Anglia Ruskin University students in Cambridge are working with Philip Baddeley of Equity Fingerprint and John Grant of Ninetiles Networks Ltd on research for their dissertations. Philip and John are developing business applications of their hi-tech innovations.
They are assisted by Robert Jones, Programme Leader of Anglia Ruskin’s part-time MBA in Cambridge.
We are collaborating with Geoff Jones whose assistance is invaluable.
See cambridgemba for more news, including the success of Anglia Ruskin’s student team in the Universities Business Challenge semi-final at the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth on 29 January 2008.
Great presentation by Levi Roots of Reggae Reggae Sauce at the CUE awards. Levy Roots sold a few more bottles at the CUE event to add to the 1.5million so far. He went on Dragon’s Den to raise £50k for 20% and settled on 40%. Levy Roots quite clear that the extra 20% dilution was a cheap way of shortening the journey. The two dragons have set him on fire and now he can return to his first love, music. All because his Mother told him to read Psalm 23.
The pitches by the CUE winners needed to be hotter – perhaps they need his next range of sauces!
Valleywag fills in the details on Max Levichin’s widget maker Slide taking on funding. The key is the customer engagement figure of 150million users. With that figure you are not going to have a wash-out round! Another great Equity Fingerprint and I think that Reid Hoffman had an early gulp at Slide. He seemed to brag about when SV n Cambridge. Boomtown has the details.
Slide lets you put PowerPoint in social network sites.
Slide rides on the Facebook effect. When will the Cambridge Cluster join in?
Gossip hot at CUE awards ceremony that 2004 winner, Owlstone, is about to be bought by Advanced Nanotechnology. Started by Cambridge University graduates and quickly financed to the tune of millions, at least $3million. Another quick journey for a VC funded company.
Proud parents of Luke Narraway are thrilled that he is in the England rugby team announced yesterday. Before rugby went professional, Luke would have followed his father into the family butcher business in Worcester and played, again like his father, for the local team. However rugby appears to have “stolen” an entrepreneur. His father is quoted as saying that he now had “much better things to do”. Better than being an entrepreneur? Perhaps better than being a life-style entrepreneur. But better than a bonanza entrepreneur?
Prof Colin Humphreys of Cambridge University is working on new light bulbs based on LEDs. To get costs down, the LEDs have to be grown on silicon and not expensive sapphire. Any VCs searching for a global business need look no further; angels will need deep pockets.
Hat tip: Sarah O’Meara, feature writer CEN. Article 28 January 2008, Sientist offers a brighter approach.
Annie Leonard has a clever video about how we are using the resources of the planet. Devilstower sets out the background to how Annie came up with the best way of selling her message and has had over one million viewers.
It is a pity that the video is not on YouTube as it keeps stopping to buffer.
Jenny Chapman, business editor of the Cambridge Evening news, write, edits and produces the Business & Finance supplement every Tuesday. Three very different businesses are included this week. Front page honours for the supplement of 29 January 2008 go to Shamus Husher and Oriane Chausiaux of Cambridge Temperature Concepts, going for the global bonanza business funded by angels. Inside features two Cambridge graduates who have gone for what appears to be a life-style business, with Bloombox – “bringing hanging gardens to your home”. The two James’, Hyde and Strachen, have one investor and list various ways of saving the cash. No plans to go global but plenty of help from the Institute of Manufacturing. Did the pair attended CUE events and have a “Vision to Succeed”.
On page 3 is Karren Brady, MD of Birmingham City Football Club. Getting your boss to buy you a big toy to play with at the age of 23yrs old and then floating the business is an amazing achievement; coping with health problems puts it all in perspective. Her boss, David Sullivan, made his money in the “adult world”. Brady’s career is very different from that of a high-tech entrepreneur. Sullivan backed her as a “sacker”, someone who could turn a business round. Lets build them first in Cambridge before we need a “sacker”!
