M & A Rainmaker

Well it depends who that startup is doesn’t it !! When Eric and Kelly Kim  – founders of San Francisco based Twylah found out about the Guardian’s list of the Hottest 20 East London startups   ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/08/east-london-20-hottest-tech-companies ) they immediately responded with Twylah pages for most of them.

Twylah pages are only given to those companies who fulfill a certain set of criteria. Mainly around the quality of the content produced ( on Twitter ) rather than numbers of followers or numbers of tweets.

What would a Twylah page do to help these startups ??? Well rather than go into great detail here this

http://windmillnetworking.com/2011/09/09/twitter-seo-think-twylah/

is a great blog about Twylah and how it might help. For Pinterest users videos and blogs have been collected here http://pinterest.com/chriswindley/twylah/.

Of course there is a lot of controversy about ” Silicon Roundabout ” with some people saying that no such thing exists; some saying that the area has been a High Tech. area for years and years; some saying these companies are not proper ” High Tech. ” companies – they are ” Media ” development companies etc etc etc

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/09/silicon-roundabout-naysayers/

Of course there is considerable controversy in San Francisco aswell – Rents are going through the roof; Talent is difficult to find in these ” boom times ” ( Startup’s must look beyond the U.S. to other countries like e.g. the U.K. , Spain, South America etc ) ; Investors are desperate to invest in the right startups.

Twylah has already become very popular amongst London based Twitter users and it might not be long before Twylah becomes a neighbour of some of the East London startups that it has just supported. Probably a good move then !!

Some of the East London based startups who received Twylah pages:

• http://www.twylah.com/peerindex
• http://www.twylah.com/bossastudios
• http://www.twylah.com/geckoboard
• http://www.twylah.com/traitperception
• http://www.twylah.com/stylistpick
• http://www.twylah.com/pusher
• http://www.twylah.com/secret_escapes
• http://www.twylah.com/opensignalmaps
• http://www.twylah.com/transferwise
• http://www.twylah.com/qriously
• http://www.twylah.com/EDITD
• http://www.twylah.com/housebites
• http://www.twylah.com/gocardless
• http://www.twylah.com/MarketInvoice
• http://www.twylah.com/Seedrs
• http://www.twylah.com/shutl

High Tech. Start-up’s are booming in the U.S. with Boston, New York and Silicon Valley all very active and there are many U.S. start-up’s looking at establishing a European office. Could Lichfield a.k.a. Silicon Crossroads in Staffordshire dare to dream that it might host some of these start-up’s ?

Friends of mine established Leap the Pond some years ago in order to assist start-up’s gain a successful foothold from the U.S. to the U.K. and vice versa and also from Asia to the U.K. and America and vice versa.

A while back I wrote this blog

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2011/09/27/celtic-tiger-awakes-and-starts-tweeting-about-hi-tech/

as I was asked to suggest a suitable European location for a U.S. software company that I knew.

Right at the end you will see mention of an accounting practice called the ” Double Irish and a Dutch Sandwich ” fully described here

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/irish-move-to-save-twitter-53-per-cent-in-tax-0016130-1

which describes the tax savings achieved by Google and to be achieved by Twitter by having offices in Southern Ireland and Luxembourg.

Like it or not the ” financial parameters ” are going to have a significant influence on where a foreign company bases itself in Europe.

Lichfield can do no better than London in influencing the tax position of the U.K. mainland. The so called ” Silicon Roundabout ” in London will have to put up with U.k. Tax laws although it is interesting to note that Google also has offices in London and is taking more space in Silicon Roundabout:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15088359

Recognised ” High Tech. ” areas in the U.K. include: London, M4 corridor, Cambridge, Oxford and Silicon Glen, Scotland. There has been an effort to make the M42/M5 corridor High Tech. and also Telford hosts a number of High Tech. companies.

When you look at Europe from the U.S. you probably have a different perspective and London, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland and Barcelona in Spain all seem to figure high in Americans minds.

I.D.A. Ireland ( now known as the ” Silicon Republic ” !! ) is very active in the U.S. with ” salespeople ” based in Boston, New York and the West Coast yet it does not necessarily get considered despite having many high tech companies based there.

http://www.idaireland.com/

This video by the C.E.O. of IDA Ireland spells out a lot of the criteria

http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/videos/index.xml?bclid=66038357001&bctid=1148962666001

The Tax Environment

The Business offer ( Incentives to base your H.Q. there )

The Talent Pool

The Track Record

Proximity to other ” synergistic ”  businesses.

Transport links

Despite very tough economics in Ireland, or perhaps because of it, I.D.A. Ireland has got all it’s ducks in a row and does a massively professional job of getting inward investment.

Lichfield has to live with the tax regime, as does London.

The business offer would have to be very good.

The Talent Pool, whilst small is there.

It has little track record and not many existing businesses to be synergistic with. There is however a talent pool skilled in web design and S.E.O.

It has fabulous transport links.

It is a beautiful location, great lifestyle and has an opportunity with the ” Saxon Hoard ” to become much better known around the world.

With a lot of work and commitment Lichfield could become a High Tech base.

N.B. This post in the Guardian about The Lichfield Blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/nov/22/hyperlocal-media-blogging

shows the depth of the social media knowledge in the area.

Information about Tech City, London : http://www.ukti.gov.uk/investintheuk/sectoropportunities/ict/item/124866.html