Inspiring

Here at Startacus we’re always on the lookout for innovative, quirky and inspirational ideas and businesses and this week we’ve discovered a business which happens to tick all those boxes. The business in question is We Walk the Line - a social enterprise which aims to empower and encourage more people to go down the self employment route. The people that We Walk the Line is on a mi...
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Crowdfunding is a beautiful thing. Whether it's in exchange for equity, or an appropriate reward, crowdfunding has opened up a whole new channel through which people with great (and some not so great) ideas can secure vital funding and tell the whole world about what they are up to. As such avid supporters, we spend a lot of time browsing through all manner of wonderful, weird, and wacky campaign...
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Thinking of embedding technology into a non-traditional product? This might offer you up a little inspiration... We all have our favourite bits of tech, whether it be our smartphone, tablet or even your computer. We also love convenience, so having the online world at our fingertips is fantastic. There was a time however when the latest tech came with a slew of wires and additional appliances. A...
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‘Social progress’ is a rather difficult thing to define, and yet more challenging to measure, given the substantial range of factors which must be considered before any worthwhile assessment of it might be made.  One of the main challenges of commentary on social progression is the objective nature of the variables involved; what qualities contribute positively to a country's ran...
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The good folk at What3Words have devised a new global addressing system in which the world has been divided into 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares each addressed with 3 words randomly selected from the dictionary...Did you know that 4 billion people on this planet don’t have an official address? It’s staggering to think that something that we take so much for granted, is a luxury beyond the ...
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There are a million and one reasons not to start a business, and a million and one more reasons to actually get out there and do it. So, what is the biggest, baddest bogeyman when it comes to entrepreneurship? What’s the worst thing that stops businesses from ever being created? According to a recent survey by Business is Great, that accolade goes to none other than the age old destroyer kn...
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Hoffice lets you Crowdsource a coworking space into your livingroom Ahhh, working from home. One of the best, and potentially worst things about being self employed. On the one hand, how lovely and liberating not to have to make the trek into the office every morning, but on the other, how incredible difficult to create structure and ensure that your day is as productive as possible. We have some...
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We have a little surprising fact for you; there's a lot of disused spaces floating around in the UK. OK, perhaps that's not quite the shocking headline we wish it was, but we have discovered some really interesting and uplifting news about how some of this free space is being utilised in a way that is good for business and communities...it's also pretty darn cool. A charity called 3Space is doin...
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Admittedly, there’s not a lot of money in being a superhero per se, but they’re easily one of the more recognisable brands around. Noone in Gotham city is wondering what people mean by “The Batman” and New Yorkers all know a lot about their web slinging, wall crawling, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. Marketing may be only one of the important lessons that comic books can...
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If you’re a new business just starting to try and make your mark in a chosen industry, you need to do as much as you can to stand out. Networking and contact-building will be an important part of your early work, so it would help for the business cards you hand out to be memorable so that you are not easily forgotten by potential clients. Many business cards are either professional but stai...
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A couple of weeks ago we ran a fab competition to win a ticket to the Share Summit in London, a one day event focusing on the shared economy. In the spirit of all things sharing, winner of said comp Ben Byford was asked to share some valuable insight on his experience of all the key happenings and debate, and most importantly what he took away from the event. Over to Ben to share all... "The Sha...
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As we rush about our busy, busy lives on such a grim and ghastly winter’s day as this, we can be forgiven for forgetting to spare an extra thought for the older people living in our neighbourhood. For many reasons Christmas and winter generally can be a very difficult time for many older people. Cold weather and long dark evenings can leave them feeling particularly isolated at this time of...
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