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100 offers of support for London Start-ups.

Posted on August 11, 2011 by John Spindler
  1. Bootcamps- Capital Enterprise’s sector specific bootcamps that will give entrepreneurs serious about starting or growing a high growth business an opportunity to get the insider knowledge, contacts and resources they need to get ahead. The Bootcamp extras are free seminars where you can meet funders and fellow entrepreneurs looking for money to start-up or scale their “brilliant” new business.
  2. Guide to Raising Finance-  A list of links on available sources of finance for a growth focused business.
  3. Free advice and support- Check out the members section of Capital Enterprise to find your local or specialist business support agency.
  4. BootLaw – free events where you can get your legal questions answered (and be entertained, too!)
  5. Microsoft BizSpark – startup community offering free Microsoft software
  6. DrinkTank – drink beer with startup founders and occasional investors
  7. Launch48 – meet potential co-founders and try to start a business in a weekend
  8. Startup Weekend – meet potential co-founders and try to start another business in a weekend
  9. Minibar – see entrepreneurs pitch their startups while you drink free beer
  10. Start-up Britain- a good place to navigate yourself around new services and activities on offer for new entrepreneur and a great one-stop shop
  11. London Business School Entrepreneurial Leadership Lectures – hear experienced founders talk
  12. Knowledge Peers – get nuts and bolts advice from owners of small businesses
  13. SeedSummit Term Sheets – see how the investment terms you’ve been offered stack up against ‘standard’ one.
  14. Pop-up shops- Fancy a temporary shop to launch your company or this seasons collection then check out Rosie Canns excellent website.
  15. Don’t Make Me Think – learn how to make your website easier to use
  16. Visual Website Optimizer – run A/B tests easily and get more from your website
  17. Google Apps (free edition) – host up to 10 email accounts for free
  18. Ajax Whois – quickly check whether domain names are available
  19. MailChimp – send mass emails and track what happens to them.
  20. Viral Marketing – a nice article on the Maths behind viral marketing
  21. Super Conversion Button – create good call-to-action web buttons
  22. Load Impact – easily run load tests on your website
  23. Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords – learn how to run Adwords campaigns
  24. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – understand how to nudge people into doing what you want
  25. TechCrunch Europe – read the European bit of the blog that every startup person reads
  26. Fiverr – get small tasks done for $5 (try this out for fun at the very least!)
  27. Lean Startup – methodology to help figure out whether you’re starting the right business
  28. Mixergy – learn from interviews with successful entrepreneurs
  29. Hacker News – read what techie startup people are finding interesting at the moment
  30. Hacker News London – meet techie startup people in the flesh. Drink beer with them
  31. Business Link – find official government information about business regulations
  32. WordPress – build all sorts of websites quickly and cheaply (definitely not just for blogs)
  33. Woothemes – get a great-looking theme for your website
  34. Clicky – get realtime analytics for your website
  35. SurveyMonkey – run surveys easily
  36. Amiando.com- We use it to take on-line fees for events etc and can recommend them ahead of their arch rival Eventbrite.
  37. SendGrid – make sure your emails get delivered
  38. TechHub – work surrounded by fellow entrepreneurs at this startup-centric office space
  39. Innovation Warehouse- London’s version of Plug and Play where you can receive  accommodation, support and investment.
  40. Camden Collective- Free incubator space in Camden for creative start-ups. An opportunity to be at the heart of London’s Creative sector. Just to show that London is not all about Tech, if your a fashion businesses then check out CFE, Jewelry  business -Hatton Garden, a new Bio Tech company LBIC and  a new High Tech Manufacturing CEME if you want incubator space specific to their sector.
  41. OpenSoho – have drinks with startup and digital media folks
  42. HUB Westminster- The new incubator / accelerator for the ethical business.
  43. Facebook Developer Garage – find out the latest goings-on in the world of Facebook
  44. Mobile Monday London – find out the latest goings-on in the world of mobile
  45. LRUG -meet smart Ruby developers and learn clever coding tips and techniques
  46. TweetDeck – track lots of things at once on Twitter
  47. Magento – set up a powerful e-commerce website
  48. Bit.ly – see how many times people click on the links you share
  49. British Library Business & IP Centre – get free access to market research reports
  50. Out-law.com – find legal information about IT and e-commerce
  51. 99designs – get a logo designed
  52. 2 Display.com- The cheapest place on the web to get display stands. I was going to recommend the cheapest place to get good quality business cards and stationary but it changes so often you are best place searching for yourself.
  53. London Business Angel Network- The first, the biggest and one of the best Angel Networks in the UK. Not far behind is Envestors and Oxford Innovations
  54. SeedSummit – find seed investors
  55. Indiegogo.com – A paste and wait investment site where creative with ideas paste up their projects to attract 100’s of small scale investors to fund their new ventures.
  56. The E-myth Revisited – learn why you should create a system
  57. Getting Real – read how to build web apps faster and more easily
  58. The Ultimate Sales Machine – read ideas about how to sell more effectively
  59. Passport for Export- Guides and support offered by the government funded UKTI to those in the UK looking to sell overseas.
  60. Appsumo – save money on stuff for your startup
  61. Enterprise Nation- Emma Jones is one of the best UK bloggers on all things connected to running your own business.
  62. Google Alerts – find out whenever someone mentions your startup online
  63. SEOMoz Search Ranking Factors – learn what’s important for appearing high up in search engine results
  64. The Four Steps to the Epiphany – read the original bible of the Lean Startup movement
  65. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development – read the cheat-sheet version of the Lean Startup bible
  66. Ogilvy on Advertising – understand advertising better
  67. Linkedin- Probably the best B2B contact list – join me and maybe I can get to 500+ and be officially a well networked person.
  68. Twitter – it’s big already. Follow me if you’d like to hear about more resources like this
  69. Paul Graham’s Essays – pick up entrepreneurial wisdom from the guy behind Y-Combinator
  70. Futuristic Play – learn more about online marketing
  71. A Smart Bear – absorb entrepreneurial wisdom from an experienced founder
  72. Adwords Keyword Tool – find out how many people are searching for something
  73. oDesk – hire people on the other side of the world
  74. PickyDomains – challenge people to find you a great domain name or slogan
  75. Enternships – hire entrepreneurially-minded interns
  76. HELO- Get a team of students from UCL and London Business School to carry out a research or development project for free. Great if you want a business plan developing, an idea beta-testing or your competitors checked out.
  77. Mentors- The BBA has set up a portal called Mentorsme for inexperienced entrepreneurs looking for a mentor willing to share their experience and insights. If you are in London then check Capital Enterprise who will try to find you a mentor from amongst our members.
  78. Seedcamp – get money and coaching in return for a share in your business
  79. UserTesting – find out whether anyone can use your website
  80. PSD2HTML – convert that slick PSD your designer created into CSS and HTML
  81. Sedo – buy a decent domain name
  82. VirtualBox – run a virtual Windows machine so you can test old and annoying versions of IE, even if you have a new and shiny Mac
  83. Dropbox – share documents with your co-founders
  84. Google Docs – share documents with your co-founders and edit them together
  85. ProductTank – hobnob with product managers
  86. London Startup Digest – get a curated email of London’s startup-related goings-on
  87. Social Innovation Camp – do something good with your talents
  88. London Funding Conference- Not quite sure the difference between crowd funding and angel funding then check out here for an explanation and giuides on where to go.
  89. Marketinvoice.com- A relatively new venture set by our friend Anil Stocker that has a host of funders looking to forward fund your working capital needs.
  90. Toastmasters – become more confident talking in front of an audience
  91. Soft Loans for Business Growth- Mainly for businesses with trading history but well worth checking out organisations such as ELSBC, GLE and HBV to see if you could be eligible for these £2000-£50000 loans.
  92. Enterprise Finance Guarantee – get backing from the government to help you get a loan
  93. The Gary Halbert Letter – improve your copywriting
  94. PatternTap – web UI design patterns
  95. Technology Strategy Board – enter funding competitions and apply for grants for Research & Development.
  96. R&D Tax Credits- If you have not worked out that you could be eligible to get back 200% of the money you are spending on R&D then what are you waiting for?- Cjeck out Terry Toms guide and book for a free consultation.
  97. The Equity Kicker – read views from Nic Brisbourne, a London VC
  98. Looking for a grant?- Check out J4B- the best place to see if there is grant available in your sector or postcode.
  99. Dragon’s Den – entertain your friends and family by pitching your business on TV
  100. OpenCoffee – attend weekly coffee meetups and mingle with budding entrepreneurs

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This blog is written by John Spindler, the CEO of Capital Enterprise. John is a skilled regeneration and business development professional with experience from both the public and private sectors. He has successfully developed and initiated a large number of projects and has worked across all areas of enterprise support. John is the director of two other companies he has started and he has an MBA from Leeds University.

John welcomes comments via email.

The views in this blog are John Spindler's own and do not represent the directors or members of Capital Enterprise.

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