Resources
Here are some resources to help you on your journey to build your startup. Whether you are early stages with an idea or have an incorporated business, there is something for everyone!E-Lab Perks
Mathworks
MathWorks supports startup accelerators and incubators worldwide with benefits and sponsorships. Including – one year of free access to MATLAB, Simulink and over 100 add-on toolboxes and so much more!
Sehta
Sehta offer regulatory support for medtech companies / startups
Notion
One tool for your whole team. Write, plan, and get organised.
Hubspot
AWS
Training
Looking to upskill in a certain area or give your team some personal development? Here are some recommended training courses to help guide you through your startup journey, at any stage.
edX courses
Access 2,000 free online courses from 140 leading institutions worldwide including Harvard, MIT and Berkeley. Gain new skills and earn a certificate of completion.Here’s a few we would recommend to get you started:
- Where to Play (online course) – Learn how to apply the Market Opportunity Navigator – a three-step tool for identifying, evaluating and strategising market opportunities – to get the most value for your innovation. –
- Creative Thinking (online course) – Learn how to apply tools and techniques to better solve problems, generate ideas, and excel in your chosen career. –
Udacity courses
- How to Build a Startup (online course) – In an introduction to the basics of the famous Customer Development Process, Steve Blank provides insight into the key steps needed to build a successful startup.
- Fred Kofman on Managing Conflict (online course) – Learn the tools that turn conflicts into positive outcomes in this workshop-style course with philosopher of leadership and LinkedIn Influencer Fred Kofman.
How To Talks
Check out our past How To Talks to hear expert speakers cover everything from protecting your data to dealing with difficult people and resilience.
Food Labelling Course
Food Labelling e-learning course by the Food Standards Agency with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department of Health
Tools
Useful tools to support your day-to-day activites and events and make you and your team work smarter, not harder.
Google Forms
Create a survey, target respondents and generate statistically significant results in just days. Great for early stage customer discovery!
Google Analytics
Gives you the free tools you need to analyse data for your business in one place, so you can make smarter decisions
Mural
Mural enables innovative teams to think and collaborate visually to solve problems. A great tool for collaborating with your team, especially when working remotely!
Biorender
Pre-made icons and templates from more than 30 fields of life sciences. Great for making pitch decks and websites.
Mentimeter
Great tool for creating interactive presentations, interactive polls, quizzes and surveys.
The Business Model Canvas
Globally recognised software to design business models.
Strategyzer
Silicon Valley originals, Alexander Osterwalder and David J. Bland have built this platform to help entrepreneurs build their company. With masterclasses, books and canvases to get you started.
Food Packaging and Labelling
Get the low-down on the legal requirements that you have to follow as a food business.
Value Proposition Canvas
A great tool to help you understand your customers
Funding
Thinking about funding either now or in the future? Check out the different ways to make it happen
Guides
Grant Tree have prepared this easy-to-follow guide to the various financial options available to UK startups. It covers crowdfunding, equity investment, corporate loans, and GrantTree’s own area of expertise: government funding.
Grants
Innovate UK – Since 2007, we have invested around £2.5 billion to help businesses across the country to innovate, with match funding from industry taking the total value of projects above £4.3 billion.
Competitions
The London Mayor’s Competition – A competition that asks London’s students to come up with viable, sustainable business ideas for the City with up to £20k to be won.
The Pitch – The Pitch is a free competition that helps startups create a kick-ass pitch and gives them the platform to use it.
Santander X Entrepreneurship Award– One of the UK’s largest student and graduate business pitching competition where you could win up to £75k in equity-free funding, mentoring and startup support.
Rising Stars – The opportunity to put your business in front of leading investors, influencers and corporates.
Clean Tech Challenge – A global business plan competition for students with innovative clean technology ideas.
British Small Business Awards – Highlighting the achievements of both small companies with less than 50 employees, as well as growing companies with between 50 and 250 employees.
EDF Pulse Start-up Awards – Offering a marketing campaign and up to €80,000to European startups using new technological solutions to build tomorrow’s world.
Celebrating Small Business Awards – Free to enter with winners from each category securing a spot at the prestigious UK final and a chance to be crowned the UK Small Business of the Year.
TATA Varsity Pitch – The Tata Varsity Pitch Competition, powered by NACUE, is a national early-stage business pitching competition that celebrates the best businesses coming out of colleges and universities across the UK.
Awards Intelligence – Want to make sure you award application is the best it can be? Let Awards Intelligence help you write the perfect entry.
Shake To Create – Companies over two years old have the opportunity to work with an award-winning creative agency, for free.
DBACE– The Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Entrepreneurs has a £60k prize fund and £100k of business support on offer.
Angel
How to raise Angel Investment in 6 steps – All you need to know about Angel Investment from the experts at Seed Legals
VC
What Investors Really Look For – In this podcast by Masters of Scale, entrepreneur and investor, Mark Cuban, gives his insight on what qualities investors look for in a founder, and what entrepreneurs should be looking for in return.
The definitive guide to London seed venture funds – Although put together in 2018, this guide by Fred Destin is still hugely relevant to those looking for investment in London.
Accelerators
Looking to take your idea to the next level, fast? Accelerators are a great way of getting seed investment as well as a programme of activity to keep you on track.
Y Combinator
Twice a year Y Combinator invest $500,000 per company in a large number of startups. They work intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors.
Techstars
Each year, Techstars choose over 500 early-stage companies to join one of our 3-month, mentorship-driven accelerators, investing $120K and providing hands-on mentorship and access to the Techstars network for life.
Creative Destruction Lab
Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a nonprofit organisation that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies.
Incubators
Take your business from fledgling to high-flyer with a industry-specific programme of support and access to valuable networks.
Indie Bio
Indie Bio’s mission is to turn scientists into entrepreneurs who can save lives and save the planet and is the world’s first accelerator devoted to startups using biology to solve the world’s largest problems.
Books
Great reads from trusted sources! And all available to borrow for FREE from the Enterprise Lab Library.
The Lean Startup
Learn about what your customers really want from Eric Reis!
The Founder's Pocket Guides
Learn the financial basics in these easy-to-read guides by entrepreneur, Stephen R Poland, covering everything from terms sheets to startup valuation.
Testing Business Ideas
Testing Business Ideas by David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder delves into how to increase the success of any venture by providing a practical guide to rapid experimentation.
Where to Play
This book by Marc Gruber and Sharon Tal explains how to identify, evaluate and focus on the right marketing opportunities.
The Mom Test
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzgerald explains the best way to conduct customer interviews, and it doesn’t involve asking your mum!
Four Steps to the Epiphany
The original God-Father of lean, Steve Blank’s bestselling classic that launched 10,000 startups and new corporate ventures.
Running Lean
Running Lean by Ash Maurya offers a strategy for achieving a product/market fit for your venture.
The Unicorn’s Shadow
The Unicorn’s Shadow by Ethan Mollick combats the dangerous myths that hold back startups, founders and investors.
Think Again
For anyone who wants to create a culture of learning and exploration, this book by Adam Grant is a great place to start.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Looking to get inspired? PayPal Founder, Peter Thiel, explains that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create.
Talking To Humans
Talking to Humans by Giff Constable, is a practical guide to the qualitative side of customer development, an indispensable skill for vetting and improving any new startup or innovation. This book will teach you how to structure and run effective customer interviews, find candidates, and turn learnings into action.
Startup Job Boards
Looking to build your team? Or maybe find a job with a startup? Check out these websites.
Imperial Careers Service
JobsLive by Imperial Careers Service is a great place to post your job if you’re looking for world-class STEM talent. Basically, Imperial students and recent alumni!
Sifted jobs
Connecting the Sifted Community with the best jobs in European Startups and Innovators.
Unicorn Hunt
Europe’s magical beast of a start up job board, with +10,000 unique users and hundreds of new positions posted each month!
Work in Startups
The home of UK startup jobs.
Newsletters
D/srupt
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Strictly VC
Eat, Sleep, Work Repeat
Bruce Daisley bringing evidence and facts on how to make the workplace a better place.