<![CDATA[Campfire]]>https://www.campfire.scothttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oJB0!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fca365ae8-eeb7-41fd-b719-f7c36d723c68_500x500.pngCampfirehttps://www.campfire.scotSubstackWed, 29 Apr 2026 07:09:38 GMT<![CDATA[🚀 £10k accelerator, funding guide, AI & Blockchain summit]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/10k-accelerator-funding-guide-aihttps://www.campfire.scot/p/10k-accelerator-funding-guide-aiMon, 27 Apr 2026 07:34:25 GMTHere’s your Campfire for Monday, April 27th.

📣 Asks, Offers, Updates, & Deadlines

🚀 Shott Scale Up Accelerator Royal Academy of Engineering programme “for deep tech founders, offering leadership training, a £10k grant, and investor connections.” Apply by 18 May. Details Here

📘 The Entrepreneurs’ Guide to Social Investment from Firstport: “a clear, practical resource to help social entrepreneurs understand funding options, key terms, and what it means to be investment-ready. Built with input from Social Investment Scotland, Good Finance, and The Ventures Lab”. Access the Guide here.

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for or share something with Campfire? Get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

💻 28/04, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup a monthly, no-pressure space for Scotland’s tech community to connect, share ideas, enjoy peer-led talks, and grab pizza and drinks. MORE INFO

👥 28/04, 13:00, 🗺️ Virtual: Lunch & Learn: Scaling Smart in Food & Drink Lunch & Learn on scaling a food & drink brand, real founder insights on funding, production, branding, and growth, with SUPERKEEN founder Caragh Keane. MORE INFO

💻 28/04, 11:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh Escape the home office with this flexible coworking day at YOTEL, offering unlimited coffee, pastries, a stylish workspace, and relaxed networking with like-minded professionals. MORE INFO

🍄 29/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint presents Bunker to Table discover how an Edinburgh nuclear bunker became a mushroom-growing space, with producer and chef Christopher Valentine-Allan sharing practical insights and community-led ideas. MORE INFO

🧠 29/04, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Real Teal: A New Management Paradigm? Join this interactive workshop to explore human-centred ways of working, with practical tools to build more autonomy, clarity, and less hierarchy in organisations. MORE INFO

👥 30/04, 10:00 am, 🗺️ Glasgow: Co-Work MeetUp Glasgow SWURF x Founders Meetup—flexible co-working at Vega with coffee, pastries, rooftop views, fast WiFi, and low-pressure networking for founders. MORE INFO

🏭 30/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Hawick: Reimagined SMAS Business Improvement Academy, Hawick Join this LCS-accredited 10-day Business Improvement Academy to build Lean expertise, deliver real impact projects, and drive lasting productivity and leadership across your organisation. MORE INFO

💳 FSTech Summit: On April 30th, a one-day Edinburgh conference bringing together finance and tech leaders for “talks, panels, and networking on AI, blockchain, payments, and the future of financial services”. Details Here

🧠 01/05, 11:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Dopamates free weekly body-doubling co-work session for anyone needing focus, Fridays 11–2 at The Pitt Market. MORE INFO

💬 05/05, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Fellows meetup RSA Fellows informal monthly catch-up at Canopy Café with a relaxed after-work space to connect, share ideas, and chat over coffee or drinks. MORE INFO

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 06/05, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 06/05, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 07/05, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
☕ 05/05, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO

🍽️ 11/05, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: U.S Expansion Founders Lunch feat. Wilson Sonsini An exclusive founder lunch for Scottish startup leaders to share insights and get practical advice on US expansion, hiring, and fundraising from experienced experts. MORE INFO

🧠 11/05, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup Blockchain Scotland Meetup at Bayes Centre with talks, pizza & drinks, and relaxed networking, with an after-party at The Pear Tree. MORE INFO

🤝 26/05, 14:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Business Networking Event in Old Town Informal marketing & advertising networking at Levels Cafe & Lounge and connect with founders and professionals, with open networking, a short intro, and Q&A.MORE INFO

💡 02/06, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Fast Forward: Data, Digital & AI A one-day conference on 2 June with the University of Edinburgh exploring data, digital, and AI through talks, workshops, and cross-sector collaboration. “Connect with researchers, industry, and public sector partners to share ideas and explore real-world applications”. Details here

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

]]><![CDATA[🦾 Founders Meetup, AI Product Brain, Getting AI into production while the ground keeps moving]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/founders-meetup-ai-product-brainhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/founders-meetup-ai-product-brainMon, 20 Apr 2026 07:34:36 GMTHere’s your Campfire for Monday, April 20th.

📣 Asks, Offers, Updates, & Deadlines

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for or share something with Campfire? Get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

🔥 21/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Join tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs plus speed networking, community shoutouts, and drinks to wrap up MORE INFO

🤖 21/04, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Build your Product Brain using AI Use AI to cut through product overwhelm by joining this hands-on workshop to build your own “product brain,” uncover insights, and make sharper, more confident decisions. MORE INFO

💬 21/04, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup Join us at the Bayes Centre for networking and three upcoming talks MORE INFO

🔗 22/04, 12:00, 🗺️ Virtual: Beyond the Runway: What No One Tells Founders About Insolvency A founder-led session creating space for honest conversations about financial pressure, insolvency, and navigating tough business decisions with support from those who’ve been through it. MORE INFO

☕ 23/04, 09:00 , 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Professionals Quarterly Networking A relaxed networking meetup for local professionals and founders to connect, with guided activities, great conversations, and breakfast on us from Barclays Eagle Labs. MORE INFO

☕ 23/04, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Creating Clarity: Finding your next step into business A relaxed workshop to help you explore business support options, gain clarity on your next steps, and connect with others in a supportive space. MORE INFO

📄 23/04, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh & Virtual: Term Sheets - What you’re really agreeing to and why it matters A practical session helping founders confidently navigate term sheets, understand key clauses, and avoid costly mistakes before and during fundraising. MORE INFO

☕ 23/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Building Tomoro x AI Demo Night: Getting AI to Production While the Ground Keeps Moving Most teams are still catching up to last week’s release instead of adapting. This is for engineers and product leads building real systems in real organisations, where the models keep changing, the enterprise won’t, and shipping still has to happen on time. MORE INFO

☕ 24/04, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking A focused coworking day for founders and execs to connect, share ideas, and build alongside like-minded peers in a relaxed, energising space. MORE INFO

💻 28/04, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup a monthly, no-pressure space for Scotland’s tech community to connect, share ideas, enjoy peer-led talks, and grab pizza and drinks. MORE INFO

💻 28/04, 11:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh Escape the home office with this flexible coworking day at YOTEL, offering unlimited coffee, pastries, a stylish workspace, and relaxed networking with like-minded professionals. MORE INFO

🍄 29/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint presents Bunker to Table discover how an Edinburgh nuclear bunker became a mushroom-growing space, with producer and chef Christopher Valentine-Allan sharing practical insights and community-led ideas. MORE INFO

🧠 29/04, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Real Teal: A New Management Paradigm? Join this interactive workshop to explore human-centred ways of working, with practical tools to build more autonomy, clarity, and less hierarchy in organisations. MORE INFO

🏭 30/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Hawick: Reimagined SMAS Business Improvement Academy, Hawick Join this LCS-accredited 10-day Business Improvement Academy to build Lean expertise, deliver real impact projects, and drive lasting productivity and leadership across your organisation. MORE INFO

💳 FSTech Summit: On April 30th, a one-day Edinburgh conference bringing together finance and tech leaders for “talks, panels, and networking on AI, blockchain, payments, and the future of financial services”. Details Here

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 06/05, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 06/05, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 07/05, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
☕ 05/05, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO

🍽️ 11/05, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: U.S Expansion Founders Lunch feat. Wilson Sonsini An exclusive founder lunch for Scottish startup leaders to share insights and get practical advice on US expansion, hiring, and fundraising from experienced experts. MORE INFO

💡 Fast Forward: Data, Digital & AI A one-day conference on 2 June with the University of Edinburgh exploring data, digital, and AI through talks, workshops, and cross-sector collaboration. “Connect with researchers, industry, and public sector partners to share ideas and explore real-world applications”. Details here

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

]]><![CDATA[💸 Beyond the runway, Unfiltered, Quick guide to SAFEs, ASAs, and not messing up your cap table]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/beyond-the-runway-unfiltered-quickhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/beyond-the-runway-unfiltered-quickMon, 13 Apr 2026 07:34:43 GMTHere’s your Campfire for Tuesday, April 13th.

📣 Asks, Offers, Updates, & Deadlines

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for or share something with Campfire? Get in touch!

Share

Sponsored post

The First Round: a quick guide to SAFEs, ASAs, and not messing up your cap table

By Stephen Trombala, Partner & Head of Corporate, Shepherd and Wedderburn

When you’re getting a startup off the ground and need investment, for most founders, the priority is pretty simple: get money in, as efficiently and cheaply as possible, so you can spend it on actually building the thing. But the way you take that first money in matters more than most founders realise. Here’s a rundown of the terms and instruments you might come across and the early housekeeping that’ll save you a headache later.

SAFEs, ASAs, and CLNs: what’s the difference?

Most founders assume SAFEs and ASAs are the same thing. And at a high level, it makes sense as to why: both let an investor hand you money now in exchange for equity later, without having to agree a valuation upfront. It’s ‘punt’ money. Hopefully it works out, and if it doesn’t, it’s gone. The investor acknowledges that.

But in practice, the two instruments work quite differently. A SAFE, or Simple Agreement for Future Equity, came out of Y Combinator in the US. It’s designed to be minimal: no maturity date, no interest, and typically no hard deadline for conversion. An ASA, or Advance Subscription Agreement, is often painted as the UK equivalent, built specifically to sit within UK company law and, importantly, to align with SEIS and EIS tax relief schemes. ASAs typically include a longstop date, which is a backstop by which the investment must convert into shares, usually at a pre-agreed default price. SAFEs don’t usually have that mechanic. So if your investors care about tax relief, an ASA is almost certainly the route you’ll be encouraged to go down. If you’re dealing with institutional or international investors who might be more used to a SAFE serving the early-stage alternative to a priced round, a UK-adapted SAFE might make more sense. Both are good instruments for early-stage companies. Just make sure you’re using the one that actually fits your situation.

Then there are convertible loan notes (CLNs), which are a different beast altogether. They come with a string attached: technically, the investor could ask for the money back, because it’s a loan. For an early-stage company with no means to repay debt, that’s a risk you probably don’t need to be taking. I’d generally steer most startups away from them at the outset.

Caps, discounts, and the question of price

One of the real advantages of both SAFEs and ASAs is that you don’t have to price the company when it’s far too early to do so sensibly. Pricing an equity round at the very beginning can sometimes do more harm than good. The beauty of these instruments is that you can defer that conversation to a point where there’s actually something to price.

In practice, you’ll usually see either a valuation cap, a discount from the next round price, or both. A cap tends to be more investor-friendly. A simple discount from the next round price is generally more company-friendly. But ultimately, it’s all up for negotiation.

The six-month rule

If your investors are looking for SEIS or EIS tax relief, there’s a wrinkle worth knowing about. HMRC guidance generally expects an ASA to convert into equity within six months. It’s a rule that, in many people’s view, doesn’t make a great deal of sense: the money is committed and the investor is never getting it back, so why impose an arbitrary deadline? We’ve actually made a number of representations to HMRC about relaxing that time period. So far, no joy.

That said, it’s worth noting that the six-month rule isn’t always an absolute requirement, and the way it applies can depend on how the instrument is structured. But it is the expectation in most cases, and if your investors need those tax benefits, you’ll likely have to work within it. My general advice: don’t let the tax tail wag the dog. If you can structure your raise sensibly around it, great. If tax relief isn’t a factor for your investors, don’t let it bend your fundraise out of shape.

Getting your cap table right from day one

With my legal hat on, there are a few things worth bearing in mind that might sound boring, but, without question, are issues that often trip up the most early-stage companies.

Here’s a scenario we see often: a group of founders get together, one person gets sent off to incorporate the company, and that founder ends up as the sole shareholder with one share. Everyone agrees they’ll sort out the proper split later. Then six or seven months pass, some development work gets done, maybe a SAFE comes in, and suddenly the actual cap table doesn’t match the one on the whiteboard. The headaches this can cause are of course fixable, but waste time and money later.

Just doing the basic housekeeping at the outset is really important. If there’s more than one founder, get the pro ratas actually issued from the get-go. You will save yourself a lot of pain in eight or twelve months’ time. If you issue the shares right at the start, it’s dead straightforward, inexpensive, and yes, boring. If you leave it nine or ten months, you’ve potentially created a tax problem, and you’ll end up spending money fixing something that would have cost nothing on day one.

A couple more practical points when forming your company: make sure you set up your shares with enough granularity. If there are three of you, don’t just have one share each. It’s also wise to watch your nominal share value. Companies that set up with shares at £1 each quickly run into trouble. Most properly structured companies use a nominal value of something like £.001 (0.1 of a penny), so you can issue a large number of shares to the founders without it costing anything meaningful. As a bonus, the premium paid above that tiny nominal value gets credited to a more flexible account on the company’s share capital.

Keeping the basics in mind

None of this is glamorous, and none of it is why you started a company. But getting the basics right early means you’re not burning cash on legal fixes six months down the line. And that cash is better spent on building your business.

Stephen Trombala is the head of Shepherd and Wedderburn’s Corporate division. He has particular expertise in equity capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity. This is Part one of a three-part series on legal fundamentals for startup founders, produced in partnership with Shepherd and Wedderburn. Part two will cover founders’ agreements, and Part three looks at the terms you’ll encounter as you scale.

To find out more about how Shepherd and Wedderburn can help you design a share incentive scheme that works for both you and your team members, reach out to them here.

📅 Events

🍻 14/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Discover how Glasgow is becoming a “Sponge City” in this relaxed pub talk, exploring rain gardens, greener streets, and community-led solutions to climate resilience through People Planet Pint. MORE INFO

🍻 16/04, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Meet others locally for a relaxed chat about sustainability over a drink. MORE INFO

🔥 21/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Join tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs plus speed networking, community shoutouts, and drinks to wrap up MORE INFO

💬 21/04, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup Join us at the Bayes Centre for networking and three upcoming talks MORE INFO

🔗 22/04, 12:00, 🗺️ Virtual: Beyond the Runway: What No One Tells Founders About Insolvency A founder-led session creating space for honest conversations about financial pressure, insolvency, and navigating tough business decisions with support from those who’ve been through it. MORE INFO

☕ 23/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Professionals Quarterly Networking A relaxed networking meetup for local professionals and founders to connect, with guided activities, great conversations, and breakfast on us from Barclays Eagle Labs. MORE INFO

☕ 23/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Creating Clarity: Finding your next step into business A relaxed workshop to help you explore business support options, gain clarity on your next steps, and connect with others in a supportive space. MORE INFO

📄 23/04, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh & Virtual: Term Sheets - What you’re really agreeing to and why it matters A practical session helping founders confidently navigate term sheets, understand key clauses, and avoid costly mistakes before and during fundraising. MORE INFO

☕ 23/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking A focused coworking day for founders and execs to connect, share ideas, and build alongside like-minded peers in a relaxed, energising space. MORE INFO

💻 28/04, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup a monthly, no-pressure space for Scotland’s tech community to connect, share ideas, enjoy peer-led talks, and grab pizza and drinks. MORE INFO

💻 28/04, 11:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh Escape the home office with this flexible coworking day at YOTEL, offering unlimited coffee, pastries, a stylish workspace, and relaxed networking with like-minded professionals. MORE INFO

🍄 29/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint presents Bunker to Table discover how an Edinburgh nuclear bunker became a mushroom-growing space, with producer and chef Christopher Valentine-Allan sharing practical insights and community-led ideas. MORE INFO

🧠 29/04, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint presents Bunker to Table. Join this interactive workshop to explore human-centred ways of working, with practical tools to build more autonomy, clarity, and less hierarchy in organisations. MORE INFO

🏭 30/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Hawick: Reimagined SMAS Business Improvement Academy, Hawick Join this LCS-accredited 10-day Business Improvement Academy to build Lean expertise, deliver real impact projects, and drive lasting productivity and leadership across your organisation. MORE INFO

💳 FSTech Summit On April 30th, a one-day Edinburgh conference bringing together finance and tech leaders for “talks, panels, and networking on AI, blockchain, payments, and the future of financial services”. Details Here

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 06/05, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 06/05, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 07/05, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
☕ 05/05, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO

🍽️ 11/05, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: U.S Expansion Founders Lunch feat. Wilson Sonsini An exclusive founder lunch for Scottish startup leaders to share insights and get practical advice on US expansion, hiring, and fundraising from experienced experts. MORE INFO

💡 Fast Forward: Data, Digital & AI A one-day conference on 2 June with the University of Edinburgh exploring data, digital, and AI through talks, workshops, and cross-sector collaboration. “Connect with researchers, industry, and public sector partners to share ideas and explore real-world applications”. Details here

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[🍄 Bunker to table, Co-working club, Tech & Founder Meetups]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/bunker-to-table-co-working-club-techhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/bunker-to-table-co-working-club-techTue, 07 Apr 2026 07:34:42 GMTHere’s your Campfire for Tuesday, April 7th

📣 Asks, Offers, Updates, & Deadlines

💳 FSTech Summit On April 30th, a one-day Edinburgh conference bringing together finance and tech leaders for “talks, panels, and networking on AI, blockchain, payments, and the future of financial services”. Details Here

💰 Glasgow-based MoneyMatiX has partnered with the Ideal Home Show Scotland (May 22-25) to host ‘The Money Village’, a special space within the Ideal Home Show where consumer-focussed fintech companies can sell and exhibit to the public. Open to “consumer-facing brands across all B2C verticals, including payments, savings, budgeting, credit, investment, insurance, legal tech, open banking and beyond.” Contact here for more info.

💡 Fast Forward: Data, Digital & AI A one-day conference on 2 June with the University of Edinburgh exploring data, digital, and AI through talks, workshops, and cross-sector collaboration. “Connect with researchers, industry, and public sector partners to share ideas and explore real-world applications”. Details here

⭐️ The UHI Business Competition from CREATE Highlands and Islands Hub invites students and residents (16+ in Argyll & Bute, Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire) to “pitch an idea or new venture for the chance to win up to £8,500 plus accountancy, legal, and IT support”. Details here

🤖 Fast Forward: Data, Digital & AI Conference This June, join researchers, industry leaders, and partners for a day of panels, workshops, and networking exploring the “opportunities and challenges of emerging data, digital, and AI technologies”. Details here

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for or share something with Campfire? Get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
- 07/04, 09:00 🗺️ Stirling: MORE INFO

🚀 08/04, 08:30 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Business Networking Event Join the Marketing & Advertising Network for a relaxed networking event focused on marketing and advertising. MORE INFO

🍻 08/04, 19:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Meet others locally for a relaxed chat about sustainability over a drink. MORE INFO

🦄 09/04, 16:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: The Mythical Unicorn vs. the Real Workhorse: Why Exits Beat Valuations Marking National Unicorn Day in Scotland on April 9th, join Mark Bjornsgaard, founder and CEO of System Two Group, as he challenges the startup world's unicorn obsession. With seven successful exits, hundreds of millions raised, and ventures sold to British Gas, GSK and more, Mark makes the case that real exits beat mythical valuations every time. MORE INFO

🌍 09/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Small99's People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Meet others locally for a relaxed chat about sustainability over a drink. MORE INFO

🍻 14/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Discover how Glasgow is becoming a “Sponge City” in this relaxed pub talk, exploring rain gardens, greener streets, and community-led solutions to climate resilience through People Planet Pint. MORE INFO

🍻 16/04, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Meet others locally for a relaxed chat about sustainability over a drink. MORE INFO

🔥 21/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Join tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs plus speed networking, community shoutouts, and drinks to wrap up MORE INFO

🔗 21/04, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup Join us at the Bayes Centre for networking and three upcoming talks MORE INFO

☕ 23/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Professionals Quarterly Networking A relaxed networking meetup for local professionals and founders to connect, with guided activities, great conversations, and breakfast on us from Barclays Eagle Labs. MORE INFO

📄 23/04, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh & Virtual: Term Sheets - What you’re really agreeing to and why it matters A practical session helping founders confidently navigate term sheets, understand key clauses, and avoid costly mistakes before and during fundraising. MORE INFO

☕ 23/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking A focused coworking day for founders and execs to connect, share ideas, and build alongside like-minded peers in a relaxed, energising space. MORE INFO

💻 28/04, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup a monthly, no-pressure space for Scotland’s tech community to connect, share ideas, enjoy peer-led talks, and grab pizza and drinks. MORE INFO

💻 28/04, 11:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh Escape the home office with this flexible coworking day at YOTEL, offering unlimited coffee, pastries, a stylish workspace, and relaxed networking with like-minded professionals. MORE INFO

🍄 29/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint presents Bunker to Table discover how an Edinburgh nuclear bunker became a mushroom-growing space, with producer and chef Christopher Valentine-Allan sharing practical insights and community-led ideas MORE INFO

🏭 30/04, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Hawick: Reimagined SMAS Business Improvement Academy, Hawick Join this LCS-accredited 10-day Business Improvement Academy to build Lean expertise, deliver real impact projects, and drive lasting productivity and leadership across your organisation. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[Coworking day, Unfiltered, FSTech Summit, Mythical Unicorns vs Real Workhorses]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/coworking-day-unfiltered-fstech-summithttps://www.campfire.scot/p/coworking-day-unfiltered-fstech-summitMon, 30 Mar 2026 07:34:39 GMTHere’s your Campfire for Monday, March 30th

📣 Asks, Offers, Updates, & Deadlines

📈 Applications are open for the St Andrews New Venture Challenge, aimed at “those with a developed idea ready to refine and grow. Receive expert feedback and support to strengthen your concept and plan your next steps”. Details here

💳 FSTech Summit a one-day Edinburgh conference bringing together finance and tech leaders for “talks, panels, and networking on AI, blockchain, payments, and the future of financial services”. Details Here

💰 Glasgow-based MoneyMatiX has partnered with the Ideal Home Show Scotland (May 22-25) to host ‘The Money Village’, a special space within the Ideal Home Show where consumer-focussed fintech companies can sell and exhibit to the public. Open to “consumer-facing brands across all B2C verticals, including payments, savings, budgeting, credit, investment, insurance, legal tech, open banking and beyond.” Contact here for more info.

💡 Fast Forward: Data, Digital & AI A one-day conference on 2 June with the University of Edinburgh exploring data, digital, and AI through talks, workshops, and cross-sector collaboration. “Connect with researchers, industry, and public sector partners to share ideas and explore real-world applications”. Details here

⭐️ The UHI Business Competition from CREATE Highlands and Islands Hub invites students and residents (16+ in Argyll & Bute, Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire) to “pitch an idea or new venture for the chance to win up to £8,500 plus accountancy, legal, and IT support”. Details here

🤖 Fast Forward: Data, Digital & AI Conference This June, join researchers, industry leaders, and partners for a day of panels, workshops, and networking exploring the “opportunities and challenges of emerging data, digital, and AI technologies”. Details here

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for or share something with Campfire? Get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

👯‍♂️ 30/03, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Day: Connect & Work Smarter A focused coworking day for founders and startup leaders to work, unblock challenges, and have practical conversations while moving key business tasks forward. MORE INFO

🛠️ 28/03, 10:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Makers gonna make A relaxed day for makers to work on ideas, build projects, and share progress with a supportive community. MORE INFO

💻 31/03, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup Edinburgh A relaxed monthly meetup for Scotland’s tech community to connect, hear short tech talks and demos, share community updates, and network over pizza, drinks, and a post-event pub visit. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 31/03, 11:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh A casual coworking day designed for professionals who want a productive workspace, great coffee and low-pressure networking.MORE INFO

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 01/04, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 01/04, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 02/04, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
☕ 02/04, 09:00 🗺️ Dundee: MORE INFO
☕ 03/04, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO sold out
☕ 07/04, 09:00 🗺️ Stirling: MORE INFO

💻 02/04, 18:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Tech Meetup Join us at The Social Hub for a relaxed tech meetup with talks, drinks, and a chance to learn something new. MORE INFO

🚀 08/04, 08:30 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Business Networking Event Join the Marketing & Advertising Network for a relaxed networking event focused on marketing and advertising. MORE INFO

🍻 08/04, 19:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Meet others locally for a relaxed chat about sustainability over a drink. MORE INFO

🦄 09/04, 16:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: The Mythical Unicorn vs. the Real Workhorse: Why Exits Beat Valuations Marking National Unicorn Day in Scotland on April 9th, join Mark Bjornsgaard, founder and CEO of System Two Group, as he challenges the startup world's unicorn obsession. With seven successful exits, hundreds of millions raised, and ventures sold to British Gas, GSK and more, Mark makes the case that real exits beat mythical valuations every time. MORE INFO

🌍 09/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Small99's People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Meet others locally for a relaxed chat about sustainability over a drink. MORE INFO

🍻 16/04, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Meet others locally for a relaxed chat about sustainability over a drink. MORE INFO

🔥 21/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Join tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs plus speed networking, community shoutouts, and drinks to wrap up MORE INFO

🔗 21/04, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup Join us at the Bayes Centre for networking and three upcoming talks MORE INFO

💻 28/04, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup a monthly, no-pressure space for Scotland’s tech community to connect, share ideas, enjoy peer-led talks, and grab pizza and drinks. MORE INFO

🍄 29/04, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint presents Bunker to Table discover how an Edinburgh nuclear bunker became a mushroom-growing space, with producer and chef Christopher Valentine-Allan sharing practical insights and community-led ideas MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[Founders Meetup, Video game emulators in Javascript, EDGE & UHI Competitions]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/founders-meetup-video-game-emulatorshttps://www.campfire.scot/p/founders-meetup-video-game-emulatorsMon, 16 Mar 2026 08:34:35 GMTHere’s your Campfire for Monday, March 16th.

📣 Asks, Offers, Updates, & Deadlines

💰 Glasgow-based MoneyMatiX has partnered with the Ideal Home Show Scotland (May 22-25) to host ‘The Money Village’, a special space within the Ideal Home Show where consumer-focussed fintech companies can sell and exhibit to the public. Open to “consumer-facing brands across all B2C verticals, including payments, savings, budgeting, credit, investment, insurance, legal tech, open banking and beyond.” Contact here for more info.

🧗‍♀️Scottish EDGE applications are open now and close March 25th. Awards include Scottish EDGE (up to £150k loan/grant, Social Enterprise EDGE (up to £75k loan/grant, Young EDGE (up to £15k grant for under 30s), and Wild Card EDGE (up to £15k grant for pre-trading businesses). There are also multiple specialist categories available as well. More info here.

⭐️ The UHI Business Competition from CREATE Highlands and Islands Hub invites students and residents (16+ in Argyll & Bute, Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire) to pitch an idea or new venture for the chance to win up to £8,500 plus accountancy, legal, and IT support. Details here

🤖 Fast Forward: Data, Digital & AI Conference Join researchers, industry leaders, and partners for a day of panels, workshops, and networking exploring the opportunities and challenges of emerging data, digital, and AI technologies. Details here

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for or share something with Campfire? Get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

🔗 16/03, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup An evening meetup for the Blockchain Scotland community to connect, share ideas, and explore developments in blockchain technology. MORE INFO

💻 17/03, 19:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Writing an emulator in JavaScript Join the EdinburghJS community for an evening of talks, refreshments, and a talk by Sara Vieira on building a video game emulator in JavaScript. MORE INFO

🚀 17/03, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Edinburgh A founder-focused meetup featuring tactical fireside chats, community shoutouts, and speed networking with entrepreneurs, potential co-founders, and investors. This month’s guest: Andrew Parfery MORE INFO

💻 18/03, 16:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Agentic Conversational AI Mixer A relaxed meetup for engineers and technical leaders building conversational AI, agentic systems, and voice AI. MORE INFO

📈 18/03, 16:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Business Growth Series: Digital Marketing for Business Growth Learn how SEO, email, social media, paid advertising, and partnership opportunities can work together to help businesses reach new customers and support long-term growth. MORE INFO

🍻 19/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup A relaxed sustainability meetup bringing people together over a drink to connect, share ideas, and learn about local climate action. MORE INFO

🌱 19/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Dumfries: Developing a Community Energy Project Join SOSE to explore renewable energy and clean-heat opportunities, hear real community project stories, and learn about the funding and support available to help you get started. MORE INFO

📈 19/03, 14:00, 🗺️ Online: Future Proofing Your Business Next Steps and Practical Tools The final webinar in the megatrends series explores practical tools and real-world examples to help businesses anticipate change, strengthen strategy, and respond confidently to future challenges. MORE INFO

💻 19/03, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Tech Mornings An informal coffee meetup at the Perth Ideas Centre where anyone can connect with members of the local tech community and enjoy relaxed conversation and networking. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 19/03, 10:30 am, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Coworking Day A free coworking day at the Perth Ideas Centre where members of the tech and business community can work, connect and stay productive using shared workspaces, WiFi, and refreshments. MORE INFO

🛠️ 24/03, 13:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Traveltech Meet-up: ​Building Agentic AI Workflows A practical, hands-on session where you’ll learn what agentic AI is and build a simple AI-powered workflow step-by-step using n8n. MORE INFO

🗂️ 25/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Mediation: How it works and why it’s so powerful A practical introduction to mediation, exploring how conflict can be turned into productive conversations and sustainable solutions. MORE INFO

🍕 25/03, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Networking Social - The After Work Club A relaxed after-work networking evening with drinks, pizza, darts, and easygoing conversation to help professionals make genuine connections. MORE INFO

🔐 25/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Scot-Secure 2026 Scotland’s 12th annual cyber security conference bringing together businesses for expert keynotes, workshops, and an exhibition focused on protecting organisations from cyber threats. MORE INFO

🌍 26/03, 15:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Netwalking for Changemakers: Walk with good people, enjoying worthwhile conversations, in peaceful, green spaces. For everyone working for social and environmental change. This month: Holyrood Park. MORE INFO

🍻 26/03, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: ProductTank Edinburgh Networking + Social Join fellow product professionals for a relaxed evening of casual networking, good conversations, and meeting new people at the Beehive Inn. MORE INFO

🏆 26/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Scottish Cyber Awards 2026 celebrates excellence across Scotland’s cyber security sector, recognising the people, organisations and innovations shaping the industry. MORE INFO

☕ 27/03, 08:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Open Day Drop in anytime between 8:30am and 5:30pm to tour the space, try coworking for the day, and chat with the team about membership.MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 30/03, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Day: Connect & Work Smarter A focused coworking day for founders and startup leaders to work, unblock challenges, and have practical conversations while moving key business tasks forward. MORE INFO

💻 31/03, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup Edinburgh A relaxed monthly meetup for Scotland’s tech community to connect, hear short tech talks and demos, share community updates, and network over pizza, drinks, and a post-event pub visit. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 31/03, 11:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh A casual coworking day designed for professionals who want a productive workspace, great coffee and low-pressure networking.MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[🔗 Tech Mornings, ScotSecure, Blockchain Scotland, After-work club]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/tech-mornings-scotsecure-blockchainhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/tech-mornings-scotsecure-blockchainMon, 09 Mar 2026 08:34:44 GMTHere’s your Campfire for Monday, March 9th.

📣 Asks, Offers, Updates, & Deadlines

🧗‍♀️Scottish EDGE applications are open now and close March 25th. Awards include Scottish EDGE (up to £150k loan/grant, Social Enterprise EDGE (up to £75k loan/grant, Young EDGE (up to £15k grant for under 30s), and Wild Card EDGE (up to £15k grant for pre-trading businesses). There are also multiple specialist categories available as well. More info here.

⭐️ The UHI Business Competition from CREATE Highlands and Islands Hub invites students and residents (16+ in Argyll & Bute, Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire) to pitch an idea or new venture for the chance to win up to £8,500 plus accountancy, legal, and IT support. Details here

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for or share something with Campfire? Get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

💻 11/03, 8:30 am, 🗺️ Dundee: SMAS Making Change Happen workshop Join us in Dundee for a free breakfast briefing exploring why change efforts fail, what makes transformation stick, and how our new Lean Competency System and Business Improvement Academy can help your organisation turn change intent into lasting results. MORE INFO

👩‍💻 11/03, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Glasgow: Female Founder Co Working Club A monthly coworking session bringing together female founders and entrepreneurs to work, connect, and grow alongside a supportive community. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 11/03, 9:30 am, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Female Founder Co Working Club Join our Female Founder Co-Working Club in Aberdeen as we celebrate IWD26, a monthly space for female founders and entrepreneurs across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire to connect, focus, and grow together within a supportive community. MORE INFO

🍻 12/03, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup A relaxed sustainability meetup bringing people together over a drink to connect, share ideas, and learn about local climate action. MORE INFO

🍺 11/03, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: ProductTank Glasgow: Social Drinks & Networking an informal evening of drinks, stories and connection for anyone working in (or curious about) product, with the first few rounds kindly sponsored by Four/Four. MORE INFO

🚀 12/03, 10:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Innovation Funding: Investor Insights & Founder Connections An interactive event where founders can hear directly from investors, ask candid questions about funding, and build meaningful connections to support their growth journey. MORE INFO

⭐️ 12/03, 13:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Geovation Scotland 2026 Showcase where you’ll hear pitches from our latest property, land and location tech startups, gain insights from alumni founders, and connect with innovators and industry leaders shaping the future of the sector. MORE INFO

👭 12/03, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Innovation Funding: Investor Insights & Founder Connections Join founders and investors for an evening of funding insights, panel discussion and networking with Scotland’s early-stage investment community. MORE INFO

🔗 16/03, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup An evening meetup for the Blockchain Scotland community to connect, share ideas, and explore developments in blockchain technology. MORE INFO

🚀 17/03, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Edinburgh A founder-focused meetup featuring tactical fireside chats, community shoutouts, and speed networking with entrepreneurs, potential co-founders, and investors. MORE INFO

🍻 19/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup A relaxed sustainability meetup bringing people together over a drink to connect, share ideas, and learn about local climate action. MORE INFO

📈 19/03, 14:00, 🗺️ Online: Future Proofing Your Business Next Steps and Practical Tools The final webinar in the megatrends series explores practical tools and real-world examples to help businesses anticipate change, strengthen strategy, and respond confidently to future challenges. MORE INFO

💻 19/03, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Tech Mornings An informal coffee meetup at the Perth Ideas Centre where anyone can connect with members of the local tech community and enjoy relaxed conversation and networking. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 19/03, 10:30 am, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Coworking Day A free coworking day at the Perth Ideas Centre where members of the tech and business community can work, connect and stay productive using shared workspaces, WiFi, and refreshments. MORE INFO

🗂️ 25/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Mediation: How it works and why it’s so powerful A practical introduction to mediation, exploring how conflict can be turned into productive conversations and sustainable solutions. MORE INFO

🍕 25/03, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Networking Social - The After Work Club A relaxed after-work networking evening with drinks, pizza, darts, and easygoing conversation to help professionals make genuine connections. MORE INFO

🔐 25/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Scot-Secure 2026 Scotland’s 12th annual cyber security conference bringing together businesses for expert keynotes, workshops, and an exhibition focused on protecting organisations from cyber threats. MORE INFO

🏆 26/03, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Scottish Cyber Awards 2026 celebrates excellence across Scotland’s cyber security sector, recognising the people, organisations and innovations shaping the industry. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 30/03, 9:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Day: Connect & Work Smarter A focused coworking day for founders and startup leaders to work, unblock challenges, and have practical conversations while moving key business tasks forward. MORE INFO

💻 31/03, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup Edinburgh A relaxed monthly meetup for Scotland’s tech community to connect, hear short tech talks and demos, share community updates, and network over pizza, drinks, and a post-event pub visit. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 31/03, 11:00 am, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh A casual coworking day designed for professionals who want a productive workspace, great coffee and low-pressure networking.MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[🌍 People Planet Pint, Tech Meetup Glasgow, Female Founders Co Working Club and more]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/people-planet-pint-tech-meetup-glasgowhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/people-planet-pint-tech-meetup-glasgowMon, 02 Mar 2026 08:34:18 GMTHere’s your Campfire for Monday, March 2nd

🧗‍♀️Scottish EDGE applications are open now and close March 25th. Awards include Scottish EDGE (up to £150k loan/grant, Social Enterprise EDGE (up to £75k loan/grant, Young EDGE (up to £15k grant for under 30s), and Wild Card EDGE (up to £15k grant for pre-trading businesses). There are also multiple specialist categories available as well. More info here.

📣 Asks, Offers, & Updates

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

🧗‍♀️Scottish EDGE applications are open now and close March 25th. Awards include Scottish EDGE (up to £150k loan/grant, Social Enterprise EDGE (up to £75k loan/grant, Young EDGE (up to £15k grant for under 30s), and Wild Card EDGE (up to £15k grant for pre-trading businesses). There are also multiple specialist categories available as well. More info here.

💻 ITSX Summit is Scotland’s service desk and IT support conference with keynotes, workshops, and an exhibition, taking place on 5 March 2026 at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, 08:30–16:30. Details here

⭐️ The UHI Business Competition from CREATE Highlands and Islands Hub invites students and residents (16+ in Argyll & Bute, Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire) to pitch an idea or new venture for the chance to win up to £8,500 plus accountancy, legal, and IT support. Details here

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

👯‍♂️ 03/03, 19:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Fellows meetup is a monthly, informal RSA Fellows catch-up on the first working Tuesday at Canopy Café for relaxed chats over coffee or drinks and networking with other Fellows. MORE INFO

📚 04/03, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: People Planet Pint: Book Club Join the inaugural People Planet Pint Book Club to read, reflect and spark action through informal, welcoming discussions on nature, sustainability and the ideas shaping our future. MORE INFO

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 04/03, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 0403, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 05/03, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
☕ 03/03, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO
☕ 03/03, 09:00 🗺️ Stirling: MORE INFO
☕ 07/03, 09:00 🗺️ Dumfries: MORE INFO sold out

👯‍♂️ 05/03, 10:00, 🗺️ Online: What They Don’t Tell You About Scaling (As a Woman) an International Women’s Day session where women and non-binary founders share honest lessons and “behind-the-scenes” realities of scaling a company—covering barriers, hard-won learnings, boundary setting, and building strong support networks. MORE INFO

💻 05/03, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Tech Meetup Glasgow an informal evening of drinks, pizza, networking and inspiring talks, open to anyone curious about tech and keen to learn something new. MORE INFO

💻 11/03, 8:30 am, 🗺️ Dundee: SMAS Making Change Happen workshop Join us in Dundee for a free breakfast briefing exploring why change efforts fail, what makes transformation stick, and how our new Lean Competency System and Business Improvement Academy can help your organisation turn change intent into lasting results. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 11/03, 9:30 am, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Female Founder Co Working Club Aberdeen Join our Female Founder Co-Working Club in Aberdeen as we celebrate IWD26, a monthly space for female founders and entrepreneurs across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire to connect, focus, and grow together within a supportive community. MORE INFO

🍺 11/03, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: ProductTank Glasgow: Social Drinks & Networking an informal evening of drinks, stories and connection for anyone working in (or curious about) product, with the first few rounds kindly sponsored by Four/Four. MORE INFO

⭐️ 12/03, 10:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Innovation Funding: Investor Insights & Founder Connections An interactive event where founders can hear directly from investors, ask candid questions about funding, and build meaningful connections to support their growth journey. MORE INFO

⭐️ 12/03, 13:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Geovation Scotland 2026 Showcase where you’ll hear pitches from our latest property, land and location tech startups, gain insights from alumni founders, and connect with innovators and industry leaders shaping the future of the sector. MORE INFO

👭 17/03, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Edinburgh Join Founders Meetup for tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and structured speed networking designed to connect startup founders, potential co-founders, and investors in a focused, high-energy environment. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[🍽️ Founders dinners, Traveltech, MLOPs meetups and more]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/founders-dinners-traveltech-mlopshttps://www.campfire.scot/p/founders-dinners-traveltech-mlopsWed, 25 Feb 2026 08:55:15 GMTSorry folks, I usually schedule Campfire on Sunday evening, and this week completely missed it 🤦 Thanks to those who got in touch saying they missed it!

Here’s your Campfire for February 23, 2026. I’ve left the previous events in as most of them are recurring so check them out if you want to see when the next occurrence is!

📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

💻 ITSX Summit is Scotland’s service desk and IT support conference with keynotes, workshops, and an exhibition, taking place on 5 March 2026 at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, 08:30–16:30. Details here

🍯 The Melting Pot is hiring an Events Lead (Part-time/Permanent 16 hours per week). Salary: £13,333 pro rata (FTE: £25,000). Application deadline Tuesday, 24th of February. Details here.

⭐️ The UHI Business Competition from CREATE Highlands and Islands Hub invites students and residents (16+ in Argyll & Bute, Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire) to pitch an idea or new venture for the chance to win up to £8,500 plus accountancy, legal, and IT support. Details here

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

✈️ 23/02, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Traveltech Meet Up ​. Get ready for an informal evening of networking, reconnecting, and building the future of Travel Tech. MORE INFO

📈 23/02, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Deal Process - From first conversation to completion ​is a practical session that walks founders through the end-to-end fundraising deal journey so they know what to expect, how to prepare, and how to avoid delays once investors are engaged. MORE INFO

💵 24/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Digital & Cloud Bookkeeping – An Introduction is a 2-hour MS Teams webinar for small business owners and sole traders covering cloud bookkeeping basics using Xero, including setup, bank reconciliations, ledgers, payroll/VAT essentials, and reporting. MORE INFO

🎙️ 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: ProductTank Community Flash Talks This month’s meetup is a night of community flash talks where product folks share short, honest stories about the messy, human side of the work and what didn’t go to plan, what they learned, and how they bounced back. MORE INFO

♻️ 24/02, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Greentech Meetup: Using AI to Decarbonise Buildings is a monthly Edinburgh breakfast meetup featuring a talk from Building Atlas co-founder Nick Taylor on how AI can map building decarbonisation roadmaps, followed by networking with the local Greentech community. MORE INFO

💻 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup ​​​​The meet up is a monthly excuse for the tech community around Scotland to network, learn and share new ideas! Enjoy informative tech presentations from your peers, hear about exciting community projects and create new connections. MORE INFO

💻 24/02, 12:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Turning Visibility to Revenue with LinkedIn (The Story Club) is a practical session where Jonny Rose shows founders how to use personal branding, content, and video on LinkedIn to build trust and convert attention into leads in crowded B2B markets. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 24/02, 11:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh is a flexible coworking day at YOTEL Hotel where £5 entry includes a coffee and pastries plus 25% off food and drink, with space to work solo or with others and meet fellow professionals. MORE INFO

⭐️ 24/02, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Techscaler Health & Medtech Innovation Summit The Summit brings Scotland’s health and medtech community together to connect founders, investors and partners, share founder-led insights on sector challenges, and showcase Scottish innovation for real collaboration opportunities. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders & Merchants Company Introduction a private networking event bringing together the Founders Meetup and the Royal Company of Merchants for a short intro to the society, refreshments, and networking with Edinburgh business leaders, founders, and entrepreneurs. MORE INFO

📈 25/02, 13:00, 🗺️ Dumfries & Online: Scale smarter: discover AI and automation tools to build and grow A practical, hands-on session for aspiring and growing business owners on using simple, affordable AI and automation tools to build an online presence and streamline things like websites, payments, bookings, and marketing—no coding or tech background needed. MORE INFO

🍺 25/02, 19:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: People, Planet, Pint is a relaxed, no-pitches sustainability meetup where people connect over a drink to share local inspiration and ways to get involved in climate action. MORE INFO

✈️ 25/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: MLOps Meetup features a talk by Trustpilot’s Assulan Nurkas on deploying fine-tuned LLMs at scale to process 200k daily reviews, hosted by Skyscanner with pizza and drinks. MORE INFO

🔧 26/02, 13:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Scale smarter: discover AI and automation tools to build and grow A practical, hands-on workshop showing you how to launch or grow your business online with simple, affordable tools: no coding, big budget, or tech background required. MORE INFO

🍽️ 26/02, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Dinner: Scaling & Legal Lessons from the front line An approval-only founders dinner featuring a fireside chat with Aveni COO Jaime Hunter and investor adviser Max Scharbert, for an off-the-record discussion on scaling a regulated business, regulation and legal decision-making with a small group of startup leaders. MORE INFO

💻 27/02, 09:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Hub - by Bayes and ScotlandIS Weekly Co-working Fridays at The Bayes Centre bring founders building scalable tech businesses together to work alongside peers, share asks and ideas, and build momentum in a supportive startup community. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 27/02, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking ​​Join us for a day of networking and inspiration. This is your chance to connect with fellow founders, share ideas, and maybe even spark your next big project. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 03/03, 19:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Fellows meetup is a monthly, informal RSA Fellows catch-up on the first working Tuesday at Canopy Café for relaxed chats over coffee or drinks and networking with other Fellows. MORE INFO

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 04/03, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 0403, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 05/03, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
☕ 03/03, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO
☕ 03/03, 09:00 🗺️ Stirling: MORE INFO
☕ 07/03, 09:00 🗺️ Dumfries: MORE INFO sold out

👯‍♂️ 05/03, 10:00, 🗺️ Online: What They Don’t Tell You About Scaling (As a Woman) an International Women’s Day session where women and non-binary founders share honest lessons and “behind-the-scenes” realities of scaling a company—covering barriers, hard-won learnings, boundary setting, and building strong support networks. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[👋 Founders Meetup, MLOps, Coworking at Bayes, Traveltech, ProductTank and more]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/founders-meetup-mlops-coworking-athttps://www.campfire.scot/p/founders-meetup-mlops-coworking-atMon, 16 Feb 2026 06:02:22 GMTHere’s your Campfire for February 16, 2026.

Reminder: Signals Cohort One Deadline this Friday

Do you know someone who is working on a problem that could grow into something of scale? They might already have a side project, or are just conducting initial experiments. They might be working on this full time or still working elsewhere.

Either way, as long as their insight is unique and their opportunity could grow into something large, Signals might be for them.

Signals is a new cohort-based £200k inception-stage VC investment from Techstart Ventures. It’s designed for people who have deep understanding and experience of a problem. They bring unique insight, obsession with the opportunity, and believe there’s potential to build a global company capable of significant scale.

This is for people who believe that a) their unique insight might provide the basis for building a globally important company and b) a £200k investment right now might increase their chances of raising a top tier pre-seed round within the next 18 months.

In addition to investment, Signals includes ongoing cohort-based accountability, weekly co-working, and regular challenge from investors and experienced operators.

Find more info here, or sign up to a briefing this week.

Share

📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

💻 ITSX Summit is Scotland’s service desk and IT support conference with keynotes, workshops, and an exhibition, taking place on 5 March 2026 at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, 08:30–16:30. Details here

🍯 The Melting Pot is hiring an Events Lead (Part-time/Permanent 16 hours per week). Salary: £13,333 pro rata (FTE: £25,000). Application deadline Tuesday, 24th of February. Details here.

⭐️ The UHI Business Competition from CREATE Highlands and Islands Hub invites students and residents (16+ in Argyll & Bute, Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire) to pitch an idea or new venture for the chance to win up to £8,500 plus accountancy, legal, and IT support. Details here

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

🛰️ Multiple 🗺️ Edinburgh, Glasgow, Online: Signals Briefing: Signals is a new cohort-based £200k inception-stage VC investment from Techstart Ventures. Deadline for Cohort One is Feb 20th. MORE INFO
💻 Monday 16th 1200: Virtual
💻 Tuesday 17th 0830: Virtual
💻 Tuesday 17th 1200: Virtual
👋 Wednesday 18th Evening: Edinburgh in-person
💻 Thursday 19th 1200: Virtual

👯‍♂️ 17/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors MORE INFO

📚 17/02, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Storytelling: Why It’s More Important Than Ever ​Join us for an engaging and practical session on why storytelling has become one of the most critical leadership capabilities—and how it can be used to bring culture, values, and strategy to life in real, human ways. MORE INFO

📈18/02, 10:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Pathways to Business Growth: Getting Organised for Growth is a workshop for business owners to assess and strengthen how their business is set up and run as it scales, covering structure, admin, tools, ways of working, and using AI as a personal assistant. MORE INFO

🦸‍♀️ 19/02, 12:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Female Founder Meet Up meet-up for female and non-binary founders across Aberdeen City and Shire to connect with like-minded peers, grow their network, and share real business experiences and insights. MORE INFO

📈19/02, 10:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Value Proposition Design for Product–Market Fit is a hands-on workshop teaching founders tools to map customer jobs/pains/gains, define an ideal customer profile, and craft value propositions that improve product decisions, positioning, and sales. MORE INFO

🍺 19/02, 19:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint is a relaxed, no-pitches sustainability meetup where people connect over a drink to share local inspiration and ways to get involved in climate action. MORE INFO

💻 20/02, 09:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Hub - by Bayes and ScotlandIS Weekly Co-working Fridays at The Bayes Centre bring founders building scalable tech businesses together to work alongside peers, share asks and ideas, and build momentum in a supportive startup community. MORE INFO

✈️ 23/02, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Traveltech Meet Up ​. Get ready for an informal evening of networking, reconnecting, and building the future of Travel Tech. MORE INFO

📈 23/02, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Deal Process - From first conversation to completion ​is a practical session that walks founders through the end-to-end fundraising deal journey so they know what to expect, how to prepare, and how to avoid delays once investors are engaged. MORE INFO

💵 24/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Digital & Cloud Bookkeeping – An Introduction is a 2-hour MS Teams webinar for small business owners and sole traders covering cloud bookkeeping basics using Xero, including setup, bank reconciliations, ledgers, payroll/VAT essentials, and reporting. MORE INFO

🎙️ 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: ProductTank Community Flash Talks This month’s meetup is a night of community flash talks where product folks share short, honest stories about the messy, human side of the work and what didn’t go to plan, what they learned, and how they bounced back. MORE INFO

♻️ 24/02, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Greentech Meetup: Using AI to Decarbonise Buildings is a monthly Edinburgh breakfast meetup featuring a talk from Building Atlas co-founder Nick Taylor on how AI can map building decarbonisation roadmaps, followed by networking with the local Greentech community. MORE INFO

💻 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup ​​​​The meet up is a monthly excuse for the tech community around Scotland to network, learn and share new ideas! Enjoy informative tech presentations from your peers, hear about exciting community projects and create new connections. MORE INFO

💻 24/02, 12:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Turning Visibility to Revenue with LinkedIn (The Story Club) is a practical session where Jonny Rose shows founders how to use personal branding, content, and video on LinkedIn to build trust and convert attention into leads in crowded B2B markets. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 24/02, 11:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh is a flexible coworking day at YOTEL Hotel where £5 entry includes a coffee and pastries plus 25% off food and drink, with space to work solo or with others and meet fellow professionals. MORE INFO

⭐️ 24/02, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Techscaler Health & Medtech Innovation Summit The Summit brings Scotland’s health and medtech community together to connect founders, investors and partners, share founder-led insights on sector challenges, and showcase Scottish innovation for real collaboration opportunities. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders & Merchants Company Introduction a private networking event bringing together the Founders Meetup and the Royal Company of Merchants for a short intro to the society, refreshments, and networking with Edinburgh business leaders, founders, and entrepreneurs. MORE INFO

🍺 25/02, 19:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: People, Planet, Pint is a relaxed, no-pitches sustainability meetup where people connect over a drink to share local inspiration and ways to get involved in climate action. MORE INFO

✈️ 25/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: MLOps Meetup features a talk by Trustpilot’s Assulan Nurkas on deploying fine-tuned LLMs at scale to process 200k daily reviews, hosted by Skyscanner with pizza and drinks. MORE INFO

🔧 26/02, 13:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Scale smarter: discover AI and automation tools to build and grow A practical, hands-on workshop showing you how to launch or grow your business online with simple, affordable tools: no coding, big budget, or tech background required. MORE INFO

🍽️ 26/02, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Dinner: Scaling & Legal Lessons from the front line An approval-only founders dinner featuring a fireside chat with Aveni COO Jaime Hunter and investor adviser Max Scharbert, for an off-the-record discussion on scaling a regulated business, regulation and legal decision-making with a small group of startup leaders. MORE INFO

💻 27/02, 09:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Hub - by Bayes and ScotlandIS Weekly Co-working Fridays at The Bayes Centre bring founders building scalable tech businesses together to work alongside peers, share asks and ideas, and build momentum in a supportive startup community. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 27/02, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking ​​Join us for a day of networking and inspiration. This is your chance to connect with fellow founders, share ideas, and maybe even spark your next big project. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 03/03, 19:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Fellows meetup is a monthly, informal RSA Fellows catch-up on the first working Tuesday at Canopy Café for relaxed chats over coffee or drinks and networking with other Fellows. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[📡 Signals Launches, Stac announces £15m fund, Techscaler applications, Nami raises £1.9m ]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/signals-launches-stac-announces-15mhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/signals-launches-stac-announces-15mMon, 09 Feb 2026 09:46:52 GMTHere’s your Campfire for February 9, 2026

Launching Signals

Outside of managing Campfire, I’m an investor with Techstart Ventures, an inception-to-pre-seed VC that believes globally important companies can and will be built from a Scottish base. In addition to our active pre-seed investments (plus follow-on, etc), we’re launching something new, that in my biased opinion is super exciting.

With my investor-hat on, I want to share what it is, why we’re launching it and describe who we’re looking for. It’s not for everyone, and I’d love your help in sharing it with anyone you think might be a fit.

Signals: £200k inception-stage investment, weekly challenge & cohort accountability

It’s designed for people who have deep understanding and experience of a problem. They bring unique insight, obsession with the opportunity, and believe there’s potential to build a global company capable of significant scale.

This is for people who believe that a) their unique insight might provide the basis for building a globally important company and b) a £200k investment right now might increase their chances of raising a top tier pre-seed round within the next 18 months.

In addition to investment, Signals includes ongoing cohort-based accountability, weekly co-working, and regular challenge from investors and experienced operators. Full briefing can be found here.

The best founders are obsessed with gaining insight

Scotland’s startup ecosystem is super noisy, and there’s often an inverse relationship between those with the loudest volume and those who provide the most meaningful value.

We don’t speak to the whole startup landscape, because venture capital isn’t for the vast majority of startups. It’s a type of journey that only makes sense because of certain opportunity sizes, capital inefficiencies, and incredibly difficult market execution requirements. It truly embodies the phrase “it’s not for everyone” because often, you don’t need it nor should you want it.

It’s not ‘first prize’ in a hierarchy of ambition.

And if you have true unique insight, and access to a market to start getting feedback, our view is that you need to start on those feedback loops as fast as possible. Our bet is that going really early and backing you in this way will mean you can make more progress faster which increases the likelihood of a top-tier pre-seed round.

Signals is for those with uncommon insights capable of creating globally important companies with serious scale

‘Unique insights’ is an understated-sounding phrase that is actually quite rare to find. It covers not only deeply understanding a space & problem, but also having an informed view of high conviction about what the fulcrum points could be that results in positive disruption.

What is something that if true could lead to something massive? You don’t know if it’s true yet, but through your unique insight you really believe it is, and if you’re able to prove that, it unlocks far higher confidence in your proposed solution.

We’re looking for people with this unique insight, who are obsessed with it, and are already experimenting (even if it’s light-touch). They might have already taken the leap into solving this problem full time, or might still be working elsewhere and experimenting on the side.

If you know someone who fits this description, even if they don’t yet consider themselves a ‘founder’, please share techstart.vc/signals with them, or put us in touch.

The deadline for Cohort One is Feb 20th, and you can find more info about the deal on our info page and a list of upcoming briefings here or below.

🌊 Updates

🤖 Glasgow-based Smart Things Accelerator Centre (Stac) has launched its first “£15m investment fund to back Scottish start-ups and scale-ups”. The fund will focus on companies in robotics, AI, quantum computing, photonics and advanced manufacturing. TS FS DGT

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Techscaler’s Catalyst is recruiting early-stage tech founders in Scotland for a 10-week cohort starting 3 March. Applications close Tuesday 17 February, and the programme includes a core “Build” phase with optional tracks for “Grow”, “Refine”, and “Raise” depending on each startup’s stage. DGT SBN

💻 Launchpad, an AI-first robotics company for assembly automation, raised further investment from PXN Ventures following its oversubscribed $11m Series A announced in October 2025. SBN

🥼Glasgow-based Nami Surgical has completed a £1.9m funding round to commercialise its miniaturised ultrasonic scalpel technology for the robotic-assisted surgery market. DGT ACS

🎓 RGU’s 2026 Impact North announced its cohort, which includes startups like Oceanfly VR (VR training for drone operators in hazardous offshore environments), Alba Kinetics (marine renewable energy generated from flow-induced vibrations), and AnchorPath (a digital platform to support care-experienced young people, foster carers and social workers) The full list of participating startups has been published by RGU and can be found here. AGCC

💵 Just launched: A new Scotland-based platform called Ailsa aims to “help businesses identify suitable grant opportunities and improve application quality using AI plus human grant expertise”. SM

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📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

🍯 The Melting Pot is hiring an Events Lead (Part-time/Permanent 16 hours per week). Salary: £13,333 pro rata (FTE: £25,000). Application deadline Tuesday, 24th of February. Details here.

⭐️ The UHI Business Competition from CREATE Highlands and Islands Hub invites students and residents (16+ in Argyll & Bute, Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire) to pitch an idea or new venture for the chance to win up to £8,500 plus accountancy, legal, and IT support. Details here

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

🛰️ Multiple 🗺️ Edinburgh, Glasgow, Online: Signals Briefing: Signals is a new cohort-based £200k inception-stage VC investment from Techstart Ventures. Deadline for Cohort One is Feb 20th. MORE INFO
💻 Monday 9th 0900: Virtual
💻 Monday 9th 1400: Virtual
💻 Tuesday 10th 0800: Virtual
👋 Wednesday 11th evening: Glasgow in-person
💻 Thursday 12th 1300: Virtual
👋 Thursday 12th evening: Edinburgh in-person
💻 Monday 16th 1200: Virtual
💻 Tuesday 17th 0830: Virtual
💻 Tuesday 17th 1200: Virtual
👋 Wednesday 18th Evening: Edinburgh in-person
💻 Thursday 19th 1200: Virtual

☕️ 10/02, 19:00, 🗺️ Online: Teacake Tech: National Conversations a non-party-political evening featuring a talk from Gordon Guthrie, followed by an audience discussion on how government works with technology and potential actions ahead of the upcoming elections. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 11/02, 9:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Female Founder Coworking Club a supportive space for women entrepreneurs to focus, connect, and build momentum alongside like-minded founders. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 11/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Business & Startup Networking in Edinburgh Join The Edinburgh Network for a relaxed drinks mixer that connects Edinburgh professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners to build real leads, referrals and partnerships. MORE INFO

🗂️ 11/02, 8:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Business Networking Event in Old Town An informal marketing and advertising networking meet-up in central Edinburgh for startup founders, entrepreneurs and business professionals to connect, learn and share ideas. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 12/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Founders Meet-up An evening bringing creative and tech founders together through a fireside conversation on building at the intersection of creativity and technology, followed by relaxed networking to spark cross-disciplinary collaboration. MORE INFO

☕️ 12/02, 10:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Startup/Investor Open Coffee Meetup a casual meet-up for founders, investors, mentors and startup newcomers to connect through meaningful conversations. MORE INFO

💻 12/02, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup an evening of talks, Q&As, and relaxed networking with the Scottish web3 community, featuring speakers from Xcavate and the Ethereum Foundation plus food and drinks. MORE INFO

💻 13/02, 09:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Hub - by Bayes and ScotlandIS Weekly Co-working Fridays at The Bayes Centre bring founders building scalable tech businesses together to work alongside peers, share asks and ideas, and build momentum in a supportive startup community. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 17/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meet-up ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors MORE INFO

📚 17/02, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Storytelling: Why It’s More Important Than Ever ​Join us for an engaging and practical session on why storytelling has become one of the most critical leadership capabilities—and how it can be used to bring culture, values, and strategy to life in real, human ways. MORE INFO

🦸‍♀️ 19/02, 12:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Female Founder Meet Up meet-up for female and non-binary founders across Aberdeen City and Shire to connect with like-minded peers, grow their network, and share real business experiences and insights. MORE INFO

💻 20/02, 09:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Hub - by Bayes and ScotlandIS Weekly Co-working Fridays at The Bayes Centre bring founders building scalable tech businesses together to work alongside peers, share asks and ideas, and build momentum in a supportive startup community. MORE INFO

✈️ 23/02, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Traveltech Meet Up ​Get ready for an informal evening of networking, reconnecting, and building the future of Travel Tech. MORE INFO

🎙️ 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: ProductTank Community Flash Talks This month’s meetup is a night of community flash talks where product folks share short, honest stories about the messy, human side of the work and what didn’t go to plan, what they learned, and how they bounced back. MORE INFO

💻 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup ​​​​The meet up is a monthly excuse for the tech community around Scotland to network, learn and share new ideas! Enjoy informative tech presentations from your peers, hear about exciting community projects and create new connections. MORE INFO

⭐️ 24/02, 12:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Techscaler Health & Medtech Innovation Summit The Summit brings Scotland’s health and medtech community together to connect founders, investors and partners, share founder-led insights on sector challenges, and showcase Scottish innovation for real collaboration opportunities. MORE INFO

🔧 26/02, 13:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Scale smarter: discover AI and automation tools to build and grow A practical, hands-on workshop showing you how to launch or grow your business online with simple, affordable tools: no coding, big budget, or tech background required. MORE INFO

🍽️ 26/02, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Dinner: Scaling & Legal Lessons from the front line An approval-only founders dinner featuring a fireside chat with Aveni COO Jaime Hunter and investor adviser Max Scharbert, for an off-the-record discussion on scaling a regulated business, regulation and legal decision-making with a small group of startup leaders. MORE INFO

💻 27/02, 09:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Hub - by Bayes and ScotlandIS Weekly Co-working Fridays at The Bayes Centre bring founders building scalable tech businesses together to work alongside peers, share asks and ideas, and build momentum in a supportive startup community. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 27/02, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking ​​Join us for a day of networking and inspiration. This is your chance to connect with fellow founders, share ideas, and maybe even spark your next big project. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[☕ Edinburgh Fellows Meetup, Creative Tech Founders, Blockchain Scotland, AI Demo Night]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/edinburgh-fellows-meetup-creativehttps://www.campfire.scot/p/edinburgh-fellows-meetup-creativeMon, 02 Feb 2026 08:55:07 GMTHere’s your Campfire for February 2, 2026

💼 Johnston Carmichael are a leading accountancy and business advisory firm, with offices throughout Scotland, in Newcastle and London. A partner owned firm for over 85 years, they have grown to offer core and specialist services to business of all sizes.

With specialist sector teams, they are fast becoming one of the most trusted advisers for entrepreneurs, founders and businesses that are successfully scaling.

Talk to the team today to discuss what growth stage your business is at.

Good morning all — what’s the number one reason why you open Campfire every week? We’re looking what value it brings to folks.

📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

🍯 The Melting Pot is hiring an Events Lead (Part-time/Permanent 16 hours per week). Salary: £13,333 pro rata (FTE: £25,000). Application deadline Tuesday, 24th of February. Details here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

Share

📅 Events

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 04/02, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 04/02, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 05/02, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
☕ 05/02, 09:00 🗺️ Dundee: MORE INFO
☕ 03/02, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO
☕ 03/02, 09:00 🗺️ Stirling: MORE INFO
☕ 03/02, 09:00 🗺️ Dumfries: MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 03/02, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Fellows meetup An informal monthly meet-up for RSA Fellows in Edinburgh, held on the first working Tuesday at Canopy Café, for relaxed chats, connections and idea-sharing over coffee or drinks. MORE INFO

💻 04/02, 10:00, 🗺️ Dundee: Future Skills for Tayside Tech: DigiTay Roundtable A half-day, industry-led roundtable for Tayside tech employers and stakeholders to identify digital skills gaps and co-design future-ready training pathways for Dundee, Perth & Kinross, North East Fife and Angus. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 04/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Network: Tech Startups, Professionals & Investors Connect Event. Connect with tech entrepreneurs, tech investors, startup founders, and industry innovators. MORE INFO

💻 04/02, 10:00, 🗺️ Dumfries: Pathways Expo - Dumfries & Galloway A welcoming, hands-on Pathways Expo for early-stage entrepreneurs featuring 1:1 expert support (marketing, social, LinkedIn, ads, finance and action-planning), professional headshots, short business talks, supportive networking and lunch included. MORE INFO

🤖 05/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: AI Demo Night Edinburgh Builders show what they've made with AI. Short demos, food, drinks, conversation. No slides. Show the thing. MORE INFO

📈 05/02, 13:00, 🗺️ Dumfries: Scale your Social Enterprise An interactive workshop for service-based organisations exploring how technology can unlock growth, scale services, and support new tech-enabled business models, led by CodeBase and South of Scotland Enterprise. MORE INFO

⭐️ 05/02, 10:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: How to Magnetise and Convert Clients on LinkedIn Using Story. A fireside chat with storytelling trainer Karis Gill on how to use strategic personal story on LinkedIn to attract clients more naturally, with practical tips and real examples you can apply straight away. MORE INFO

⭐️ 05/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Tech Meetup Glasgow An inclusive Tech MeetUp Glasgow at The Social Hub, open to everyone, with drinks, pizza, networking, an icebreaker and speakers MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 11/02, 9:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Female Founder Coworking Club a supportive space for women entrepreneurs to focus, connect, and build momentum alongside like-minded founders. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 12/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Founders Meet-up An evening bringing creative and tech founders together through a fireside conversation on building at the intersection of creativity and technology, followed by relaxed networking to spark cross-disciplinary collaboration. MORE INFO

💻 12/02, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup an evening of talks, Q&As, and relaxed networking with the Scottish web3 community, featuring speakers from Xcavate and the Ethereum Foundation plus food and drinks. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 17/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meet-up ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors MORE INFO

📚 17/02, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Storytelling: Why It’s More Important Than Ever ​Join us for an engaging and practical session on why storytelling has become one of the most critical leadership capabilities—and how it can be used to bring culture, values, and strategy to life in real, human ways. MORE INFO

🦸‍♀️ 19/02, 12:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Female Founder Meet Up meet-up for female and non-binary founders across Aberdeen City and Shire to connect with like-minded peers, grow their network, and share real business experiences and insights. MORE INFO

✈️ 19/02, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Traveltech Meet Up ​Get ready for an informal evening of networking, reconnecting, and building the future of Travel Tech. MORE INFO

🎙️ 24/02, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: ProductTank Community Flash Talks This month’s meetup is a night of community flash talks where product folks share short, honest stories about the messy, human side of the work and what didn’t go to plan, what they learned, and how they bounced back. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 27/02, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking ​​Join us for a day of networking and inspiration. This is your chance to connect with fellow founders, share ideas, and maybe even spark your next big project. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[CivTech cohort announced, InstaClaim launch, Flexitricity acquisition, SGN Games Action Plan]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/civtech-cohort-announced-instaclaimhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/civtech-cohort-announced-instaclaimMon, 26 Jan 2026 08:34:14 GMTHere’s your Campfire for January 26, 2026

💼 Johnston Carmichael are a leading accountancy and business advisory firm, with offices throughout Scotland, in Newcastle and London. A partner owned firm for over 85 years, they have grown to offer core and specialist services to business of all sizes.

With specialist sector teams, they are fast becoming one of the most trusted advisers for entrepreneurs, founders and businesses that are successfully scaling.

Talk to the team today to discuss what growth stage your business is at.

🌊 Updates

🧾 Edinburgh-based InstaClaim has launched, described as an “expense documentation platform designed for grant-funded and project-based organisation,” allowing the creation of claim documentation for projects, grants, and expenses, in minutes. Find out more here.

🏭 Edinburgh-based utility company Flexitricity is in the process of being acquired by Drax (operators of biomass, hydroelectric power-plants in England and Scotland) for £42m. DGT

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Civtech Scotland (challenge projects for issues faced by public sector orgs) announced the twelve companies that have each been awarded £35k as part of its accelerator. They include Ocean Intelligence (monitoring systems for sustainable fish farming), Daysix (digital platform providing hyper-personalised support for those with long-term health conditions), Arcology, Zimplex.AI, Poteris (workflow assistance like incident reporting and administrative tasks) for teachers, Smart Data Foundry (analysis of infrastructure an accessibility for festivals, and more. Read the full list here. DGT FS

🎮 The Scottish Games Network launched its report and proposal for how the government could help grow the Scottish games industry. According to the report, Scottish games developers deliver £151,382 gross value added (GVA) per head, however the industry here is behind countries like Finland (annual turnover of £2.47b/year with 270 studios compared to Scotland’s £340m/year with 130 studios). Read the report here. FS DGT

Share

📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

📅 Events

⛓️‍💥 27/01, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup ​. An industry association empowering Scottish innovation through blockchain technology. Connecting entrepreneurs, developers, and industry leaders. MORE INFO

💡27/01, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: From Idea to Product: Using No-/Low-Code to Build Working Products. This practical webinar is designed for founders who want to turn ideas into working products using today’s AI and no-code tools. MORE INFO

♻️ 27/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Greentech Meetup: Sustainable AI at the Speed of Light Join our monthly meetup where you'll hear from a Greentech specialist, mingle with Edinburgh's Green community, and munch on free breakfast! MORE INFO

💻 27/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Vibe Coding Collective in Edinburgh. This meetup is a social coding jam where we utilise AI to turn fun ideas into functional prototypes quickly. Whether you’re an experienced developer or have never written a line of code, you’ll fit right in. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 28/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Network: Tech Startups, Professionals & Investors Connect Event. Connect with tech entrepreneurs, tech investors, startup founders, and industry innovators. MORE INFO

🧪 29/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Data Science + AI January Meetup Edinburgh's community meetup for people working in - or just interested in - Data Science and AI. MORE INFO

💻 29/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Tech Mornings Open to everyone, join us in the Perth Ideas Centre in Perth Creative Exchange to connect with members of the local tech community. Come long for some coffee, networking and building connections. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 29/01, 10:30, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Coworking Day Join us at the Perth Ideas Centre in Perth Creative Exchange for a day of free coworking. This is a great opportunity to connect with the regional tech and business community, use the excellent facilities available and get an extra dose of motivation. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 29/01, 08:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Open Day experience working from our friendly and professional shared workspace at The Melting Pot for an entire day completely free of charge. MORE INFO

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 04/02, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 04/02, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 05/02, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
☕ 05/02, 09:00 🗺️ Dundee: MORE INFO
☕ 03/02, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO
☕ 03/02, 09:00 🗺️ Stirling: MORE INFO
☕ 03/02, 09:00 🗺️ Dumfries: MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 03/02, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Fellows meetup An informal monthly meet-up for RSA Fellows in Edinburgh, held on the first working Tuesday at Canopy Café, for relaxed chats, connections and idea-sharing over coffee or drinks. MORE INFO

💻 04/02, 10:00, 🗺️ Dundee: Future Skills for Tayside Tech: DigiTay Roundtable A half-day, industry-led roundtable for Tayside tech employers and stakeholders to identify digital skills gaps and co-design future-ready training pathways for Dundee, Perth & Kinross, North East Fife and Angus. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 04/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Network: Tech Startups, Professionals & Investors Connect Event. Connect with tech entrepreneurs, tech investors, startup founders, and industry innovators. MORE INFO

💻 04/02, 10:00, 🗺️ Dumfries: Pathways Expo - Dumfries & Galloway A welcoming, hands-on Pathways Expo for early-stage entrepreneurs featuring 1:1 expert support (marketing, social, LinkedIn, ads, finance and action-planning), professional headshots, short business talks, supportive networking and lunch included. MORE INFO

📈 05/02, 13:00, 🗺️ Dumfries: Scale your Social Enterprise An interactive workshop for service-based organisations exploring how technology can unlock growth, scale services, and support new tech-enabled business models, led by CodeBase and South of Scotland Enterprise. MORE INFO

⭐️ 05/02, 10:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: How to Magnetise and Convert Clients on LinkedIn Using Story. A fireside chat with storytelling trainer Karis Gill on how to use strategic personal story on LinkedIn to attract clients more naturally, with practical tips and real examples you can apply straight away. MORE INFO

⭐️ 05/02, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Tech Meetup Glasgow An inclusive Tech MeetUp Glasgow at The Social Hub, open to everyone, with drinks, pizza, networking, an icebreaker and speakers MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Ocean Intelligence

]]><![CDATA[🧪 Clyde Hydrogen's integrated decoupled electrolyser, Regional EDGE reopens, and reports on VC growth and MedTech in Glasgow]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/clyde-hydrogens-integrated-decoupledhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/clyde-hydrogens-integrated-decoupledMon, 19 Jan 2026 08:34:40 GMTHere’s your Campfire for January 19, 2026

💼 Johnston Carmichael are a leading accountancy and business advisory firm, with offices throughout Scotland, in Newcastle and London. A partner owned firm for over 85 years, they have grown to offer core and specialist services to business of all sizes.

With specialist sector teams, they are fast becoming one of the most trusted advisers for entrepreneurs, founders and businesses that are successfully scaling.

Talk to the team today to discuss what growth stage your business is at.

🌊 Updates

🧪 University of Glasgow spin-out Clyde Hydrogen Systems has completed its first fully integrated decoupled electrolyser prototype and is now seeking up to £5m seed funding to develop its first commercial product. CE RN

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish EDGE has reopened Regional EDGE, offering up to £50k for start-ups in Tayside, the North East, Highlands & Islands, and the South of Scotland, with applications closing 11 February 2026 at 2 pm. One £50k (70/30 loan/grant split), two £15k (grant only), and two £10k awards (grant only) are available per region. Successful applicants are shortlisted through assessment and then invited to pitch at face-to-face regional finals in March, with 20 businesses funded in total. Application details here. DGT TS SBN

💵 Startups and scaleups raised $23.6bn in VC funding in 2025, up 35% on 2024 and the first annual growth in four years, according to HSBC Innovation Banking UK and Dealroom. The analysis also reports record AI funding at $7.9bn and that the UK remained Europe’s top VC destination. DN

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The Digital Economy team at Glasgow City Council has released a spotlight report on Glasgow’s MedTech cluster - the third instalment in their Why Glasgow? series, which aims to “shine a light on the many innovative sectors of Glasgow City Region’s burgeoning tech ecosystem”. Read here.

Share

📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

📅 Events

👯‍♂️ 19/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Day: Connect & Work Smarter @ Anderson Strathern, a full-day pop-up workspace designed to help founders and startup leaders move forward, unblock challenges, and have the right conversations at the right time. MORE INFO

🚀 20/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Edinburgh ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors! MORE INFO

👨‍💻 20/01, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Personal Websites Code Jam ​The idea is simple: bring your laptop and spend the evening making real progress on your personal website, blog or portfolio. If your New Year resolution is to “ship the site” then this is your excuse to actually do it! MORE INFO

💾 20/01, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Trends Tech Trends is your opportunity to get ahead of the game and discover the key technologies making an appearance in the coming year. MORE INFO

💸 20/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Real Reason People Aren’t Buying From You, and What to Do About It A deep dive into the psychology of indecision, and how to build customer-led growth systems that turn hesitation into action. MORE INFO

🎮 21/01, 09:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh (Codebase): Press & Parliament Launch & Briefing: Level Up Scotland Action Plan ​Brian Baglow (CEO, Scottish Games Network), with representatives from Scotland’s game studios and academic institutions will discuss the Level Up Scotland Action Plan for the Scottish Games Sector. RSVP here

👯‍♂️ 21/01, 13:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Afternoon Slump Club calm, virtual co-working sessions using body doubling to help you get through the 1–3pm slump with gentle accountability and shared focus. No pressure, just show up and work. MORE INFO

👨‍💻 21/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Relaunching Open Tech Calendar - Teacake Tech Scotland ​James Baster discusses relaunching Open Tech Calendar to list virtual tech events, with a discussion about events online. MORE INFO

🤦 22/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: FuckUp Nights Glasgow Vol.6 x Startup Grind Glasgow ​Innovators, rebels, misfits and dreamers! Join us at FuckUp Nights Glasgow to laugh, learn, and embrace the beauty of mistakes – because failure is simply a stepping stone on the journey to success. There will be tons of networking, good vibes, and the best company around! MORE INFO

⛓️‍💥 27/01, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup ​. An industry association empowering Scottish innovation through blockchain technology. Connecting entrepreneurs, developers, and industry leaders. MORE INFO

💡27/01, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: From Idea to Product: Using No-/Low-Code to Build Working Products. This practical webinar is designed for founders who want to turn ideas into working products using today’s AI and no-code tools. MORE INFO

♻️ 27/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Greentech Meetup: Sustainable AI at the Speed of Light Join our monthly meetup where you'll hear from a Greentech specialist, mingle with Edinburgh's Green community, and munch on free breakfast! MORE INFO

💻 27/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Vibe Coding Collective in Edinburgh. This meetup is a social coding jam where we utilise AI to turn fun ideas into functional prototypes quickly. Whether you’re an experienced developer or have never written a line of code, you’ll fit right in. MORE INFO

🧪 29/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Data Science + AI January Meetup Edinburgh's community meetup for people working in - or just interested in - Data Science and AI. MORE INFO

💻 29/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Tech Mornings Open to everyone, join us in the Perth Ideas Centre in Perth Creative Exchange to connect with members of the local tech community. Come long for some coffee, networking and building connections. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 29/01, 10:30, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Coworking Day Join us at the Perth Ideas Centre in Perth Creative Exchange for a day of free coworking. This is a great opportunity to connect with the regional tech and business community, use the excellent facilities available and get an extra dose of motivation. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 29/01, 08:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Open Day experience working from our friendly and professional shared workspace at The Melting Pot for an entire day completely free of charge. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Gavin Fregona

]]><![CDATA[🧤 Gutsy Health, Myriad Wind Energy Systems, StretchSene and Sofant raises ]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/gutsy-health-myriad-wind-energy-systemshttps://www.campfire.scot/p/gutsy-health-myriad-wind-energy-systemsMon, 12 Jan 2026 08:34:23 GMTHere’s your Campfire for January 12, 2026!

💼 Johnston Carmichael are a leading accountancy and business advisory firm, with offices throughout Scotland, in Newcastle and London. A partner owned firm for over 85 years, they have grown to offer core and specialist services to business of all sizes.

With specialist sector teams, they are fast becoming one of the most trusted advisers for entrepreneurs, founders and businesses that are successfully scaling.

Talk to the team today to discuss what growth stage your business is at.

🌊 Updates

📡 Edinburgh-based satellite communications and 5G/6G developer Sofant raised £6.25m in equity funding, led by EMV Capital Partners with participation from Scottish Enterprise. UKTN

🧤 Edinburgh-based StretchSense (smart gloves for motion-tracking), raised £1.75m in investment from PXN Ventures, and Scottish Enterprise. DGT FS UKTN

🍃 Stirling-based Myriad Wind Energy Systems (modular wind energy units) has secured £865,000 in seed funding led by TRICAPITAL Angels, Scottish Enterprise, SFC Capital, and South East Angels. DGT

💵 Edinburgh-based gut health company Gutsy Health raised £300k in funding from Scottish angel syndicates Equity Gap and Apollo Informal Investments, alongside Scottish Enterprise. ACS

Share

📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

🏅 ScotlandIS, Edinburgh-based industry body for Scotland’s tech sector, has issued a final call for entries to the Digital Technology Awards 2026, with an extended deadline of 13 January. Now in its 16th year, the awards feature 11 categories, including a new AI Trailblazer award recognising organisations using artificial intelligence to drive innovation and deliver measurable impact. Application link here.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

📅 Events

👯‍♂️ 12/01, 9:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Day: Connect & Work Smarter @ Anderson Strathern ​A full-day pop-up workspace designed to help founders and startup leaders move forward, unblock challenges, and have the right conversations at the right time. MORE INFO

👨‍💻 13/01, 17:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Personal Websites Code Jam ​The idea is simple: bring your laptop and spend the evening making real progress on your personal website, blog or portfolio. If your New Year resolution is to "ship the site" then this is your excuse to actually do it! MORE INFO

💻 14/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Network One: Cybersecurity Startups & Professionals Meetup Edinburgh A relaxed networking event in Edinburgh for cybersecurity professionals, ethical hackers, and startup founders to connect. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 14/01, 13:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Afternoon Slump Club calm, virtual co-working sessions using body doubling to help you get through the 1–3pm slump with gentle accountability and shared focus. No pressure, just show up and work. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 14/01, 16:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Glasgow Investor Networking Event ​Britain’s Got Startups is coming to Glasgow for an exclusive investor and founder networking evening, delivered in collaboration with British Business Bank and Techscaler. MORE INFO

💃🏼 14/01, 9:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Female Founder Coworking Club Join us for our monthly Female Founder Co-working club in Glasgow MORE INFO

🚀 14/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Founders Meetup Glasgow ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors! MORE INFO

💃🏼 14/01, 9:30, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Female Founder Coworking Club Join us for our monthly Female Founder Co-working club in Aberdeen MORE INFO

💻 14/01, 10:00, 🗺️ Moffat: Harnessing Digital & Tech for Business Success. Tech doesn’t need to be scary! Learn how the next step in AI, content tools & automation can help your business grow with confidence. MORE INFO

🍺 14/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what’s going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 15/01, 16:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Investor Networking Event ​​Britain’s Got Startups is coming to Edinburgh for an exclusive investor and founder networking evening, delivered in collaboration with British Business Bank and Techscaler. MORE INFO

🩺 15/01, 15:00, 🗺️ Virtual: Entering the US Healthcare Market: Insights for UK Founders Join US Healthtech investor Mike Ravenscroft for an interactive session on the US healthcare market, & fundraising from US investors. MORE INFO

✈️ 15/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Traveltech Meet Up ​​Join us for the first TravelTech Meetup of the year, kindly hosted by CreateFuture, bringing together leaders and innovators from across the travel and technology sector. MORE INFO

🍺 15/01, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what’s going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 19/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Day: Connect & Work Smarter @ Anderson Strathern a full-day pop-up workspace designed to help founders and startup leaders move forward, unblock challenges, and have the right conversations at the right time. MORE INFO

🚀 20/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Edinburgh ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors! MORE INFO

👨‍💻 20/01, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Personal Websites Code Jam ​The idea is simple: bring your laptop and spend the evening making real progress on your personal website, blog or portfolio. If your New Year resolution is to “ship the site” then this is your excuse to actually do it! MORE INFO

💾 20/01, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Trends Tech Trends is your opportunity to get ahead of the game and discover the key technologies making an appearance in the coming year. MORE INFO

💸 20/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Real Reason People Aren’t Buying From You, and What to Do About It A deep dive into the psychology of indecision, and how to build customer-led growth systems that turn hesitation into action. MORE INFO

👨‍💻 21/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Relaunching Open Tech Calendar - Teacake Tech Scotland ​James Baster discusses relaunching Open Tech Calendar to list virtual tech events, with a discussion about events online. MORE INFO

🤦 22/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: FuckUp Nights Glasgow Vol.6 x Startup Grind Glasgow ​Innovators, rebels, misfits and dreamers! Join us at FuckUp Nights Glasgow to laugh, learn, and embrace the beauty of mistakes – because failure is simply a stepping stone on the journey to success. There will be tons of networking, good vibes, and the best company around! MORE INFO

⛓️‍💥 27/01, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup ​. An industry association empowering Scottish innovation through blockchain technology. Connecting entrepreneurs, developers, and industry leaders. MORE INFO

💡27/01, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: From Idea to Product: Using No-/Low-Code to Build Working Products this practical webinar is designed for founders who want to turn ideas into working products using today’s AI and no-code tools. MORE INFO

💻 29/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Tech Mornings Open to everyone, join us in the Perth Ideas Centre in Perth Creative Exchange to connect with members of the local tech community. Come long for some coffee, networking and building connections. MORE INFO

💻 29/01, 10:30, 🗺️ Perth: Perth Coworking Day Join us at the Perth Ideas Centre in Perth Creative Exchange for a day of free coworking. This is a great opportunity to connect with the regional tech and business community, use the excellent facilities available and get an extra dose of motivation. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Gavin Fregona

]]><![CDATA[✨ Events, lots of events, to start the year off]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/events-lots-of-events-to-start-thehttps://www.campfire.scot/p/events-lots-of-events-to-start-theTue, 06 Jan 2026 08:34:25 GMTHappy new year! Since it was a relatively light couple of weeks, we’ll get back to highlighting relevant news and updates next week. Today, we’re making room for lots of event listings to start your year off right.

Photo by Gavin Fregona

💼 Johnston Carmichael are a leading accountancy and business advisory firm, with offices throughout Scotland, in Newcastle and London. A partner owned firm for over 85 years, they have grown to offer core and specialist services to business of all sizes.

With specialist sector teams, they are fast becoming one of the most trusted advisers for entrepreneurs, founders and businesses that are successfully scaling.

Talk to the team today to discuss what growth stage your business is at.

Share

📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ScotlandIS is asking Scotland’s tech sector to complete its annual industry survey, which will inform the organisation’s 2026 report on the health and growth of the country’s digital economy. Responses are open to all tech businesses in Scotland and help track trends such as AI adoption, skills needs, and economic impact. DGT

💡 Glasgow City Council has launched Glasgow No-Code: Ideas2App, a new accelerator offering 20 early-stage founders £10k each to design, build and launch an MVP using no-code tools. Eligible applicants must have a Glasgow-registered company and an idea requiring bespoke software; applications are open now via the programme’s online form.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

📅 Events

🛜 07/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Edinburgh Network Presents: Exclusive Weekly Business Networking Event The Edinburgh Network welcomes professionals from diverse industries who are eager to advance their careers, build their networks, and stay ahead in their fields. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 07/01, 13:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Afternoon Slump Club a calm, virtual co-working session using body doubling to help you get through the 1–3pm slump with gentle accountability and shared focus. No pressure, just show up and work. MORE INFO

💻 08/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Tech Meetup Glasgow All are welcome and there is no requirement to have any level of tech knowledge or experience to attend, just a desire to learn. MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 08/01, 08:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Network With Intent: The Success You Want Starts with the Network You Build A practical workshop for ambitious founders looking to build influence, visibility, and traction through intentional relationships MORE INFO

🍺 08/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what’s going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved MORE INFO

👯‍♂️ 12/01, 9:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Coworking Day: Connect & Work Smarter @ Anderson Strathern ​A full-day pop-up workspace designed to help founders and startup leaders move forward, unblock challenges, and have the right conversations at the right time. MORE INFO

👨‍💻 13/01, 17:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Personal Websites Code Jam ​The idea is simple: bring your laptop and spend the evening making real progress on your personal website, blog or portfolio. If your New Year resolution is to "ship the site" then this is your excuse to actually do it! MORE INFO

💻 14/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Network One: Cybersecurity Startups & Professionals Meetup Edinburgh A relaxed networking event in Edinburgh for cybersecurity professionals, ethical hackers, and startup founders to connect. MORE INFO

💃🏼 14/01, 9:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Female Founder Coworking Club Join us for our monthly Female Founder Co-working club in Glasgow MORE INFO

🚀 14/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Founders Meetup Glasgow ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors! MORE INFO

💃🏼 14/01, 9:30, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Female Founder Coworking Club Join us for our monthly Female Founder Co-working club in Aberdeen MORE INFO

💻 14/01, 10:00, 🗺️ Moffat: Harnessing Digital & Tech for Business Success. Tech doesn’t need to be scary! Learn how the next step in AI, content tools & automation can help your business grow with confidence. MORE INFO

🍺 14/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what’s going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved MORE INFO

🩺 15/01, 15:00, 🗺️ Virtual: Entering the US Healthcare Market: Insights for UK Founders Join US Healthtech investor Mike Ravenscroft for an interactive session on the US healthcare market, & fundraising from US investors. MORE INFO

✈️ 15/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Traveltech Meet Up ​​Join us for the first TravelTech Meetup of the year, kindly hosted by CreateFuture, bringing together leaders and innovators from across the travel and technology sector. MORE INFO

🍺 15/01, 18:15, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what’s going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved MORE INFO

🚀 20/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Edinburgh ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors! MORE INFO

👨‍💻 20/01, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Personal Websites Code Jam ​The idea is simple: bring your laptop and spend the evening making real progress on your personal website, blog or portfolio. If your New Year resolution is to “ship the site” then this is your excuse to actually do it! MORE INFO

💾 20/01, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Trends Tech Trends is your opportunity to get ahead of the game and discover the key technologies making an appearance in the coming year. MORE INFO

💸 20/01, 09:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Real Reason People Aren’t Buying From You, and What to Do About It A deep dive into the psychology of indecision, and how to build customer-led growth systems that turn hesitation into action. MORE INFO

👨‍💻 21/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Relaunching Open Tech Calendar - Teacake Tech Scotland ​James Baster discusses relaunching Open Tech Calendar to list virtual tech events, with a discussion about events online. MORE INFO

⛓️‍💥 27/01, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup ​. An industry association empowering Scottish innovation through blockchain technology. Connecting entrepreneurs, developers, and industry leaders. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

Photo by Gavin Fregona

]]><![CDATA[Campfire Champions 2025]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/campfire-champions-2025https://www.campfire.scot/p/campfire-champions-2025Fri, 19 Dec 2025 12:53:26 GMT

It’s that time of year again!!

Let’s celebrate those who helped founders in a special way in 2025.

Was there someone this year who really helped you or other founders that you’d like to recognise? Nominate investors, connectors, ecosystem members, advisors, other startup founders who you think made the difference to founders this year.

Submit Yours Here

The process is a bit different this year:

  1. Nominate who you’d like to thank for their help to you or the wider community by the end of the day December 23rd

  2. Indicate if you want it kept anonymous, and provide a message

  3. On December 23rd, Champions will receive your message of thanks privately

Submit your nomination right here.

]]><![CDATA[🐶 Loveelectric acquisition, MI:RNA Raise]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/loveelectric-acquisition-mirna-raisehttps://www.campfire.scot/p/loveelectric-acquisition-mirna-raiseMon, 15 Dec 2025 08:34:18 GMTWe’re wrapping up our regularly scheduled Campfire for the year, and want to wish you a very happy season 🎅

Here's your Campfire for the 15th of December, 2025.

💼 Johnston Carmichael are a leading accountancy and business advisory firm, with offices throughout Scotland, in Newcastle and London. A partner owned firm for over 85 years, they have grown to offer core and specialist services to business of all sizes.

With specialist sector teams, they are fast becoming one of the most trusted advisers for entrepreneurs, founders and businesses that are successfully scaling.

Talk to the team today to discuss what growth stage your business is at.

🌊 Updates

🧬 Edinburgh-based MI:RNA (molecular diagnostics using biomarkers to spot veterinary disease earlier) raised $3.6m (£2.7m) to “scale more quickly, as we work to give animals longer, healthier lives.” Investors include Holstein UK, AniVC, with participation from existing investors NovaQuest, Kyoritsu Holdings Corporation, VANE, Animal Health Angels, Equity Gap, Gabriel Investment Syndicate, and Scottish Enterprise. TS

🔋 Edinburgh-based Loveelectric (electric vehicle salary sacrifice schemes) has been acquired by Perkbox (employee rewards and perks platform) for an undisclosed sum. Earlier this year, Loveelectric acquired Bypass (EV fuel cards). DGT BRN

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📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ScotlandIS is asking Scotland’s tech sector to complete its annual industry survey, which will inform the organisation’s 2026 report on the health and growth of the country’s digital economy. Responses are open to all tech businesses in Scotland and help track trends such as AI adoption, skills needs, and economic impact. DGT

💡 Glasgow City Council has launched Glasgow No-Code: Ideas2App, a new accelerator offering 20 early-stage founders £10k each to design, build and launch an MVP using no-code tools. Eligible applicants must have a Glasgow-registered company and an idea requiring bespoke software; applications are open now via the programme’s online form.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

📅 Events

♟️ 16/01, 18:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Ancient Robot Workshop Festive Meetup: Join us for the final meetup of the year at Ancient Robot Workshop. Come for a relaxed, festive evening for tabletop game designers, artists, writers, and anyone building worlds or making games. This month, we will have a Q&A with artist Will Tempest (artist for Magic The Gathering, amongst other things), and Paul Canavan (artist for Magic, and creator of the TTRPG Pale Tides). MORE INFO

💻 14/01, 10:00, 🗺️ Moffat: Harnessing Digital & Tech for Business Success. Tech doesn’t need to be scary! Learn how the next step in AI, content tools & automation can help your business grow with confidence. MORE INFO

🍺 14/01, 19:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what’s going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved MORE INFO

🚀 20/01, 18:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Edinburgh ​Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors! MORE INFO

⛓️‍💥 27/01, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup ​. An industry association empowering Scottish innovation through blockchain technology. Connecting entrepreneurs, developers, and industry leaders. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

]]><![CDATA[🏔️ EDGE Winners, Nevis & Radical's Scottish Links, + Some Personal News]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/edge-winners-nevis-and-radicals-scottishhttps://www.campfire.scot/p/edge-winners-nevis-and-radicals-scottishMon, 08 Dec 2025 08:34:35 GMTStarting with a bit of personal news: I’ve joined the investment team at Techstart Ventures!

Read more about that here. I couldn’t be more excited to be joining the only dedicated pre-seed VC based in Scotland.

Here's your Campfire for the 8th of December, 2025.

💼 Johnston Carmichael are a leading accountancy and business advisory firm, with offices throughout Scotland, in Newcastle and London. A partner owned firm for over 85 years, they have grown to offer core and specialist services to business of all sizes.

With specialist sector teams, they are fast becoming one of the most trusted advisers for entrepreneurs, founders and businesses that are successfully scaling.

Talk to the team today to discuss what growth stage your business is at.

🌊 Updates

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The Scottish EDGE Round 26 awards in Edinburgh distributed £1.5m in loans and grants across 31 startups, with top prizes going to biotech spinout Brigid Bio, meal-prep scale-up FuelFit, whisky-cask repairer Lowland Cooperage, and inclusive clothing brand Elansu. Additional winners included Full Stop Period Wear, Sabliere, Entropyst, CAnswer BioSolutions, SEASAT, Velocity Edge, and social enterprise Fair Feast. SBN

From a bit further afield:

🖥️ US-based Nevis, co-founded by an Edinburgh University grad, raised $40 million from Sequoia Capital, ICONIQ, and Ribbit Capital to build an AI platform that automates administrative work for financial advisors. The funding will “support product development and expand adoption across wealth management firms in the US”. NW LI

💉 US-based Radical, founded by a University of St Andrews grad, raised $5M in a pre-seed round from Khosla Ventures to build an AI oncologist that helps cancer patients understand treatment options by analysing medical records and global research data. The platform is free for patients through the holidays. LI

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📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ScotlandIS is asking Scotland’s tech sector to complete its annual industry survey, which will inform the organisation’s 2026 report on the health and growth of the country’s digital economy. Responses are open to all tech businesses in Scotland and help track trends such as AI adoption, skills needs, and economic impact. DGT

💡 Glasgow City Council has launched Glasgow No-Code: Ideas2App, a new accelerator offering 20 early-stage founders £10k each to design, build and launch an MVP using no-code tools. Eligible applicants must have a Glasgow-registered company and an idea requiring bespoke software; applications are open now via the programme’s online form.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The New Story of Scotland is seeking 12 Scottish businesses, from early-stage startups to established companies, to feature in a new filmed series showcasing the ideas and people shaping Scotland’s next chapter. Applications are now open.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

📅 Events

💻 08/12, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup An industry-focused evening bringing together Scotland’s blockchain developers, researchers, and tech leaders. Connect, learn, and enjoy dinner and drinks with the community. MORE INFO

🎤 09/12, 10:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Techscaler Showcase A full-day event spotlighting founders from the Catalyst accelerator with panels on AI-native startups, scaling lessons, and community insights. MORE INFO

🍺 11/12, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what’s going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved MORE INFO

✨ 10/12, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: TecTonic Night Summit: Year-End Exchange
A year-end creative and innovation meetup at The Dockyard Social, bringing together founders, makers, mentors, and the wider tech community for talks, networking, and a celebration of Scottish innovation. MORE INFO

🎉 10/12, 19:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Ultimate Holiday Party: Startups, Investors & Friends, an end-of-year holiday bash bringing together founders, investors, and the wider tech community for drinks, music, and festive chaos. MORE INFO

✨ 11/12, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech the Halls: Edinburgh Festive Social
Celebrate everything the Edinburgh CodeBase and Greentech communities have achieved this year. Let your hair down, and join in with the festivities: you deserve it! MORE INFO

✨ 11/12, 10:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: Enterprising North: Empowering Grassroots Businesses and Ideas with AI. Join us for a practical AI-focused event featuring a “Behind the Build” chat with founders, a pitch-training session with Bob Keiller, hands-on AI basics, insights from Scottish EDGE on funding, and networking with founders, mentors, and ecosystem partners. A day to learn, connect, and grow your ideas with AI. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

]]><![CDATA[❤️‍🩹 Sentinel trauma raise, UK Budget impact for founders, BBB 5 year strategy, New Scottish Gov life science strategy]]>https://www.campfire.scot/p/sentinel-trauma-raise-uk-budget-impacthttps://www.campfire.scot/p/sentinel-trauma-raise-uk-budget-impactMon, 01 Dec 2025 08:34:36 GMTHappy belated 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 St Andrews Day! It’s a pretty brief one this week. Here's your Campfire for the 1st of December, 2025.

💼 Last week, the UK Chancellor announced the government’s Budget. Curious about what it means for founders? Johnston Carmichael has a full analysis of the budget that goes into detail that’s relevant to founders as individuals, and as leaders of tech and life science startups. Read the PDF here.

🌊 Updates

📲 Glasgow-based Sentinel raised £1.2m for its AI trauma-support app, securing investment from Strathclyde University, SFC Capital, and Scottish Enterprise. FS DGT

💰 The British Business Bank has published its new five-year strategy, outlining plans to “prioritise scale-ups, take on greater investment risk, and expand regional access to finance across the UK”. DGT

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The Scottish Government released launched a new life sciences strategy aimed at growing the sector to “£25bn over the next decade”. The plan sets out targeted investment in “personalised medicine, health technology, medical devices, and net-zero-aligned innovation”, and emphasises a “triple helix” model linking industry, academia, and the public sector to “drive economic growth and healthcare impact”. Read the strategy doc here. IN

Share

📣 Asks & Offers

🚨 Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The New Story of Scotland is seeking 12 Scottish businesses, from early-stage startups to established companies, to feature in a new filmed series showcasing the ideas and people shaping Scotland’s next chapter. Applications are now open.

👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.

👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!

✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!

📅 Events

☕️ Unfiltered Series: Open to everyone, join CodeBase to connect with members of the local tech community. Come for a coffee, networking, & build connections!
☕ 02/12, 09:00 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO
☕ 02/12, 09:00 🗺️ Dumfries: MORE INFO
☕ 02/12, 09:00 🗺️ Stirling: MORE INFO
☕ 03/12, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
☕ 03/12, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
☕ 04/12, 09:00 🗺️ Dundee: MORE INFO
☕ 04/12, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO

🧩 02/12, 17:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup Edinburgh ​​​​The Tech Meetup is a monthly excuse for the tech community around Scotland to network, learn and share new ideas! Enjoy informative tech presentations from your peers, hear about exciting community projects and create new connections. MORE INFO

🍺 03/12, 19:00, 🗺️ Aberdeen: People, Planet, Pint: Sustainability Meetup
A relaxed evening with founders, community leaders, and climate-focused professionals in Aberdeen. MORE INFO

🎄 04/12, 19:30, 🗺️ Glasgow: Tech MeetUp - Christmas Party ​​​​Our December event will be a chance for everyone in the Glasgow Tech Community to come along and enjoy some downtime with like-minded people to end the year of events in style. MORE INFO

🎄 04/12, 19:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Christmas Drinks ​​​​Enjoy a glass (or two) of mulled wine, connect with fellow Swurfers, and get into the holiday spirit. It’s the perfect mix of networking, laughter, and a little Christmas magic. MORE INFO

💻 08/12, 17:00, 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup An industry-focused evening bringing together Scotland’s blockchain developers, researchers, and tech leaders. Connect, learn, and enjoy dinner and drinks with the community. MORE INFO

🎤 09/12, 10:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: Techscaler Showcase A full-day event spotlighting founders from the Catalyst accelerator with panels on AI-native startups, scaling lessons, and community insights. MORE INFO

🍸 10/12, 19:30, 🗺️ Edinburgh: End of Year Holiday Party, A festive night with food, drinks, music, and a chance for Scotland’s startup and tech community to celebrate the year together. MORE INFO

✨ 10/12, 18:00, 🗺️ Glasgow: TecTonic Night Summit: Year-End Exchange
A year-end creative and innovation meetup at The Dockyard Social, bringing together founders, makers, mentors, and the wider tech community for talks, networking, and a celebration of Scottish innovation. MORE INFO

🎉 10/12, 19:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: The Ultimate Holiday Party: Startups, Investors & Friends an end-of-year holiday bash bringing together founders, investors, and the wider tech community for drinks, music, and festive chaos. MORE INFO

Thanks for reading Campfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Think someone would like this issue?

Forward it to them! Check out previous issues by subscribing.

That’s all for this week - have a great one!

Team 🔥 Campfire

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