South West Founders

PitchMe! is back for 2021. The event that allows startup founders the chance to pitch their ideas to a panel of experienced 'pitch listeners' in front of an audience, to get feedback, advice and questions to help them to hone both their ideas and their pitches! Each session we have 3 founders pitching for up to 10 minutes each, followed by insight and advice from our panel of pitch listeners : the brilliant Mark Corderoy, Incubation Manager at Bristol Robotics Labratory and Launch Space, Richard Godfrey, of Rocketmakers fame, our very own Lucy Paine, who's currently developing the Tech Swindon Ecosystem, & pitch expert Martin Barnes from Mountains of Imagination. This week our founders are : Renowned polar explorer and adventurer Antony Jinman pitching LikeToBe, an online network which helps introduce students to professional networking, and who are currently looking for partnerships to help create a digital careers hub across the region. Nick Randall from SeeThru, which reduces costs and increases revenue for tech providers, their partners and their end users. SeeThru are the marketplace for real digital transformation via co-operative service supply chains. Alan & Gus from Thrivenet, which combines social network analysis, machine learning and a range of people science to make organisational culture visible and actionable. Enter the event using this link :- https://hopin.com/events/techspark-pitch-me-d195cb1f-489c-4dfc-b35e-1950c9db41e9 Timelines as follows : [masked]pm - Introductions & Pitching Session 1.45pm - Networking and Pitcher Meets Extra info for potential future pitchers : Have you got a great business idea that you’d like to pitch to some experienced entrepreneurs? Perhaps you’ve already got an established business that you would like to be able to present to investors or customers and just need a bit more practise!? Maybe you want to trial a new approach to your age-old pitch? Or would you just like to watch others pitching this time and see what feedback they get? This is an informal and friendly event where you can pitch your business idea, hone your existing pitch, or come and see other business’s pitching. Whether you just want to showcase your product, or you are about to start your investment round, this is the perfect practise environment! We'll have some experienced 'pitch listeners' and network leaders in the session to ask you questions and give you feedback, on both your pitch and your business idea, and we can also take questions and feedback from 'the crowd' aka the audience. You can pitch for up to 10 minutes and we'll allow a further 10 mins for questions, feedback and advice to ensure you're pitch ready when it comes to the real deal. We have 3 slots for pitching in each session, so if you'd like to pitch just grab a 'Pitcher' ticket and/or email [masked] and we'll be in contact about the next events. That’s it! Easy! This is part of a series of events, which we are developing throughout the year as part of the wider Investment Activator Programme (check out https://www.techspark.co/investmentactivator/ for details) , so if you have any feedback about what else would be useful, do let us know!

Book your ticket here: https://hopin.com/events/techswindon-swindon-founders-intrapreneurship Swindon Founders is back from our Christmas break, and for our first meet up of 2021 we're talking about intrapreneurship - “Intrapreneurship is a system which allows an employee to act like an entrepreneur within an organisation. Intrapreneurs are self-motivated, proactive, and action-oriented people who have leadership skills and think outside the box” Sounds like an ideal start-up mindset - which you can adopt whatever size of the company you are working in and our panel will be giving practical advice and sharing their experience of not only applying this mindset to their day job but also to a side hustle. The best thing about going online is that our founder events are a conversation rather than a presentation so please do come along ready to ask questions and get involved in the discussion. Swindon Founders is a regular meet-up for people based in Swindon & Wiltshire who have been, are, or want to be tech start-up founders. Going virtual means we're welcoming attendees from across the UK - everyone is welcome! We aim to connect local entrepreneurs with co-founders and other like-minded people as well as tech investors to create an informal support network. Our focus is on scalable and disruptive tech businesses. We welcome entrepreneurs and tech investors with open arms but discourage freelancers, consultants, lawyers and other service providers unless they have a genuine interest in founding or mentoring start-up businesses. We have a strict 'no selling' rule at our events but do get in touch if you'd like to know more about the Tech Swindon community as we might have another way for you to engage. Who is Tech Swindon? Do check out www.tech-swindon.com

Book your ticket here: https://hopin.com/events/techswindon-balanced Balanced is a core TechSwindon meeting, founded in September 2020 to address the key world of work topics which were relevant prior to lockdown, but feeling even more essential now. ‍Our first session covered flexibility - and how employers and employees have to change their approach to ensure both parties get what they need from productivity, motivation and growth perspective. That's not easy and is challenging both sides to get it right. The second-panel discussion was on visibility - when you are not in the office how can you be heard? How often have you had a kitchen chat that became a new project, or heard about a potential new role at a night out - how do we replicate that remotely? But also how can you celebrate your achievements, or ask for help, over a video camera or platform, in the right way? For our first session of 2021 we're going to talk about work buddies, how we support each other and put structures in place to create a long term supportive culture Balanced is a platform for ideas, discussion and support - we want you to come along with your thoughts, the chat is interactive and sharing experiences is a great way to help each other. Proudly supported by Catalent