trendpreneur

A city where nothing ever changes.

A city where, in just over a year, an entire shopping centre can materialise out of nowhere.

A city that goes to sleep at 6pm and, despite a heaving throng of tourists, appears amazingly visitor-unfriendly.

Cambridge is all of these — and more.

Coming back to my old haunts, I realise quite how much of my life here revolved around social activities and my PhD because there really isn’t much going for Cambridge as a city. I’m spoilt now; I’m used to Edinburgh and its coffeeshops that actually stay open, the fact there’s more to do there in the evening than eat and drink.

Nomadic entrepreneurs, web workers, freelancers etc can plug in and get to work anywhere, but it’s hard when the city seems to be actively fighting against you. Plug outlets? Well, I found some in Borders Starbucks, but it closed before I was even a third of the way through my tasks for the day. (OK, argue that I should work normal hours, but this oppressive weather is playing havoc with the old sleep cycle.) Printing? Sure, if you want to pay a near-obscene premium at Starbucks.

Knowing people locally helps — it’s easy enough to scavenge a hotdesk, even — but without an ‘in’ it’s pretty tough. But what do we need? Starbucksen that open late? A city-centre hackerspace in every major UK location? (Yes please.)

I do have a vision for a network of drop-in entrepreneur-friendly business centres that don’t charge the earth — basically cafes with free wifi, printers, tables, power sockets, whiteboards, printing, fax (some people still use it), etc. A room for meetings. Maybe even a relaxation area. Membership of one would guarantee use of all, and a day rate would cover non-members. I even have the location of the first one in mind, in Edinburgh — an office I’ve had my eye on for a while, wishing I could afford.

Ahem. Let’s make the current startup a success first, shall we?