Tough Cookies Podcast: Recent Episodes
Nicolas Alpi
Welcome to the Tough Cookies podcasts where we interview individuals who build, scale and support startups. Brought to you from Nic, CTO and co-founder of CookiesHQ, these 30-minute podcasts explore the startup ecosystem of the South West, UK.
This week Nic and Nat sit down with Dr Becky Sage (Director of Acceleration at EDUCATE and former CEO of Interactive Scientific) to share their personal experiences with identifying and overcoming burnout.
The symptoms of burnout can include energy depletion and exhaustion, increased negativity at work and reduced productivity. It's the result of exposure to prolonged and intense periods of stress and can go hand in hand with deeper mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
Due to the very nature of their roles, entrepreneurs are particularly susceptible to burnout and often push themselves right to the limits of their mental wellbeing. Often they can struggle to detach their own identity from the business and suffer chronic stress as a result. When you feel that you are your business, you absorb everything that happens within that business - good or bad.
One particular step in the entrepreneurial journey that leaves individuals vulnerable to burnout is growing a team - while bringing in those first few employees can take pressure off your day-to-day workload, the process adds another layer of pressure and responsibility on to founders. Becky discusses this paradox and shares her tips for recruiting in a slower, steadier and more mindful way.
Becky and Nic talk about how they first identified that they were suffering from burnout and the steps they were forced to take to alleviate some of the pressure on them, and how recognising it was the first big step toward relief.
They talk about the steps they took to overcome burnout - realising as individuals they can't do everything themselves, and need to relax their grip on the reigns in order to truly do the best by their business. Making time for micro-breaks and finding more of a balance in the day-to-day has been vital for their recoveries.
In being forced to distinguish life at work and life outside of it, Becky has found great solace in gymnastics, yoga and gratitude journaling. She shares her vision for the new journey she has found herself on as a result of overcoming burnout.
If you are struggling with feelings of overwhelm, stress or burnout please see the NHS Working Well resources and reach out to a mental health professional.
Join the conversation on CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more about Becky.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for businesses with passion and potential. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
This week Nic and Nat sit down with Dominic Mills, co-founder of Yuup - one of CookiesHQ’s own clients. Yuup is an online marketplace for Bristol-based experiences that launched in September 2020.
The vision for Yuup came from a passionate belief in local communities and the role local people and enterprises have in making them thrive. Dominic had done a lot of reading around the idea of us reaching ‘peak stuff’ as a starting point - that as a society we had accumulated enough stuff, and what we’re actually really interested in doing is going out and experiencing more. But what sets Yuup apart from AirBnB Experiences or Red Letter Days?
Dominic shares the challenges of launching a platform that revolves around bringing people together amidst Covid restrictions, and why Bristol was THE place to start with Yuup. Nic and Nat ask him what he thinks will happen around the drive to shop local once the world opens back up.
Before Yuup, Dominic had spent 15 years running a successful agency that built products for other people. He describes how he felt about the role reversal, what makes a successful agency/client partnership and his vision for Yuup moving forward.
Join the conversation on CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more about Dominic.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for businesses with passion and potential. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
This week Nic and Nat sit down with CookiesHQ's own clients for the very first time: Rupert and Kate, co-founders of Stornaway - a platform that enables creative filmmakers to plan and produce multi-linear interactive films without coding or complexity.
Stornaway existed as an idea in Rupert’s head for many years, before making it to pen on paper that had been plastered all over an entire wall of their home. With a rich history in film, he was on the lookout for something to plug the gaps in non-linear story production. When, after a couple of years, Ru and Kate still couldn’t find anything on the market, they realised they really would have to build it themselves.
They mapped out the product with wireframes and animations and started searching for someone to develop it - enter CookiesHQ!
As a co-founding couple, Kate and Rupert talk about how important it is for them to build a business that supports their life together and share how their distinct but complementary skillsets are a big part of Stornaway’s success.
With a history in the arts, the tech startup world was completely outside of Kate’s comfort zone. Having initially found the prospect daunting, she shares how she discovered that there’s actually as much creativity in a startup incubator as there is in a theatre rehearsal room, and the confidence to show up and be herself in business meetings.
They touch upon the gender disparities that persist within the business world and how different it feels walking into a room to present yourself as a woman or a man - and how even in businesses built on numbers and data, you have to go with your gut feeling and nurture the relationships that make you feel good.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Kate and Ru.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for disruptive companies. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
We’re kicking off 2021 with a brand new episode in our Behind the Screens series. Lockdown 3.0 is here, and homeschooling is back on the agenda. So, who better for Nic and Nat to sit down with than their home co-workers - ahem, kids - Timmy (8) and Alice (6)?
As Nic and Nat are married co-founders, the kids have inevitably been involved in and aware of the CookiesHQ journey through the years. Timmy and Alice share what they really think Mum and Dad do, how they rate homeschooling vs going to school, and whether they think they’ll be joining Cookies when they’re older.
And, kids being kids, they’re not afraid to ask the questions on everyone’s minds. Questions like:
- Nic has proved he can build a website, even an agency, but would he be any good at building a building?
- Is Nat’s job actually just like playing a big game of Monopoly?
- How do we really know if Mum and Dad only do work for two hours a day and spend the rest of the time eating cake and chocolate?
This episode offers a child's-eye-view of what a tech agency does and takes a hilarious, yet touching and sincere look at the impact of lockdowns on working families, and the difficulty of balancing home-schooling and work responsibilities.
This week Nic and Nat sit down (remotely, of course) with Piers and Dave from Atomic Smash - a Bristol-based specialist WordPress and WooCommerce studio. CookiesHQ and Atomic Smash are nearly the same age, and have had very similar journeys towards similar goals, so they dig deep into this alignment.
Piers and Dave started Atomic Smash fresh out of university, where they’d met and become best friends. They share their experience of building a business with someone you have a close relationship or friendship with, and share their tips for ensuring that dynamic stays healthy.
This interview is right off the back of Atomic Smash’s 10th birthday and a fresh rebrand - Nic and Nat quiz Piers and Dave on the the what and the why, and how this new look goes beyond the cosmetic and puts their brand values front and centre.
The group share their experiences of working together in the early days of each agency, as well as taking on that first member of staff, moving through to how they’re presently engaged in growing and strengthening a team remotely.
Finally, they close by reflecting on how difficult it is to avoid the pitfalls of comparing yourself to other agencies as you grow, and their plans for the next 10 fantastic years of Atomic Smash.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Dave and Piers.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for disruptive companies. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
This week we have a very special episode lined up - this is a recording from 4th November when Nic & Nat were interviewed by the lovely bunch at Revoco for their ‘Don’t Fear the F Word’ webcast series.
Here, ‘F’ stands for failure, and Nic & Nat talk about their biggest failure with regards to running an agency, how they overcame it and how, in the end, it probably shaped the future of CookiesHQ for the better.
Revoco started ‘Don’t Fear the F Word’ as they believe failure is not something that should be feared by founders, but should be something that is welcomed, embraced and learned from. Who better to relay this wisdom than the people who have been there, done it and worn the ‘I f**ked up’ t-shirt.
If you’re looking to grow your team in Bristol, hit up Revoco Talent - you can find them on the web, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Nat.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for mission-driven companies. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
Back in June we welcomed Emily Mellon to the team to look after CookiesHQ's marketing. And she had a tonne of questions: how do we work? What makes CookiesHQ unique? Why do our clients love us? What’s different between a web and mobile app and what the hell is Ruby on Rails? The list goes on!
Of course, the UK was still in lockdown back then, and amongst all the craziness, we never got around to answering them all. Now things are a little more normal, we’re setting time aside to dedicated to exploring these questions Emily can learn more about us. And, we thought why not record these bitesize sessions so the rest of the world can learn more about us and what we do too?!
This week, after brief introductions, Emily finds out more about the sorts of projects we love, if we’ve ever had a real ‘uh-oh’ moment during a build and of course, why on earth we’re called CookiesHQ…Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter.
Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Emily.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for businesses with purpose. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
To mark the re-opening of Engine Shed this week we’re releasing our Tough Cookies episode featuring Marty Reid, recorded before Covid-19 restrictions were put in place.
Marty had only recently taken on the role as Head of Engine Shed the time of recording, and chats through his decision to leave the corporate world behind after 10 years at Rolls Royce. His previous work and studies had taken him all around the world from Munich to Canada to Japan — but he found his focus shifting moving towards working with smaller companies, within the tech sector and on a more regional basis. He landed a role leading Future Space, the innovation centre at UWE, before joining Engine Shed.
Nic and Marty talk about what drives Engine Shed, its core functions and its place in the thriving Bristol ecosystem. Marty runs through the ways Engine Shed contributes to the community, hi lighting its core values: innovation, growth and diversity & inclusion. It functions as an incubator that supports growth and a physical hub to bring people together - but any surplus money made from this goes towards civic programmes that aim to incubate the business community and the city itself. In 2019 they ran a programme to support generating investment in the city and the entrepreneurial outreach programme takes business support services to disadvantaged communities in the city
They chat about how, as a well connected establishment within Bristol, Engine Shed bears some responsibility in trying to build trust and support growth within communities outside of the city centre. To support individuals who may not have access to the same business resources, and remove cultural barriers to encourage those communities to engage in existing projects that white-middle class people within the centre may take for granted. While Bristol is often lauded as a highly diverse city, Marty acknowledges that there is still plenty of work to be done in addressing inequality in a business context and is looking to deepen these existing engagements and grow the programme to include other areas.
Marty also shares how he feels stepping into the shoes of Nick Sturge who received an MBE for his work and helped form Engine Shed - talk about imposter syndrome! They finish by going over what they love about Bristol as a city and as a business community and Marty shares what his dream job was as a child.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. If you want to find out more about Marty Reid, you can find him on LinkedIn.
We talk to a lot of early stage founders looking to build businesses around a tech product. In having many of these conversations over the last decade, we've learnt to look out for some early indicators as to whether someone has the right business mindset to make it work. This week, Nic and Nathalie sit down to talk about some common mistakes they’ve seen early stage founders make when it comes to getting their product off the ground.
The first one, and it’s a biggie, is conducting bad or no market research and relying on a hunch that your product will be successful. Running with your gut is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re hiring a technical agency, or a marketing agency, you’ll be paying other people to help you with your product. On a limited startup budget, it’s vital that this money is an investment on which you’ll see a return. Without the research, it’s likely this money will be wasted.
Research not just about your idea, or the problem you’re solving. You need to understand the market: how much money can be made in it, current and future trends, and your customers: how they behave, who they are, how they are currently solving the problem and how your product will fit into their lives. All of this will feed into what you are building, and can be the pivotal difference between having a good idea, and building a successful business.
Once your idea has some research behind it, it’s time to think about the specifics of building. Here, we typically see two scenarios: an incredibly detailed and complex feature list across a 70+ page document, or we’re presented with just one core idea with little thought given to what needs to be built around it. They key, again, is research! If you want to implement a feature outside of the core idea, you need to be certain it will make your users’ lives better. It’s important to keep in mind that when you launch your MVP, it’s not the end of the road - it’s the start of the journey. Some founders feel they aren’t ready to launch if their app isn’t big enough, sexy enough or complex enough. You will build on your core features for years to come.
Then, when your product has been released into the world, it’s feedback time. You’ll be hitting ‘go’ on all those marketing activities you had lined up, and hopefully start making money as those early adopters come rolling in. It’s key that you’re proactive here - don’t assume customers will provide feedback without you asking. Nic & Nat share their top tips on collecting that feedback, and how to tread the fine line between implementing what your users want without obsessing over and trying to accommodate every single response. It’s important to take the time to move with your users and grow your product incrementally.
This is the seventh in a series of Behind the Screens episodes in which Nic and Nathalie will reflect on everything going on at CookiesHQ and look ahead to what’s on the horizon.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Nat.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for businesses with purpose. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
This week Nic and Nathalie sit down to talk about getting involved in and giving back to the community as entrepreneurs. They look back at everything they’ve done, successfully or otherwise, over the last decade to cement their place in the Bristol ecosystem.
We have a long history of running events here at CookiesHQ. When you’re sat in front of a laptop all day, nothing can beat being in a room with and actually speaking to like minded, passionate people. We started out running the Bristol Ruby User Group, and then on after stumbling upon something similar in Belgium, Nic had an idea: to bring people that usually moan about each other, into a room with each other. Or, as they’re now known, the Smart Cookie events.
Nic and Nathalie have both offered themselves up as mentors for various different schemes. They talk about how their approaches differ - in fact, Nic has come to the conclusion mentoring isn’t his greatest strength (he feels more at home under a centre stage spotlight), while Nathalie achieves great results for her mentees. She shares her top tips on ensuring these relationships are constructive and successful.
Nic, the extrovert, feels at home on stage speaking. He thrives on the adrenaline rush and admits that he enjoys being the centre of attention. Nathalie is more introverted, and finds mentoring suits her well. She enjoys supporting or guiding someone behind the scenes, and then sharing their success - which is not dissimilar to the work we do for clients at CookiesHQ.
Finding ways to contribute to the Bristol community both on and offline has been a driving value for us at CookiesHQ. While Covid-19 has disrupted the extent to which we can do this, we’re looking forward to the day we can throw our next Smart Cookies event safely. We’re not sure when this will be, but you can follow our Meetup page to stay in the loop.
This is the sixth in a series of Behind the Screens episodes in which Nic and Nathalie will reflect on everything going on at CookiesHQ and look ahead to what’s on the horizon.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Nat.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for businesses with purpose. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt organisations across the globe. Business plans, forecasts and even products aren’t looking the same as they were when the year began. Goals we set for ourselves may have looked optimistic and achievable in January, and now look near impossible come July. Could using this midpoint in the year to compile a different set of goals help people regain a sense of control that was lost to lockdown turmoil?
Nic sets goals on a regular basis but lacks accountability and review. With CookiesHQ now on a steadier path than it was a few months ago, he’s found the headspace to look back on what he’d wanted to achieve this year. He particularly enjoys the satisfaction of forming new habits, and has found there’s an interesting parallel between shrinking your waistline and growing your business.
Nat is less rigid in her goal setting and points out that the 1st of January looks the same as 31st December to her. She tends to pick something she enjoys, such as mentoring, and aim to do more of it - which she has! Perhaps the secrets to her success lie in her famously neat notebook...
While people set goals and measure success in different ways, Nic and Nat agree that there’s a universal satisfaction in ending the day with a completed to-do list, meeting your KPIs or hitting that deadline. However, as 2020 has shown us, it’s just as important to be flexible with your goals when situations arise out of your control.
This is the fifth in a series of Behind the Screens episodes in which Nic and Nathalie will reflect on everything going on at CookiesHQ and look ahead to what’s on the horizon.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Nat.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for mission-driven companies. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
This week Nic and Nathalie sit down to talk about the challenges and benefits of working and managing a team remotely. Since starting CookiesHQ from a home office a decade ago, they’ve always embraced flexible remote working finding it crucial to have a separation between work and home - especially when there’s a newborn around!
Nic had imagined that CookiesHQ would at some point become a fully remote organisation, with the idea that this would allow you to hire the best people you can afford regardless of their location. But, having been forced into this scenario by Covid-19, he’s found himself re-evaluating that vision.
They talk about the importance of trusting your employees to get the work done, even if it’s not necessarily done within 9-5 hours. Nic and Nathalie have worked hard to foster an open, honest and genuinely caring culture at Cookies so, despite Nic being a self confessed “recovering micro-manager”, you won’t find any monitoring software on our machines. They highlight the value in making an effort to communicate with employees on a personal level, keeping an eye out for signs of loneliness or burnout and injecting some fun into the working week with mini challenges and group coffee breaks.
Nic and Nathalie are both missing the office - there’s nothing that beats being in the same room with your employees, and it’s especially helpful when on-boarding new team members. But it’s not all about the employees. As an agency that places huge value on our relationships with clients, we see our office as the home of Cookies - a home that we welcome clients into for discovery sessions, meetings or even just a coffee, in the hope that they feel as though they are part of our team.
Ultimately, while Nic’s accepted that a fully remote operation isn’t going to work for CookiesHQ, they agree that flexibility around where and how we work is key for businesses and happy employees - during the Covid pandemic and beyond.
This is the fourth in a series of Behind the Screens episodes in which Nic and Nathalie will reflect on everything going on at CookiesHQ and look ahead to what’s on the horizon.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Nat.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for businesses with purpose. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
CookiesHQ are looking for a new Project Manager, so this week Nic and Nat sit down to talk through how we approach new projects and what skills a person might need for the role - offering an insight to the inner workings here at Cookies.
From initial chats over coffee to a successful product launch and all the stages in-between, they chat through the CookiesHQ project management and client on-boarding process. They speak about the importance of communicating with clients in an openly and honestly, the value placed on truly understanding a business’ objectives, and how we cope with any technical hiccups along the way (we’re looking at you, Google!).
They explain how chemistry is key when starting a new project as once we start building we’ll be in near constant communication with a client, so there needs to be a strong relationship in place. The ability to communicate confidently and effectively in a fast-paced environment is vital for such a central role.
We believe the variety in our day-to-day work is what makes working at an agency so exciting, but it does mean a project manager will need to be able to keep an eye on multiple projects simultaneously - wearing many different hats. Or, as Nat puts it, any potential Cookie will need to be comfortable with ‘organised chaos’.
If you’re interested in joining us and would like to find out more about our Project Manager or Developer roles, you can get in touch with Nathalie directly at nathalie@cookieshq.co.uk.
This is the third in a series of Behind the Screens episodes in which Nic and Nathalie will reflect on everything going on at CookiesHQ and look ahead to what’s on the horizon.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Nat.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for mission-driven companies. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
This week, Nic and Nathalie sit down to talk about the challenges of starting, running and growing a service business. Well... that was the plan, but they found themselves going over the many positive aspects of building an agency, from the opportunities you can offer to potential employees, to sharing the successes of your clients. We think that can only be a good thing!
When your agency is committed to creating and maintaining long lasting relationships with clients, it’s important to ensure you’re the right fit for each other. Even if that means occasionally saying ‘no’. Each successful project requires developers, project managers and clients coming together to build something great - proving that even in a tech agency, people are paramount.
They talk about the risks of scaling when growing your business means you must first grow your team, and how to get your staff hooked on the high of making clients happy. They shine a light on the pitfalls of comparing your business journey to others in your arena and how important it is to manage your expectations around getting new clients through the door. Nat shares her tips on staying true to your vision and how essential it is to really know your numbers.
This is the second in a series of Behind the Screens episodes in which Nic and Nathalie will reflect on everything going on at CookiesHQ and look ahead to what’s on the horizon.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Nat.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for disruptive companies. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
This week Nic sits down with CookiesHQ co-founder and MD Nathalie. Covid-19 has had a huge impact on businesses up and down the UK, and CookiesHQ is no different. They reflect the period of uncertainty triggered by lockdown, the impending sense of approaching a ‘doomsday situation’ and the management challenges that arise from having the whole team working remotely.
They speak about their differing personal experiences of lockdown: Nathalie is a self-confessed hermit while Nic craves the buzz of social interaction - each presenting their own challenges during these extraordinary times.
Nic and Nathalie are also married and have found themselves juggling running the business from home with taking care of and homeschooling three young children. They talk candidly about parental challenges and how they feel as though they’re actually seeing less of each other in lockdown.
This is the first in a series of episodes in which Nic and Nathalie will reflect on everything going on at CookiesHQ and look ahead to what’s on the horizon.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. Head over to LinkedIn to find out more on Nic and Nat.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for disruptive companies. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
Nick Sturge talks us through his career, from founding a company, becoming an entrepreneur in residence at SETsquared, to eventually running the incubator and helping to form the Engine Shed in Bristol. Nick Sturge talks about how the incubator has contributed to the tech scene in Bristol and how entrepreneurs can benefit from the programme.
They discuss how businesses have propelled the city of Bristol to become a key national player for new business, and touch upon the future of the city. They talk about how much further the tech cluster can grow, and how Bristol fares compared to other clusters such as London.
Both Nic(k)s talk about The Bristol Tech Festival. After Nick's entrepreneurial and sometimes risky past, Nic is curious to discover whether Nick Sturge had any failures and whether he would change anything. They finish by talking about business's looking to create a board, and what the next step in Nick Sturge's career looks like.
Join the conversation on the CookiesHQ Twitter. If you want to find out more about Nick Sturge, you can find him on Linkedin.
CookiesHQ is a technical partner for disruptive companies. Find out more about CookiesHQ here.
Who better for Nic to sit down with ahead of International Women’s Day 2020 than Zara Nanu from GapSquare who is revolutionising how companies are measuring and ending pay gaps.
With a shift currently happening in the workforce due to automation, Nic and Zara discuss how society should also be innovating the way people are paid using the technologies and data available to us. They touch on whether people should be paid for the value of their work, not the time.
They talk about the new generations who are calling for transparency in the workplace. This includes their experiences with their own children, and the role parents play in bringing up a generation where inequality doesn’t exist and there are no preconceptions of which occupation fits a certain gender.
Zara talks about the shocking stories she has heard over her years working for GapSquare and the myth of the confidence gap. She also discusses the role Bristol has to play in the UK to lead the way in gender equality.
This fantastic Tough Cookies episode sheds a light on modern-day society: How far we have come but how far we have yet to go.
Nic sits down with Ashley, co-founder and CEO of HdE: A Bristol-based performance growth agency for the tech and digital sector. They discuss what "performance growth" actually means for businesses and why Bristol has been such a great place to set up an agency.
Ash shares his top tips on how early-stage businesses can attain performance growth by paying close attention to processes and data. They discuss marketing strategies for early-stage companies to attract their first followers and customers, and which marketing channels work best for B2B companies.
Nic and Ash talk about Ash's role at TechSPARK as partnership director, and how this role has allowed him to understand the tech cluster in Bristol. They also touch upon his career within the BBC and what drew him towards working for himself and setting up HdE.
Finally, Nic and Ash speak about having a co-founder and board meetings, underlining the importance of seeking accountability from others.
Nic sits down with Katie Martin to talk about how The University of Bristol supports students to launch their own companies and chase their dream career in business. They discuss why students want to leave university to work in SMEs to enrich their skills and align their values with their first job.
Katie explains how The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the university allows students to take a multi-disciplinary approach to their studies, as well as the New Enterprise Competition. She explains how the university tries to remove the tech-bais and create an inclusive scheme for students to start their businesses.
Both Nic and Katie are from different countries outside of the UK - they discuss the differences in global universities and how the UK is providing extra services to students.
Join the conversation on Twitter.
This week Nic sits down with David Corlett, Business Director at Workbrands. They speak about David's career journey and the world of branding and business development. David gives his tips about how a startup can generate leads and recruit their first business development team member.
Finally, Nic and David discuss the new Bristol-based Loop Programme: A growth programme aimed at tech startup and scaleup founders who want to benefit from a panel of experts.
Join the conversation on Twitter.
Who better to kick off our Tough Cookies podcast than Ben Shorrock, Director of TechSPARK. Nic and Ben discuss the resources available in Bristol for startups, what it's like to live in the city and how people can connect with one another.
They catch up about the new Investment Activator Programme TechSPARK has launched to help the investment eco-system and about New Year's resolutions such as switching off the phone…
Join the conversation on Twitter.