100 offers of support for London Start-ups.


  1. Bootcamps- Capital Enterprise’s sector specific bootcamps that will give entrepreneurs serious about starting or growing a high growth business an opportunity to get the insider knowledge, contacts and resources they need to get ahead. The Bootcamp extras are free seminars where you can meet funders and fellow entrepreneurs looking for money to start-up or scale their “brilliant” new business.
  2. Guide to Raising Finance-  A list of links on available sources of finance for a growth focused business.
  3. Free advice and support- Check out the members section of Capital Enterprise to find your local or specialist business support agency.
  4. BootLaw – free events where you can get your legal questions answered (and be entertained, too!)
  5. Microsoft BizSpark – startup community offering free Microsoft software. Or if you are one of the millions now using open source software to run their business why not check out Ubuntu
  6. Launch48 – meet potential co-founders and try to start a business in a weekend
  7. Board of Invention- Check out 20111 10 best business models- The software is cool also.
  8. Bootcamp Alumni Offer- Dream stake- the touch down space/club for creative entrepreneurs- is offering 20% discount for the first 6 months membership.
  9. Quirky- Ok it is not free but it is a innovative way to get an idea to be developed into a product and
  10. Minibar – see entrepreneurs pitch their startups while you drink free beer
  11. Start-up Britain- a good place to navigate yourself around new services and activities on offer for new entrepreneur and a great one-stop shop
  12. London Business School Entrepreneurial Leadership Lectures – hear experienced founders talk
  13. Bootcamp Alumni offer- Free mentoring for High Tech start-ups from Rapid Innovation Apply through Capital Enterprise.
  14. Knowledge Peers – get nuts and bolts advice from owners of small businesses
  15. SeedSummit Term Sheets – see how the investment terms you’ve been offered stack up against ‘standard’ one.
  16. Pop-up shops- Fancy a temporary shop to launch your company or this seasons collection then check out Rosie Canns excellent website.
  17. Don’t Make Me Think – learn how to make your website easier to use
  18. Visual Website Optimizer – run A/B tests easily and get more from your website
  19. Google Apps (free edition) – host up to 10 email accounts for free
  20. Ajax Whois – quickly check whether domain names are available
  21. MailChimp – send mass emails and track what happens to them.
  22. Viral Marketing – a nice article on the Maths behind viral marketing
  23. Super Conversion Button – create good call-to-action web buttons
  24. Load Impact – easily run load tests on your website
  25. Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords – learn how to run Adwords campaigns
  26. Business Model Generation – The beloved canvas business model – You can download a free outline version or buy the whole thing.
  27. Bootcamp Alumni offer – ½ price website for £199 with http://www.varihost.net/contact/  Quote Business Bootcamp Deal
  28. Fiverr – get small tasks done for $5 (try this out for fun at the very least!)
  29. Lean Startup – methodology to help figure out whether you’re starting the right business- There is a new bootcamp organized by Sal Virani that uses the lean method to help people bootstrap am ambitious new business.
  30. Mixergy – learn from interviews with successful entrepreneurs
  31. Shell Livewire- Under 30 and fancy a £1000 to start your business- if you do then shell livewire gives out 6 such grants to new businesses each month. The pitch is very simple so well worth a look.
  32. Hacker News London – meet techie startup people in the flesh. Drink beer with them
  33. Business Link – find official government information about business regulations
  34. WordPress – build all sorts of websites quickly and cheaply (definitely not just for blogs) and also check out Wix.com if you want your site to be built in flash.
  35. Woothemes – get a great-looking theme for your website
  36. Clicky – get realtime analytics for your website
  37. SurveyMonkey – run surveys easily
  38. Amiando.com- We use it to take on-line fees for events etc but now recommend their arch rival Eventbrite.
  39. SendGrid – make sure your emails get delivered
  40. TechHub – work surrounded by fellow entrepreneurs at this startup-centric office space. Capital Enterprise gets offers of discounted space all the time so do e-mail us if you are looking.
  41. Bootcamp Alumni offer- Get your business plan developed and partly written by experts from the Centre Engineering Management Excellence . Only available for tech businesses looking for funding- apply through Capital Enterprise
  42. Innovation Warehouse- London’s version of Plug and Play where you can receive accommodation, support and investment. Bootcamp Alumni Offer- further 20% sign-up discount to those who join before the end of 2011.
  43. Camden Collective- Subsidised incubator space in Camden for creative start-ups. An opportunity to be at the heart of London’s Creative sector. Just to show that London is not all about Tech, if your a fashion businesses then check out CFE, Jewelry  business -Hatton Garden, a new Bio Tech company LBIC and  a new High Tech Manufacturing CEME if you want incubator space specific to their sector.
  44. OpenSoho – have drinks with startup and digital media folks
  45. HUB Westminster- The new incubator / accelerator for the ethical business.
  46. Facebook Developer Garage – find out the latest goings-on in the world of Facebook
  47. Mobile Monday London – find out the latest goings-on in the world of mobile
  48. LRUG -meet smart Ruby developers and learn clever coding tips and techniques
  49. TweetDeck – track lots of things at once on Twitter- Also do check out buffer if you really want to manage the sending of your tweets.
  50. Magento – set up a powerful e-commerce website
  51. Bit.ly – see how many times people click on the links you share
  52. British Library Business & IP Centre – get free access to market research reports
  53. Out-law.com – find legal information about IT and e-commerce
  54. 99designs – get a logo designed
  55. 2 Display.com- The cheapest place on the web to get display stands. I was going to recommend the cheapest place to get good quality business cards and stationary but it changes so often you are best place searching for yourself but you might want to start with Moo.com
  56. London Business Angel Network- The first, the biggest and one of the best Angel Networks in the UK. Not far behind is Envestors and Oxford Innovations
  57. SeedSummit – find seed investors
  58. Indiegogo.com – A paste and wait investment site where creative with ideas paste up their projects to attract 100’s of small scale investors to fund their new ventures. Alternatives are Kick starter  and Crowd Cube
  59. The E-myth Revisited – learn why you should create a system
  60. Getting Real – read how to build web apps faster and more easily
  61. The Ultimate Sales Machine – read ideas about how to sell more effectively
  62. Passport for Export- Guides and support offered by the government funded UKTI to those in the UK looking to sell overseas.
  63. Appsumo – save money on stuff for your startup
  64. Enterprise Nation- Emma Jones is one of the best UK bloggers on all things connected to running your own business.
  65. Google Alerts – find out whenever someone mentions your startup online
  66. SEOMoz Search Ranking Factors – learn what’s important for appearing high up in search engine results
  67. The Four Steps to the Epiphany – read the original bible of the Lean Startup movement
  68. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development – read the cheat-sheet version of the Lean Startup bible
  69. Ogilvy on Advertising – understand advertising better
  70. Linkedin- Probably the best B2B contact list – join me and maybe I can get to 500+ and be officially a well networked person.
  71. Twitter – it’s big already. Follow me if you’d like to hear about more resources like this- You might also want to check our Twitter page http://twitter.com/#!/capenterprise
  72. Paul Graham’s Essays – pick up entrepreneurial wisdom from the guy behind Y-Combinator
  73. Futuristic Play – learn more about online marketing
  74. A Smart Bear – absorb entrepreneurial wisdom from an experienced founder
  75. Adwords Keyword Tool – find out how many people are searching for something
  76. Stack Overflow- Looking for a coder, want to talk to a programmer, want to go where programmers go then check out stack-overflow. There is also an version for start-ups looking to post questions and receive answers from the assembled crowd- check it out and if you put UK after your question I for one will be putting my suggested solution for you to consider.
  77. PickyDomains – challenge people to find you a great domain name or slogan
  78. Enternships – hire entrepreneurially-minded interns
  79. HELO- Get a team of students from UCL and London Business School to carry out a research or development project for free. Great if you want a business plan developing, an idea beta-testing or your competitors checked out. Also check out UCL’s free mentor scheme for high growth companies- SMILE
  80. Mentors- The BBA has set up a portal called Mentorsme for inexperienced entrepreneurs looking for a mentor willing to share their experience and insights. If you are in London then check Capital Enterprise who will try to find you a mentor from amongst our members.
  81. Seedcamp – get money and coaching in return for a share in your business
  82. UserTesting – find out whether anyone can use your website
  83. PSD2HTML – convert that slick PSD your designer created into CSS and HTML
  84. Technology Strategy Board- The TSB is offering to part fund the R&D cost of businesses with innovative new products and services. They run competitions that offer substantial grants to businesses who can offer technology solutions to a challenge facing UK industry as well as offering “Proof of Concept” grants to businesses with cutting edge ideas who need help with R&D.
  85. VirtualBox – run a virtual Windows machine so you can test old and annoying versions of IE, even if you have a new and shiny Mac
  86. Dropbox – share documents with your co-founders
  87. Google Docs – share documents with your co-founders and edit them together
  88. London Creative Labs- A great place to check out if you want to get involved in the Capital’s booming social enterprise networks. You should also check out Un ltd and our member Red Ochre if you want support to start a social enterprise
  89. Social Innovation Camp – do something good with your talents
  1. Bootcamp Alumni offer- Poq Studio is offering a Free App for any fashion retailer- well is not exactly free and its only available for Alumni but do check it out.
  2. Marketinvoice.com- A relatively new venture set by our friend Anil Stocker that has a host of funders looking to forward fund your working capital needs.
  3. Toastmasters – become more confident talking in front of an audience
  4. Soft Loans for Business Growth- Mainly for businesses with trading history but well worth checking out organisations such as ELSBC, GLE and HBV to see if you could be eligible for these £2000-£50000 loans.
  5. Enterprise Finance Guarantee – get backing from the government to help you get a loan
  6. The Gary Halbert Letter – improve your copywriting
  7. PatternTap – web UI design patterns.
  8. NESTA- the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts is an independent body with a mission to make the UK more innovative. It provides investment, guides and the attest insights to early stage businesses who are attempting to drive the UK into the 21st Century.
  9. R&D Tax Credits- If you have not worked out that you could be eligible to get back 200% of the money you are spending on R&D then what are you waiting for?- Check out Terry Toms guide and book for a free consultation and book on www.for a free Bootcamp Extra event on www.capitalenterprise.org/whats-on
  10. The Equity Kicker – read views from Nic Brisbourne, a London VC
  1. Looking for a grant?- Check out J4B- the best place to see if there is grant available in your sector or postcode. Alternative Capital Enterprise has access to the UK funders database. So if you want a bespoke funding search please arrange a 1-2-1 with Carly- cary@capitalenterprise.org