TECHCITYINSIDER100: Influential tech entrepreneur Charles Armstrong is the brains behind The Trampery, one of the leading shared workspaces in Tech City. He’s also responsible for the now-famous Tech City map showing the connections between tech firms there. Julian Blake spoke to him.
What’s it like to work in Shoreditch, in the heart of Tech City? Despite detractors, who dislike the rapid changes of recent years like rising rents and the loss of a cutting-edge bohemian vibe, this special corner of east London remains hugely popular as a place of work.
By and large Shoreditch remains young, cool, creative, upbeat and fun, as the digital scene thrives. The cluster effect is pulling in the world’s top tech talent, and cash to go with it. It’s more connected than ever, with more hubs, meetups and mashups than you could poke a stick at, and a fashion and art scene that helps ensure that Shoreditch remains a desirable place both to work, and to locate. With government backing, and the Olympics imminent, work life around here looks like it’s only getting better.
The opening in March of the Google Campus confirmed major corporate backing for tech workers in Shoreditch, bringing like-minded startups together in an effort to create a community under one roof. For some, the arrival heralds ever-higher rents and a squeeze on small startups, but most see Campus as a boost for small enterprise.
Google is far from the first to tap the Shoreditch vibe. Back in 2009, tech entrepreneur Charles Armstrong set up The Trampery, an innovative shared work and event space for tech startups. Now in its second site in Bevenden Street, the Trampery is home to 14 of the buzziest startups in the area. Its retro-chic interior features oak flooring, Persian rugs, Victorian settees and contemporary art. Plus, as you’d hope, a state-of-the-art technology lab and rapid connectivity. The red ribbon was cut last October by the Duke of York.
“We set out to try and distil the essence of an east London creative environment,” Armstrong explains. “The starting point for me was why I as an entrepreneur would want to come to Shoreditch and set up my business here. I thought that if you could condense that into a space so that all of the dynamics, the serendipity, the surprises and intensity came together, and accelerated the ways people build up relationships in the community, then it could become an interesting engine to help the whole community to develop faster, and for more businesses to thrive.”
The nature of the businesses in residence is a microcosm of the Shoreditch tech scene as a whole. “It’s very inter-disciplinary,” says Armstrong. “We have a couple of outstanding non-profits, including Apps for Good, which is regularly name-checked by government ministers. We have two very fast-growing media-based startups, including Livestation, which is carrying most of the world’s major news broadcasters across the internet on different platforms. And the European team from Etsy, the craft marketplace, is based here. So we have an incredible mixture of different agencies all doing very inventive and creative things.”
“Our mission is to create the perfect environment for developing innovative businesses,” he adds. “Our objective is to do something perfect, because you never achieve it, so it keeps driving you for as long as you have the stomach to do it. I’m approaching that by lots of iterations. One of the fundamental aspects of a perfect environment is the community that forms around it. Community has very much become the main driver for the changes that we make.
“The next stage is to take everything that we have learned at Bevenden Street, which is now at capacity, 55 people. We’re in the process of a of negotiating a considerably larger building.”
Armstrong has fingers in a few tech pies. As well as running the Trampery, he’s the founder of One Click Orgs a platform for virtual organisations, and the CEO of Trampoline Systems, which creates business software and specialises in ‘communications network analysis’. This analysis includes the now-famous Tech City Map that shows the connections between companies operating in the area, and which was unveiled by prime minister David Cameron on his November 2011 visit to the area.
Regardless of the political link, and a few criticisms many people in the area like the map, because they see that it quickly illustrates both what and where Tech City is. “That’s really what the initial project was all about,” he agrees. “We needed to overcome the difficulty communicating what Tech City was internationally. Looking at a list of companies doesn’t communicate it. And, rather than just sticking pins on a map where companies work, I was much more interested in starting to understand what the relationships between those companies were, and what the structure of the community would look like.“
The map overlays all-important Twitter feeds for around 1,100 companies, to show which companies are following each other, mentioning each other, and retweeting. “From those factors we can illustrate all the networks that link businesses,” Armstrong explains. “We’re also able to calculate the influence of each business and how introverted or extroverted it is, by the proportion of a network that is contained within Tech City, and the posts from around the world.”
Armstrong is now taking the map nationwide, way beyond the boundaries of Tech City. “We need to understand what the technology and innovation ecosystem looks like across the UK as a whole,” he says. “There are obviously a number of well-established clusters such as Silicon Glen between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and you also have Cambridge and Reading. But there are actually all kinds of tiny clusters starting to form across the UK that are not very well known. It’s important to know what’s happening so we can understand what kind of support may be appropriate.”
Armstrong, a Cambridge politics man and a regular speaker on democratic innovation, is clear in his mind about the main obstacle standing in the way of change in the tech sector – habit. “It’s the main obstacle to change in almost any situation. As humans we’re incredible creatures of habit. That’s very useful a lot of the time because it means we don’t need to think about a lot of what we do. But that’s an impediment to seeing things differently, to listening to new ideas and to change. The tech sector is as prone to that as anyone or as any sector.
“Part of the value of places like east London is that habits are a little bit looser,” he says. “I’m always particularly interested in entrepreneurs who have multiple talents in the very disruptive periods of history, which the present certainly is. If you’re surrounded by these people from different disciplines, who are trying to a challenge the established way of doing things, that makes it a little bit easier for you to do the same as well.”
Charles Armstrong – CV
Since 2009
Director, The Trampery – shared workspace
Since 2008
Founder, One Click Org – software for online participation
Since 2003
CEO and founder, Trampoline Systems – communication network analysis
Since 1997
Custodian, CIRCUS foundation – research and incubation
1998-2002
Learning web architect, School for Social Entrepreneurs
1993-1997
Founder, The Electric Company – experimental arts production
1990-1993
Cambridge University – BA, Social and Political Science
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