Story from Techcelerate Coffees Daresbury 4 #TCDBY4

On 10th October 2023, we had our 4th Techcelerate Coffees Daresbury at Waterside Cafe of Sci-Tech Daresbury.

Out of the 15 people who signed up, only one person didn’t attend. Mike Georgeson gate crashed resulting in 15 attendees. That’s 100% attendance in my book.

Let me share a few stories of the attendees:

• Paul Treloar – I have known Paul since 2005 when I first pitched to Enterprise Ventures at Sci-Tech Daresbury. I moved there in Feb 2006. I learned the art of networking from Paul. He is my sensei!. Techcelerate partners with Sci-Tech Daresbury.
• Katrina Delargy – one of the first tech founders to move to Sci-Tech Daresbury. Her tech startup, Tiyga was way ahead of time. She has pivoted since then but still runs Tiyga now as a health tech app. We used to chat so much in the early days. She was also part of the original Techcelerate from 2006 to 2013.
• Rhys Jones – Where do I start with Rhys? He was my competitor first when I founded ebdex, an electronic invoicing application. Then he became my co-founder with edocr.com. I introduced him to the acquirer of his Accountis. I also started CRMPlus with Rhys, but shut down very quickly. Today, Rhys is a Member of Techcelerate and a customer of SkilledUp Life. Rhys runs an amazing new browser, Wavebox (free to Techcelerate Members for a year). He also spun out a new AI tech startup, AxonZeta the other day.
• Lisa Petherick – I’ve known Lisa for a number of years now. She is the queen of insurance for tech companies. Today she works for Vista Insurance Brokers, which is the insurance service provider for Techcelerate Members. When Covid 19 pandemic hit, she joined Furloughed Life, the predecessor to SkilledUp Life. She is also a customer of Deal Lite.
• Sathish Kumar – I came to know Sathish through Manchester Business School’s MBA. He is bringing India-based Quadance Technologies to the UK. Sathish is a Member of Techcelerate.
• Martin Ayrton – Martin met Simon Groom at a recent Techcelerate Coffees Manchester event and decided to invest and join as their CTO. Martin specialises in tech and advertising, and is the founder of a number of tech startups in addition to investing in many. He recently became a Techcelerate Member. FTPConcepts, TowerGaming, DOOH.com, Voodooh and Purl.app are some of Martin’s tech companies.
• Craig Taylor – I’ve known Craig since the original Techcelerate. Craig is in the process of launching a new tech startup, Orakly. Craig is a Member of Techcelerate and a Customer of SkilledUp Life.
• Harold Sharples. I have known Harold since the original Techcelerate and he has a history of helping folks like Tim Cook (Apple CEO). Today, he runs the health tech startup, Care Quality Ecosystems.
• Mike Georgeson – I have also known Mike since the original Techcelerate. Mike has dabbled with many tech startups and today runs Joown.
• Gary Dodson – I have known Gary for many years. His IT company Greenlight Computers has allowed him to create multiple additional ventures.
• George Huang – George is a tenant of Sci-Tech Daresbury. I am yet to have a proper chat with him. He runs All Green Energy focusing on building an intelligent building management system. Prior to building tech startups, I used to be a Control Systems Engineer specialising in SCADA, DCS and telemetry systems for power, oil & gas, and water and wastewater. Love to learn more.
• Neville Buckley – I believe it was the first time I met Neville even though we have been connected on Linkedin since 2019. Neville seems to have led an active role in multinational technology companies before embarking on investing in early-stage tech startups. I only realised whilst writing this blog that Neville also chairs the world of Louis-James Davis (LJ). It was good to hear Neville backed Mark Pedley and SmartLife. Now I am wondering whether I bumped into Neville at one of LJ’s events.
• Anthony Chadwick – I met Anthony in 2019 when he spoke at a Business Cloud event. Anthony runs a number of businesses related to Veterinary including Simply Vets (veterinary jobs in one place) and The Webinar Vet (education for veterinary professionals)
• Michael Cunningham – We have been connected on Linkedin since 2018 but believe this was the first time we met. Mike built and exited from Healthcare Communications. Great to learn about what Mike built.

Good to briefly chat with Martin about Community Led Growth (CLG), a strategy I have been adopting since 2018/19. In mid 2000s, it was all about Software as a Service (SaaS). Today, it’s all about CLG. But most people aren’t even aware of this. CLG will take a few years before it becomes mainstream.

Techcelerate is a trusted founder network for tech entrepreneurs and those who can help them from investors to partners and service providers. We built long-term relationships based on trust, as you can see from the stories I shared above. If you are building a tech startup or want to support them, do consider becoming a member.

We allow non-members to attend one event per year to get a feel about us. All our Techcelerate Coffees are capped at 25 attendees.