Business operating
For a company which has made its name by speeding up the performance of people in engineering, New York may not be the most obvious place to come.
But for generations, the 'big apple' has been the landing point for people arriving in the USA, and the city is a huge hub for technology and investment. This week, the first week in June, NYC hosts 'Tech Week'. If you're not familiar with the event, it's a week-long series of independent meetings and events focussed on tech entrepreneurs and investment opportunities. While it's in NYC, it really is a global event, drawing in professionals from all over the world
It's quite an opportunity - and a privilege - to be here. It's all thanks to Techscaler, the Scottish Government's program to develop and scale tech startups. Speaking with the Techscaler team, when they announced their plans to support a trip to tech week, the response was massive, but they could only bring the very most promising applicants from the country - including ScotAi.
As I write this, we're just two days in. So far, we've had events ranging from legal and accountancy matters of operating in the USA (not exactly thrilling, but necessary) and how to get your PR noticed (fun and interactive), with many more events to come. The calibre of people involved really is impressive - I've just come from the PR session, and a curated group of perhaps 30 guests were entertained and informed by a panel including journalists from Fox, The Guardian and Yahoo. Without events like this, when would we get to meet people like this in the flesh?
And my thoughts on New York? It's much cleaner, friendlier and safer-feeling than I remember, and while it's a pleasure to walk the city between meetings (I'm not a subway fan and like to keep my steps up), crossing the road takes ages at each block... plus the 'walk' signal is fairly meaningless, the cars seem to be a little more cautious... but not much!
The time zone change is a killer. I'm still waking up at 3am - but I'm sure that will get better as the week progresses. I'm used to visiting our subscribers in the UAE, but for some reason the time difference is having more of an impact this way.
As you'll see from the photo, I've also been wearing my ScotAi polo shirts. My son thinks it makes me look like a plumber - but it works, I've had people approach me and say 'hey- are you Scottish and into Ai? I've been to Scotland!'. A great conversation starter. And we're the only AI for engineering services we've met so far :).
So, apologies to our clients if I've been a little slower than normal at responding to your emails - and thanks to Nick and the team for holding the fort at home - but the lessons learnt here for scaling our tech startup should help us well into the future.
BTW - thank you to everyone who has suggested what I should do when not working. I've walked so much between meetings that I've been mostly working and resting in the evenings - but it'll come!
If you're in New York for tech week, give me a shout, let's meet!
Moray
