At LAUNCH.ed, the award-winning programme that helps make the University of Edinburgh one of the top entrepreneurial universities in the UK, I wore many hats. I managed our interests and engagement on the €8M EU-funded Open Innovation Project, created and implemented LAUNCH.ed's marketing strategy online and off, developed and delivered new educational products, and provided specialist training to young companies on web and startup marketing, business models, and lean startup methodologies. Most importantly, I maintained a strong client perspective and championed new ideas to improve overall service provision.
I covered the University of Edinburgh beat for StartupCafe—a blog celebrating the Edinburgh startup community—writing about competitions, events, and startup news in and around the University campus. This role was a chance to flex my own entrepreneurial muscles and tackle questions like how to monetise web content, and how to grow and maintain social media communities. It was also a chance to develop strong copywriting skills, build a deep network of contacts in Edinburgh, and to experiment with design and web development (see the StartupCafe logo I designed on the Twitter page: http://twitter.com/startupcafe).
Managed day-to-day operations of the Edinburgh Pre-Incubator Scheme, a programme that gave entrepreneurs a £10k loan and 12 months to start a technology company at the University of Edinburgh.
• Organised and delivered events, including workshops, exit interviews, and a large alumni event
• Contributed to programme development, including support curriculum and one-to-one meetings with entrepreneurs
• Produced or commissioned all marketing and web content
• Liaised directly with funders, mentors, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders, including the preparation of quarterly reports and project financial claims
• Event management, social media marketing, copywriting, updating the website, producing marketing materials such as short films, posters and case studies, liaising with other University of Edinburgh support services.
• Acted as primary quality control official, eliminating a backlog of nearly 6 months of documents
• Performed initial processing of documents from all 34 recording districts statewide
• Provided a full array of customer service as the first point of contact for the Commissioner’s Office of the Department of Natural Resources
• Provided database and procedures training for new staff
• Worked closely with professors to provide high-level support for over 300 students in physics and microeconomics courses
• Independently led semiweekly review sessions, and provided technical and academic assistance in laboratories
• Worked closely with core staff to provide creative solutions during the dissolution of the Washington, D.C.-based branch
• Edited the final version of a more than 50 page position paper on Russia for publication on the organization’s website
• Provided professional, privacy-oriented client support including updating and maintaining records, arranging and confirming appointments and responding to inquiries
• Created an art identification guide for tours of the Contemporary Native Art Exhibit
• Provided basic clerical support including updating databases and assembling mailing packets for distribution to more than 100 schools around the state
Wondering about the Higgs boson? I spoke to two particle physicists at the University of Edinburgh today about what it is, why it’s important, and how we found it:
The Importance of the Higgs boson from Hilary Singer on Vidiowiki
How do you find a Higgs boson? from Hilary Singer on Vidiowiki
Huge thanks to Dr. Martin and Dr. Clarke for volunteering their time and expertise!
On 20th June, 2012, I launched TuringTown, an initiative to attract more and more diverse startups to Edinburgh for the Turing Festival.
Check it out: TuringTown.
Saturday was a busy day with 11 eventually turning up. We spent most of the day doing final clearing on the first floor in preparation of carpeting the following week. After that was ready we headed up to the 4th floor and started on tables and boxing, which we largely finished. Sunday we realised that there was only four, and promptly decided to start smashing down walls on the 4th floor. Phil and Hilary stepped up in a big way and I think we all felt some notable catharsis at the end of the day. We made an incredible mess in the process as well.
Most amazing hat ever.
Also, this one, possibly even more amazing:
Bonus points to anyone who wears either or both of these to the wedding.
My many medals for completing my Code Year homework. Yes, I know lots of other people have them. But this is MY collection.
String quartet covers of love songs.
My current read. I can’t get enough Victor Hugo.
As the first commenter on this post says, “Was this post written specifically for me? Probably not. Does it fit what is going on in my life exactly at this moment? Hell yes.” Hell yes. A great post about how to do what you love in life.
Books on my reading list.
Just signed up for this webinar on October 27th, 6–10pm GMT. It’s free, with a keynote from Eric Ries.
I made a version of this cake with apples earlier this week, and discovered that there’s no such thing as a “coffee cake” in Scotland.
“Coffee cake?” they said. “Coffee-flavoured cake?”
“No, apple and cinnamon flavoured. The TYPE of cake is a coffee cake, presumably because you have it with coffee.”
“Oh. We just eat all cakes with coffee.”
And there you go. Mystery solved. Also, the cake was delicious.
A good introduction to business models by Stuart Eccles, Co-Founder and CTO of digital social agency Made By Many. Bottom line: your software isn’t the product! Ultimately, you’re selling your business model.
I saw Stuart present this live at Lean Startup Machine London.