Features

Since we’re slap bang in the middle of our Startup Cities focus on Dublin, we thought there’d be no better time to highlight the fact that The Irish Times Innovation Awards are back and open for business! For the past five years, the awards have been seeking to celebrate and showcase all things innovative throughout the island of Ireland and this year is no different! Entries are cur...
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Thank you for forgiving the shamefully obvious wordplay and generally poor punnery contained within the title of this piece… but sometimes the old ones are the best. Of course, this is also true of some startups who work in traditional industries and inject them with a level of innovation, know-how and passion which makes them able, nay proud, to stand alongside any of your 21st century ne...
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Staying at home is clearly not an option. I’m writing this from an over-priced San Francisco basement apartment that seems to have a direct conduit to the ferocious heat of the earth’s molten core. Looking through listings of technology meetups in the Bay Area, where I might find some reprieve, I catch myself comparing the smattering of weekly meetups to those of my current home in D...
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We’re known for being a nation of pet lovers, yet sometimes it can still prove quite a chore getting someone to look after our beloved Fido whilst we go on holiday. Yes - of course there are the local kennels, however having that more personal touch is surely much better. Well...thanks to our latest Startup of the Week, finding an alternative to kennels has just become a whole lot easier.Tai...
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Urban safety just got a little less woefully dull and a lot more entertaining for the residents of the Portuguese Capital Lisbon. Instead of being faced with a functional, albeit tedious, static ‘don’t walk’ man, pedestrians at this crossing the centre of the city were treated to a quirky surprise.  Their little inert man had been replaced by a highly amusing dancing one. ...
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If you’re a student or graduate entrepreneur, who reckons their business has the potential to take on the best your peer group has to offer, then Varsity Pitch 2014 could be the startup competition you've been looking for. Here’s the details: The National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs (which is mercifully shortened to NACUE) have just announced the 5th annual ou...
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If 3D printing is your thing, then our latest Startup of the Week will be right up your proverbial street. My Mini Factory is a new online platform where anyone can download, upload or request 3D printable objects for free. Here’s how it works: The platform is in essence an online library filled with a plethora of 3D printable files which can be utilised to create an extensive range of 3D...
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Ello? Could this be it? The one we’ve all been waiting for, the one to challenge Facebook? Not that we have anything against Facebook particularly, in fact we happen to think it's rather fabulous (and our own Startacus Facebook page is used often) but it is a truth, widely acknowledged, that a business with near complete domination of a marketplace leads to stagnation and lack of innovation...
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MADE Festival Conference 2014- A review by Startacus member Col Skinner I was lucky enough to win a free Press Pass ticket to the MADE For Success Conference  which took place at Sheffield City Hall last Wednesday (25th Sept). The conference was part of a 2 day MADE Entrepreneur Festival across the city of Sheffield which was supported/subsidised by some big name corporate & educational p...
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Welcome to the Startacus monthly financial news round-up, brought to you by Sophie Turton of Crunch Accounting. Scotland decided to stay in the UK and the media moved their clairvoyance elsewhere. Meanwhile, September saw more growth for small and micro-businesses, who, it is predicted, will change the face of British enterprise. Ed Miliband also showed his support for the self-employed ‘ar...
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Our Sheffield startup month is whizzing by and we have been blown away (metaphorically of course) by the level of talented and innovative self starters we have been lucky enough to come across… like Celina and Laura from Freshly Squeezed Events Company. They have had quite a year of it so far, and were only too pleased to share some of their experience of starting a business in Sheffield w...
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Whilst formal education has its place, there can be no denying that the internet has opened up a whole new way of learning for us all. Whether that entails watching a YouTube video or looking at a Slideshare presentation, the possibilities are pretty much endless. Of course with the plethora of resources which exist, trawling through to find the right content for you can be both daunting and ...
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