There’s nothing like the feeling you get seeing your new business in print for the first time, but PR is often seen as one of the great mysteries to startups, so here is a quick demystifying guide to how to get the best results. 1. Take your time building your story Go back to basics, What’s [...]

The Internet. Made for talking cats and skateboarding dogs. Oh, and innovative startups. So as we’re at that silly time of the year when people are trawling around Youtube looking for more cuddly things on video, we thought we’d show you 6 ways your startup is rather similar to your miaowing pal. 1. You own [...]

Internet privacy is a hot topic. Growing public awareness of how sites like Google and Facebook use your information has gone hand in hand with high-profile privacy scandals. Similarly, more people know about the threat posed by phishing and malware. The result is a loss of trust in the Internet. Consumers want to proactively protect [...]

Webdoc is the latest creative start-up to get our juices flowing. It’s a tool for creating rich media content, started by a group of innovative Swiss. Here’s how it works. You sign up for the service, which is completely free as of now. You create a new post which pops up as a blank canvas. [...]

We usually think of geeks, techies, product developers et al as being glued 24/7 to their computer screens, but they actually, every once in a while, socialise OFFline and gather to drink beers and eat pizzas. Meetup.com, a NYC start-up, has become an offline social networking success story. Founded during the dotcom boom era, it [...]

A few weeks ago, we talked about location-based social networking from a marketing perspective. Today, we’re having a look at innovative start-ups which use geographically based technology. First up is Batchgeo, an incredibly user-friendly mapping service working in tandem with Google Maps. It converts spreadsheets full of addresses into personalized maps, saving you the labour [...]

An examination of the recent trend for high-profile celebrities to involve themselves in the hyper-saturated brave new world of emerging startups, specifically as evidenced by the recent actions of Leo DiCaprio and Ashton Kutcher.

Last month Business Insider produced a piece called  ‘no more like this or we’ll scream’ which talked about the categories of startup which are now so saturated that there’s no point in trying to penetrate them. We probably recognise these ourselves – “not another photo sharing service”, more “very similar to what I saw yesterday daily [...]

It seems like forever that Google have been on top of the world, both figuratively in a business context and quite literally, what with the organization’s penchant for camera satellites in outer space and one’s ability to ‘Google Map’ anything from the Taj Mahal to the Pyramids to your fifth grade teacher’s house. Google has [...]

Networking is one of the best ways of making sure that you’re successful in business, although it’s something that many people who work for themselves often forget when they’re based at home all the time. The same can also be said for businesses with employees, who can often stagnate pretty rapidly in an office environment [...]

As competition gets tougher and tougher more companies are using social media and crowdsourcing, asking their customers to provide ideas and help in the decision-making when tackling issues and achieving goals. Social media and crowdsourcing are powerful tools for a company to communicate with consumers when it comes to corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns. Businesses [...]

Buzzwords. They proliferate in the tech and innovation sector like nowhere else. Every day you hear some new expression and you’re not sure whether to whack it into your business plan and impress the investors with how happening you are, or whether it’s one of those which is going to make everyone in the room [...]

Having just been fortunate enough to provide some marketing input to the fabulous business ideas of participants in this year’s Ignite program at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning it set me thinking about what advice is most desired by innovators and entrepreneurs and how it’s best delivered. Intensive courses, where your plan is put through [...]

As researchers continue to explore new ways to promote and improve solar power, Spanish companies are becoming world leaders in this emerging field. In the last few years the number of installed photovoltaic systems has been growing exponentially and Spain is about to become a leader in innovation and generating advanced solutions in the industry of [...]

Joining innovatrs has some great advantages for startups, entrepreneurs and innovative souls. Not least of these is the 7-stage, 49-phase, innovate framework which takes our extensive experience and knowledge to create one of the most practical startup frameworks you can imagine. So today I thought I’d give a little sneak preview into one of the [...]

A recent study by Pitney Bowes showed that a staggering 76% of small businesses believed in a mix of digital and ‘physical’ communications to get their marketing off the ground. The overwhelming element of digital marketing was email at 68%  but more businesses are introducing social, with over 54% thinking it should form part of [...]

It would be remiss of us not to mention the Linkedin IPO here at innovatrs. After all, it’s not just a staggering value, it’s not just opening up the ‘new bubble’ debate, but it is, let’s be truthful, the moment of which most entrepreneurs dream when they start tinkering with that piece of code in [...]

You have the business plan, you have the drive and motivation, and most important of all you have the capital. Your business is now good to go, right? Not so fast…you’ve forgotten one key component in your grand scheme to conquer your industry. Where are you going to set-up shop? The power of postcodes Choosing [...]

Facebook is apparently valued at over $50bn; Groupon rejected a $6bn buyout from Google when the ‘deal-of-the-day’ website was only two years-old; and if rumours are to be believed, TweetDeck was recently acquired by Twitter for over $40m…not bad for a company with a mere fifteen employees. There’s little question we’re in the middle of [...]

There is no shortage of advice to early stage businesses: we have our own innovate framework to help you build your business. But there’s one place where most entrepreneurs stumble: how to get the first sale. We are taught how to size the market, how to value your market potential, how to protect your IP, and more [...]

Business clusters sound a bit odd – grouping lots of similar companies together can’t be good for business. Can it? By definition, a business cluster is a geographic concentration of businesses that are in some way connected, either by operating in the same industry or through their inherent role in a particular supply chain. So [...]

So where did these business incubators spring up from and what are the plus and minus points for your business? I take a look… The concept of business incubation began in the US as far back as 1959. The first considered instance was when Joseph Mancuso opened the Batavia Industrial Center in a warehouse in New York. The [...]

Last week, we looked at the latest innovations within the gaming industry. And there were plenty of innovations to speak of. This week, we’re shifting the focus to innovation within the music industry. Now, that doesn’t mean we’ll be looking at the latest experimental dubstep-country-rap collective blazing a trail into mainstream music – though that [...]

It’s been a busy week here at Innovatrs, but we’ve managed to lift the lid and delve into the world of startup competitions. With Monday’s post focussing on European startup contests, Tuesday’s looked at one of the winners from LeWeb 2010. But Wednesday’s post helped to show that it isn’t all about winning, whilst yesterday [...]

We told you about the top European Start Up competitions on Monday. Well, we take a very global view of things here at Innovatrs – so let’s take a look at the top Start Up competitions in the US… You don’t need me to tell you that the U.S are big on Start Ups – [...]