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OCTOBER EDITION:
WHO SIGNED THIS OFF?!
What do Dragons’ Den, Nscale boss Josh Payne and a factory in Nottingham all have in common? They were all part of an interactive pitching exercise Harpswood put together as part of our masterclass on ‘How To PR Your Fundraise’ at The Conduit in Covent Garden in September. An engaged audience at the Climate Connection event enjoyed a lively session and asked many perceptive questions. If you missed it, don’t worry: there’s a blog on our website covering the content.
And if you want to hear more about how PR can support your business growth, come along to our breakfast panel event at 9am on Thursday October 29, featuring Jess Jones, Senior Reporter for the Entrepreneurs Network at The Times, Matthew Blain, partner at Voyager Ventures VC, and Anatolii Papulov, founder of satellite scaleup NewOrbit. It’s at Fora Folgate near Liverpool Street – and you can secure your ticket here.
We’re also out and about at the Blue Earth Summit on Wednesday October 14 and Thursday 15 - come and say hello at our stand if you’re at the event in Woolwich, South London.
As a PR agency, we’re used to launches… but the news that our client NewOrbit has secured a launch slot for its first satellite is more exciting than most. The Reading-based space scaleup will embark on the first commercial mission to carry customer payloads to Very Low Earth Orbit in Q3 2028. Outlets including BBC News, Space News and The Karman Line carried the story.
More than 100 years ago, Parsons Works in Newcastle built the turbines that connected major power stations to the national grid. It now makes the 500kW hydrogen power units for renewable energy scaleup GeoPura. This historical link between the past and present of energy was the backdrop for an interview in The Times to mark the acquisition of GeoPura by Canadian fuel cell giant Ballard. Ballard CEO Marty Neese and former GeoPura chief - now Ballard president – Andy Cunningham spoke about the future of the new energy-as-a-service business and their key role in power for data centres.
💷 GONE-ZO?
A proposed £10 billion acquisition of British challenger bank Monzo by Brazil’s Nubank has fallen apart over differences in the valuation. While there was relief in some quarters that a star UK startup hadn’t fallen into foreign hands, news reports suggest Monzo is pursuing the sale of a minority stake. The bank has suffered recent setbacks with boardroom squabbles and a failed attempt to expand into the US.
🩺 HEIDI HIGH
Heidi, the AI health administration software used in the NHS – not to be confused with the fictitious Alp-wandering orphan – has raised £256 million, around a third of which will fund its UK expansion. The Australian startup is expected to hit unicorn status soon. Its Scribe technology ambiently records patient history and symptoms. It supplies the NHS in the Midlands and some of the UK’s private health sector.
🌍 FCA’S CLIMATE CHANGE
The Financial Conduct Authority has watered down plans for listed businesses to report their climate risks. The proposals would have required UK public companies to warn investors about potential climate risks. Instead, they now either have to comply with the regulations or explain why they haven’t done so. Commentators said the U-turn was done to reduce red tape and keep UK business competitive.
⚡️ ZERO RATED
The influential parliamentary energy security and net zero committee has suggested scrapping the very term “net zero” because it’s been weaponised. A lack of political consensus on climate change reached its nadir with Reform’s “net stupid zero” mantra. The committee said the term had become a “lightning rod for opposition to climate action.” The Government said it has no plans to remove the term from use.
FOUNDERS UNFILTERED
“I GREW UP WATCHING MY DAD RENOVATE HOMES AND MY MUM HOLD EVERYTHING TOGETHER”
This edition, Ellora Coupe, founder of Her Own Space CIC, is in the hot seat. Growing up with a builder for a dad, she watched her mum juggle parenting, building work and the disruption of creating a home, an experience that shaped her determination to support other women.
Her Own Space brings women homeowners together with professional women in the industry, sharing knowledge and practical support to help them navigate retrofit and make confident decisions.
Its mission is to champion women homeowners across the UK, helping them create healthy, energy efficient homes using bio-based materials. Built on empathy, audacity and the generosity of women sharing their expertise, it is growing into a women’s movement.
What’s the scrappiest thing you’ve done so far to make progress?
We rely on the knowledge and generosity of professional women in the industry, and asking them to support something still in its infancy required audacity and a willingness to put myself out there without much to show for it.
In one sentence - what was your lightbulb moment for starting the business?
My dad was a builder, but I noticed the real challenges lay watching my mum cope with the disruption, managing kids and wanting a home that worked for her and her health. Then getting older and realising that women were not able to manage projects and builders, let alone healthy homes, made me desperate to help them.
What mistake are you glad you made?
Three days before launching Her Own Space, I realised I had built everything in the wrong platform and didn’t like how it worked at all. With the launch date already announced, I spent three straight days rebuilding it from scratch. It was exhausting, but it taught me how everything worked and with full control of the back end we can adapt really quickly.
What's one book, podcast or article you think everyone should read?
"What The Builder Won’t Tell You", by Judith Leary Joyce is a book which I contributed to and is a brilliant starting point to empower women homeowners trying to understand retrofit.
NEWS-O-METER
🤩 NAILED IT
Party conferences aren’t always awash with creative ideas, so credit to the Conservatives for their 88ft long Birmingham Tapestry - a newsjack homage of sorts to the Bayeux Tapestry, currently displayed in the British Museum.The Tory tapestry focused on the perceived failures of the Labour administration, including a “Healey’s Comet” of high taxes whizzing past people’s heads. Labour hit back with their own digital version of a tapestry featuring Boris Johnson partying in lockdown.
🥶 FAILED IT
Manchester City is in full crisis mode following the Premier League’s announcement that it is guilty of 114 of 115 charges levelled against it over financial breaches. Chief executive Ferran Soriano put out an extraordinary video in which he summarised the charges as “a single false accusation”, described the Premier League’s accusations as “a conspiracy theory” and rebranded the decision of the independent commission as an “opinion”. Critics think City are digging themselves into a bigger hole.
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
👻 GHOSTWRITERS IN DEMAND
“Broerty” – defined as cliché-ridden prose with frequent line breaks* – was the focus of an FT article on the rise of AI in LinkedIn posts. The weight of AI slop on the platform has led to a boom in work for ghostwriters, as smart businesses try to differentiate themselves. Critics question the authenticity of ghostwriters, supporters say they are a smart time save for busy executives – and a vast improvement on the AI alternative.
* As someone who has always used frequent line breaks and loves an em-dash, AI really is causing me problems.
HARPSWOOD IRL
MEET OUR LONDON TEAM THIS OCTOBER AT:
📆 The Engineering & Design Show, Coventry Building Society Arena, 7th - 8th October
📆 Blue Earth Summit, Woolwich London, 14th - 16th October
📆 Climate Tech Time, The Conduit, 21st October
📆 Northern Tech Summit, 21st - 22nd October, Crucible, Sheffield
📆 ScaleUp Summit, Birmingham Tech Week, 22nd October, The Studio
📆 How PR can support your business growth: Series A and beyond, 29th October, Fora - Folgate Street
📆 Climate Coffee, 29th October, St James Park Cafe