Online programme aims to help build 20 promising technology companies per year 

The Founder Institute (FI.co), the world’s largest pre-seed accelerator, announced today that it is officially launching its newest chapter for the Midlands. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 200 cities, the Founder Institute provides high-potential entrepreneurs and teams with the devoted support network and structured growth process needed to get to traction and funding. Any aspiring entrepreneur or team interested in building an enduring technology company across the Midlands is invited to apply to The Birmingham & the Midlands Virtual 2021 Founder Institute at http://fi.co/apply/birmingham.

In an effort to ensure the health and safety of the programme’s mentors, partners, and participants, this Founder Institute cohort will be held completely online, allowing anyone to build a business alongside some of the Midlands’s top entrepreneurs and investors from the comfort of home. The Birmingham & the Midlands Virtual 2021 Founder Institute will also host a series of free online startup events, where attendees can learn how to build a company and learn more about the programme. See the full list of events at http://fi.co/events/birmingham.

Leading the efforts to launch the Founder Institute across the Midlands are local startup leaders: Assim Ishaque, Sally Dhillon, Drew Currie and Steve Hooper

In addition, many of the region’s top startup investors, founders, and executives have expressed interest in mentoring entrepreneurs in the programme:

• Eric Collins: As seen recently on Channel 4’s The Money Maker, CEO Impactx – biggest investor of underrepresented groups
• Maxine Laceby: Founder & CEO Absolute Collagen
• Roger Wood: Director, Midven incorporating the Midlands Engine Investment Fund
• Randa Bennet: CEO, vHelp.co.uk
• Cas Majid: CEO, Wow Group of Companies, Executive Director, Birmingham Tech Week and former President, Asian Business Chamber of Commerce
• Deepak Jayaprakash: Chief Financial Officer, Moteefe & ex-Expedia
• Emilie Normann: Head of Research, Analysis and Higher Education, Foundation for Entrepreneurship and the Technology Pact
• Joel Blake OBE: President Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce
• Melissa Snover: CEO & Founder, Nourish3d
• Kali Bagary: Chairman, TechFINIUM Limited
• Kari Lawler: Barclays Entrepreneur Awards Midlands Icon of the Year, Founder of Youth4AI & UK Space Agency SatelLife Winner
• Naomi Nash: Tech Nation & diversity in tech campaigner
• Viola Jardon: Lead, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Accelerator
• Navdeep Bains: Silicon Valley-based financial consultant, ex-Hewlett- Packard & now Pure Storage
• Nick Gostick: Director, Smart Innovation Hub, Keele University
• Steff Wright: Chairman, Gusto Group
• Richard Bohan: Founder of Blockchain Capital & CEO & Co-founder Crypto Capital Investments
• Safraz Ali: Managing Director, Pathway Group Limited
• Pam Sheemar: Director, Birmingham Tech & Global Co-Chair Multicultural Network NatWest
• Mike Feerick: CEO, Alison Online Training & social philanthropist
• Steve Hobbs: Director, Ask Better Questions

The Founder Institute Birmingham & the Midlands Virtual 2021 pre-seed accelerator program begins on September 28th, 2021, and aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs looking to build solutions for the future will have the opportunity to:

• Get constant feedback and regular office hours with 50+ Birmingham Mentors, investors, and entrepreneurs.
• Make quick progress on their business using a proven, structured process to get to traction and funding that has helped alumni build great products and raise over $1BN in funding.
• Get fast-tracked to a suite of post-programmes, including Funding Lab, to continue getting expert support for years to come.
• Expand their support network to include startup founders, CEOs, and investors from the Founder Institute’s global network of 5,000+ alumni and 20,000+ mentors across 200+ cities

Anybody who is interested can apply to The Birmingham & the Midlands Virtual 2021 Founder Institute at http://fi.co/apply/birmingham, and those that apply by the Early Application Deadline (August 1st, 2021) are eligible for reduced pricing.

Learn more about the Founder Institute at FI.co

—-

About the Founder Institute

The Founder Institute (FI.co) is the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator. In the programme, early-stage entrepreneurs and teams build their business alongside a critical support network of startup experts that share equity in their success, and through a structured and challenging business-building process that has helped alumni raise over $1BN. Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute to raise funding, get into seed accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 200 cities and over 90 countries, the Founder Institute’s mission is to Globalise Silicon Valley and empower talented and motivated entrepreneurs to build companies that will create one million new jobs.

The Founder Institute was founded in 2009 by Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan. It is operated out of Palo Alto, California.

Press Contact: Jonathan Greechan (j AT fi DOT co)

SOURCE

The most terrifying cyber-crime that can hit Birmingham businesses now costs an average of £225,000 to fix, according to new stats.

Ransomware is where all of a business’s data is encrypted and held to ransom by criminals. They demand a huge fee to release it.

And the number of ransomware attacks here is shooting up, according to local data security expert Mark Dodds, of Compex IT.

“We’ve watched in horror as ransomware has become bigger and bigger in the past few years,” he said.

“It’s one of the hardest cyber-crimes to undo. And these new stats show that the criminals are getting greedier, and demanding more cash.”

A threat intelligence team in the USA revealed the average payment following a ransomware attack last year went up 171% to £225,917. That’s compared to £83,228 in 2019.

What makes ransomware so difficult to undo is that criminals spend weeks, often months, preparing an attack.

They get into a business’s systems and slowly, quietly make changes, before launching their attack. These changes make it very difficult for an IT security company to undo the damage.

Mark added: “All businesses in Birmingham need to be more aware of ransomware, and ensure that criminals can’t access their network.

“All it takes is one person to click one link in one bad email. And the damage can be done. Ransomware terrifies professionals like me; and it should terrify all business owners and managers round here.”

ABOUT COMPEX IT

From design, delivery, to ongoing protection and support, we specialise in helping businesses like yours make the most of the opportunities that technology offers.

You can find out more about them at www.compexit.co.uk

SOURCE

The app development company recently announced that it had released super app solutions with more enhancements and free will to house more on-demand services. The company believes that it will bring a significant edge to businesses that wish to prevail in the on-demand industry.

What’s in store for the enterprises?

• The addition of safety add-ons geared toward the COVID-19 pandemic situation like contactless delivery, take away services, safety badges, etc.
• A choice for the entrepreneurs to add or remove any on-demand services is making the super app solution from them a remarkable selection at an affordable price.

AppDupe has been a company that has been offering various business solutions and is best known among the business community for its satisfactory services. It is a fixed attitude of the company to revamp their solutions whenever the time calls for it, to make it suitable for the industry standards.

Having experience in app development for years, the company has seen how the app market works with people’s demands. Therefore, they have been releasing many new techniques in their development approach, from offering calculative strategies to make sure their clients become successful and scale their solutions whenever in the cards.

Many startups preferred the super app solutions before revamping, nonetheless, as they are yielding what every entrepreneur wishes for: sheer profits with the minor investment. An extensive list of their super app solution offerings are:

• Gojek Clone
• TaskRabbit Clone
• Rappi Clone
• Grab Clone
• WeChat Clone
• Yandex Go Clone

Though each of the mentioned apps has its own set of up to 60 on-demand services listing like

• Food Delivery
• Grocery delivery
• Alcohol Delivery
• Medicine Delivery
• Taxi Booking
• Home Services Booking
• Other on-demand Services Booking

The timely remodeling and launching of new products have made the company a household name among global clients. However, as the competition intensifies, we can only count the days until the next big thing the company is about to bring.

Source

While crypto trading is becoming one of the most profitable ways of investing, it is especially important to find a credible instrument for asset-management such as 7b.

7b is your personal cryptocurrency broker. This is the easiest user-friendly cryptocurrency exchange that is contained in a single application. The app was developed by the team with ten years-long experience in the crypto industry. Using our app, you can trade with more than 2,000 currency pairs with high liquidity for all of them! This makes us and you the owners of the most diverse range of choices.

Who is a broker?

A broker is a kind of support and backbone from whom you get all the necessary information and who helps you to perform deals. We are a third party, your guide, and assistant in the world of cryptocurrency, trading, and investing in your wealth. Simply put, we’ll relieve you of the headache of trading, we will cover the entire range of internal functional activities, all you need to do is make a choice.

Our Features

Therefore, how are we different from other similar apps? Why would you choose us over the plethora of offerings? We follow three main goals:

Convenience

Unlike some overly complicated exchanges or those that make it hard to find the necessary information, 7b has an absolutely clear and accessible interface, you don’t need to memorize schemes of actions and bother yourself. The user-friendly environment will tell you on an intuitive level ” where” to click. You get only the trading tools you need and the information you need right here right now. And of course, don’t forget about the 24/7 professional support from our almighty team, which is ready to help you with anything.

Transparency

We have a transparent policy regarding commissions. You will see the amount of commission from your first step in our app.

Security

The safety of our customers is the most important aspect of successful performance.

We’ve implemented high-security protocols, all transactions pass automatic security checkouts using multiple methods. All data is double encrypted. All checkouts and data decryption is lightning-fast, so you’ll never notice delays while using the app.

The 7b app doesn’t have access to the private keys.

All withdrawals require email confirmation. Therefore, your funds are safe when you trade with 7b.

7b blog

In 7b we believe that education is an essential part of successful trading and that is why we’ve created our blog, where we discuss the latest cryptocurrency market trends, explain crypto terminology, and describe tokens and coins available for trade in 7b.

One of our latest articles is dedicated to Digibyte (DGB). In it we explain the core idea of the coin, explain why you should trade digibyte and give a brief analytical review. If you want to learn how to trade digibyte in a 7b crypto broker app – check it out.

Try 7b Crypto App!

When you are ready to use our crypto trading app, just download 7b to your smartphone. Use it to view prices on the minimalistic design. Then, buy and sell crypto with ease. The order forms are simple yet complete, with your choice of crypto and the ability to input amounts. You, our customers, are very important to us and we do everything, even beyond our abilities, to make you most comfortable and safe to use 7b for your cherished purposes!

SOURCE

London, United Kingdom – 29 June, 2021 – New research from media analytics firm Commetric has found that more and more brands have started facing accusations of “pinkwashing” during Pride. Fuelled by some left-wing politicians and LGBTQ+ campaigners, criticism for rainbow capitalism, in which corporations are accused of boosting their image by selling LGBTQ+-themed products, has never been louder.

Analysing 1058 articles published in top-tier English-language outlets between May-June 2021, Commetric found that Disney, whose popular streaming service has made Pride Month a key focus of content curation, suffered the biggest reputational challenges on both traditional and social media.

Many media outlets reported that the company has found itself at the centre of a sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit brought by an executive employee, while Twitter users noticed that the official Twitter accounts for the company in countries where LGBTQ+ issues are not as freely discussed didn’t celebrate Pride.

Other companies facing allegations of pink-washing were Walmart, Amazon, and McDonald’s, which have all donated to members of Congress who voted against the Equality Act, a bill that would ban discrimination in the United States based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The names of six companies in particular – Comcast, AT&T, Home Depot, Deloitte, Exxon and Verizon– started circulating on social media after the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen tweeted that they donated substantial amounts of money to anti-LGBTQ politicians.

Based on the analysis, Commetric offers some best-practice solutions for avoiding accusations of pink-washing and implementing a more inclusive comms strategy.

Read Commetric’s full analysis: “Pride 2021: How Can Brands Steer Clear of Pink-Washing?”

Commetric (www.commetric.com)

Commetric provides advanced media analytics solutions that help organisations manage and measure their corporate reputation. We combine AI and expert human insight to enable clients across industry sectors realise the full potential of their media investments. The firm has won numerous communications industry awards and is a leading AMEC member.

SOURCE

Acquisition Aesthetics were proud winners of ‘‘Best Independent Training Provider of the Year’ at the 2021 Aesthetics Awards. In under 5 short years, this London-based start-up has blossomed into a pioneering female-led company, delivering a range of aesthetic injectables training courses.

A female-led company

We are very much living in the long-awaited era of the ‘girl boss’; women are redressing the balance within the business world, and female-led company Acquisition Aesthetics provides a shining example of talented, business-minded women thriving in the City of London The Acquisition Aesthetics Directors, Dr. Priyanka Chadha and Dr. Lara Watson are an inspiration to career-driven women everywhere. Not only are they high-flying academics and trainee surgeons, they are also both full-time mothers who have collaboratively scaled an award-winning business.

Elite medical professionals

Dr. Priyanka Chadha graduated from Imperial College, London, with impressive dual Distinctions in Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Chadha then went on to achieve a Masters in Teaching and Surgical Education, and has won notable awards for numerous educational courses she set up and successfully ran at the Royal College of Surgeons. Dr. Lara Watson has an equally glowing resume; she has dual degrees in Medicine and Dental Surgery, and now also teaches at various surgical skill workshops at the Royal College of Surgeons. She was particularly commended for founding and coordinating an international undergraduate surgical teaching programme at the College.

Both Dr. Chadha and Dr. Watson are Key Opinion Leaders in the industry and often invited to speak at exceptional conferences and events such as CCR Expo, ACE and IMCAS. They are driven by their passion to empower healthcare professionals to be creative in their work. Acquisition Aesthetics promotes facial aesthetics as an art form: a way for medical professionals to channel their inner creativity, while making a positive difference to clients’ lives.

Rave reviews

Acquisition Aesthetics have received rave reviews for their Botox® courses, lip filler training and advanced filler courses. This overwhelmingly positive response from clients has led to the company being recognised as ‘Best Independent Training Providers of the Year’ – due to their commitment to supporting both scientific understanding and the technical skill of their faculty. Dr. Chadha and Dr. Watson’s pioneering, female-led organisation prides itself on its ethos: to always ensure that fillers – and any other aesthetic procedure – are administered by fully qualified medical professionals.

SOURCE

Birmingham SMEs encouraged to join free, government initiative to improve their cybersecurity.

Managed IT service provider, Superfast IT, has become the first IT company to gain the West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre Business Start membership. The affiliation forged between WMCRC and Superfast IT as a part of the centre’s broader strategy to form partnerships between regional policing, academia and businesses.

The West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre (WMCRC), which opened in June 2020, is a part of a national network of police led, not-for-profit centres offering cybersecurity services and consultancy across the West Midlands.

Superfast IT, which provides IT support and cybersecurity services in Birmingham, will gain access to the centre’s security resources as part of the membership, keeping abreast of security developments and tools whilst improving the security of their 70-strong client base. Both organisations are hosting a joint webinar later in the year to raise awareness of cybersecurity fundamentals for small businesses. All organisations in the West Midlands may attend.

James Cash, Founder and Managing Director at Superfast IT, explained:

“I am delighted to be working alongside the West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre. We take our client’s security seriously, which the membership demonstrates. Forming alliances with reputable, government-backed expert organisations is one of several measures to keep at the forefront of cybersecurity.

“We must not forget that business owners are ultimately liable for the security of their data and systems. A perfect storm is brewing: the growing reliance on the internet, remote working, IoT devices and digitalisation, combined with the increasing sophistication of cyber-crimes and a lack of understanding about cybersecurity. Without intervention, the business risks are huge.

“Those who are not cyber aware, or lack an understanding of their responsibilities, risk being left vulnerable. This is where the WMCRC’s valuable knowledge and resources can bridge the gap, while our managed cybersecurity service complements WMCRC services to make the implementation of security measures easy for busy business owners.”

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) are working together to support the establishment of Regional Cyber Resilience Centres (CRCs). The CRCs represent a significant opportunity for the NCSC to expand the reach of its guidance and services to smaller organisations across the country and provide an extra level of practical support to enhance their impact.

Alison Hurst, WMCRC Director and West Midlands Police Superintendent, said:

“I am delighted that Superfast IT has joined the WMCRC and I look forward to working together to not only share Government approved cybersecurity resources and tools, but also to collaborate in hosting an event jointly on 23rd September, 2021.

“We have the means to take pre-emptive action in cyberspace, should we choose to do so. Cyber-attacks are not necessarily sophisticated or inevitable, and they are most often preventable. It is the victim’s vulnerability, rather than the ingenuity of the attacker, that is most often the deciding factor in the success of a cyber-attack.

“Our free and paid memberships can help individuals and organisations, regardless of size or sector, to take appropriate steps to protect themselves and their customers from the harm caused by cyber-attacks.

“It is our vision that businesses and members of the wider community have the skills and knowledge to protect themselves, making the region one of the safest places to live, work and do business. We achieve this by providing education, testing, and training delivered by our team of trusted partners, seconded police officers and Ethical Hacking students studying at local universities.”

The UK Government has invested a total of £1.9 billion in transforming the UK’s cybersecurity as a part of their National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021, with the regional centres forming an integral part. To keep informed about the centre’s latest events and how to get involved, go to wmcrc.co.uk. To register an interest in WMCRC and Superfast IT webinar, go to superfast-it.com/events.

SOURCE

LONDON, 25 June 2021 — Chaser, the global credit control automation platform and service provider, today released its integration with Freshbooks, the #2 small business accounting software in America with paying customers in 100+ countries. This new integration makes it easy and affordable for businesses to deeply personalise and automate their accounts receivables and credit control processes. 

Businesses that integrate Chaser with Freshbooks will be able to easily carry out automated invoice payment chasing without losing the human-touch. This process saves Chaser’s current customers up to 15+ hours weekly and ensures that no unpaid invoice slips through the cracks. For a full run-through of the integration and features, learn more here.

Chaser for Freshbooks features and benefits include:

• Quick, fast and easy-to-implement cloud-to-cloud integration between Freshbooks and Chaser.
• Automated and personalised invoice payment chasing, ensuring that users maintain great customer relationships whilst getting paid faster..
• The bilateral sync reconciles payments in app, so that paid invoices are no longer chased.
• Automated “thank you for paying” emails for customers who have paid. 
• Reduced credit control and accounts receivables management time and fewer errors.
• Chaser makes it easy to track all overdue and outstanding invoices per customer, seeing all payment chasing activity in one place. 
• For the toughest cases, invoices can be escalated within the Chaser application directly  to Chaser’s debt collection service. 
• Each invoice reminder can include access to a payment portal and a pay now button, encouraging payments on the spot. 
• Users can use the Chaser app  to offer payment plans to their customers, and chase these instalments accordingly.. 
• Credit checking. 
  

“Both Chaser and FreshBooks are intuitive platforms which makes them very easy to use. Running a small business can be overwhelming at times as you don’t always have the support and staff that larger companies have. We felt that this integration would offer FreshBooks’ users many features and readily available customer service to take some of this pressure away, especially with accounts receivables,” Sonia Dorais, CEO of Chaser, has said. 
Chaser is now available through the Freshbooks Marketplace. For more information, join the webinar here.

MEDIA CONTACT:marketing@chaserhq.com

ABOUT CHASERChaser Technologies Limited helps businesses get paid sooner with its award-winning payment chasing automation platform, debt collections agency and outsourced credit control services. By sending automatic and deeply personalised reminders, the software and service provider effectively gets invoices paid on time without losing the human touch. To date, Chaser has helped users chase over £3 billion in overdue invoices.

Chaser was named the Accounting Excellence ‘Cloud App of the Year’ three years in a row (2017, 2018, and 2019), Xero’s ‘App Partner of the Year’ (2016), and App Partner of the Month (August 2019).

https://www.chaserhq.com/
https://twitter.com/chaser_hq



About FreshBooksLearn more at www.FreshBooks.com