Start Up Faster - Going Global with TechHub

TechTalks@Cass (in partnership with Thomson Reuters) are intimate, in-depth interviews with some of the UK’s most innovative and inspirational tech entrepreneurs. Meet them up close and personal at Cass Business School, with plenty of time for your questions. 

Please arrive at 6 PM for a 6.30 PM start. Afterwards, we are off to a nearby pub to continue the conversation over a few drinks.

Tech Writer Matt Cowan interviews Elizabeth Varley and Mike Butcher, Co-Founders of TechHub

It's 2014 and Tech City is now teeming with start-ups and co-working spaces to house them. However, in 2010, the picture was quite different, and TechHub was one of the first co-working spaces to open in East London (2 years earlier than Google Campus!). As Tech City pioneers, TechHub contributed greatly to the success of our growing start-up community.

Founded by Elizabeth Varley and Mike Butcher, TechHub creates spaces around the world for tech entrepreneurs to meet, work, learn and collaborate. TechHub offers physical and virtual spaces, runs events, advice sessions, and more, all with the aim of building a community of entrepreneurs working on tech products.

The concept is clearly working, as evidenced by the success stories of TechHub start-ups: The video-on-demand start-up Screenburn just raised £500k in March, and Nexmo, a Telcom API firm that was valued at US$100m and received US$18m in funding in January.

In addition to hubs in Bangalore, Berlin, Bucharest, Manchester, Riga and Swansea, TechHub has two sites in London. One just opened in 207 Old Street, close to Silicon Roundabout, and one is situated in Google Campus, both just a few minutes walk away from Cass Business School.

Come along to hear Matt, Elizabeth, and Mike talk about this incredible journey and what's in store for the future - for TechHub and Tech City in general.

Elizabeth Varley is CEO and cofounder of TechHub. Previously she set up Online Content UK, a commercial editorial & content agency working with clients as diverse as Amazon.co.uk, PricewaterhouseCoopers and AKQA. She has also worked with NMK & Chinwag to programme and produce digital industry events & training, mobile and location-based services, SEO/SEM, games, web writing, marketing to older consumers, future of media, magazines, radio, TV and newspapers. Named as East London Start-Up insider by Wired in 2011, she is  involved in the digital and content sectors and speaks at industry events. She has been a judge of the Association of Online Publishers Awards, the Information Management Awards, the Digital Entrepreneurship Award and sat on the London College of Communication’s Digital Media Advisory Forum.

Mike Butcher  is co-founder of TechHub and TechCrunch’s “Editor At Large”. He writes about Startups, Venture Capital, Technology Trends and Emerging markets. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long-time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, and The Daily Telegraph. He is also the founder and on the steering committee of Coadec, the Coalition for a Digital Economy, and he serves on the Mayor of London Smart London Board. In July 2008 he was named as one of the Top 100 people in London’s creative industry by The Independent. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 he was named as one of Britain’s Top 100 “digital power-brokers” by Wired UK.

Matt Cowan is the Director of Media at Nelson Bostock Communications. Previously the European Technology Correspondent for Reuters TV and contributing writer to Wired UK, Matt has interviewed many of the tech sector’s most influential figures. He’s a great storyteller and great at getting others to tell their story.

Join us and be inspired #casstechtalks