'From classroom to £1m valuation'

Tomas Paulik will talk about challenges of starting a tech start-up company and will share with us an exciting story of how it progressed “from classroom to £1m valuation”. The company Tomas founded, Shout Platform, went through the UP Accelerator programme at MediaCityUK last summer, recently gained number of Angel Investors and presented their product at prestigious events such as Pitch@Palace and Northern Stars. Their team consists of people with high-profile backgrounds, among former employees of Microsoft, PwC, Sophos and AdBrain, as well as contributors for Forbes.

Tomas will cover in details the following topics:

- How to change your lifestyle when launching a start-up?
- How to utilise university resources to the maximum?
- How to build team and where to find your tech/business co-founder?
- How to deal with Angel Investors and where to find them?
- VC funding, government grants and business accelerators
- Business support and tech communities in Manchester

The talk will be followed by a networking event. Some of Manchester's key start-up ecosystem points of reference will attend the reception. 

Confirmed attendees include:

Martin Bryant, Editor-at-Large at TheNextWeb.com
James Bedford, Head of Investments at TechNorth
George Bettany, Programme Director at Ignite Accelerator
Murray Leach, Founder and MD of TeluxHD
Damian Kysely, President of Manchester Entrepreneurs
(Name TBC), Business Growth Hub

The networking reception is especially recommended for students looking for internship and graduate opportunities. Refreshments will be provided.

Programme details:

17:30 – 18:30
Guest talk “From classroom to £1m valuation”
Location: AMBS West, Lecture theatre G6

18:30 – 19:30
Networking reception (drinks & nibbles) 
Location: AMBS West, Alumni room

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!