Tech Business MiniMBA
A practical workshop series for web companies and entrepreneurs
Building on the success of the ‘Online Business Essentials Clinics’ event series, MiniBar is launching an extended programme, our ‘Tech Business MiniMBA’, with a host of new topics and speakers. It will be delivered in three core modules – Web Start Up Finance 101, Web Start Up Essentials and Web Start Up Innovation and Growth. Since we began offering these events in 2009 our programmes have gained a reputation for being one of London’s best resources for new businesses, helping attendees to gain a deeper understanding of what makes a web start up grow and how to avoid costly mistakes.
As usual, we’re employing a practical minded, no-nonsense approach to the design of the workshop series and will address common business issues in web and tech companies. To present the programme we draw on a pool of highly successful entrepreneurs, CTOs, investors, lawyers and accountants who are amongst the best in the UK’s web sector.
This workshop series will be free to attend thanks to the generous support of our sponsor the ICT Knowledge Transfer Network (ICT KTN). To read more about our presenters, topics or to register, follow the links below.
The Programme
1) Web Start Up Finance 101: this module opens with essential accounting advice including; establishing the accounting basics of a business, using equity in lieu of wages and how to take advantage of R&D tax credits. We then move on to legal basics of and strategic approaches to termsheet negotiation. This is followed by advice on how best to approach investors and how to pitch to them to secure funds. In addition we address Intellectual Property protections around software development to future proof your start up.
30th August: The Business Timeline – Getting the Basics Right
Presented by Mark Twum-Ampofo, Technology Partner at Kingston Smith
13th September: Fundraising for Start-ups: Lessons Learned
Presented by Tom Allason, CEO and founder of Shutl
20th September: Termsheet Negotiation Skills
Presented James Paton-Philip and Marcos Spanos of Pinsent Masons LLP
25th October: IP Basics for Technology Businesses
Presented by Ciaran Hickey and Gurminder Panesar of Wiggin LLP
2) Web Start Up Essentials: any business or start up that relies on the web to successfully deliver a product or service needs firstly to manage the building of a web product efficiently and minimize risk of failure. Secondly, they need to understand where their traffic is coming from, how to convert it into paying customers or even how to create and increase relevant traffic so our next module focuses on online marketing, SEO and web analytics. In addition the success of a web business relies on having a scalable software and hardware infrastructure. For this we will provide a workshop on Cloud Computing and Scalability as an introduction to what services exist and how to measure their reliability and cost effectiveness.
15th November: Effective Marketing with Social Media
Presented by Margaret Gold, founder of The Mobile Collective and co-organiser of Over the Air
29th November: Web Analytics
Presented by Malcolm Coles, an Internet Content Strategy Consultant
and Product Director of digital at Trinity Mirror
13th December: Search Engine Optimisation
Presented by Malcolm Coles, an Internet Content Strategy Consultant
and Product Director of digital at Trinity Mirror
17th January: Effective Software Development Management
Presented by Peter Brownell Director of Code Positive
31st January: Secrets of Scalable Software Architecture and Cloud Computing
Presented by Philip Fitzimons, Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services
3) Web Innovation and Growth: business and revenue models online need continuous adaptation and innovation. In particular start ups will often change their business model and revenue delivery radically to find their optimal customer reach. This module will focus on real case examples of how successful online businesses adapt and innovate.
11th February: Business Model Development for Web Start-Ups
Presented by Matthew Stafford of Pembridge Partnership Limited
28th February: Go Mobile – How to Use Apps to Grow Your Business
Presented by Jonny Kaldor, Managing Director of Kaldor Group (creator of Pugpig)
Each session will be 2.5-3 hours long, doors will open at 6pm for most events and presentations will begin at 6:30pm. It will include approximately 2 hours of presentations and discussion, plus 1 hour of open exchange sessions where presenters and participants can explore solutions through mutual discussion. The workshops will be followed by optional networking. To make attendance easier we are hosting the workshops in the evening. Drinks and snacks will be provided as we appreciated you will probably have been working hard all day.