jurisdictions, I have gained experience to help companies quickly identify issues around starting a company. I have assisted two start-ups with funding arrangements from this community and I have previously owned and sold my own company.

One of my key selling points is connection. I am able to connect you with people that are well-known in the industry.

I am able to support companies in the following:
1. Connecting you to VCs/Angels (via our firm connection)
2. Providing advice from a legal standpoint – corporate/commercial as I have access to some of the best lawyers in their respective fields.
3. Providing an insight on the next stages of the start-up cycle
4. Assisting with legal documentation such as shareholder’s agreement etc.

– Computer Science graduate from DMU
– Founded an AI-based language learning startup in 2017
– B2B startup experience
– General tech startup-related stuff
– Vesting schedules and other aspects related to equity and company structure
– Experience in gaining commercial investment and soft funding

Sales/Business Development, Marketing, Fundraising, Strategy, Legal profession contacts

Creator of client-portal SaaS product and design academy which helps developers conquer their fear of design. Experience of going from freelancing design services to digital products.

My main skills lie in Growth , Go To Market Strategies and value proposition. The bulk of my career has been spent working in the digital and technology space mostly in sales. I have experience across all industries but a deep knowledge of public sector and understand this space very well. I have a passion for working with social ventures of all shapes and sizes.

https://www.scoreapp.com/

Lead generation app that uses a nice looking quiz which takes you to a landing page where you get a score, some suggestions how to improve a pdf report

Henrik Kniberg

A really good metaphorical depiction of what a Minimum Viable Product is and why you should build one instead of going straight into building an all bells and whistles solution.

Skills, experience, expertise: capital equipment, sensor development, quality control, rolled goods, colour science, R&D funding, collaborative innovation, capex business development, exporting, international sales.
Connections: researchers at DMU, businesses of all sizes in the region.

• Rapidly developing and testing ideas
• Business modelling
• Marketing strategy
• Entrepreneur networks/community building
• Getting free support from universities
• Startups originating from universities
  

Executive Leadership: Company Acquisition, Budget Management, P&L, Product Strategy & Execution, Go-to-Market & Launch Planning, Product Lifecycle, Release Cycles, Pricing, Product Management & Ownership, Negotiating, Partner Management, Stakeholder Management, Distribution, Marketing

Management: On- & Offshore Team Leadership, Requirement Definition, Scoping, Budgeting, Software Development, Design, UX, Technical Specifications, Best Practices, Testing, QA, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Incremental, Waterfall, RAD

One-to-one, tailored support and guidance for Leicester & Leicestershire businesses seeking help, information and advice

Happy to help and offer any advice on public sector procurement ( especially technical) and how you can engage compliantly with Councils.

20 years of experience in project delivery, business changes, processes and tools implementation
10 years experience of business planning and start-ups
Process management
Tech implementation
Strategy planning
Business plans
Idea formation
Project delivery
Operational efficiencies

I advise businesses on commercial trading arrangements, including: non disclosure agreements; terms of sale and purchase; agency and distribution arrangements; contractual joint ventures and funding agreements.

I also advise on IT and technology contracts including: contracts for the sale and purchase of IT and other technology; licensing of software and apps; contracts for the provision of software/infrastructure/platform as a service.

Assistance and expertise in investment readiness
Help with connections to funders
Advice around what funding is suitable and realistic
Assistance in preparing relevant documents

Legal advice in relation to Intellectual Property, IT issues and Data Protection

I implemented and grew the AI system that keeps planes in the air at 35,000 ft. Now I help other industrial businesses achieve the same.
Having helped organizations like Rolls-Royce, and SSE use existing data to achieve £100M+ savings, I am now helping large industrial organizations use the learnings to achieve £Millions in OPEX cost reduction. I engage with some of the largest industrial organizations to help them reduce OPEX costs using our high-frequency industrial analytics platform.

I have a creative industries background, with over 20 years of experience in managing theatres, festivals, concert halls, museums, tourism and marketing agencies. I’m now Managing Director at https://www.advantagecreative.co.uk which has a track record of investing into and supporting creative startups, where I lead on coaching and mentoring projects.

When I’m engaged in mentoring or one-to-one support with a Founder or Start-up team, I tend to be engaged in the first instance in supporting them through the stages of a planned fundraising campaign, or on developing their fundraising strategy, often (but not always) with a focus on equity fundraising.

Alongside my professional practice in the creative industries, I have built a property investment business as a “side hustle” in the first instance, developing this into a more professional and diversified investment portfolio in more recent years, learning lots from the “school of hard knocks” along the way!

I”m always happy to have an initial chat with Founders to see if there are ways I can bring value.

As a second time founder, I have vast experience in the Startup world and a good understanding of the varying hurdles faced in the quest to launch a product to market. I have achieved pre-seed investment and can provide a good insight into working with accelerators, selecting and building mentor networks and onboarding advisors. My background is sales and marketing having previously worked with SME’s through to Blue Chip clients on a range of digital and print projects. Happy to connect.

Working in Health and Education, supporting women in business, start up support

José Cayasso, CEO of Slidebean

Short video describing the key components of a well written investor pitch deck for startups. Lots of real world examples included.

Patents for inventions, registered trade marks, registered designs, copyright, intellectual property law in general.

Technical skills: Web development, mobile apps, servers etc. I built all of the technology for a place promotion app, so have a wide range of experience. Company financials: I’m obsessed with tracking revenue and profits accurately and focusing on maximising margins.
Processes and automating: Making a company, and the team, as autonomous as possible to get a business running as efficiently as possible.

Seth Godin

By reaching out to only those individuals who have expressed an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness, and greatly improve the chances of making a sale.

“How to market to people with their blessing rather than cold calling”

Junior doctor and founder of an award-winning collection of medical education resources, aimed at medical students and junior doctors.

Worked in UX for around 7 years. Originally began working designing and building eCommerce websites, then moved into working on product for startups and some big companies (Dunelm, Waitrose). Over the last few years, I’ve specialised in designing MVP’s and working on early-stage stuff for startups. I’ve also ran a lot of innovation workshops for bigger companies.

Thomas Constant, founder of BeoBia

Great overview video of the key crowdfunding options for startups (donations, Equity or rewards) and a deeper dive into Kickstarter which Thomas used successfully himself.

Brad Feld

“Startup communities” are popping up everywhere, from cities like Boulder to Boston and even in countries such as Iceland. These types of entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation and small business energy. Startup Communities documents the buzz, strategy, long-term perspective, and dynamics of building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other’s talent, creativity, and support.

This is the book that first promoted the idea of an entrepreneur-led startup community and has been a model for cities all over the world (including Leicester!)

I’ve spent the last 12 years working across two start-ups in the martech/payment space.

The first has been growing for around a decade and counts some of the largest brands in the UK, Europe & America as it’s clients and has raised investment from some of the most highly regarded names in the space, as well as from one of UK’s largest VCs.

The second start-up is 3 years into it’s journey and leverages innovations in the payment space to deliver a unique solution for merchants to engage their customers and reward loyalty with none of the traditional points of friction (cards, mobile apps, customer data). We are at the beginning of our journey and starting to scale quickly…

Would be very happy to help young individuals/companies with ideas/products in a similar space, who may like to hear about successes/failures we’ve had along our journey so far.

I have previously worked at KPMG India in tech consulting team. I have also been a serial entrepreneur with startups in e-commerce, health tech and technology automation. Currently, helping companies through venture building, mentorship, networking and most importantly to raise funds. I specifically look to help enterprises wanting to make a difference in society.