Paul Forster, Community Manager: Working towards a more inclusive and equal tech scene

Anybody with half an eye on the global, national, or local tech scene will know that it’s a primarily a pale, male and stale affair. In other words, whether we’re talking global behemoths or scrappy startups, they’re traditionally helmed by white men.   When I first started as Community Manager at SETsquared Bristol some four and a half years ago, one of the first conversations I had…

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Breakthrough Bursary returns to support BAME tech founders

We are proud to relaunch our Breakthrough Bursary for the third year, continuing our commitment to promoting inclusion and equal opportunities in tech. The bursary supports BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) entrepreneurs in the UK to access business support through our award-winning incubation programme, including university spinouts, and startups from the private sector. Women…

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Bristol third top UK city for tech investment

Bristol attracted the third largest amount of investment into tech businesses of any UK city in 2020, according to the latest annual report by Tech Nation, with the South West posting a record year.  Bristol and Bath also rank 12th across Europe for investment in tech, ahead of cities including Barcelona, Cambridge and Madrid.  Tech Nation says £339m in venture capital funding went to Bristol tech firms last…

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SETsquared Bristol awards six BAME-led startups with Breakthrough Bursary

SETsquared Bristol, the University of Bristol world-leading tech incubator, is proud to announce six companies that have been awarded their 2020 Breakthrough Bursary. Angel Investors Club, Engineer2Engineer, Latchaid, Lurncampus, FluoretiQ and YelloButterfly will join SETsquared Bristol’s incubation programme in January 2021 to grow their technology startups. Now in its second year, the Breakthrough Bursary supports…

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Interview with Mustafa Rampuri: Ambitions for enterprise and quantum technology in Bristol

We had a chat with Mustafa Rampuri, Director of Enterprise Services and the Quantum Technology Innovation Centre (QTIC+) at University of Bristol, about his ambitions for enterprise and quantum technology in Bristol, and how these connect with the SETsquared Bristol incubation programme.  For those that don’t know much about you, what is your role and what is your background?  My role as Director of Enterprise Services is to help the University of…

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Diverse pipeline of talent celebrated at Bristol’s Silicon Gorge

Eleven of the most exciting early-stage tech and digital startups in the South West and Wales pitched last week to an audience of high-calibre investors at the Silicon Gorge Investor Showcase final. Part of the Investment Activator Programme, Silicon Gorge is one of the West’s major investment events, with selected startups getting through semi-finals to…

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Girls and women inspired to try out a tech career on Ada Lovelace Day

On Tuesday 13 October, SETsquared Bristol and Engine Shed were delighted to host their third ‘Inspiring Women and Girls In STEAM’ (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) event, in celebration of Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace, a 19th century mathematician, is widely credited as the first computer programmer, and best known for her work with Charles…

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SETsquared Bristol Case Study – NORTHSTAR: Using data insights to drive business performance

To help our aspiring entrepreneurs and future SETsquared Bristol members, we showcase a number of case studies demonstrating the breadth of tech at SETsquared Bristol and what it takes to achieve success. We had a chat with NORTHSTAR Founder, Glyn Blaize… NORTHSTAR Key Facts Start date: 2017 Market sector: Recruitment Location: Bristol Number of employees: 3 (excl dev team 8)…

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Socially Responsible Recruitment: An interview with Paul Forster

Paul Forster, Community Manager

Socially Responsible Recruitment’s (SR2), Alicia Teagle, had a chat with our Community Manager, Paul Forster about diversity and inclusion (D&I), SETsquared Bristol projects, books and everything in between… I’ve been really looking forward to getting Paul onto Women Rock and super excited to collaborating with him throughout the rest of this year and beyond. We both share…

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