Case study: Tech Nation

Raising the profile of Yorkshire’s tech scene through community-driven content

Overview

Tech Nation was a government-backed organisation set up to accelerate the growth of tech startups across the UK. As Community Engagement Manager for Yorkshire, I was the organisation’s eyes and ears on the ground — interviewing founders, hosting events, producing content and acting as a visible, trusted presence across the region’s startup ecosystem.

🧰 Role: Community Engagement Manager for Yorkshire — content production, event hosting, founder interviews and ecosystem reporting.

The challenge

Yorkshire’s tech founders were doing genuinely interesting work and getting almost none of the attention they deserved. The mainstream media wasn’t looking north. Founders were reluctant to sell themselves. The job was to find the stories, tell them well and build a community that gave the region’s startup scene a louder, more confident voice.

What I delivered

Founder interviews and content

I travelled Yorkshire interviewing founders, accelerators, co-working spaces and public sector leaders — producing written articles and video content published on Tech Nation’s website and channels. I approached each interview as a journalist, not a press officer, which meant the stories were richer and founders were more open than they would have been with a corporate comms approach.

Events and community building

I hosted Founders’ Network breakfasts, Northern Stars regional pitch heats and a range of community events across Yorkshire. I also ran Yorkshire Startups on Facebook, growing it into a daily active community where founders exchanged opportunities, advice and introductions.

Northern Stars

I supported the delivery of Northern Stars — Tech Nation’s flagship pitch competition — across Yorkshire. Previous winners of the programme had raised more than £6 million in funding since appearing on it. I managed regional heats, briefed founders on pitching and helped surface promising companies the programme might otherwise have missed.

Ecosystem reporting

I contributed to Tech Nation’s national reports and ecosystem mapping, feeding ground-level intelligence about Yorkshire’s startup community — investment gaps, skills challenges, emerging companies — into the organisation’s national policy and programme work.

Outcome

📈 Impact

• Sole representative for Tech Nation across Yorkshire’s entire startup ecosystem
• Founders’ Network events hosted regularly across the region
• Yorkshire Startups Facebook community built into a daily active network
• Northern Stars regional heats delivered, surfacing high-potential founders to a national audience
• Ground-level ecosystem intelligence fed into Tech Nation’s national reports and programmes