ALL WELCOME: Come out and play on December 20th at 7.30pm

It’s that time of the month when Croydon’s developers, techies, and entrepreneurs come out to play!

On Thursday 20th December, Matthews Yard will play host to an evening of demos, discussion, and debate, including:

Simon Bird (Founder, DotMailer) – From parents’ dining room to PLC

Simon Bird (left) – with DotMailer co-founder, Tink Taylor -will be explaning how he built a world-class tech business in Croydon.

In 1999, Simon Bird sat down with four friends around his parents’ kitchen – it was there that email platform DotMailer was born.

In 2012, Simon now heads up the full-service DotDigital Group

This month he will be discussing how he and his friends took their initial idea and turned it into an international company with over 150 employees (80 in Croydon).

This is a *must* attend for young people or those with young ideas that wish to understand what the road from idea to startup to success looks like in the tech world – and opportunity to see just how possible it is to make something great in Croydon.

DEMO: Aaron Sonson – ‘Stop And Search App’

In 2010, Aaron Sonson, 25, Gregory Paxczowski, 21 and Satwant Singh Kenth, 27, launched the free Stop and Search phone app in with an aim of making the controversial policing tactic easier to understand. Thousands of downloads later and Aaron is looking to increase the app’s reach further.

On December 20th, Aaron will be talking about the development of the app, where he first got the idea and where he wants to take it in future.

Nigel Dias (Croydon Tech City, Head of Investment Advice)

Access to venture capital and funding are important issues for any start-ups who wish to build a product or, having built a product, build a company to sell it.

Nigel will be explaining how the Croydon Tech City team are looking to put structures and programmes in place through 2013 to support the above issues for Croydon’s future tech startups.

And much, much more…!

Should you wish to get in touch with me to demo an app or software to the Croydon Tech City crowd on December 20th, please do drop me an email: jonnyrose1 [at] gmail [dot] com