Newcastle Startup Week

Our Founders’ Friday events take place on the last Friday of each month at the Tuspark Barclays Eagle Lab co-working & event space on Grainger Street in Newcastle where we are based.

What’s it all about?

Since July 2018, we’ve been running our Founders’ Friday events as a way for new, existing & potential business startup founders in the North East of England to come together with members of the wider business community to share knowledge, insights & support.

The format for our event on Friday 30th August 2019 is as follows:

9am-10am: Arrivals / hot-desking / co-working / networking

10am-11.15am: ‘Insights Briefing’ (short talks & presentations on latest business opportunities in the North East & wider UK) by:

• Dinah Jackson (Programme Manager, North East LEP) who will tell you more about the ‘High Potential Startups’ programme which is looking for applicants
• Phil Jackman (Organiser, #CyberFest) who will explain why you might want to attend the North East’s largest ever cyber security & data protection festival which takes place in multiple locations between 9-28 September
• Stuart Lynn (Founder, TechNorthEast) who will give you an in-depth analysis of the North East’s digital & tech ecosystem & what he has learned since launching the TechNorthEast website last year
• Andrew Dixon (Tuspark Eagle Lab Ecosystem Manager, Barclays) who will tell you all about the benefits of hot desking & co-working at Tuspark plus the new 8 week business startup programme beginning there in October

11.15am-11.45am: Coffee / Tea Break

11.45am-12.30pm: ‘Startup Show & Tell’ (an opportunity for local startups to demo what they’re working on at the moment, ask for feedback & offers of support)

• Alison Reynolds (Director, Reynolds HR & OD Ltd) who offers a combination of pan-industry HR, training, employment development, strategy, team building & leadership development for North East businesses
• David Wilkinson (Coach & Trainer, David Wilkinson Performance Coaching) who offers high performance coaching ‘for men who want to become the very best version of themselves’
• + an open forum for you to ask for help / advice for your startup

12.30pm-1.30pm: Lunch sponsored by Sintons LLP

1.30pm-3pm: Masterclasses / Q&As to help founders grow their business or themselves.

This month features:

• Ailsa Bates (Head of Awareness, FreeAgent) on ‘Marketing 101: DIY marketing for small businesses that gets results (understand what marketing is, why you need to do it & how to be effective with basic marketing techniques you can do yourself)’
• Michael Cattermole (Solicitor, Sintons) on ‘Estate planning for business owners, making a will & what should be included’)
• Ben Kenyon (Director – Business Development, North IT Cyber Security) on ‘Tech Due Diligence’ (advising companies looking to sell or go for investment on what to prepare for with particular focus on code audits, open source software audits, cyber security & company process reviews)

3pm-4pm: Hot-desking / co-working / networking

4pm-5pm: Drinks at a nearby bar (optional)!

Want to attend?

Click / tap on the button below to book your ticket for just £5 (+ booking fee):

(Alternatively, book a 5-day ticket for our Newcastle Startup Week 2020 festival & get free entry to all our monthly Founders’ Friday events taking place between now & May 2020 here).

Founders’ Friday is sponsored by FreeAgent

Following their Headline Sponsorship of Newcastle Startup Week 2019, we’re delighted to have Edinburgh-based FreeAgent sponsoring our Founders’ Friday events now too! FreeAgent has been voted the UK’s #1 accounting software for small businesses & you, your friends or clients can get a 3 month free trial & 10% off for life by going to http://freeagent.com/foundersfriday & then clicking / tapping the ‘Try FreeAgent’ button.