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Startup Guernsey hosted its first alumni and supporters event this Tuesday 9th February to celebrate its recent move to the Digital Greenhouse.
The event was also an opportunity to showcase local start-ups, including James Ferguson of Cooked who provided the food, James Le Gallez of Aperitif who mixed the cocktails and Etienne Laine who provided the photography for the event.
The event was introduced by Kevin Stewart, who explained the benefits of Startup Guernsey relocating to the Digital Greenhouse and also emphasised how Startup Guernsey’s advisory service and events are open to all types of startup businesses, not just those in the digital and creative sectors.
Jennifer Strachan, CEO of Startup Guernsey also thanked the Commerce and Employment department and the Digital Greenhouse team for their work on the launch of the new facility and said how the Digital Greenhouse was already proving to be a fantastic working and training space for Startup Guernsey.
Given that the Digital Greenhouse offers a great space to support co-working for start-ups in the digital and creative sectors, Jennifer hopes the Digital Greenhouse will become a single place to come to find out about new ideas,
innovation and inspiration for both entrepreneurs, as well as for “intrapreneurs”. In other words, spreading the innovation to the many thriving businesses here in Guernsey.
Jennifer explained how the core business of Startup Guernsey is to provide one-to-one confidential and free advisory business advice and noted that last year the organisation spoke with over 200 clients who have started, or are thinking of starting their own business.
In addition, the organisation has a range of mentors who have donated their time to meet with Startup Guernsey clients. This is a service that the organisation is looking to extend this year in conjunction with the business sector.
Startup Guernsey supports a number of training sessions on business basics and will also be running a series of monthly “Meet the Experts” events over the coming months on different topics such as financing and marketing for start-ups.
The organisation is also developing a Corporate Residency Programme where it will welcome corporates to locate to the Digital Greenhouse once a week to provide advice to Startup Guernsey clients and Digital Greenhouse members on a pro-bono basis.
Jennifer Strachan, CEO of Startup Guernsey said: “We are tremendously grateful for those companies who have sponsored us and supported Startup Guernsey events and initiatives, as they wouldn’t get put on without this help. To name a few in the last year alone these have included EY, KPMG, Barclays, Island Mums, Orchard PR, C5, TPA, BDO and Grant Thornton.“
