Croydon Tech City: A start-up saviour or another flop?
Tom Brewster doesn't seem too impressed with the latest tech innovations to come out of London...
StreetPin was the final start-up on the list. Despite its worryingly basic website, its basic premise is quite clever. It provides "a digital network of local, community pin boards". These pin boards offer web, mobile and app presence for local businesses. Indeed, this is a very local idea, for local people. There's no apparent grand ambition here, but plenty of attractive British humbleness.
There is something charming about the Croydon scene. But this does not make it a successful scene. If innovation is taking old ideas and doing something fresh with them, then there is undoubtedly some evidence of it in the area, but nothing world-changing.
And this is symptomatic of the wider issue with the London tech sector in general. There is a modicum of innovation, but a lack of invention. That's what Brits used to be known for, but in these corners of the Greater London region, there's scant evidence of it. The Tech Cities still need a hero to idolise and emulate.
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