Brewdog boss headlining key summit
● James Watt set to address SUS20 and be interviewed by Sir Tom Hunter
Brewdog co -founder James Watt has been announced as the headline speaker at this year’ s Startup Summit (S US 20), where he will be interviewed by renowned Scottish businessman Sir Tom Hunter.
The Scottish entrepreneurship event, which is being held online this year, unites names from Scotland and beyond to hear from leading business figures, and it is expected to attract 1,000 -plus delegates across 28 and 29 October.
Also speaking at this year’s event is Amali de Alwis, MD of Microsoft for Startups, joining a line -up already containing experts from the likes of Twitter, Godaddy and 1Password.
Bruce Walker, co-founder of Futurex – which is behind the event – said: “It’s critical that we support new businesses more than ever this year. Startup Summit 2020 is bringing together the most successful business leaders and entre - preneurs to inspire, educate and support the next generation of start-ups.”
James Watt, along with Martin Dickie, founded beer giant Brewdog in 2007. It now
exports into 60 countries and has more than 100 bars across the globe.
Watt, who is also a fully qualified deep sea captain, said: “At Brewdog we are fiercely independent and have always strived to build a complete - ly new type of business. Our approach has been non-conformative and anti-authoritarian from the start and I look for ward to discussing this as part of SUS20.
“I have long admired Sir Tom as a businessman and philanthropist, we share the same
view that business should be a force for good, so am looking forward to discussing what start-ups can do to make a positive impact on our planet together.”
Hunter from The Hunter Foundation said :“Startup Summit is a fantastic learning opportunity at a time when we really need to drive new businesses forward; our economy will sink or swim dependent on our ability to drive growth by fostering more star t-ups and scale-ups.
“James Watt typifies the brilliant nature of entrepreneurs who always pivot; jump over hurdles and grow massively whilst caring for their people and our planet. His chat will be, as ever, inspirational.”
Meanwhile, the team behind Scottish technology investor event EIE20, which is taking place virtually on 14 October, has launched its annual Scottish Startup Survey. In association with the Freer Consultancy and Talentspark, this year’s survey will quiz start-up founders from both the current EIE20 company cohort an dE I Ea lu mn ion issues including Covid-19, Brexit, the investment environment, target markets and the recently published Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review.
TheEIE team has also announced that an investoronly event will be taking place on the eve of EIE20 featuring a Q&A session with the author of there view, former Skyscanner chief operating officer Mark Logan, who is also the co-founder of scale-up consultancy Ipso Facto.
He said :“The investment and funding environment is one of the fundamental building blocks as we aim to create a critical mass of viable startups and scale-ups in[ Scotland] and I greatly look for ward to our discussions with investors from the UK and across the globe in October.”
“Our approach has been nonconformative and antiauthoritarian from the start and I look forward to discussing this as part of SUS20.”
JAMES WATT