Tees Tech Startups is a new monthly meetup for anyone working on, or in, a startup in Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley (or further if you want to travel).

Why has this been created?

There are a lot of great initiatives that support the Tees Valley startup scene but no individual event that focuses specifically on tech startups. We have some brilliant events for tech but this is going to be slightly different. The events will be designed to link founders (and prospective founders), whilst providing insightful and experiential feedback from people who’ve been there and got the t-shirt.

Who is it for?

Tees Tech Startups is for anyone working on or in a tech startup in the Tees Valley.

We welcome anyone who is also looking to start a new tech business or get involved with a tech startup — so any developers/designers/marketers etc looking to engage, or anyone with even an idea for a new venture is very much welcome.

Why attend?

> Share ideas
> Discuss problems
> Learn
> Expand your network
> Make what you want of it

What’s the structure?

Events are not going to be themed to start off with, meaning that there’s a mix of different talks each month. For example, it could look like this….
— Speaker 1: My experience in the startup world
— Speaker 2: How to gain traction
— Speaker 3: Why I introduced the use of Product X into my startup
— Speaker 4: Pitching my idea

However, for the first event, it's going to be really informal. Just turn up and meet people working in a similar space to you, and if you would like, deliver your elevator pitch to those in attendance.

*UPDATE: GUEST SPEAKER CONFIRMED*

We're thrilled to add that Tom Howsom, founder of Paid (paid.co.uk), will be joining us as a guest speaker at the first event.

Tom graduated from Teesside University in 2004 with a degree in Information Technology, which developed into being part of the Graduates for Business scheme. Here, Tom was supported with mentoring and office space to allow him to grow his first company, Thap – a software agency. Thap was acquired by Clicksco in 2013 where he became Group CTO, running a team of 70 developers across to the world in the marketing technology sector. Tom then went on to set up financial technology start-up Paid, which concentrates on simplifying contracting and payments for small businesses. Tom’s areas of experience include building high performing technology teams and translation of business need to technology requirements. He is a lover of start-up life and promotes rapid progress by removing barriers.