Start-ups to pitch for non-executive talent

Ten Scottish start-ups will this week take part in an event aimed at matching up company founders with the boardroom talent seen as a key to scaling up their growth plans.

Steve Ewing of Informatics Ventures and TalentSpark's Jane Kennedy are helping with the search for non-executives. Picture: Stewart Attwood

Informatics Ventures, organiser of the annual Engage Invest Exploit (EIE) investor showcase, has teamed up with recruitment firm Eden Scott’s TalentSpark initiative to hold the gathering at the University of Edinburgh’s Informatics Forum on Thursday.

Steve Ewing, programme manager at Informatics Ventures, said: “While funding is regularly cited as the main challenge to a startup’s ambitions, it’s increasingly recognised that finding the right non-executive and executive talent to help grow the business is equally important.

“When you look across Scotland’s start-up community, non-executive directors have played key roles in almost all of our greatest success stories in the tech space.”

The start-ups taking part in the event are Ability Film & TV Training, Ahoi Life, Alphabet Babies, DAT Consulting Systems. PhysioMedics, Power Migration Partners, Sansible Wearables, SussMyBike, Ufraction8 and Urban Farming Company.

They will be pitching to a non-executive panel comprising Eamonn Doyle, former chief executive of Livingston-based online security firm Bloxx; marketing and customer insight expert Diana Easley; corporate lawyer and business adviser Sandy Finlayson; tech sector veteran Les Gaw; business mentor Stuart Gilmore; engineer and project manager Steven Moore; private equity adviser Brian Scouler; and education specialist Helen Wright.

David Watt, executive director of the Institute of Directors in Scotland, is due to deliver the event’s closing address.