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Virtual Instruments Opens R&D Center in London’s Tech City

Team to Focus on End-to-End Product Development to Drive Continued Innovation

Virtual Instruments, the leader in Infrastructure Performance Management (IPM) for physical, virtual and cloud computing environments, today announced it is opening a research and development center in London’s Tech City. Building on the company’s strong European presence, the center will serve as Virtual Instruments’ EMEA Engineering Headquarters, with the team focusing on end-to-end product development and working with customers across the region.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said:

“I am pleased to welcome Virtual Instruments into Tech City, recognizing the talent pool of engineers London is able to provide through its universities and dynamic cluster of tech firms. The arrival of another fast-growth company not only generates important new jobs for the city but underlines London’s position as global leader in this sector.”

Initially, Virtual Instruments will be recruiting for software engineers and software QA engineers. Over time, that will be expanded to add support, management and hardware engineering roles to the team.

“Innovation is the foundation of Virtual Instruments’ success, and it will enable us to continue delivering industry-leading products,” said Barry Cooks, vice president of engineering, Virtual Instruments. “The vibrancy and drive of the Tech City community matches our engineering culture, which is built around small teams of very smart people working hard to solve real-world customer problems. Our goal is to hire the best and the brightest people and provide a creative environment where they are free to design and deliver their ideas.”

After considering a number of locations around the world, Virtual Instruments chose London’s Tech City because of its strong engineering talent base, proximity to world class universities with top computer science and engineering programs and an engineering culture driven by innovation. The Virtual Instruments office is at 81 Rivington Street, right in the heart of Tech City.

Virtual Instruments partnered with the Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO) and London & Partners on its search for a location in London. These organizations provided information on the business and talent landscape in the United Kingdom, introduced Virtual Instruments to similar companies in the area and arranged for the company to meet with and explore research activities in local universities.

Benjamin Southworth, deputy CEO at the Tech City Investment Organization, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Virtual Instruments to Tech City, a move which is further proof of East London’s status as the top European location for international tech businesses. Throughout our discussions with Virtual Instruments, and as we showed them around the area, London’s strong talent base and Tech City’s unique vibrancy really stood out as selling points for the capital. We look forward to them becoming part of the community here.”

Driving Continued Innovation

Global 2000 organizations are looking to leverage virtualization and cloud technologies to deliver more flexibility, but contend with an increasing amount of risk as they migrate mission-critical applications to private cloud environments. Ensuring that the private cloud can deliver the necessary levels of performance and availability requires new capabilities for an Infrastructure Performance Management platform that can provide visibility throughout all system layers in a multi-vendor environment.

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November 6, 2012 | Techmeetups

Tech City: facts and figures

Original post by The Telegraph

Tech City is in London and is often nicknamed Silicon Roundabout. Here are some facts about the technology hub many hope will one day rival Silicon Valley.

• Tech City is located in and around Shoreditch and Hoxton, east London. Often referred to as Silicon Roundabout, due to the Old Street roundabout that lies at the heart of the area.

• The area began as a technology hub in 2008, but was given a major boost in late 2010 when David Cameron announced plans to accelerate growth of the area. South African entrepreneur Eric van der Kleij was named as the first chief executive of Tech City a year later. He has since left.

AngelHack Fall 2012 London

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October 25, 2012 | Techmeetups

Joanna Shields leaves Facebook to join UK’s Tech City

Original post by Dave Lee via BBC

Facebook’s European boss Joanna Shields is to leave the social network to lead the UK government’s investment group for technology start-ups.

The Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO) supports firms based near the Silicon Roundabout area of east London.

Ms Shields will replace current head Eric Van Der Kleij in January 2013.

“Joanna’s experience will be hugely valuable in supporting Tech City as it goes from strength to strength,” Prime Minister David Cameron said.

“The success of Tech City shows just what can happen when we back some of our most innovative and aspiring companies to grow, helping the UK compete and thrive in the global race.”

Ms Shields has been Facebook’s vice-president and managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa since 2010.

Prior to that she worked at Google and teenage-focused social network Bebo.

Relaxed rules

“Working in the UK for the past decade has proven to me that this country has the potential to become a major force in digital innovation,” she said.

“The seeds have been sown in east London for a dynamic and successful cluster: we have the infrastructure, the technology and the talent, now we need to accelerate the growth. I am looking forward to leading the Tech City Investment Organisation in the next phase of its development.

“With the right boost now, there is no reason why we can’t make London the number one location for tech in the world.”

AngelHack Fall 2012 London

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October 24, 2012 | Techmeetups

Overcome These 6 Challenges When Selling To Startups

Original post by STELI EFTI via TC

It is common entrepreneurial wisdom that good ideas often come from trying to solve your own problems. It’s no surprise then that many startups are building solutions to do just that, and therefore need to sell their products to other startups.

Many underestimate or miscalculate what it takes to successfully sell to the startup market. Why? Because most startups only consider these three points when thinking of selling to other startups:

Speed: It’s faster to sell to startups than it is to Fortune 500 companies.
Decision-making: It involves fewer people to make a decision. Often it is only the founders.
Purchase power: Many startups have raised funding and are capable of paying for products that other small businesses with similar revenue would not be.

What many people forget is that selling to startups is like aiming at ever-evolving, fast-changing targets. It requires an incredible amount of speed and flexibility in the sales process. Below I outline some key challenges that you need to keep in mind if you want to successfully sell startups on your products or services.

1. GET TO THE POINT

Startups and their founders move fast, and so do their buying decisions. When pitching a startup, be sure to save everyone the time and get right to the point. Forget the cozy conversation around your sale, just make your pitch, manage objections, make sure there is a fit and need – then make it happen!

2. PITCH WITHOUT BS

You can’t sound like a slick sales person when selling to startups. Startups like to buy from people who understand their needs and the unique challenges they face. While pitching founders you can safely assume that you are talking to pretty smart people, so respect their intelligence and make sure you’re honest and up front about your product and its capabilities. Most founders have pretty good BS detectors so save yourself and them time.

Techmeetups launches the Guru Program to help Startups & early stage companies with mentoring on all aspects of your Business.

Limited spaces are available – book your place on the Guru Program now to attend in London or remotely from anywhere in the world.

Online event registration for TechMeetups Guru Program 2013: January – April #TMUguru powered by Eventbrite

September 27, 2012 | Techmeetups

In The World Of Tech, Women Can Have It All

Original post by MICHAL TSUR AND LEAH BELSKY via TC

The blossoming tech startup generation, and the new wave of professional women seeking success in the workplace and at home don’t always cross paths. Tech industries suffer from a noticeable lack of strong female leadership at the top, while powerful women have mostly flocked to traditional industries. Although the concept of “having it all” might itself be elusive, it’s time that women who value both a rich home life and a fulfilling career explore the tech startup world.

In July/August 2012 the Atlantic Monthly featured an article that soon became the publication’s most popular piece of all time. “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” written by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former advisor to President Obama, makes the controversial argument that unless a woman is “rich, an entrepreneur, or a super-woman,” it’s impossible to have it all in both work and family life. According to Slaughter, the competing demands of being a top professional and a good mother are too great — women must inevitably make trade-offs.

September 6, 2012 | Techmeetups

Here Are Our Favorite Companies From The Fourth 500 Startups Demo Day

Original post by RYAN LAWLER via TC

Today in Mountain View, Calif., Dave McClure’s 500 Startups unveiled the latest class of companies to participate in its Accelerator program. This batch had startups addressing an incredibly wide variety of spaces — from kid’s computer games to necktie shopping, and beyond. Founding partner Dave McClure said during today’s program that with this batch of companies, 500 Startups aimed for one unifying thread: “Hopefully, these pitches make sense and solve problems that matter,” he said, whether those problems affect consumers, parents, or small business owners.

All the pitches were compelling, but we picked out seven that seemed especially interesting. Here are the top seven startups from the class, in no particular order:

Chalkable – Rather than using the same old musty text books year after year, Chalkable hopes to bring classrooms into the 21st Century. It plans to do that by providing schools with a unified app store that curates all the best digital teaching aids, along with tools to manage budgets and track student performance. The platform includes a feed of classroom activities, as well as a gradebook and analytics for students. Frankly, it’s the kind of school experience I wish had been available to me when I grew up. Chalkable plans to charge schools $10 per student, of which $5 will be available for purchasing school aids. Despite just launching in the spring, the startup has already piloted its platform in three public and private schools, and will be expanding to more than 50 schools in the fall.

July 20, 2012 | Techmeetups

A Tale of Tech City: the future of Inner East London’s Digital Economy

Original post by geographics

Earlier this month Demos published a fascinating report on the hot topic of London’s “Tech City” cluster, which has been promoted by the government as a key growth pole for the UK. The report authors Max Nathan, Emma Vandore and Rob Whitehead, put the Inner East London cluster in the context of similar phenomena in New York and Berlin; and get their hands dirty with some in-depth data analysis and face-to-face interviews of entrepreneurs. Policy recommendations are then made for the best way forward.

There have been some cool efforts at mapping the Silicon Roundabout Shoreditch/Old Street cluster from Wired UK, and from T c eh City Map using social networking connections. A more traditional robust approach was taken in this report of using the various business survey datasets to measure firms and their activities. The scale of the cluster (defined more widely to include Clerkenwell, Shoreditch and Hoxton) was found to be larger than previously thought, at around 3,200 digital economy firms and 48,000 jobs, with these industries becoming increasingly important for the London economy.

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July 16, 2012 | Techmeetups

Apprenticeships for Tech City

Original post by Hackney

Tech City is growing and needs good staff!

Tech City: London’s dynamic technology hub
Supported by Hackney Community College’s Apprenticeships for Tech City

It started with Silicon Roundabout – the area around the Old Street roundabout which in recent years has become home to innovative technology companies.

The industry has grown and developed to meet the digital, technology and creative needs of London, the UK and the world. Every month, more companies are setting up in, or re-locating to, this dynamic environment.

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July 13, 2012 | Techmeetups

The Secret to London’s Tech Boom

Original post by RICHARD FLORIDA via The Atlantic Cities

When the 2012 Olympics kick off at the end of this month, the bulk of the action will take place in East London. The area is virtually “unrecognizable from seven years ago when London celebrated its winning bid,” according to yesterday’s Boston Globe and is rapidly becoming “a new metropolitan center.” While the district’s $10 billion Olympic makeover has attracted all the attention, the bigger story for urbanists and city-builders is the ongoing bottom-up transformation of nearby neighborhoods into a bustling new center for high-tech industry.

A Tale of Tech City: The Future of Inner East London’s Digital Economy, a new report from the Centre for London, an independent think tank, documents the dramatic growth of East London’s tech cluster, known as “Tech City” or “Silicon Roundabout.” The study finds that the cluster now houses 3,200 firms and 48,000 jobs, far larger than previous estimates.

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July 3, 2012 | Techmeetups

Blog: Setting up in London? Here’s three tips from a start-up new to Tech City

Original post by TechCityuk

After moving to London from Spain four months ago, David Guerra Terol, ofMotion4Startups, provides foreign entrepreneurs with 3 key tips for settling in to London.

I still remember how people were astonished that on my first day in London I attended an event in TechHub to meet some people and start networking. However, the reason why I did it was pretty simple: London is one of the most hectic cities in the world, so there is no point in wasting your time (and money).

So if you want to really enjoy the impressive startup community of Tech City, you should definitely come with your homework done and be prepared to:

1. Ask and get as much information from the Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO), UKTI and London & Partners

These are the business concierges of London. Whatever you are looking for (events, workspaces, influencers, PR, legal information, residence, …) they will be more than happy to help, or point you in the right direction if they can’t.

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June 28, 2012 | Techmeetups