Back in 2007, Kevin and I set about developing the ideas that would ultimately lead to the founding of our online tutoring web start-up Tutorhub.com. I was struck at the time, but how difficult it was to get a business like this off the ground, at almost every level from getting a bank account, through to finding good advisers and engaging with the local tech community. Developing and growing our business continues to be a challenge, but I do get the sense that there are growing numbers of start-ups, and that networking events like SW Founders and Thirsty Thursday make it easier to network.
I recently came across a useful article by Andy Parkhouse of Team Rubber the other day entitled ‘Silicon Gorge – the Bristol list’. This interests me as someone with a start-up in the Bristol area.
This may surprise some of you, particularly those who live here – how can it be this big? What evidence is there? Well Andy came up with this useful list of businesses, incubators, VC’s, support organisations, networks, meet-ups, conferences. I found this really useful, and have come across many of the organisations / events over time, and would recommend new entrepreneurs to follow the links – there is alot of help and advice out there to you.
Tech and Software Ventures
- Alterian
- Bardowl
- Beanbag Learning
- Brightpearl
- Carsonified
- Churnbar
- Community DNS
- Delib
- The Filter
- Icy Cow
- IMDb
- Love Honey (NSFW)
- Roman Cart
- Simple Web
- Tutor Hub
- Viral Ad Network
- XMOS
- List of ventures in the Set Squared network
Incubators
Funds and finance groups
Support organisations
Networks
Meetups
- Bathcamp
- BathSpark
- Bath Scrum usergroup
- Brug
- Brisfunctional
- Bristol MongoDB
- Bristol & Bath Django users group
- Bristol Girl Geek Dinners
- South-West founders
- Thirsty Bristol
Conferences