INFORMATICS Ventures launches its 4th annual Scottish Startup Survey in association with TalentSpark and the Freer Consultancy this week, quizzing around 500 EIE alumni on factors impacting their business in 2020.
Brexit, IndyRef2, digital skills, scale-up talent, funding, ecosystem support, office space and internationalisation are expected to be among the pressing themes for Scotland’s most ambitious startups.
Callum Murray, CEO and Founder of regulatory tech specialist Amiqus, a previous Pitch of the Day winner at EIE, said:
“Hiring post-Brexit is certainly relevant, in addition to the related question around opening an office outside the UK to counter any Brexit effect. Another thing I think is important is educating startup founders around taking investment from angel syndicates and all that this entails because for every startup with a good experience of angel investing there is another with a less favourable one.”
Lesley Eccles, the FanDuel co-founder who recently launched a new venture in the wellbeing space, the relationship training app Relish, said:
”In 2015 I was invited to speak at EIE about my experience building FanDuel. I hadn’t been at the event in a few years and I remember walking into the Assembly Rooms and being totally blown away by the scale of what the event had become, and also feeling entirely unprepared to stand up on that enormous stage! There are many traits that entrepreneurs need and the ability to stay calm under pressure – AKA be brave – is definitely up there. I’m so proud of what EIE has become and excited to see the continued buzz about and investment in Scottish startups.”
“When I decided to launch a new startup as a solo female founder, I had to channel that exact quality of being brave – and the thing that keeps me pushing forward every day is knowing that Relish is changing lives for the better. The current increase we’ve seen in mental health awareness is only going to continue, and so much of our mental health is derived from the relationships in our lives.
“Helping to fix the root cause of some of these issues and – even better – actually prevent them from happening in the first place, is a hugely important mission for us. 50% of people who end up in couples therapy leave it too late! By enabling easier, more affordable access to truly actionable advice and fun activities custom-tailored for your relationship, no matter how healthy or unhealthy it might be, Relish is out to change those outcomes!”
EIE is an all-year round entrepreneurship and investor readiness programme run by Informatics Ventures and highlighted by Scotland’s leading tech investor event, where 50 ambitious data-driven startup to scale-up companies pitch to investors from Scotland, the UK and around the world for seed to series A funding
