Why rebrand? We simply decided to go Forrit! Guest post by Peter Proud, Founder and CEO of Forrit

Earlier this month, the technology company I co-founded in 2014 rebranded from Cortex Worldwide to Forrit.  Cortex was a legacy name for the business before we secured a management buyout from advertising giant WPP in 2017 and we just didn’t feel the name fitted the bill anymore.  From deciding we wanted to change our company identity to the rebrand launch itself took about two years.

So, what’s in a company’s name?  Where possible, I think it’s important to have something unique and it should be a name that you like.  In old (auld) Scots, “Forrit” means “forward” and that embraces the spirIt of our company as we are all about helping businesses move forward with their digital transformation.  One of my favourite sayings is that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good and we got lucky with Forrit.  In Ancient Greek, the word means “program” and in Icelandic it means “application”.  

A lot of people have asked why we we rebranded after six and a half years and fundamentally there are four reasons: there are lots of medical and tech companies with the same or similar names: we could not secure the trademark; we could not get the .com, and; last, but most importantly, Cortex just wasn’t representative of who we were anymore. 

On the day of our rebrand, we also announced board appointments which show how far we’ve come.  Steven “Guggs” Guggenheimer, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of AI, Austen Mulinder, former CEO of Ziosk and a veteran of multiple startups, and Carolyn Jameson, Chief Legal and Policy officer at Trustpilot joined our board and their appointments illustrate the level of ambition we have for the business. 

The cloud-based web content management (WCM) platform we have spent years developing at significant cost, to the tune of almost £15 million, enables clients like Microsoft Education to create, deploy, analyse and optimise their digital estates.  In the case of Microsoft Education, our platform has supported a fivefold increase in traffic to their site since the onset of Covid-19 as online learning has become even more important.   As Liza Magee, Microsoft Education Director puts it: “The website infrastructure Forrit built, on Azure, supported our large traffic spikes, ensuring the user experience was never disrupted.”

As I said in a recent Pioneering People podcast with Morven McIntyre for The Scotsman, we saw the opportunity to create an application that sat on top of the Microsoft Azure service.  What we’ve developed since is a software service that customers use to build big secure scalable websites.  It is all about creating rich media experiences, deploying them across lots of different channels and analysing the output. 

Our new board appointees were kind enough to talk about how highly they rate our product and also to note how impressed they are with the team and culture at Forrit.  As we scale our business globally from a base in Edinburgh, our people, values and culture will remain central to everything we do and this approach has helped us get through such a challenging time during the current crisis.  

Youth and enthusiasm have been key components in our success to date and a couple of weeks ago we hired five more apprentices.  I always say that after starting the company, hiring graduates has been the second best thing I have done in business.  Around one in five of our team is now a graduate apprentice and we believe nurturing talent is key to both our own long-term success and that of Scotland’s tech sector as a whole. 

We are on an exciting journey at Forrit and are fortunate to have so many great people, from seasoned tech veterans to young people just out of high school, with us on the ride.

An edited version of this blog ran as an op-ed in The Scotsman on Monday 29th June 2020

Future-proofing careers and embracing digitisation in Scotland, guest post by Melinda-Matthews Clarkson, CEO, CodeClan

In November 2019, McKinsey & Company released a report on UK plc which indicated that two thirds of the nation’s workforce could be lacking in basic digital skills, while more than 10 million people risked being underskilled in leadership, communication and decision-making.    

The research findings by McKinsey suggest UK companies will need to respond by “transitioning up to a third of their workforces into new roles or skill levels over the next decade”.  If UK companies fail to do this, says McKinsey, they could find themselves with even more acute shortages of talent than today.  Importantly, the global management consulting firm says potential talent shortages “will not only be among technology specialists and engineers, but also among the managers needed to lead change and upskill teams, especially in customer-facing service roles”.  

Fast forward six months, and the business world finds itself in the first throes of a financial crisis stemming from Covid-19 that is only going to exacerbate the trends identified by McKinsey.  At CodeClan, we want to be part of the solution in the Scottish context.  Already, nearly one thousand of our graduates are working with over 250 companies, from startups to multinationals, armed with the latest skills in software development and data analytics.  

We know that digitisation and data will be crucial in guiding our business scene through the coronavirus pandemic and then out the other side.  As part of this process, we are going out to companies across Scotland, including in the employer network that already employ CodeClan graduates, to ask them what they need to upskill their teams so we can do an even better job of helping them to achieve digital savviness and empowerment.  We would also like to hear from other business we are not yet connected with.  

We know that many businesses can go into “hiding mode” when it comes to the kind of digital skills uptake required for their people and their growth potential.  We don’t think business leaders should be afraid of digitisation, rather start thinking about it as an opportunity to become far more competitive.  With the global nature of business in the 21st century, only increased in the wake of the latest technological advances, we need to keep up otherwise we risk being left behind by other countries and regions.   

As Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said in our recent announcement on transitioning to a virtual classroom model: “It’s important that candidates continue to receive the excellent digital skills training that will prepare them for exciting careers in the new high-tech, low-carbon economy, which is going to play an important role in Scotland’s post-pandemic future.”

At CodeClan we talk about “future-proofing” the careers of our candidates and this is now more relevant than ever because of the current health crisis and how it impacts the work dynamic in the months and years ahead.  Not only do new employees need to understand how critical software applications and data-driven decisions are, but we need to reach all of the employees in a business to manage and survive the impact of the pandemic.

I believe we have plenty of reasons to be optimistic in Scotland.  Our technology community has a seasoned air about it in 2020, we have produced world-beating tech and attracted some of the fastest growing international technology companies to set up offices here.  We have a world-renowned university sector and a Government that wants to support all things digital.  At the same time, we cannot rest on our laurels and we cannot afford to put our head in the sand. 

Now is the time to act on what commentators, industry leaders and economists are telling us.  If we can truly embrace digitisation in Scotland, it will be to everyone’s benefit.

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 18th May 2020

2020: the year when so many of us will do our most important work, by Nick Freer

I was honoured when Heriot-Watt asked me to be interviewed for the university’s inaugural edition of its Entrepreneurial Speaker webinar at the end of April.  While I don’t consider myself an entrepreneur, I give myself some credit for being entrepreneurial and thankfully the main focus of the webinar interview was around best practice PR for spin-outs and startups.  

Advising technology companies has been a big part of my agency activity in the decade since I founded my agency.  Skyscanner, Blackcircles, pureLiFi and CodeBase were among the clients I advised in the early days and, more recently, in addition to continuing to work with startups I’ve also had the privilege to work with global tech players like Deliveroo and San Francisco-headquartered UserTesting.  

Covid-19 has cast a menacing shadow over the business scene and the tech sector has responded better than most.  UserTesting’s CEO Andy MacMillan wrote for The Scotsman recently about how the company’s Human Insight Platform is helping many of the world’s leading brands navigate customer engagement during the health crisis, earlier this month the press covered Paul Reid-founded Trickle’s announcement of a raft of NHS boards and services now supported by its employee and wellbeing and engagement platform and over the last week we’ve been busy working with Scottish digital agency xDesign and NHS 24’s press team around the announcement of its Covid-19 app launch. 

Hats off to xDesign, who volunteered its services to NHS 24 then built the app for iOS and Android in five days.  Like many of us, some of the team have partners or family working for the NHS and wanted to do something to make a difference.  While it’s hard to truly empathise with what it must be like to be a NHS worker the last couple of months, the stories we hear give us a glimpse of the coal face.  

In my own family, my youngest brother, a consultant anaesthetist at NHS Forth Valley in Stirling, is someone close to the fight against coronavirus while my father, a retired doctor, is a medical adviser to one of the UK’s biggest banks and is engaged in daily conference calls with the bank’s crisis management team.  Undoubtedly, so many people will look back on 2020 as the year when they did their most important work.  At least, when the trauma begins to fade.  

In a US broadcast interview last week, Microsoft’s President Brad Smith talked about how digitisation and data have come together more than ever before since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.  In addition to data’s “fundamental and indispensable” role in relation to public health, Smith concurred that we wouldn’t have been able to sustain the economy without the latest technologies at hand.      

Scotland’s digital skills academy CodeClan has been in the press over the last few days talking about its switch to a virtual classroom model, something I’ve been working on with CEO Melinda Matthews-Clarkson and her team.  With close to one thousand CodeClan graduates now working with over 250 companies - from startups to large international corporates - and over one hundred candidates currently engaged in its software and data courses, CodeClan will play an important role in helping Scotland’s economy get through these difficult times. 

As a Turing Fest survey recently revealed, Scotland’s startups are hurting in the midst of Covid-19, not least around how they continue to fund themselves.  It was good news, therefore, to see wearable tech PlayerData get its latest investment round over the line - a wearable tech startup we have supported from its early days.  And if you want to read about a bona fide entrepreneur, look into CEO and co-founder Roy Hotrabhvanon, a former international archer who narrowly missed out on selection for the Rio Olympics in 2016 and began developing prototypes during his time studying informatics in Edinburgh. 

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 11th May 2020

Empathy, Before Tech, Will Lead Our Economies Out of This, guest post by UserTesting CEO Andy MacMillan

Companies around the world have had to change their business models in a matter of weeks. Many of them are moving to digital, something often called “digital transformation.” It’s a shift online that many have been undergoing gradually for some time in an effort to stave off digital-first competitors and business model disruptors. This need to “go digital” has now become necessary just to survive.  And it's not only about going digital, many businesses have had to completely change their business model. Fine dining restaurants have had to move to takeout only or face closing their doors. Retailers are offering curbside pickup for their customer’s piece of mind. An ability to understand and adapt to evolving customer needs has become the new competitive advantage. 

This pace of disruption isn't easy.  We are operating in a world different from what business school taught us. Different from what the online algorithms have been optimizing for over the past decade.  Different from the experience our management teams have built up that informs their instincts on what to do.  How do we manage to adapt our business and re-build our economies in a world of “different?”

To manage and understand “different,” businesses must step back from their technology, lead with empathy, and lean into the human insights they can gather from their customers. Consumer behavior isn’t what it used to be; people are behaving in ways we never could have predicted. Brands everywhere are now faced with this challenge and must re-learn who their customer is and what they care about in this moment. To do this, companies must connect directly to real customers and listen to them in order to understand how to adapt. 

Even after these restrictions are lifted, consumer comfort levels with returning to “business as usual” will vary wildly. What will it take for consumers to be comfortable going out to eat or traveling again? Will they need assurances on new processes for disinfection and sanitation?  Will they require some continuation of social distancing practices to feel safe?  Are consumers in a place now where they are open to promotions and discount offers? It might seem tone deaf now to be pushing our wares, but at some point we'll need to get back to marketing our products and services.  When is that right time and how do we get that balance right? Customers will tell us… if we listen. 

UserTesting, which has a European HQ in Scotland, has been working with consumers and companies to try to determine the answers to these questions and more. Our Human Insight Platform enables companies to have remote access to over one million consumers around the world so they can see, hear, and talk to their customers to understand their needs and concerns, and be able to bring customer empathy into the company strategy to make more informed business decisions. During this challenging time our team has launched a set of pre-built covid-19 messaging templates so we can help organizations understand the sentiment of their customers and develop clear and appropriate models for connecting with them. 

With this sudden business model disruption, now is an opportunity for businesses to rethink how they actually connect with customers in meaningful ways, and look to bring empathy into their brand experience. Hopefully companies can emerge from this situation and continue to provide all of us the many conveniences of doing business through digital channels, but with an approach that shows us they know who we are, they understand our concerns and our desires, and are adaptable while helping us reconnect with each other. 

While tech may be what is helping us get by right now, it will be our humanity and empathy that helps us re-engage with the world when we get through this.  

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 27th April

Why COVID-19 is making the case for intrapreneurs within businesses, guest post by Gib Bulloch, author of The Intrapreneur: Confessions of a Corporate Insurgent

We are living in an alternate reality. The COVID-19 pandemic has closed shops, banks and offices. Employees are working day at home. Stock markets are falling.  Airplanes are grounded. It seems the corporate hamster wheel is slowly grinding to a halt. Yet, scratch below the surface and these outcomes are not the full story. We’re witnessing a surge of innovation that, previously, was hard to imagine.  

Companies that normally make cars or vacuum cleaners are now making much-needed ventilators. Iconic Parisian perfume brands and gin distilleries are now producing hand sanitizers. And there are numerous other examples where creativity (and desperation) have led to inspired outcomes.  As demand for their traditional products has slowed or ceased, many businesses are now jostling to respond constructively to the challenges of COVID 19. 

Announcements about these innovations may come from on high, but I’d be surprised if the inspiration does. It’s unlikely that Jim Rowan, Dyson’s CEO, personally had the bright idea to switch production from vacuum cleaners to ventilators, but I’d bet one of its smart engineers did. I believe that the current situation has provided the perfect opportunity for employees across many businesses, large and small, to demonstrate their innate creativity and entrepreneurial flare. And if it’s possible now, why has the corporate world been slow to make it happen in the past? It’s not as if we haven’t been beset with other pressing crises, ranging from climate change to poverty eradication.

There are many reasons, but I’d argue that the innovation we’re witnessing today is the result of a perfect storm.  Firstly, the clear and present danger of a global health crisis is challenging the role of business. Secondly, we’re seeing a temporary suspension of traditional corporate hierarchies and accepted rules of the game. Thirdly, we’re experiencing a profound change in pace.  

If you trace business back to its roots, it was predominantly about creating products and services that addressed an unmet need within, or solved a problem for, society.  Examples include the need for energy to provide lighting, heat or transport; demand for food or medicine. More recently, ever-more sophisticated corporate marketing departments have managed to convince us to buy more “stuff” that we probably don’t need and cannot afford.  Along with bringing countries to their knees, COVID-19 is apparently bringing businesses back to basics. 

Secondly, employees have been given the permission to break the rules and be creative—to take a chance and suggest things that would have been considered unpalatable in normal circumstances. Their annual objectives have been rendered irrelevant; key performance indicators are hardly worth the paper they’re written on.  And, video conferencing aside, home working means you won’t have the boss looking over your shoulder any time soon. Could these factors explain why H&M, the fashion brand, switched production at a factory in China to making surgical face masks? Or the reason Decathlon snorkeling masks are being converted into makeshift ventilators?   Such radical product innovation may open up new market opportunities that would have otherwise remained untapped. 

Thirdly, the global slowdown has given employees the time and headspace to be creative. The mantras of “faster, bigger, higher growth, more profitable” have been replaced by some forced business “deceleration”—a topic close to my heart. Then again, was it ever realistic to expect anyone to come up with a fabulous new concept in the 65th hour of their working week?  

I’m not looking to make light of the impact of the current crisis or trying to find an upside. But it has shown just what’s possible when a certain set of circumstances present themselves and temporarily lift “business as usual” constraints.  Savvy leaders will realise that the lessons of today hold the key to finding new business opportunities that will help us not only cope with the crises of tomorrow, but also overcome them. 

An edited version of this article was published in The Scotsman on Monday 20th April 2020

Pivoting for the good during Covid-19, by Nick Freer

I’ve been flat out the last few weeks advising clients around corporate communications in light of our new business reality. While some have been proactive or reactive in facing up to Covid-19, my rule of thumb advice is that if a client is making any kind of press announcement at the moment then it’s going to look pretty odd if there is no reference to how the business is being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Certainly, be prepared to field related questions if you're not going to be up front about it.

For some organisations, the impact of the pandemic represents a full on crisis situation, for others less so but every company is somewhere on the spectrum. What is certain is the importance of getting coronavirus-related communications right, or as near to right as possible. For those that get it wrong, the negative brand impact may not go away anytime soon and we're now starting to see a string of businesses being singled out in the media.

I was discussing this with a client, UserTesting’s Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Bruce Hunter. User Testing launched in Edinburgh last July, the first time a Silicon Valley-headquartered technology company had set up here. Last month, the company whose platform enables organisations to get feedback on products and services from consumers on-demand, secured its latest investment round to the tune of $100 million and made its first European acquisition in the form of Oslo-based multilingual startup Teston.  

In the wake of the pandemic, UserTesting has introduced a free-use service so organisations can access its platform to test how well they are doing, or otherwise, at communicating with customers and stakeholders during the outbreak. It’s one great example of how companies can support the business scene amid the current health crisis. When we all come out of this horrendous situation, it’s also the kind of approach that will lead to a lot of goodwill in the bank. 

Care Sourcer is a great example of a Scottish tech startup that has gone above and beyond in adapting its offering in the collective fight against the pandemic. The comparison and matching site for elderly care is not only helping to find care for people exiting hospitals across the UK, it’s also aggregating data that is going to help the health sector better understand developing trends in the weeks and months ahead.  

On a Product Tank Edinburgh webinar supported by Deliveroo, Skyscanner and xDesign a fortnight ago, Care Sourcer CEO Andrew Parfery used animal analogies to describe how companies can choose to face up to the current crisis - you can be a bear and go into hibernation, a deer caught in the headlights, a swallow that is highly agile or a chameleon that changes its colour altogether. I’ll admit to having had a few “bear” and “deer” moments myself these last few weeks, while trying to be the “swallow” Care Sourcer’s CEO describes. 

While UserTesting and Care Sourcer adapt to a new business reality globally and in the UK respectively, some the stories of more hyperlocal pivots to address the current situation have caught the eye recently. One incredible social enterprise that came onto my radar recently is Tranent-based Heavy Sound, who primarily work with young people who have experienced trauma or barriers, helping them to reengage through projects involving hip-hop, song writing, DJ’ing, music production and band work.

Heavy Sound can’t go into schools to deliver its programmes at present but CEO and founder Jordan Butler realised he had staff and resources who were “available and willing” and wanted to help the most vulnerable people in our society. One initiative Butler and Heavy Sound has initiated is with the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) to deliver food the EICC has in its kitchens for events that can no longer now take place.  

Thanks goodness for amazing people and businesses like this at this time. Here's to the swallows. 

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 13th April 2020

Above and beyond, by Nick Freer

Social distancing and the web

Amid the coronavirus-related avalanche of news reporting over the last week, one segment on US broadcaster CNN stood out for me. In it, a rabbi from New York said he prefers to use the term “physical distancing” over “social distancing” because so many people now have access to online technologies that allow us to stay close by seeing and speaking to each other when we are physically apart. 

Much criticised social media platforms like Facebook have come into their own of late as the majority of the world moves to self-isolation mode. While it’s good to talk, it’s great to be able to see loved ones, family and friends - grandparents seeing their grandchildren is the one that springs to mind at the moment. 

A couple of weekends ago, when it became obvious that it wouldn’t be wise to go ahead with a small birthday bash for a family friend, we decided to do a video call instead. After a bit of difficulty setting the 3-way call up - despite one of the dads being a chief technology officer and one of the mums a board member at one of Europe’s fastest-growing tech companies - it was one of the kids who succeeded in getting us all online on WhatsApp and then we had a glass or two of fizzy wine and a few laughs.

The next day I did client conference calls on Zoom, WebEx, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams. Were some teething issues experienced at times? Most definitely. Remote working is going to be tough for most of us. What’s for sure is that we’re all going to get much better at it in the coming days and weeks. 

I got in touch with Scottish tech entrepreneur George Mackintosh, who set up teleconferencing business Geoconference in 1995 with the backing of venture capital firm 3i, to get an expert’s view. “We had started to get people to conference call”, says Mackintosh, “but struggled to gain user traction in early web conferencing and especially with video technologies. While I banged on about it being a business imperative, we were let down by clunky user interfaces and hopeless connection speeds. Over the next 20 years it has been uphill progress until Apple with FaceTime and Microsoft with Skype made inroads, but mostly in the consumer field. Zoom has now burst onto the business scene and is a media favourite. This pandemic has now made video a personal communication imperative.” 

Speaking with Cortex Worldwide’s CEO Peter Proud, Proud reminds me that the reality of remote working extends beyond enabling technologies. “Working from home is not just about the technology, it’s about the home environment too.” Since asking staff about their remote requirements, Cortex has been buying ergonomic chairs, desks, keyboards and monitors and getting them delivered to its people at home.

Business PR in the wake of Covid-19

I wrote a blog last week about how businesses and PR people seeing an opportunity to position stories around the coronavirus pandemic are walking something of a tightrope. It’s a subject I’ve been speaking to business editors about the last few days, in no small part because I want to be able to give my own clients the best possible advice at this time. 

One of the editors I spoke to put it like this: “At first we wondered whether business news would dry up but that's not been the case. Companies have quickly adapted to their 'new normal', though it's fair to say that almost everything is happening against a backdrop of coronavirus and we're happy to reflect that. This is the biggest business story for a decade. There's no question of 'crowbarring' it in though and those who have tried that approach are easily spotted.”

In a similar way to the big US tech players like IBM pulling together to offer supercomputer support in the global fight against Covid-19, I know that on the Scottish scene earlier stage tech players like CodeBase, Care Sourcer, Current Health, Relaymed and Trickle are all flat out doing what they can to support the NHS in Scotland and across the UK. It’s companies like these that are setting the standard at the moment. Going above and beyond. More power to them.

An edited version of this blog appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 30th March

That Friday feeling, by Nick Freer

At the end of a week that has been challenging for so many people as the coronavirus pandemic starts to touch our personal, family and business lives in Scotland, that so-called “Friday feeling” ahead of the weekend is very different this afternoon. In spite of what was already quite a circumspect start to 2020, as Brexit began to bite and the temperature rose on climate concerns, there was still something exciting about entering a new decade - perhaps because there was a whiff of hope that a new chapter in time might equate to better days ahead.

Today, Twitter was awash with film of people across Italy - the video segments I saw were filmed in Naples and Siena - singing from their windows and balconies in unison to raise spirits as the Italian lockdown continues. I went through a few emotions as I watched - it was uplifting on one hand, very sad on the other. There was something beautiful in those voices but I also sensed something underlying more akin to fear. Of course, that could be more about my own fear about our country heading towards a similar place.

Like many, I spend a good amount of time on Twitter every day to see what people are talking about and, in particular, I follow a lot of journalists I either know or whose articles I like to read - it was a tech journalist for the FT in San Francisco who posted the first tweet I saw about the mass community singing in Italy. Journalists, the press, hacks, the media, whatever you want to call what is sometimes termed "the fourth estate", by the very nature of what they do (reporting on breaking news), it's inherent they can’t get away from what is happening in the world; you are always going to be in the thick of it working in a newsroom. 

A journalist from a national broadcaster I spoke to today, a highly-rated reporter who is also a helluva nice guy, shared a similar view: “Most of my colleagues seem to be dealing with it pretty well, although there’s little else being talked or written about in the office. We are all well aware that the way in which we go about our work is going to change. For example, there’s a lot more talk from management about remote working and contingency plans are being put in place.”

The PR world has also sprung into action this week, relaying back to the press how businesses, organisations, communities etc are dealing with the onset of coronavirus here. As you would expect, being in PR, I’ve had lots of conversations across my own client base in recent days and have fielded lots of press enquiries. As the fourth estate know best, PR can sometimes be delivered with spin, smoke and mirrors or even stonewalling. This is not a time for that kind of PR. If ever there was a time for honesty and integrity in communications it is now.  

From a news point of view, the new reality is that editors will increasingly be looking for stories that relate to coronavirus for the foreseeable. I've heard exactly that from more than one journalist in the last couple of hours alone. At the same time, as a rule of thumb, as PR people, let’s make sure these stories are relevant. Now is not the time for ambulance chasing. 

How Scottish tech engaged the world, by Nick Freer

About a decade ago, I remember joining a quite sparsely attended get together in Edinburgh where, primarily young to middle-aged males phoned pizza in, guzzled a few beers and talked computer language. Organised by academics, the developers in the room, guys who were building software and apps for a living, typically sported a good deal of denim, oversized t-shirts and hoodies, while unusual haircuts and facial hair were pretty commonplace. 

Unsurprisingly, the term “tech meetup” originated in the States and the Scottish equivalent took place primarily, like its more established American form, after working hours on a university campus. Fast forward ten years, and venues for these meetups have improved markedly to say the least. While Scotland’s universities continue to play a part, we now have a sophisticated tech incubator in CodeBase and upmarket co-working spaces like WeWork and Spaces. 

Scotland’s once fledging meetup scene has also morphed into a string of internationally-recognised tech festivals that run throughout the year - with EIE, Turing Fest, Startup Summit and DataFest among the highlights. While Turing sprung form the founding team at CodeBase and Startup Summit was launched by a Bridge of Allan teenager in a Stirling schoolroom, EIE was founded by the Informatics Ventures team on the 8th floor of Appleton Tower at the University of Edinburgh.   

Of course, academia and tech have been cheek by jowl since the beginning of the inexorable rise of the technology sector across the globe - think for example of the role Stanford University has played vis-a-vis Silicon Valley or the impact of Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Boston’s tech cluster. In the Scottish context, the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University and the University of Strathclyde are three universities who can claim to have strong credentials when it comes to tech, innovation, entrepreneurship and spin-outs. 

EIE (which stands for Engage, Invest, Exploit) is in fact much more than an one-off festival. The tech investor programme - EIE’s raison d’être is to connect startups with investors who can help to fuel their growth ambitions - runs throughout the year with a focus on making the company cohort as investor-ready as possible. 

Notable startups to have gone through the programme include FanDuel, Two Big Ears, Current Health, Criton, Spire Global, pureLiFi and mLED - only a few of the hundreds of EIE alumnus companies who have collectively raised over £700 million to date. One of the interesting things for me around the 50 EIE20 companies selected to pitch this year, is the number of startups who are either locating operations or relocating wholesale to Scotland - it says something about how the Scottish tech ecosystem is starting to make the right waves outside its own borders. 

I caught up with FanDuel co-founder Lesley Eccles (pictured above) last week when Eccles, who launched relationship app Relish in 2018 and is a longstanding participant and supporter of EIE, said: "I'm so proud of what EIE has become and excited to see the continued buzz about and investment in Scottish startups.”

I always think Scotland’s tech festivals do best when they mix indigenous tech talent with industry players from outside Scotland (having attended EIE, Turing Fest and Startup Summit down the years, each does really well on this front) who can give our community here a perspective from larger, more established tech ecosystems - been there, done it, got the t-shirt etc.

At the same time, lessons from say Silicon Valley can sometimes be so far from the reality of busting a gut to get a startup off the ground in Scotland that, at least for some, a northern Californian perspective doesn’t always translate to an early stage technology company here. For that reason, it’s great so see Blackcircles.com founder Mike Welch lined up for EIE20. Welch, who built online tyre retailer Blackcircles from a base in Scotland before the business was acquired by industrial giant Michelin in 2015 for almost £100 million, is now splitting his time between Edinburgh and Miami where he recently launched a new online tire venture, Tirescanner.

Welch noted last week: “Launching a startup is not for the faint hearted. The setbacks, stress and isolation are enough to put most off! But if you get it right, the rewards can be so much greater than that achievable from a ‘normal’ job. A big part of getting it right is choosing a group of investors that you can develop a working relationship with.” 

An edited version of this article was published in The Scotsman on Monday 2nd March

The role of the CMO in fast growth tech, by Nick Freer

The Chief Marketing Officer, or CMO, is an integral member of a company’s leadership team including in fast-growth tech companies. At the same time, particularly in Scotland, finding the right person for the job can be a tough nut to crack. 

Nicki Denholm, Chair of Denholm Associates who specialise in finding CMOs explains how much weight should be ascribed to the role: “An experienced CMO should have a wide remit, with the insight and experience to represent the voice of the customer and the ability to challenge the CEO. A good CMO will also be able to help engineer the necessary pivots that most high growth startups will go through.”

Denholm’s view is supported by recent research from Accenture, which found that outperforming CMOs ensure the customer is central to their thinking and vision, not just in the services they provide but in how they react, change course and adapt as a company. 

There is something of a ‘chicken or the egg’ dilemma for tech startups here in Scotland - do these companies bring a CMO on board as they plot for scale or do they wait until they reach the scale-up stage? Even when the decision to hire a CMO has been made, word on the street indicates that there is a distinct shortage of talent available to our most ambitious young tech ventures. As one tech founder put it to me last week: “you would be lucky to count scale-up standard CMOs in this country on one hand.” 

Perhaps one way forward would be the establishment of some kind of CMO academy in Scotland. A collective of top CMOs from Scotland, London and the international scene would allow us to pool experience and share collective know-how. Assuming the sum would be greater than the parts, this could help take our budding marketeers to the next level.   

So, what are the key characteristics of a CMO in the tech space? Danae Shell, former CMO at health tech Care Sourcer who secured one of the largest ever investment rounds by a Scottish startup in 2018, opines: “For me, the CMO role in a fast-growing company is all about collaboration - you are often sitting at the intersection of functions like product, finance and sales, and the job is to make sure that you’re staying aligned and supporting each other towards a common goal.”

Catching up with Edinburgh-born Leela Srinivasan, CMO of Silicon Valley-headquartered survey software provider SurveyMonkey, also a previous Director of Marketing at US tech giant LinkedIn and a former startup CMO, Srinivasan commented: “Many people underestimate the sheer scope and multifaceted nature of the CMO remit. I guide a team responsible for driving online business growth, feeding our sales team, determining how we articulate our value to the world, and equipping the entire organisation to spread that message. We partner with HR on inspiring our employee base, drive emotional connection at scale with our customers, influence pricing and packaging decisions, decide where to invest tens of millions of dollars - and we're on the hook for measuring those outcomes. Marketing leaders have to be both left-brained and right-brained, strategic and executional powerhouses. It’s not a job for the faint of heart - and I love it.”

Last summer, UserTesting, the on-demand human insight platform that is used by around half of the world’s leading brands, became the first Silicon Valley tech company to open an international office in Edinburgh. According to UserTesting’s CMO Michelle Huff: ”Technology alone doesn't often win markets. It's the ability to pair technology with a need in the market. Companies must communicate simply and clearly that their technology solves a problem in a way that folks understand. That's the role of a CMO and why the CMO is so often one of the most critical components of a successful tech company."

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 24th February 2020

CodeBase: the heart and soul of Scotland's tech scene, by Nick Freer

No one in the room was surprised when CodeBase lifted the Ecosystem award at the recent Turing Fest-run Scottish Tech Startup Awards in Edinburgh. Since launching in 2014, the tech incubator in Scotland’s capital makes a strong case for being the heart and soul of the city’s startup scene and in many people’s eyes the Scottish tech scene overall. 

Deliveroo's Scotland lead Andy Robinson is one of the tech incubator's many plaudits: "CodeBase's value to the Edinburgh tech ecosystem cannot be understated. It's been a fantastic source of advice and support for hundreds of individuals for years, so it's great to see their enormous value recognised." 

Shame on the naysayers (I have met a few) who have branded CodeBase a “property play” over the years - it was always so much more than that and in 2020 it is a bona fide tech cluster and a veritable beacon for so much of the great stuff going on in Scottish tech. Again, no surprise that big name corporate brands like Barclays and PwC have fallen over themselves to secure tie-ups with CodeBase - which now has three core sites in Edinburgh, Stirling and Aberdeen - PwC announced a partnership with CodeBase in March 2017 and Barclays Eagle Labs, a platform to connect the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and drive digital skills development, was launched in Scotland at CodeBase in January 2018  

The team has carefully built a culture partly by design and, as I’m sure the guys would admit, partly by way of evolutionary flow at Argyle House in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. Like it was yesterday, I remember the day of the official launch when Scotland’s First Minister opened the building and we ushered in press and photographers when the paint was still drying on app developer Kotikan’s shiny new HQ (Kotikan was a keystone tenant at CodeBase and was subsequently acquired by fantasy sports site FanDuel in 2015). [You can read the BBC's coverage of the March 2014 launch here].

As the saying goes, the sum is greater than the parts and CodeBase tenant companies have collectively raised over £600 million to date. Other metrics show how much has been achieved - over 400 companies are currently being supported and the CodeBase team is delivering programmes and mentoring across 24 cities in the UK.  

Catching up with Edinburgh tech ecosystem mainstay Russell Henderson last week - Russell, former Director of Growth at mobile app and web developer Bemo, has helped to organise tech community initiatives like ProductTank, ScotStartups and StartupSurf (aka CodeBase’s surf club) - Russell shares his views on the subject in more eloquent terms: “The Scottish startup scene has gone through a phase change and CodeBase has been present throughout; sometimes as a catalyst, often as a champion, invariably as a protector and most importantly as a curator of community. Theirs has been a unique perspective which means they are now increasingly recognised as the go-to repository for all things startup.”

In May, CodeBase launched a creative industries accelerator - Creative Bridge - in partnership with University of Edinburgh, Napier University and Creative Edinburgh - and in November the team brought LawTech Bridge, which had already tasted great success in London, to Scotland offering a opportunity-rich environment for collaboration between law firms and startups. Watch this space for further industry sector announcements in 2020.

CodeBase’s Head of Partnerships, Oliver Littlejohn explains: “2020 is going to be a pivotal year for CodeBase. We're putting together these meetups as part of a larger effort to work much more closely with partners from the whole tech ecosystem. The meetups will be a place where startups, scaleups, creatives, corporates, academia and the public sector can all get together to learn startup thinking.”

Over the next fortnight alone, alongside yoga classes and coffee mornings, a couple of events taking place at CodeBase catch the eye. On the 23rd, coding initiative Digital Skills 4 Girls (established by CodeBase Stirling) rolls into Argyle House. Claire Wheelan from CodeBase's marketing team explains a bit more about DS4G which is supported by Deliveroo Engineering: "We're so excited to launch DS4G in Edinburgh, it's a safe space for girls to explore a range of creative digital skills and get them thinking about where they fit into the digital world. What's also interesting is that we have also seen an increase in the number of girls attending our mixed coding club since we launched DS4G and we now have a 50/50 split."

The following week, on the 28th, the first in a new series of CodeBase Edinburgh Meetups kicks off aimed at bringing the tech community together to discuss best practice in building startups. Tech.eu’s Natalie Novick, Dropbox’s Abhishek Lahoti, Bemo’s Matt Farrugia and Creative Edinburgh’s Briana Pegado feature on the panel for this month’s inaugural event. You can sign up to a monthly newsletter from CodeBase that has more detail on this and all the other wonderful things taking place in Edinburgh, Stirling, Aberdeen, London and elsewhere.  

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 20th January 2020

Raising a glass to 2019, by Nick Freer

There’s a line in the recently released Martin Scorsese movie The Irishman where Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino, asks truck driver and budding mafia hitman Frank Sheeran, played by Robert de Niro, “I heard you paint houses?” Word of mouth has passed through the underground crime world of the Eastern Seaboard of 1950s America and Frank Sheeran’s currency is set for an inexorable rise.

Without wanting to draw too many comparisons between the dark arts of killing people for a living and running a PR agency, word of mouth has been the most important factor in building the Freer Consultancy into a bona fide player on the Scottish PR scene since I launched the business after losing my job in the wake of the financial crash just over a decade ago. 

Following my wife (as she is now) to Edinburgh, when I arrived in this city I knew no one, literally no one, professionally or socially, when I got off the train at Waverley one chilly afternoon (it was midsummer at the time).

By translating my experience of advising FTSE listed companies on the London Stock Exchange (I spent ten years with Maitland in London) to the Scottish context, I found a niche advising fast-growing SME companies like online travel search site Skyscanner (acquired by Ctrip in 2016), online tyre retailer Blackcircles.com (acquired by Michelin in 2015) and tech incubator CodeBase around corporate PR; helping each to build a narrative in the press that would raise profile en route to milestone events like VC funding, M&A, IPOs and other significant events on the corporate timeline. 

When one of my first ever clients asked to meet me at the office at home I had exaggeratedly told him about, which in reality included the matrimonial bed, a 6-month old baby and a battered old laptop, I remember spending a frenzied couple of days rearranging the house and spending a stupid amount of money on furniture and furnishings to make the place look less like the misrepresentation I had made it out to be. From memory, I think I may also have put the baby in a cupboard.

Fast forward almost ten years and my agency is doing much the same (the PR stuff rather than the stuffing babies in cupboards bit), namely supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs around PR strategy and delivery. In terms of the business, 2019 has been another good year. It’s been fun too - I think in the main because of the people I’ve had the chance to work with. People like Cortex CEO Peter Proud rank highly here, watch this space in 2020 for all things Cortex, and Carolyn Jameson who switched from Skyscanner to Copenhagen HQ-ed customer review site Trustpilot. Overall, we now have a good mix of what I describe as old and new economy clients (although in truth, software and digital transformation have begun to blur the lines).

Among the highlights from the old economy: supporting one of Scotland’s oldest but most dynamic law firms, Anderson Strathern, in what was a record year for the firm; advising the EICC team including around the venue winning the much-coveted TEDSummit; raising profile for the UK’s newest private bank, Hampden & Co, and; handling PR for property specialist Rettie & Co’s push into the build-to-rent sector. Meanwhile, Freer Consultancy clients like Tayburn, Denholm and MadeBrave have reinvented each of their own agencies with digital-led propositions.

Among highlights from the new economy: working closely with UserTesting, the first Silicon Valley tech company to open an international HQ in Scotland; advising Cultivate (one of the many tech startups and scale-ups we have worked with over the last ten years) and Deliveroo as the latter acquired the former this July; supporting entrepreneur Mike Welch as he launched his new tire venture Tirescanner in the US; advising second-time founder Paul Reid's new venture Trickle; handling PR around Money Dashboard’s record-breaking crowdfund; guiding PR activity for digital skills academy CodeClan; supporting Turing Fest around the Scottish Tech Startup Awards; handling Care Sourcer’s joint announcement on funding with Scottish Enterprise and; supporting global tech advisory bank GP Bullhound around acquisitions in Scotland.  

As we reach the end of the year (and the decade), we'd like to thank all of our clients, suppliers, associates, mentors and peers not only for all their support over the years but also for the many lasting friendships that have been made along the way. Together, we've been through the ups and downs, as well as the highs, that come with business life and life in general. While there has been occasional blood, sweat and tears, this has been the exception rather than the rule. So, a moment to reflect and raise a glass on New Year's Eve or Hogmanay as we call it in Scotland. To another year, to another decade and let's hope it's a roaring good 20s for us all! Slàinte mhath!

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 23rd December 2019

The importance of a strong startup community, guest post by Turing Fest CEO Brian Corcoran

Next week, on November 28th, the Turing Fest team will stage the second annual Scottish Tech Startups Awards in Edinburgh. After recently unveiling the finalists for the awards, it is clear that in 2019 we’re seeing a continuation of an encouraging trend in Scotland’s technology economy: Scottish founders and their teams are building ever stronger and more ambitious businesses that can generate huge economic impact.

There are many awards ceremonies on the business calendar, but this is the only one by and for the startup community; for the people who dream of building the next Skyscanner or FreeAgent. Like Turing Fest, the Startup Awards are an investment in developing a community that will benefit all of us, and we’re expecting over 600 people on the evening of the 28th at The Jam House.  

Tech ecosystems are collective organisms that are in effect startups themselves, where the strength of the community is a key determinant of success. It takes time and effort to cultivate, but a strong startup community can better attract and retain skilled people and new capital, develop a self-perpetuating skills funnel, and nurture entrepreneurial ‘folk wisdom’. Everyone in Scottish tech will benefit from investing in and nurturing the national startup community.

Since coming to Scotland to build my first software startup in 2010, I’ve watched Scotland’s tech economy grow in leaps and bounds. There is still much to do if we are to truly become a global tech hub, but we’re beginning to see more Scottish businesses reach the milestones that create a virtuous circle: talent and capital returning to the ecosystem to launch new ventures. Ambition has skyrocketed and learning cycles are shortening.

It’s increasingly clear that technology will be at the heart of the future of the Scottish economy. There is much work to be done — attracting and retaining technical and leadership talent in Scotland, ensuring access to the right types of investors, better connecting with other ecosystems, and further building our collective understanding of how to scale. This will enable Scotland’s technology sector to fulfil its promise and drive growth in the broader economy.  

Since last year’s awards, we have seen Scotland’s tech ecosystem continue to mature. Tech leaders and people with hard-won experience scaling have left later-stage tech companies like Skyscanner, FanDuel and FreeAgent to join earlier-stage tech companies like Care Sourcer, Current Health, Airts and TravelNest.  The currency of our fintech sector has risen, healthtech is in great shape and mobile technology is moving fast.    

American entrepreneur and venture capitalist Brad Feld developed the ‘Boulder Thesis’ — named after the tech community he helped forge in Boulder, Colorado, that in spite of a small population has become one of the leading startup hubs in the US. Essentially, the Boulder Thesis illustrates how tech success can be built far from Silicon Valley.  

Feld emphasises the roles of ‘leaders’ and ‘feeders’. Crucially, leaders must be entrepreneurs — who demonstrate long-term commitment, remain actively involved and put the ecosystem ahead of short-term interest. Our own leaders in Scotland are people like Gareth Williams, Mark Logan and Carolyn Jameson — all from Skyscanner alone. 

‘Feeders’ are all of the other actors in the ecosystem that, though not company builders, nonetheless play a significant role: government, universities, investors, mentors, incubators, accelerators, service providers and corporates. Again, we have some of these building blocks — the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics, CodeBase, CodeClan and Silicon Valley Bank, among others. The core philosophy of the Boulder Thesis centres on giving before you receive and thinking about network above hierarchy.

Chris McCann, founder of one of last year’s award-winning startups, Current Health spells it out like this: “Everyone in the tech community who can should be at the Awards; it is really the only night of the year when we can all come together to celebrate the whole ecosystem.” The more the merrier!  

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 18th November

Raison d'être is to bridge Scotland's digital skills gap, guest post by CodeClan CEO Melinda Matthews Clarkson

This week sees the 4th anniversary of CodeClan and like a birthday we’re very excited and will be raising a glass or two with friends to mark the occasion. 

Over 800 people have graduated from our software development and data analytics programmes, with the majority going on to work in technical roles with over 250 employer partners - large corporates, financial institutions, public sector bodies, scale-ups, and startups.  

CodeClan’s raison d’être is to bridge Scotland’s digital skills gap and we know how successfully we advance digital skills in this country will be key to how Scotland competes and prospers in the 21st century.    Commentators agree that we don’t know what more than 50 per cent of our jobs will look like in the future, such as the pace of technological change.  This means we need to be ready to adapt to tech trends in areas like data science and machine learning.  

Industry research tells us that the most successful companies require access to skilled workers and the European Commission has said that there could be almost a quarter of a million unfulfilled jobs in the European ICT sector by 2020.  Globally, the World Economic Forum forecasts that there will be over 100 million new roles generated by the Fourth Industrial Revolution by 2022.

In Scotland, it’s important that we keep abreast of global trends and ensure that we are equipping the nation’s people with the tools they need to compete not only at home but on the international stage.  In an increasingly data-driven world, we must keep ahead of the curve. 

Founded in 2015 with support from the Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies, we have progressed to a self-funding model while retaining our not-for-profit status.  CodeClan now has growing campuses in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Inverness.  We know the links to the Scottish industry through our employer network - commercial and public sector organisations who hire our talented graduates - are crucial not only to our own success but, more importantly, to the future success of Scotland’s economy.  

At a recent Scottish Chambers of Commerce dinner, I was thrilled to hear from John Swinney that the Scottish Government considers CodeClan to be one of its greatest achievements of recent times where the public sector and industry collaborated for the greater good.  This week, we look forward to being joined by digital minister Kate Forbes as we celebrate four years in business.

When I joined CodeClan as CEO from IBM in 2017, the nation’s digital skills academy was already providing a new way to help people reskill and retrain.  The last couple of years have seen our team push on and build what I believe is an even better product with a stronger market fit. We have added essential 21st-century meta-skills or soft skills to the programme.  Our partners have given us feedback and looking at the most successful companies in today’s market - being able to be problem solvers, open to new ideas, resilient to change and most of all to be able to manage one’s personal health (mind and body) is the key to success in a career and the ecosystem of digital.

Operating highlights in 2019 for CodeClan have included the opening of the Highlands Campus in Inverness in April, Learning and Wellbeing sessions added to the programme, partnerships with charities and not for profits that need technical assistance,  a strategic partnership with technology recruitment specialist Eden Scott to provide career support to CodeClan graduates after 18 months in a job and the strengthening of CodeClan’s leadership and instructor team.  

It's a testament to the whole team, our graduates and our employer partners that we look ahead with even greater optimism on the occasion of our 4th anniversary.  Our people, our graduates and our employer partners combine to form a virtuous circle that makes CodeClan work and we’re excited to be delivering real impact on the Scottish digital scene. 

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 4th November

Scotland's DNA built on innovation, guest post by FutureX CEO Bruce Walker

The entrepreneurial world brings with it its own glossary of jargon. One of the most well worn is the ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’: the local environment and network affecting new businesses.

Seven years ago, as an emerging entrepreneur, I took note of the support available within that ecosystem but felt that it was somewhat fragmented. Entrepreneurs like me were hungry for a cohesive community that could support them in their business ambitions.

When I first took charge of Startup Summit, I hoped to bring those elements together and see the ecosystem laid out in front of us. By the second year of running the event, we started to see those pieces connect and the foundations of the current network forming.

Since then, with a massive collective effort from across the country, the entrepreneurial ecosystem has gained momentum. The environment – inter-sector support – and network – a cohesive community of organisations – have matured, creating a space primed for the future of business and the challenges and opportunities that entails.

An empowering network

As those fragments have connected, the community has formalised into Scotland CAN DO, connecting over 100 organisations across Scotland. It is a focal point as we work together, share support and resources, and create a culture that empowers people to develop new initiatives. 

Alongside this community, support from public and private sector organisations enables new companies to succeed. Scottish Enterprise, Business Gateway, Entrepreneurial Scotland and Scottish EDGE, among others, have cemented themselves as pivotal support and funding groups in this network.

Tying these together is how closely the Scottish private and public sectors work together by exchanging data and analysis. The Data Lab, in particular, plays a fundamental role in this data exchange. The public sector supports their work, benefitting from the analysis they provide, while The Data Lab has the flexibility to work with the private sector. 

Scottish culture & connection

While this close collaboration is new, Scotland's entrepreneurial spirit is not. From television to penicillin to modern geology, Scotland's DNA is built on innovation. 

Successful Scottish businesses, like Skyscanner and BrewDog, had to blaze the trail, leading the way and showing where opportunities and challenges lie. They also became role models for success and growth: if they could become global businesses, so could other Scottish entrepreneurs.

These examples of high growth companies and the emergence of a thriving community are encouraging more talented people to relocate to Scotland. The country benefits from both its intimate size and global reach, boasting a high quality of life with a successful blend of lifestyle and career.

Increasingly, international investors and companies are looking to Scotland. London and European-based VC’s, including Octopus Ventures, Episode 1 and ADV, are interested in Scottish businesses and will be speaking at Startup Summit this week about startup investment. Other Startup Summit speakers, from Google for Startups UK and Starling Bank, have voiced interest in increasing their representation outside of their London base - and see Scotland as a perfect opportunity.

What’s next?

As we look forward to the future of entrepreneurship in Scotland, we need to act with intention. We are moving into an era of further digitisation, AI and increased personalisation. While opening new opportunities in Scotland, we must always keep ethics, purpose and people at the heart of our decision making.

We've set the foundations of a healthy, supportive and encouraging entrepreneurial ecosystem. Now, we need to make sure we move into the next phase of building robust companies prepared for investment and growth.

We're delighted to be back this week for the eighth Startup Summit and continue to champion the Scottish and European entrepreneurial ecosystems. While it may look a little different than 2012, the driving force remains the same: to create a cohesive international community of ambitious entrepreneurs building sustainable and scalable companies. 

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 28th October

Titans of Tech and the Scottish tech scene, guest post by Hugh Campbell, Managing Partner, GP Bullhound

2019 has been another incredible year in the global technology sector.  Tech’s transformative effect has touched every corner of the planet and we have witnessed its commercial, social and political impact as never before.  

At GP Bullhound, we have strengthened our track record of working with entrepreneurs at world-leading companies who understand the enabling power of technology and we are optimistic about what technology and its leading proponents can achieve.  From smart retail and last mile delivery to blockchain and artificial intelligence, we are continually mapping the trends and innovations set to drive future growth.    

In Europe, we now have more billion-dollar tech companies than ever and 2018 saw the largest year of fundraising on record.  Released earlier this year, our sixth annual Titans of Tech report analysed the growth, strength and velocity of Europe’s leading tech businesses, the investment landscape fuelling this growth and identified the likely tech successes of tomorrow.

Scotland has of course produced billion-dollar valued tech companies of its own.  These successes have played an important role in helping the nation’s ecosystem to mature and move to the next level, underpinned by world-class universities, internationally-renowned informatics schools and one of the most sophisticated angel communities around.  

Recent weeks and months have seen Silicon Valley companies like UserTesting and OnScale open international offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh and these developments are testament to how far Scotland’s technology hub has come.

Only last week, in another notch for Scottish tech, Edinburgh-based gaming analytics company deltaDNA was acquired by San Francisco-headquartered Unity Technologies,  a deal in which we supported deltaDNA’s CEO Mark Robinson and his team as lead advisors.  

With a global network, supported by offices across Europe, Asia and North America, we are increasingly sourcing M&A and capital raising opportunities for Scotland’s most highly-rated tech companies by combining high level advisory services with bridgeheads into places like Silicon Valley and increasingly Asia.  

While we know it can be hard for UK technology hubs outside London to build profile, recent investor activity certainly illustrates that more corporates and funds are examining Scotland for investment opportunities.     

While M&A transactions like Skyscanner and FreeAgent are well documented examples of large and mid-range deals in recent times, talk on the street says that companies to watch in the Scottish tech space include TVSquared, Indigo Vision, Care Sourcer and TravelNest.  Perhaps one of these companies will reach the heady valuations achieved by Skyscanner and FanDuel before.  

Our Titans of Tech report this year showed that Europe’s billion-dollar or “unicorn” tech companies are growing faster than their US counterparts - by 28 per cent against 20 per cent - with the total number of unicorns up to 84 this year from 30 in 2014. Interestingly, as a group these businesses are also much more profitable – and some would therefore argue, more stable – than their US or Asian counterparts. This could be an important characteristic if, as WeWork experienced, we see funding and IPO markets tighten up.

Of course, the tech scene is about so much more than billion-dollar companies and tech founders must navigate a series of funding rounds before anyone can even think about lofty valuations.  In parallel, incredible value can still be achieved for founders and investors at much lower levels.

Think of Blackcircles.com, founded by Mike Welch in Edinburgh and sold to Michelin in 2015, the deltaDNA deal we advised on this year or another one we handled when Scottish data analytics specialist Aquila Insight was bought for £40 million by US marketing group Merkle in 2017.

Scaling a technology company brings the greatest reward to startup founders, their teams, investors and ultimately the economy.  As with Europe as a whole, we see the tech curve rising in Scotland and we are optimistic that there will be many more successes to come in the months and years ahead. 

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 7th October 2019

The future of open banking, guest post by Domenico De Fano, Senior Product Manager, Revolut

There’s a reason why there has been a boom in attention and growth in fintechs and it’s largely due the speed at which innovation and user-centric solutions are released to consumers. As fintech startups continue to deliver great products, customers expectations get higher, making it even harder for incumbents to catch up.

Since Revolut for Business launched two years ago, thousands of businesses in Scotland have joined us, and we welcome more daily. What businesses love about Revolut for Business, is that the platform isn’t just an add-on to the retail product, but is in fact a dedicated service where all of a company’s financial needs are met in one seamless package. Add to that our Open API and integrations, and you’ve got something that’s even more flexible.

We built our first Open API over 2 years ago, when open banking was still a term for the few industry experts, because we understood the need for modern businesses to move data between different online platforms and automate their banking operations.

Today, we’re excited to see that open banking is revolutionising how we access and interact with financial products and services, creating a more personalised digital experience in financial services, and helping millions stuck on the wrong financial product. 

Some key examples of FinTech services and products enabled through open banking include financial data aggregation platforms, and money-advice products able to provide new insights about spending and savings patterns. Through open banking, you can allow third-party apps to show you how much you’re spending on shopping or public transport, or even to prompt you when it’s the optimum time to exchange your hard-earned pennies for those holiday euros. This functionality is now commonplace, and yet some of the more traditional high street banks are only just starting to catch up. Just as we at Revolut are once again pulling away.

Many more opportunities remain yet unexplored, including cardless online payments, which could make the payment experience much more secure, traceable and slick. Or how we might never have to fill paperwork providing our financial information when applying for a loan, a mortgage or when opening a new bank account. We are excited to see the activity across the whole industry and it is only just beginning for us at Revolut.

The road ahead is long and challenging - since open banking launched two years ago, most high street banks have just delivered the bare minimum to comply with the regulations, failing to see further opportunities for innovation. That being said, what has been done has laid the path for the emergence of startups that could not have existed before open banking and together with other innovators in the field such as Revolut, are already at work on the next iteration of innovative products for customers and businesses.

The opportunities in this space are vast and varied, making this is an exciting race to not only develop these products quickly, but also to deliver them with the utmost standards of quality and reliability. It’s integral to our own success that our clients and network of developers are involved. Our product has been led by clients and we are always listening to their thoughts and feedback. This is, in our opinion, where some of the incumbent banks may have lost their way. We intend to stay on track, to grow alongside our clients as both a trusted service and partner.

We look forward to the opportunity to contribute to conversations around open banking specifically to Scottish businesses and consumers, at a roundtable discussion at the upcoming fintech summit at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh later this week. If you’re around, come and see us. We might even drop some tidbits about our upcoming product roadmap.

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 23rd September 2019

What the tech sector can learn from Brewgooder, guest post by Glen Manoff, Chief Communications Officer, Trustpilot

The Scottish technology sector is in rude health and with the right approach can help define and lead the Internet’s next wave.

Beyond the usual networking and tech start-ups seeking funding at the recent Turing Fest in Edinburgh, we discussed a rather huge topic: what’s the role of the tech sector in building a better world for all of humanity. 

The Internet is just over a quarter century old and has exceeded even its founder’s wildest expectations to become the most expansive and powerful technology the world has ever known. But while its first chapter, written largely in Silicon Valley, has delivered incredible innovation and wealth creation it has left a highway of harm and destruction too. 

Technology that was supposed to bring us together in open collaboration has too often been used to drive us apart, destroy trust in each other and our institutions and exacerbate the existential challenges facing our planet. 

In Edinburgh we discussed how to build the Internet’s next wave based on a single unifying thought: humanity.  

More specifically, we discussed the unifying principles that every tech actor can adopt to ensure that whatever technologies they’re designing, they should have positive social and environmental impacts built in from ground zero and not after the fact. 

The ‘Copenhagen Letter' launched at the city's Tech Festival in 2017 and discussed again there last week is a manifesto for “all actors who shape technology” to design a better Internet by adhering to some shared core principles. 

 It starts: “It’s time to take responsibility for the world we are creating. Time to put humans before business. Time to replace the empty rhetoric of building a better world with a commitment to real action. It is time to organize and to hold each other accountable. Tech is not above us.”

One of its core principles is “designing for trust’ via ‘true transparency’ so we can all be digital citizens not mere consumers. 

Another says simply “we must design tools that we would love our loved ones to use.”  And that means we will no longer tolerate “design for addiction, deception, or control.”

These are simple ideas that any tech actor, big or small, can apply. 

Brewgooder is a wonderful example that all of tech can learn from. Founder Alan Mahon is building a business to not only make great beer but to have positive net impact by investing profits to provide the fresh water that will improve the life chances of young people - particularly young women - in water deprived areas of Africa. 

Not every company is trying to solve global problems in this way as part of its mission. But everyone can apply the principle of “designing for humanity” to their own business. If Silicon Valley had adopted such principles when the net was in its infancy the world might look very different today. 

Imagine if Apple became the world’s richest company not only by making beautiful transformative devices but building them to last a decades rather than contributing to a billion rapidly disposable devices devouring the earth’s scarce metals. 

Or if Facebook had not focused its energy on extracting maximum monetary value from its users by packaging and selling their personal data to the highest bidder but stayed focus on bringing billions of people and communities closer together. 

The Googles and Amazons of tomorrow are being built today. If the Internet’s first chapter taught anything it’s how fast companies can rise. 

 If every company designed from human-centred principles, we have a fighting chance for the Internet’s next chapter to more fully realise its founder’s vision.

Silicon Valley may yet figure this out but the signs are that there is a long way to go.  So, the technology revolution needs inspiration and leadership from elsewhere too. Why not Scotland?

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 9th September 2019

Tech tales from Turing, by Nick Freer

Turing Fest 2019 at the EICC last week had an American flavour, with an array of Stateside speakers, including the inventor of the hashtag and featuring one of Silicon Valley’s most highly-rated near-unicorn companies who recently set up an international office in Edinburgh. 

Chris Messina, formerly of US tech giants Google and Uber, came to the conclusion that what he describes as social technology was going to be “a really big deal” as long ago as 1998 and showed photos of him with Twitter founders Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey in San Francisco back in 2007.

Messina ran through some illuminating stats. 72 per cent of adults engage with social media in the United States, 85 per cent of U.S. teens are regulars on YouTube and, in a nod to his own creation, 200 million hashtags are used every day in the States, equating to 2,300 hashtags every minute. But, says Messina, in the race to connect everyone together we have started to see a social media fallout. The inventory of effects include digital addiction, mental health issues, breakdown of truth, polarisation, political manipulation and superficiality. 

Messina quoted Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, whose work forms a cornerstone of media theory and observed that “we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us”. Messina believes founders can effect real change. “Founders’ culture informs the values and, in turn, values inform product design choices. Cumulatively, design choices define products that make it out into the world. Products impact users’ behaviour, which in turn becomes mass culture”.

Messina cited a few U.S.-based startups who are trying to drive change in this space - including Beam who are developing an “online gym for mental fitness” and Maslo, a Los Angeles startup who believe that technologies should help us grow into better people.  

UserTesting, the San Francisco-headquartered tech firm with a customer experience platform used by around half of the world’s leading brands, flew one of its senior team in to talk about the importance of empathy in product development. Janelle Estes explained that in the age of data overload, companies that forget about empathy do so at their peril: “All the statistics in the world can’t measure the warmth of a smile”. 

Fred Destin of venture capitalist Stride added an investor’s view at Turing. Before painting a picture of the “world of chaos” we live in in the early 21st century, Destin drilled into the job of the CEO of a technology startup. “Make decisions under conditions of uncertainty”, “define the mission”, “focus only on the mission”, “move the ball down the field every day” and “do the five things you have to do every day.” Destin says it is a must to obsess about culture. “You need to define it, live it every day”. 

Destin says today’s founders must harness complexity to scale infinitely. Digitally native companies like Uber are taking over the world. The ride-sharing startup raised $4 million at seed round before going on to be worth $4 billion 4 years later. Humans are not designed to live with this kind of pace of change, so the biggest winners work out how to survive and thrive amidst chaos.

At a panel Q&A hosted by social enterprise Brewgooder's founder Alan Mahon, senior executives from Skyscanner (SVP Growth, Shane Corstorphine), Monzo (Head of People, Tara Mansfield) and Trustpilot (SVP Communications, Glenn Manoff) discussed how tech can be characterised as something of a double-edged sword: while it has eroded public trust worldwide and presents sustainability issues on a massive scale with 1 billion resource-hungry smartphones and devices in circulation, the tech world also has the inherent ability to bring about real and lasting change. More so than any other industry sector or Government. 

Supporting Scotland’s top-rated healthtech company Care Sourcer on day one of Turing around its announcement of Scottish Enterprise funding that will help it further scale and increasingly tackle the UK’s chronic care crisis, I’m reminded of how tech can indeed be a harbinger of positive change.

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 2nd September

Why my company says here's to Scotland! Guest post by Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer, UserTesting

For my Silicon Valley-based company, UserTesting, this has been the Summer of Scotland. In late July, we announced the opening of our first international office. Not in London or Paris or Frankfurt, but right here in Edinburgh.

And, coincidentally, when one of Europe’s top conferences - Turing Fest - takes place in Scotland’s capital Aug. 27-29, I have the privilege of speaking about one of the most important topics in business today: "Integrating Customer Empathy into the Product Creation Process.”

So why did UserTesting choose Auld Reekie for its European headquarters? Mostly for compelling business reasons, though another factor was some interesting personal connections that our CEO, Andy MacMillan, has with Edinburgh.

First, the business reasons.

Our 12-year-old, San Francisco-based company, whose human insights platform helps companies create better customer experiences, decided we wanted to be closer to our customers in the UK and across Europe. More than 10 percent of UserTesting’s growing customer base of 1,200 customers is in Europe, with 60 percent of those in the UK.

We could have picked any city. 

Naturally, we had been aware of Edinburgh’s buzz as a rising tech hub – for example, the 2018 Tech Nation report that proclaimed it the best place in the UK for tech companies to scale up and do business in. We knew about the city’s reputation as a magnet for millennials -- a crucial tech talent pool. We understood that it’s cheaper to operate out of Edinburgh than in a saturated, high-cost market like London.

But when we dug deeper, we also were blown away by the world-class tech talent coming out of Edinburgh’s universities and the strong commitment that the UK and Scottish governments have shown in infrastructure and tech investment, such as the City Region Deal, the University of Edinburgh’s Bayes Centre for data science and artificial intelligence, Heriot-Watt University’s GRID research center, and the BioQuarter.

All of this showed that Edinburgh has what it takes to support our ambitious goals to grow from nine employees in the city now to 30 by the end of this year to more than 100 within a few years. The new office is led by our new European regional vice president, Edinburgh’s Bruce Hunter, a 20-year software industry veteran.

And what were the CEO’s personal connections to Edinburgh I mentioned earlier?

Several connections that Andy MacMillan already had to Scotland made Edinburgh even more of a natural choice for UserTesting to look into. Andy’s father is a Scottish immigrant to the US. As a young woman, Andy’s grandmother worked as a maid for Sir Alexander Walker II. His grandfather was a caddie at Royal Troon. And Andy earned his MBA from the University of Edinburgh in 2003.

Edinburgh was simply a perfect match.

As Chief Insights Officer, I help lead UserTesting’s efforts to help businesses better see, hear, and understand customers so they can deliver the best experiences possible across a range of digital touchpoints.

My talk at Turing Fest will offer practical advice on how companies can integrate human empathy into the design and development of their products at every stage.

This is important because how well businesses cultivate memorably positive emotional connections with customers defines their success in today’s world where consumers have so many choices and can switch brand loyalty with a tap on their phone or a mouse click.

Numerous studies have shown that customer experience leaders – those that understand they’re offering not just a product but an experience -- outperform competitors. In fact, I’d argue that the ability to deliver a delightful experience is no longer a mere differentiator, businesses must think of it as the very foundation of everything it does.

I’m very much looking forward to my visit… and to all the wonderful things in store for UserTesting in Edinburgh.

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 26th August