Generating opportunities for others proves thrill for boss of buoyant business accelerator

● Up Ventures Group plans further Scottish initiatives and California debut

When it comes to start-ups, it would be fair to say Danny Meaney, founder and chief executive of business accelerator Up Ventures Group, knows a thing or two.

With more than 25 years’ experience working with companies and organisations across software, media and telecoms, and a contacts book that’s bursting at the seams, he is also founder and chairman of New Media Partners, a strategic consultant that has worked on broadcasting and technology projects around the globe, from Abu Dhabi and Helsinki to Manchester, where it conducted a feasibility study for BBC’S move to Mediacityuk.

“I get a kick out of creating opportunities for other people,” says Meaney, who is also commercial adviser to Digital Production Partnership, a notfor-profit network backed by the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV. He previously served as chairman of Peekabu Studios, an Edinburgh start-up that developed a means of turning images into online passwords.

He adds: “I was brought up in Lochend in Edinburgh so I