Guest post: 9 things Silicon Roundabout got me for free
So is all this ‘Silicon Roundabout’ stuff just a bunch a of empty hype? I work in a building in Shoreditch, London commonly known as ‘Nevada Robs’, due to it being the the location of the monthly London startup poker games. The office is currently shared with two other companies – Rob’s own The Startup Toolkit and fashion retailer lyst.
I’ve been there 10 weeks, with some cash saved up from my former day job taking care of my expenses while I work on my startup. In that time, for nothing more than the cost of my desk rental (55 bucks a month), I’ve gotten the following free of charge:
1. UI advice from a trained designer
There’s a lot of this in co-lo offices – sometimes I trade my Python skills with the guys around me for Javascript knowledge. People fill in each other’s gaps, and occasionally pay each other back with a cortado from one of Shoreditch’s many fine coffee establishments.
2. The front page of Hacker News
3. Social media advice from Digg’s Chief Architect.
Social media sites like Reddit, Digg and HackerNews use explicit voting to send things to the top of their sites. Things that are new and have lots of votes get bubbled to the top, then, as newer stories push them out of the way, float down again.
I’d had an idea about creating a similar concept for my own site, but replacing the voting with the level of engagement – views, comments, and likes – and combining that with age to determine the items rank on the front page of the site.
At the FOWA after party in BarMusicHall I was able to run that by Joe Stump, the former Chief Architect of Digg, and an all-round swell guy. His response? ‘yeah, I wanted to do that at Digg for ages, I kept bugging Kevin about it. Do it, it’ll be awesome’. The next day I coded it and threw it up on the demo site. I tweaked the algo a little, and the result of that conversation is now the front page of my site. Thanks Joe!
4. A TechFluff interview
The TechFluff guys are often roaming local events. A chance encounter with Hermione on the street led to a TechFluff interview with Lucie a few weeks later.
5. An hours free PR
I’m self funded, and I don’t have the money for professional PR at this point – I do what I can myself. And PR is difficult: running a community problem / confession site, it’s important not just to attract people, but to attract the right people. Ballou, who specialize in startups, gave me a free hour of advice to clarify the positioning and message of the site and identify publications which are worth targeting. Not only does this get me the right kind of customers, it saves me time by letting me focus on the publications that would deliver them.
7. An offer of free hosting for the site.
Did I mention I’m self funded yet? The guys from WebFusion offered to host the site for free. Pow, instant saving.
8. A VC pursuing me
I ran into someone at the TechHub party who seemed to be unusually very interested in the site. They handed me a card: they’re a VC and they want me to call them. The sites only been public for three weeks, and I’m not seeking funding yet, but when the time comes, it’ll be handy to know I don’t need to cold call.
9. Mince pies
If you’re wondering why the mince pies are on this list, you haven’t tasted the mince pies from the TechHub Christmas party. I think the secret is they’re moist, so you’ve got something to assist you to chew through the pastry, rather than the inferior dry fruit of other less worthy pies.
So is Silicon Roundabout something real? Judge for yourself.