The Vision Techcelerate has embarked on a mission to position North West, as the region for high-growth tech companies outside London and the South East. It creates an environment to ease the pain of starting up and growing tech companies, whilst providing a platform for promoting and launching tech startups. The Action Over the last 4 years, Techcelerate had led the development of a sustaining ecosystem for tech companies in the North West of England. At the core of this initiative is a series of premier monthly events focusing on the needs of the tech entrepreneurs. Facilitating knowledge share among tech entrepreneurs is a key activity, which was not addressed prior to birth of Techcelerate. The Differentiation Techcelerate has a deep understanding of what it takes to start and grow tech companies. Having exited with scars from his first tech startup and now running the second tech startup, Manoj understands the pain of starting and running a tech company in the North West of England. This unique experience has helped him to bring his fellow entrepreneurs together and introduce investors, dealmakers and service providers who can help uplift the game; achieve beyond aspirations, reduce risk and burden on scarce resources. The Past In 2006, out of sheer frustration of not having a regional event to meet fellow entrepreneurs, Manoj formed Northern StartUp 2.0 (which was rebranded as Techcelerate in 2010) with the support of KPMG. In 2007, Techcelerate delivered 6 events. With additional support from Sun Microsystems and others, it held 10 events in 2008 including Dragon’s Lair in December. In 2009, it delivered 11 events including Tech Mission London 09, which brought the northern and southern entrepreneurs and investors together for knowledge share and investment. Michael Birch, who sold Bebo for $850m flew in from San Francisco to take part. The event caused significant debate on the north south divide on Telegraph (67 comments). We have now delivered 42 events and workshops over 4 years. The Community Our growing community includes entrepreneurs; Ajaz Ahmed (£1.6 billion Freeserve), and Steve Purdham (£201m SurfControl); investors; Ed French (EV Group) and Amin Amiri (A2E Catalyst), Service Providers; Steve Livingston (Crowe Clark Whitehill) and Deal-Makers; Stuart Scott-Goldstone (Aarons & Partners). 25% of the 1900 strong community is tech companies whilst 5% and 70% remain investors and service providers respectively. The Success edocr.com was founded as a result of our activities, and was selected as one of the 20 hottest startups of 2008 by UK Trade & Investment and Doug Richard of Dragon’s Den fame. Tom Cheesewright has helped many startups develop effective marketing strategies. Intuitive Business Intelligence secured seed investment from Angel Investor, Tony Bray. Daresbury Innovation Centre secured tenancy agreements with Sun Microsystems, Construqtive and many more. Techcelerate continue to attract investors and technology specialists from the USA and Europe as well as from London on regular basis. The Core Areas Techcelerate focuses on four areas, all delivered through events and workshops, these being, access to finance (Dragons Lair and Tech IPO), knowledge (technical subjects to commercialization), markets (geographical expansion to channels) and skills. The Support Needed Manoj has organized and run all aspects of Techcelerate community activities on part-time basis with help from few others. This is no longer sustainable as expectations have risen sharply due to the compelling service Techcelerate provides. A permanent small team is needed to better service our community and develop and position the North West as an alternative tech centre to London and reduce the north south divide. Key Aspiration We have seen how London has recently organized itself as a competitor to Silicon Valley. Whilst we cannot compete with London or Silicon Valley, we believe, we should have the best environment to setup and grow tech companies in the North West. We believe Techcelerate is best positioned to deliver government support programmes (as demonstrated with delivering two DCKTN workshops), as we have the trust of the community and the knowledge of what tech companies need for growth. Contact Details Manoj Ranaweera Daresbury Innovation Centre, Keckwick Lane, Daresbury, Cheshire, WA4 4FS, UK +44 7769734491 manoj.ranaweera@techcelerate.org http://www.techcelerate.org