Niki Davies, Startup Cornwall & Jonny Clark, Liverpool Slush'D, First time in UK Founding Event

Today’s “special” episode of The G&T Sessions, we are not only pleased to have one but two guests. Joining us today is Niki Davies and Jonathan [Jonny] Clark. Niki is the Director and Head of Marketing for Software Cornwall. She drives growth and innovation in Cornwall's tech and digital sectors. With over a decade of marketing experience, she helped to propel multi-award-winning clean tech startup verv to international acclaim, raising £2M+ in crowdfunding, winning 9 awards, and scaling from seed to Series A. She is passionate about sustainable change and committed to tech-driven progress that leaves a positive impact. Jonny began his career in economic development at Liverpool City Region LEP, working on business growth programmes, research and policy around digital transformation in the manufacturing sector. He then ran 'Activate', a flagship ERDF-funded project and grant fund tailored towards scaling early stage digital, creative and technology businesses. Following this, he embarked on a consulting career - supporting prestigious big brands' innovation and venturing efforts and coaching startup founders - whilst he co-founded and grew GDPR Defender, a legal knowledge tool that supports SME data privacy compliance. Jonny has made several angel investments (including a number of 'Tech Nation Rising Stars' winners) and holds a number of advisory and non-executive roles across enterprise and the public sector that advocate for startups - including as co-founder of the acclaimed 'Baltic Ventures' accelerator in Liverpool and the Organiser of Liverpool Slush'D. We came together today to discuss the 1st time that Slush’D is coming from Helsinki Finland where it was founded many years ago as SLUSH, and now coming to the UK for a dual centre event in Newquay, Cornwall and Liverpool on the same day. Great episode and for any budding Entrepreneurs and Founders who want to get involved we are sharing multiple links below of how you can get involved. Personally, I have been asked by Startup Cornwall, run by Software Cornwall as an Advisory Board member to support the review of the Startup Pitch competition we are running in September at the event. Enjoy the episode talking about how Tech businesses and Founders are being supported and developed outside London and expanding the footprint across new locations and giving access to people across the UK. Enjoy !!!

Startup Cornwall Links and team

Software Cornwall 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-cornwall

Tech South West 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-south-west/

Cornwall TI 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cornwallti/

Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth Hub 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cornwall-and-isles-of-scilly-growthandskills-hub/ 

Digital Plymouth 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-plymouth/

Digital Somerset 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-somerset/

Tech Exeter

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-exeter/

Silicon South 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/silicon-south/

techSPARK 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/techspark-uk/ 

Cornwall Chamber of Commerce 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cornwall-chamber-of-commerce/ 

Liverpool Slush’D Links with Partners

@Liverpool Slush'D 

@Tuesday Media 

@Growth Platform 

@KPMG 

@Baltic Ventures 

@Gather

@UKTN 

@LCR Angel Network 

Startup Cornwall Advisory board: 

Ben Cooper

Allyson Glover

Ananya Banerjee

Startup Cornwall Core Team: 

Holly Patton

Garry Hunt

Sara Tipler

Robert Wiltshire

Kayley Lawry