Tees Tech Digest 2026 #5
Welcome to this week's edition of the Tees Tech Digest.
Calling everyone that works in a supporting function for early-stage tech founders! Founder Commons is running a session in Newcastle that you’re not going to miss. Open to all across the full North East (like the good old days) this session promises to ‘explain exactly how a fundraising round works from both a founder and investor point-of-view, what investors really care about, and the honest questions founders need to ask themselves before they consider fundraising - all through practical, real-life examples.’
Register here: How Startup Investment Really Works
I’ve been watching from afar what Paul Smith has delivered through Founder Commons, on what is essentially a shoestring budget in comparison to other funded programmes. He has created a community first model, and employed his own experience and connections to other experienced operators for the delivery in an area that’s widely needed for founders. His post this week on LinkedIn adds weight to the reasoning behind why he’s delivering this session: Access to finance, faster horses, and the North East’s startup problem
What I like about the approach here is that he’s thinking about the future. How can the programme create longer lasting impact following completion.
When Founder Commons was launched we shared this activity with all tech startups that had been through The Stable programme, and those that were joining at the time. We understood the benefit of them accessing both. And it triggered us to follow up on creating a Tees Valley Digital Tech Ecosystem Map to help people navigate available support. After reading Paul’s piece maybe we need to re-think the ‘funding’ section, but anyway here’s the first draft. We’ll be asking for feedback from the community soon to shape this into something more robust over the coming weeks.
This Founder Commons programme is part of the UK Tech Cluster Group’s Catalyst Pilots and unfortunately comes to end soon, with this being the last session in the series. I’m guessing there will be an impact assessment at the end of the overall programme, and I’d love to see the UK Tech Cluster Group open up the data, hopefully broken down by regional programme, to show what’s been achieved (are you reading Jamie Hardesty?) as there’s so much we can learn from these pilots across ecosystems throughout the UK. I also hope they get another round of funding to continue the successful initiatives over a longer period next time.
In what’s going to be the worst segue since I misspelt it segway in an earlier digest, we move on to another shoestring project from yours truly to try support the sector. I’ll be launching Tees Digital Tech Jobs next week (providing I don’t break it again) - a free job site tool for employers to post jobs and prospects to explore the awesome roles created by you lovely lot.
If you have a role that you’re looking to fill, please drop me a message and I’ll make sure it’s included. I was hoping to have this live today, but lovable has not been my friend over the past few evenings.
I’m toying with the idea of taking on a sponsor to purely cover running costs and increase reach, so if that’s you please drop me a line.
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Hey Dan, you bet I'm reading! Great issue. Short answer is: yes! Upon completion of the Regional Tech Booster initiative there will be two pieces of work (though it's not myself, it's my colleague George Windsor who is leading on this) demonstrating: UK-wide learnings, inmpact on beneficiaries and recommendations to Gov on what should come next. I assume one will be public-facing and one will be a bit more sensitive which goes to DSIT directly. I will share what I can as soon as it's available. :-)