Anna-Lisa Wesley: Founder folklore and fairytales – tech desperately needs new material

Anna-Lisa Wesley wearing blue top in front of grey background

Anna-Lisa Wesley, Entrepreneur in Residence at SETsquared Bristol, reflects on the power of storytelling and needing new founder stories for our time. “Working in tech right now, we need some new heroes, heroines, new plots, new tools, new lessons. We desperately need new material.” Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn… these business stories, the founders that sit behind them and…

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Welcome to Rosie Bennett as our new Innovation Lead for Bristol Innovations

Rosie Bennett, Innovation Lead at Bristol Innovations

We are delighted to announce that Rosie Bennett joins the Bristol Innovations team as Innovation Lead. Rosie Bennett’s brief is across Bristol Innovations’ portfolio of incubators, innovation hubs and networks; SETsquared Bristol, Engine Shed, the Quantum Technologies Innovation Centre, Quantum Frontier, and the University of Bristol’s joint venture with Science Creates.  As Innovation Lead, Rosie…

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SETsquared Bristol companies shine at The SPARKies 2024

John Terry of Neuronostics with award at The SPARKies awards 2024

The recent SPARKies Awards night, hosted at Central Warehouse in the heart of Bristol, brought together the region’s tech and digital leaders to celebrate excellence in the West. SETsquared member companies from across the South West were recognised for their achievements in various sectors, including biotech, createch, sustainability, and cyber. Out of 14 award categories,…

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Sustainable student startup winners join SETsquared Bristol

SLANT and Weaving Change founders with New Enterprise Competition award trophies

We are pleased to welcome two sustainable student startups to our Quest incubation programme as winners of the New Enterprise Competition. The New Enterprise Competition is the University of Bristol’s longest running startup competition which awards £35,000 of funding to entrepreneurial students, staff and alumni each year. SLANT and Weaving Change will join our community…

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The least answered question when preparing for investment

Kevin Simmons, Entrepreneur in Residence at SETsquared Bristol

Kevin Simmons, Entrepreneur in Residence at SETsquared Bristol, reflects on the best way to improve the odds of getting investment for your tech business. “No matter how ‘investor ready’ you may be, if the investor is not ‘ready’ for you, then your business will not secure the investment it desires.” “How do I make my business…

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Call out for women founders looking for business support 

Enterprising Women 3.0 group

We’re thrilled to launch Enterprising Women 4.0, our free business support programme for aspiring women founders, kindly funded by NatWest. Enterprising Women is open to early-stage founders in the UK who identify as women or non-binary assigned female at birth with tech, tech-enabled or non-tech startups, business ideas or side hustles. Over the course of…

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SETsquared Bristol companies create a record 300 new jobs

Fourteen people in Actuation Lab team outside in front of building with Actuation Lab logo

We are pleased to announce that our member companies created a record 300 new jobs in 2023. They also generated over £45 million in revenues and raised a combined £50 million in funding. The sectors with the highest number of jobs created were fintech, healthtech and engineering. Seventeen of the new jobs were created by…

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Winners announced – Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award

Two of the women founders of Eleria standing together smiling in front of foliage

Four SETsquared Bristol companies have secured funding from Innovate UK’s Unlocking Potential: Build Award to accelerate their innovations into development. Eleria, Inclued AI, MyCoPilot.ai and SpatialCortex Technology have each received a £50k grant and access to tailored mentorship and support programmes. The Innovate UK competition is investing a combined £6.2m into innovative projects with the…

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Startup advice from Kevin Simmons, Entrepreneur in Residence

Kevin Simmons, Entrepreneur in Residence at SETsquared Bristol

As part of our startup advice series with our Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiRs), we had a chat with the newest member of the team, Kevin Simmons, to hear his top tips for founders and startups. Tell us a bit about yourself including any hidden talents? My strongest dislike in life is ‘tell me about yourself’ questions.…

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