On Wednesday morning (19th July 23) we officially kicked off our Tech Climbers campaign in Greater Manchester and opened entries and nominations for a place on our list of trailblazing tech start-ups and scale-ups. Fuelled with tea, coffee and pastries thanks to Burntwood SciTech, we had an amazing morning meeting founders, advisors and decision-makers from the region, and hearing about the opportunities and challenges scaling a tech business in the region.
Considering the early start, it was amazing to have a full room of engaged attendees from the community, listening to our morning of panels. From founders’ journeys to advisors’ recommendations, there was a lot to take away from the session.
The UK’s tech sectors need to collaborate
The event kicked off with a Q&A with Anna Heyes, founder of Tech Climbers and CEO of Active Profile, along with Matt Robinson, head of nations and regions at techUK, who spoke about the need for initiatives like Tech Climbers in the UK.
Taking about the common themes he sees within his national role; Matt Robinson mentioned the common perception of the north being anti-London. He discussed how this isn’t and shouldn’t be the case.
“Areas like Greater Manchester are working with London and understanding where we can partner, where we can share assets and information. The tech sector moves so quickly that we can’t afford to not partner in that way.”
“The risk of being alone could leave a region standing alone and falling behind in an internationally competitive environment.”
The need to tell the individual stories of the UK’s tech spaces
Anna spoke about the individuality of Tech Climbers and how it not only highlights the companies but also tells the story of the region’s tech sector through data collection. She said, “When we launched Tech Climbers, there were plenty of northern-based awards, but there was nobody really telling the story of the ecosystems within those places.” And this is something we strive to do better as we head into the next phase of Tech Climbers.
Matt added his admiration for Tech Climbers saying, “the great thing for me about Tech Climbers is that this isn’t about the tech sector talking to the tech sector, it’s the tech sector in the north of England, talking to the world.”
This led perfectly onto the announcement of techuk being the first of three Tech Climbers’ national partnerships. Anna explained that as Tech Climbers heads into its next ‘phase’ it’s really important that we start to profile each region’s tech ecosystems in detail, which had led to the national partnerships that we’re slowly rolling out.
Speaking on techUK’s motivation for the partnership, Matt said “techUK is delighted to be working with and supporting Tech Climbers. We are in an important period for the UK tech sector with many technological changes helping drive new ideas, concepts and companies. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy for scaling tech companies. That’s why it’s important we celebrate and recognise companies doing brilliant things, growing, collaborating in new ways and securing new investment. I encourage people and companies to enter, and I can’t wait to find out more about them and their work”.
The founder is the selling point in early recruitment
Chris McGowan from tech recruitment company BurnsSheehan kicked off our first panel offering recruitment advice to start-up businesses. He explained the need for the founder to be at the forefront of the process to sell the impact and culture of the business.
He also mentioned how a job spec isn’t going to attract the talent with the right passion and buy-in to your business. Instead, you need to make sure you’re taking up speaker opportunities and talking on podcasts, where you’re able to show your passion and gain that emotional investment from potential prospects.
Funding is less accessible, and businesses are experiencing high levels of scrutiny
A common theme we’ve seen in other regional panels is that it’s a lot harder to raise funding compared to 2021.
Michelle Mullany from MHA Moore and Smalley explained the investors’ nervousness around overpaying valuations at the moment, adding “Investors are being really choosy about the investments that they want to make, so there’s increased due diligence and scrutiny around whether senior leadership teams have the right calibre to deliver the forecast that you’re projecting.”
Sadra Hosseini, CEO of Ryft weighed in on the funding conversation, stating how his experience of building a business in Manchester has been great due to the people and talent in the city, however it’s been hard to raise local funding, admitting that funding rounds have come from London.
David Levine, principal at technology angel investment network Manchester Angels, added that businesses shouldn’t just be looking for funding in the city and that founders need to find the right investor – wherever that may be.
Kiran Mehta, investment manager at Mercia Ventures also offered tips on how to secure funding in the current competitive market, stating that businesses need to ensure they’re focussed on what the investor needs to know.
“On average we spend about 2 and a half minutes reviewing a pitch deck. So, I very much like to see that value proposition front and central on page 1”
You CAN patent software
Georgia Nichol, associate at Marks & Clerk, addressed the elephant in the room, stating that it is possible for businesses to patent software, “There are different types of protection that you can have - you can protect the way your user interface looks, you can protect your brand name and you can actually protect the technology through patents as well.”
She continued to explain how having a patent strategy in place early is the best way to protect your business, drawing on a recent client example that had resulted in winning a legal case against a global tech company, as well as another that led to constructive conversations with a competitor and income from a licensing agreement.
Treat every round of funding like afresh
A key piece of advice that came out of Gemma McCall’s journey scaling Culture Shift has been to treat every funding round as afresh. She admitted that in the past she’d held out, hoping that current investors would have continued their growth journey and it had delayed her growth. Due to this she now treats every round of funding like a new slate.
ENTRIES AND NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN
The morning ended with the announcement that entries are now open for a chance to be profiled on our regional list of trailblazing tech businesses. Anyone that makes the list will also receive partner prize packages, which offer ongoing support to aid the cohort’s growth.