Northern StartUp 2.0 Membership: Sign-up by 30th April for discount

Dear Northern StartUp 2.0 Colleague,

As announced at the Cloud Computing event on the 15th April, we will be changing the structure of Northern StartUp 2.0 to introduce a membership subscription. The reasons for doing this, and the benefits that membership will bring are outlined in more detail below.

We are offering a discount on membership for all those who sign up before the 30th April. If you are ready to subscribe, go to http://www.nwstartup20.co.uk/membership and click on the PayPal link to start your subscription.

If you need more information first, then please read on...

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Northern StartUp 2.0 was created to support startups across the north with an ecosystem of peers, investors, service providers and support organisations. With your support the group has grown significantly over the last two and a half years. We hope that you have found it valuable and will continue to do so.

In order to support the continued growth of the group, and to enhance the services that we provide to our members and stakeholders, we are making some changes.

Firstly, we will be formalising the membership structure, to give us greater control of the balance of startups vs other types of member. The proportion of service providers in the group will be capped at 30%. This will maximise the value for those providers that do pay to sponsor/join, while ensuring that the core membership of the group isn't overly diluted as we grow. This will also allow us to negotiate better deals on behalf of startups, the first of which are outlined below.

As part of this formalisation, we will be changing the way that we charge. At the moment the income that supports the group's activity is too sporadic, so we have to smooth out the cashflow. To achieve this we are reducing the fees for each event, and introducing a monthly membership subscription. If you are a regular attendee at the events the cost to you will be exactly the same.

If you sign up by the 30th April, the monthly membership fee is just £10. Entrance fees for each event will be just £15 for members. Click here and follow the PayPal link to set up your membership subscription.

In return for your membership we will be offering a range of additional services and benefits:

- Service Discounts: We have negotiated a deal with chartered accountants Horwath Clark Whitehill, details of which will be announced shortly. We are working on similar deals with other key service providers, including legal firms.

- Product Deals: We have secured a deal with Microsoft that will provide every member of the group with access to the entire Microsoft software suite, completely free of charge. Details were announced at the Cloud Computing event, 15th April - contact Manoj to sign up. We will look at similar deals with other hardware and software vendors in the future.

- Digital Content: Increasingly the online content for the group will only be available to members, and we will be adding new and valuable content to the site. This will include legal and financial guidance from service providers, advice from investors and successful entrepreneurs, directories and networking opportunities.

- Training and Workshops: We will be assembling a series of workshops separate to the main monthly events to help startups develop their businesses. Using a combination of structured peer review and expert advice, workshops will help to make startups 'investment ready' and prepare them properly for pitching opportunities at Dragon's Lair and elsewhere. These will be at an additional cost to the core membership but only available to members.

We hope that you can see the value in these changes, and that you will continue to support Northern StartUp 2.0. If you have any questions or comments, then please let us know by emailing manoj@ranaweera.name

Best regards,

Manoj, Phil and Tom