
Show HN: A Directory of Tech Companies, Events, News, Tweets etc in Scotland - jarofgreen
https://find.techin.scot/companies/
======
jarofgreen
Hello!

I’m the creator of this.

For more than 4 years now I’ve been running websites round the tech community
in Scotland, and several people have talked to us about listing companies.

So this is the first version of that! Anyone can add or edit a company (all
moderated).

We are already talking to people about uses for the data and are working on
code to introduce tagging by technologies used. This will let people pull sub-
sets of the data for use elsewhere.

We have a track record in Scotland for running
[https://opentechcalendar.co.uk/](https://opentechcalendar.co.uk/) to list
events, and we bring to this problem the same focus on making sure the data is
correct and is kept up to date. That is why we ask for email addresses from
submitters (optional and private) - so we can follow up later.

( [https://find.techin.scot/](https://find.techin.scot/) also has Events,
News, Twitter Lists and online communities.)

Happy to hear comments or feedback, publicly here or privately at
hello@jmbtechnology.co.uk

Thanks, James

ps. The tech is that [https://find.techin.scot/](https://find.techin.scot/) is
a static website served from AWS S3/CloudFront. The software that runs the
directories of companies and online communities is a PHP/Symfony app and this
stores the data, takes submissions and allows admins to moderate them.

~~~
nailer
Awesome. Small CSS suggestion:

in html:

    
    
        font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    

You currently use Arial which looks a little poor.

~~~
jarofgreen
Thanks for your suggestion! Just been playing with some different sans-serif
and serif fonts to have a look ... not sure I like all Serif - may end up with
a mix - Arial in the header and titles and a serif font in the body? Will test
with some people :-)

~~~
nailer
Research: serif font (Cambria, Times, TNR, etc) in the body, 8-12 words per
line is generally considered most readable. Check out how Medium does it.

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camtarn
Hello from Edinburgh - nice work! Quite excited about the list of events:
there's a bunch of very interesting stuff on there.

~~~
jarofgreen
Thank you :-) Events is where we started. I come from a background as an local
event organiser, and from that I ended up starting
[https://opentechcalendar.co.uk/](https://opentechcalendar.co.uk/) 4 and a
half years ago. I'll maybe see you around town then!

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brad0
I'm curious as to why Skyscanner, Fanduel etc. don't appear here.

~~~
jarofgreen
No-one has added them :-)
[https://find.techin.scot/companies/add/](https://find.techin.scot/companies/add/)

(Actually Skyscanner just has, and they will appear shortly when the caches
clear.)

~~~
JamesMcMinn
Glad to hear Skyscanner are on the list, they've been one of the best things
to happen to the Scottish tech scene, both in terms of raising its profile and
sponsoring (and hosting) many of the meetups in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

I'm a founder of a spin-out called Scoop Analytics [1] from the School of
Computing Science at University of Glasgow. Skyscanner has been incredibly
generous and have recently given us and a number of other student-led startups
from the School access to space in their Glasgow office to work from. If that
doesn't demonstrate their commitment to improving the Scottish tech scene,
then I don't know what does.

(We're at the bank of desks next to the Chill Zone if anyone from Skyscanner
wants to come and say Hello!).

[1] [http://scoopanalytics.com](http://scoopanalytics.com)

~~~
unwttng
I'll pop over next time I'm in that office :) Really interesting product, best
of luck with it!

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ascendingPig
This is handy, but I wish it had been posted a day earlier -- gutted that I
missed the Edinburgh Women in Data Science tea.

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ruairidhwm
Hey - big fan and I love scottish tech :)

Hello from Edinburgh!

~~~
jarofgreen
Thanks! :-) We're also based in Edinburgh, great place.

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Kurtz79
"Toshiba Medial Visualisation Systems"

It should probably say "Medical" :)

~~~
jarofgreen
Fixed! Thanks. (Anyone can suggest changes tho!)

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Fifer82
This is great! Moving back from England to Scotland after uni 10 years ago was
literally the worst choice of my life for a programming career. Plenty of
Senior jobs for a Graduate wage.

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cjwebb
I like stuff like this :)

Did you consider automating it at all though? I've been considering using
Companies House data, and a web-scraper, to find tech companies in my local
area.

~~~
jarofgreen
Thanks :-)

Oh, companies house is a good one. I would have a look, but I would be wary as
I can see traps; for instance the legal office address registered at Companies
House might not be the actual office address you should go to for an event or
an interview.

But generally I do like automation, as long as we can get high quality
results.

~~~
cjwebb
I'll let you know if I ever get around to it!

I was presuming the legal office address was going to be their accountant's
address too. However, if you get a name from Companies House, you might be
able to find a website, and then a contact page... It might turn into a hard
NLP problem though :)

~~~
raesene6
The companies house data should be useful in that the company name is
different for companies registered in scotland (Starts with SC) compared to
those started in england and wales which just have a number.

I'd say there's probably a big correlation between that and companies
operating primarily in Scotland as there's no major difference in terms of tax
etc (for now) on where companies are registered, so no incentive to put in an
artificial registration.

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rodionos
Just curious why there are no tech. (it, bio) companies listed in St Andrews.
It's a university town so one would expect to see a tech presence there.

~~~
smcl
I don't think people stick around long after graduating - it's a pretty tiny
town and Edinburgh's close enough and not that much more expensive that it'd
be easy to move and get set up there instead (not to mention Dundee being even
closer).

Remember that startup funding is pretty lean in the UK in general compared to
the US, and this far north of London in a quiet town I'd imagine it's near
enough nonexistent no matter how prestigious the university is

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ross_vernal
Great idea, we will stick Farmflo up there, we are looking for new devs just
now!

~~~
jarofgreen
I haven't seen that appear yet - if you have any problems or comments about
the process let us know!

~~~
ross_vernal
Apologies - I got distracted....

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ilikejam
Lots going on in Edinburgh, not so much in Glasgow.

Anyone know why that is?

~~~
billybofh
If it's a self-add thing, possibly just hasn't had the word of mouth yet over
here?

~~~
ilikejam
More of an IRL comment - I get recruiters looking for people in Edinburgh at
least once a week. Not a peep about tech in Glasgow though.

