PLATFORM - Edinburgh - May 2025
Insights Briefing
Paul Lancaster - PLATFORM, UK Startup & Scaleup Week, Stellar Business Events
Melting Pot hosts events locally and is also a co-working space for people to work in and use. This is the second event in Edinburgh and North East is quite similar with complimentary skill sets and are just an hour and a half away from each other. There is another Platform event in Newcastle before UK Startup & Scaleup Week with events in Sunderland and Middlesborough on a regular basis. Sponsors who support include Blu Sky, Circle Cloud and HR2Day who have been going for fifteen years who offer consultancy and can work with HR people or just provide HR for those who don't have a department on a retained basis but do offer one-off support. Sponsors also include Mira, NEL, Precursor, True Potential, Ward Hadaway and Wubbleyou.
UK Startup & Scaleup week is a five-day event in Sunderland with speakers such as Sara Davies, Daniel Priestley and Paul Mort along with many others you can come to just one day or more with people coming from all over the country including Scotland as well as the North East along with workshops including one on podcasting from Cluarantonn and more. You can sign up for UK Startup & Scaleup at ukstartupweek.com.
Tommy Spiro & Carl Gardiner - Digital Trade Team, Scottish Enterprise
Tommy and Carl work for Scottish Enterprise who have worked with a few of those attending. It is Scotland's international development agency to help businesses grow and scale with investment and innovation support to help online or overseas. They aim to help increase exports and get foreign investment to create jobs. During COVID the investment by big tech was mind blowing with billions being invested in research and development some of which is close to the GDP of Scotland. The investment is still there and for AI it is beginning to come of age, the scale of growth of retail and online sales has grown 30% in the US and it has been relentless and companies that aren't embracing digital and international will be left behind. The B2B area has been really difficult, but the growth and investment is the secret weapon and is growing at such a rate it is such an opportunity for companies.
One of their big areas is to know what is out there and then move to implementation as if you don't know what is out there then you can't move forward or may have difficult questions you would have to answer. B2B is five times the size of B2C, and social commerce is growing even faster than that where the top three are Chinese platforms including Little Red Book, Wechat and Dooyin and Wechat is integrated into business with many connections to a great scale than WhatsApp. Influencer marketing for B2B will be one to watch going forward, it has moved to the authentic stage and people expect this and those are the ones that are really getting traction but don't think it is just about consumer goods but into the business-to-business area.
They do webinars and masterclasses with multiple ones per month and is to raise awareness of trends and relevant topics such as AI for productivity and help upskill companies on best practices and innovative approaches. They also have more in-depth support covering selling on international marketplaces such as Amazon and aimed at companies facing challenges such as logistics, fulfilment, branding or others. Programmes include direct to consumer covering own websites such as AI integration and website development and will be an eight-to-twelve-week programme and AI takes grunt work out of content marketing and makes life easier particularly for small businesses. Senior leadership programmes help with in-depth knowledge of digital channels, digital marketing to help you grow a business rapidly at a major scale and looking at companies who have potential and ambition to grow rapidly.
Scottish Data is to aim to collect data on consumer behaviour and company data in Scotland and understand what businesses are selling online including opportunity and size of market compared other regions like London or Manchester. Ecommerce conference is to raise awareness of the latest digital topics including insights, opportunities for B2B and B2C and 700 people came to the first conference last year and will be doing it again this year and there are also upcoming digital trade events including AI powered business and Digit Expo West. Scottish Enterprise that has launched a new free digital export assessment tool and will then tell you were you are in your export journey and suggests next steps and tasks. They also offer further international trade support including more self-service digital tools and resources along with help with technical export queries and more webinars and events including aimed at companies looking to export.
Barry McDonald - Founder 100 Coffees & ex-VP Community, Codebase
Barry has been in the startup space for the last ten years and before this was a journalist for twenty-five years. For the past eight years was involved with a company called Codebase which is one of the largest ecosystem builders in the country and forms communities and supports each other. It delivers a programme called Tech Scaler to create startups with mentorship programmes and international trips including Silicon Valley, they were VP of community and were devising strategies to bring businesses together including online communities and event strategies.
They left Codebase a couple of months ago, but they are passionate about working with startups and those who want to change the world and build things. Startup scene is a busy place, and they want to work on how they can add value and how companies can scale. They put out a message on LinkedIn to go out for a coffee so came up with 100 coffees where they would do this with a hundred different people including founders, investors, recruiters, students and more. Their aim was to see what opportunities there are and what is missing as before they were in many meetings but didn't have a chance to have a conversation with people.
Their journey so far is 63 coffees since March right across Scotland there isn't a scientific approach to this, they have put a message out there if anyone has anything to say and they blog about this weekly and all conversations are anonymous with mostly conversations with founders and mostly flat white coffees. What comes next is they will produce a playbook who wants to do their own 100 coffees journey, as have a theory that 100 coffees will change someone's life, and they will also write a report about the insights from that journey.
Emerging patterns, it is a complicated ecosystem that is hard to navigate and is really busy for first time founders and can get overwhelmed. Investors tell them that investor education is really needed as many first-time founders don't understand the investment landscape and some have given away far too much too early to friends, family and fool's round. University startups and spinouts needs more work and many founders in Scotland lack a global mindscape such as getting to go to London or further. Ecosystem and industry is a recurring theme is taking elements and contributing but when it becomes an industry people can feed off this and not contribute and people are extracting from this, and first-time founders need a safe space and get answers to questions such as what is an MVP etc.
Show & Tell
Dawn Young & Peter Bull - Co-founders, Cluarantonn Podcast Services
Cluarantonn aims to help new or existing podcasters and be the bridge to podcasting began by their co-founders and husband and wife team Dawn Young and Peter Bull. Dawn started with podcasting a few years ago with her podcast Scottish Murders, which is a true crime podcast, but didn't know where to go or how to start but learned along the way including getting help and support from others and it is now in the top 1.5% of podcasts in the world with over 750,000 downloads. Dawn also started another podcast Scottish Digest to cover the brighter side of Scotland plus being involved in the true crime community including Crimecon, a true-crime conference, made connections and contacts in the police and beyond to start the video podcast The Blue Way.
Peter got his start in podcasting as Dawn had all the things needed at home to get started right on his desk so decided to start a monthly technology podcast, RoguePlanetoid Podcast that covers Microsoft and related technology along with other topics such as the North East tech scene. Peter has also done a studio-based podcast, Talking Inspiration, where he has interviewed people from or in the North East starting with Platform's very own Paul Lancaster.
Cluarantonn, pronounced clue-ran-ton, has a Scottish connection not only being where the co-founder Dawn is from but also the name itself, which is Gaelic, Cluaran for Thistle and Tonn for Wave which connects it to Scotland and podcasting! The logo for Cluarantonn hides a secret which is a hidden C from the name and a small bridge in reference to the slogan, a bridge to podcasting, and the overall logo resembles a podcast microphone.
Cluarantonn runs monthly podcast meetup events in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England and has been doing so since October last year called Podcast Paddock held in a former stable for Newcastle Breweries. Each event has been well attended and popular with many returning for subsequent events as well as attracting many new people each time with presentations and fireside chats and even full-length workshops to bring people together and has resulted in a few collaborations between those there. It has been great to have amazing speakers come and share their expertise or experiences which has also included Platform's Paul Lancaster who spoke at the first event.
Cluarantonn offer a free fifteen-minute quick chat to see how they can help a new or existing podcaster including anything that might help to get started or continue with their podcast journey. They also offer a Power Hour where people can get more in-depth answers on a one-off basis to get direction or advice on starting or growing their podcast and there is ongoing online support available with monthly group coaching online with a guest speaker or additional one-to-one coaching. Online support also includes accountability reports to ensure a podcasting journey keeps going along with Q&A any time on Slack to ask questions about anything about podcasting.
They also offer additional services such as guesting on a podcast where they'll help introduce people to relevant podcasters as well as helping to be the best guest possible and make the right first impression and make the most of being a guest on a podcast. There is also an opportunity to audit a podcast to help improve discoverability as podcast discoverability is one the biggest issues when doing a podcast so will offer advice and support to help mitigate this which includes a title and show notes health check as episode one is not the best title and show notes need to be clear and concise to help a potential listener along with episode format optimisation to help with segments and structure including anything that should be added, changed or removed to make a podcast stand out from the crowd.
Other opportunities include sponsoring the regular podcasting events that are held where can display banners and even be part of the introduction at the start or offer support to podcasters with products and services such as editing or studios along with those useful to podcasters such as photography for headshots or graphic design for artwork plus businesses could also advertise on a local podcast to reach potential local customers.
Guest tips included the best way to guest on a podcast which is to actually take the time to listen to the podcast you want to be on, plus establish connections with a potential host, follow them on social media, comment and more so when you do approach them, they may be somewhat aware of you rather than it coming out of the blue. You can also send a voice note where not only do you get a chance to pitch yourself, but they can hear how you'll sound, you can get yourself a lapel microphone for less than £20 that can be great quality and can be used for the podcast itself or you can write a great email but the main thing is to demonstrate to a host how you will add value to their audience, or if you have your own podcast how you will bring your audience to theirs.
Guest tips continued with make the most of being on a podcast which is to discuss any call to action as soon as possible rather than at the end, so if you have something to say that you're doing like a new book etc then mention that at the start and don't go deep into your background, remember that value you are adding and keep that brief as the audience wants to know who you are but they're there to listen to the topic at hand. Another key thing is to promote your appearance, you can do that beforehand but when your episode is released you have 72 hours to make the most of that so get plenty of social media posts ready to go and in many cases the host of a podcast will repost anything so you'll get an opportunity to reach that audience too.
Cluarantonn with their monthly events, one-off and online support along with additional services aim to support new and existing podcasters with getting started or keep going and growing with their podcasts and be the bridge to podcasting for new, existing or business podcasters.
Jo Masraff - Founder, Pirate Jo
Digital Sustainability to turn people into a sustainable product person. Maybe we can agree that our utopian future has human connection, nutritional tasty food and reduced poverty and hunger and increased moments of joy. We have it within us to dream big and aim for a future we all want. We know the system works well and, in a junction, where things aren't constant except the challenges that are in place.
Businesses and teams are under pressure in times of geopolitical and technological transformation where need to reduce costs, increase speed, improve quality and ignore a changing world and keep morale up. Sustainable practices in digital address current challenges by saving energy costs, enhance simplicity, reach new customers, reduce carbon emissions and motivate team to be part of something bigger or a purpose. Sustainable practices in digital address revenue, costs and risks by increasing revenue to retain existing customers.
They conducted research and found out that there is a shallow understanding of sustainability, sustainability is not seen as leading success criterion, it's on the individuals where have lots of passionate individuals but there are more people like this than you expect, adoption of sustainability practices is low but there is a lot of training out there including through Scottish Enterprise, companies adopt different sustainability approaches and influence on a product's sustainability varies.
In general, how to you make digital more sustainable includes sustainable energy which in Scotland for infrastructure is more likely, device longevity by building software for longer term use and reduce data for example 90% of data is not used again after the first three months so need to clean up or sort data better. They are charting courses for a sustainable world where can come into digital estate and reduce carbon footprint of digital and another is to empower people in sustainability by delivering workshops and offers personalised coaching for sustainable wellbeing & resilience. They offer many courses on increase knowledge, simulations and organisation and team awareness of sustainable practices.
Kathryn Strachan - Strategic Growth Consultant & Author of "Scaling Success"
Scaling Success - how they built a business that broke barriers. Kathryn built the CopyHouse brand from the ground up and have exited this and now helps companies get ready for investment and connect them with their own network including many in the United States where they look into expanding there. They also speak on a lot of stages and have a book "Scaling Success: How to Build a Brand that breaks barriers". Over four years they had 900% growth and during Covid didn't want to make anyone redundant so looked at ways to scale the business and look at new areas.
They got started in January 2020, they had a runway and everything they needed but didn't have foresight as no one did to predict the global pandemic, they looked at what they did well and saw a gap in the market, but they worked with travel and recruitment which were not doing as well so they positioned themselves and invested in key areas. Their strategy during Covid was defining their market position and focus and niche where a deeper focus was much better and they invested heavily in the right places, and they took care of their people and grew their team and created a company culture that could support during trying and challenging times.
Defining a niche and establish a clear proposition - if you're trying to reach everyone, you'll reach no one. Think about who it is you can help and think about it as a relationship where you can build trust with people who otherwise would not have paid attention to you. They help brands or people achieve something with a product or service by helping tech brands to build better relationships with their audience with content marketing. Investing in marketing is important and they used a Covid bounce back loan to do this and it was one of the smartest moves they made and by doing this as early as possible allowed them to start building brand awareness so people knew who they were who would send leads and talent and even helped find the agency brand that bought the company and allowed them to skyrocket out of the pandemic.
People buy from people not faceless organisations, the best leads come from their personal brand and network as people are more likely to trust a company when senior executives are active on social media and consumers are more likely to buy when a CEO of a business uses social media. Building a personal brand takes time and it won't happen overnight with their own journey taking four years and there's still much they want to do. They current approach to building a personal brand is social media, non-exec positions, their podcast Tech Marketers Uncorked, they speak at events and other podcast and built a community via as it makes sense to have multiple streams, and they network and meet new people every month.
Your network is your net worth, having a strong network allows you to solve any challenge, any time and always have someone you can count on, you might not know something, but you might know someone who does. They have a goal of meeting 50 new people every month and have met over 1,800 people which has opened doors for securing new clients and boosting the effectiveness of outreach along with establishing partnerships, finding top talent, speaking gigs and lots of other opportunities. You need to look after the people who work for you, and they are a remote-first company which means you can compete with largest players for top talent, have a good company culture with a four-day week if can't afford large salaries. reduce sick leave and absences as flexible working means people could take time to do things and can then serve clients in the United States and the United Kingdom without the high salaries.
Employee assistance program to give employees a safe place and allowed them to emotionally offload and destress and create psychological safety which helped their employees during the pandemic but also continue to minimise issues and allow people to create their best work at work. CopyHouse scaled to $2,000,000 in four years and had large clients with global operations and won multiple awards including IOE Young Director of the Year, The Drum Response to Change and CEO of the year. You can work with them to help build go-to-market strategies, shape pitch narrative and build relationships and build roundtable dinners and speak at events.
In Conversation With...
Rajesh Mair - Founder & CEO Trignomix
Rajesh is CEO and founder of Trignomix, he has been around for a few years doing things and has been in Edinburgh for the past few years but was based in Newcastle before that. He came from defence and electronics sector, but their ultimate passion is to be involved in organisations to help them revolutionise their industries along with mentoring organisations including startups and has non-exec roles and roles in charities. They are keen to spin off a platform to improve patient and social care from a patient's point of view. They set up a company Newcastle originally but over the years they switched to Edinburgh but never lost that connection as from a funding point of view the North East has been quite kind.
Their journey is they came out of the engineering and electronics side and they helped with electronic systems on surveillance and then moved to industrial computing and AoT and then moved to automotive in Sunderland and then soon after moved to Siemens and lived out in Germany for a period of time where the manufactured semiconductors which was a billon pound startup but after five years the company had floated and that became a separate organisation and the Newcastle plant was shut down but this was an opportunity to start their own company.
They had a years' worth of salary which gave them the chance and they had a great piece of advice which was to have the right people around you, they had the advantage to go to potential clients and tell them their value proposition to see if they needed a resource and they were going to people and saying if they had some customers would they be interested and the first contract was £70,000 and kicked off creating automation solutions but the market was quite down at the time so it was a challenge and their marketing wasn't so great but still knocked on doors and grew the company but then started to get knockback so decided to exit from that business.
They started to move towards a more consultancy and help businesses revolutionise their industry by bringing in automated processes in their business and bringing in data from all over the business and align this with the technology. They've also helped with other sectors such as NHS and waste management with the common thread and niche which is they help drive a develop a company in a hands on role, when they started with developing IT was process flow and automation but as they progressed they did more including social enterprise where they offer their time pro-bono to help people get back into work. It was also about electronic refurbishment which opened doors in the waste sector and their focus was on tracking there and the healthcare sector including patient data.
They were concerned about how things would move forwards, but it has always been about them and their relationships, and the weakness is still marketing which is something people need to look at. The stage they are at now is repositioning businesses by helping with costs, capacity and planning along with productivity, compliance, net zero, secure supply chains and smooth introduction to IT. They bring data together in a meaningful way across a business to deliver efficiencies and increase performance. They will bring that data together by looking at the strategic layer of the business with management, operational layer for how supply chains work together and how you can elevate data and streamline processes and make the connections in a business.
Providing the skills at the right time as organisations don't always have the resource, so they help bring those teams together, the strategic stage, innovation stage and delivery stage and assisting this with mentoring, consulting, business analysis, UX and service design along with other support. Case Study of Waste Management was to create data driven decision making for a broker who used to subcontract their waste collection services, they came wanting barcode readers but it was to ask them common sense questions which was they had hundreds of bins and question was how many and who would use them and this wasn't going to be the way forward to get the profit and growth so their processes were mapped out and they like to have a long relationship with customers in that case was over seven years and grew them from 9 million to 60 million to improve processes and a technology portal to connect information and use sustainability measures to demonstrate this to clients, but to get there they needed to change their model.
There's always challenges involved such as responsibilities in partnership and joint ventures and needing to manage your culture and people along with measuring your success with clients and lessons learned includes focus and knowing your arrow.