Last Friday 3rd May we were lucky enough to join the new teams at Wayra on an exciting expedition to scale the roof of the O2! The company, the weather and the views couldn’t have been better. Thanks so much for inviting us along Wayra, I have some fantastic pictures for my PixelPin now!
Amazing views of the city from the top
The team!
On Sunday 28th April 2013 PixelPin featured in the Sunday Telegraph Ingenious Britain supplement:
And on Monday 29th April we featured in The Metro, Geoff discussed a future beyond passwords with PixelPin:
Read the full article here
Press Release
New edition of Ingenious Britain hits the shelves on Sunday, April 28th!
‘It’s been a long wait, but the fourth edition of Ingenious Britain hits a newsagent’s near you on Sunday, April 28th, tucked snugly in the warm confines of the Sunday Telegraph. And believe us, it’s looking like an veritable encyclopedia of small business knowledge, advice and information.
The state of the British business environment is undergoing a huge shift at present. Greater numbers of small businesses are being refused bank loans despite being more than creditworthy, meaning that new sources of finance such as invoice trading and crowdfunding are taking to the fore, empowering not only those small businesses, but allowing anyone to be an investor in a company. Start-up accelerators are popping up all over the UK, offering small businesses and start-ups the ability to inject experience, capital and contacts to galvanise their prospects. New technologies such as cloud computing, smartphones and tablets are allowing small businesses in particular to be more flexible, whilst co-working spaces are encouraging business-to-business interaction and the sharing of expertise. Social media is revolutionising marketing and the opportunities offered to SMEs to reach a huge audience without the corresponding financial input.
All this combined together is creating something very exciting. Ingenious Britain give you the ‘New Business Normal’. And this new normal is the focus of this edition. There’s a whole host of brilliant articles covering everything from the benefits of crowdfunding for your small business to how you can make the most of a business accelerator.
Ingenious Britain founder, Mark Moore, identifies: “The new edition of the magazine looks at the formation and implications of a new small business landscape. That landscape enables small businesses to raise finance and establish much better cash flow without having to guarantee the house and the family jewels to the bank.
We’re calling the landscape ‘the New Business Normal’ and that encompasses some really interesting new services such as invoice trading and crowd funding, which you can find out more about in the upcoming issue.”
It will have the usual mix of political commentary and insight on small businesses, well-known entrepreneurs providing advice, ingenious small businesses telling Ingenious Britain about their remarkable business journeys, and larger companies offering transferrable tips you can implement within your own enterprises over 80 pages of small business good stuff.
Here’s what to expect from the next edition of Ingenious Britain:
Plus – loads more small business stories, advice and support from a huge selection of larger businesses too.
In the build-up to the new magazine, there will be a whole host of interactive events across Ingenious Britain’s social media platforms designed to help small businesses to get to grips with some of the topics covered in the magazine, so keep an eye out on www.ingeniousbritain.biz or their social networks for more information.
So, whether you’re a sole trader or employing 50 people; a start-up or long-established family business; farmer or tech start-up, there’s something for everyone in the upcoming issue. Get yourselves down to your newsagent’s, pick up a Telegraph and don’t plan anything else for that Sunday.’
# # # Press release ends # # #
Ingenious Britain is a small business campaign, dedicated to supporting, advising and providing a voice for British small businesses. For more information about who we are and what we stand for, visit us at www.ingeniousbritain.biz , or join one of our many social platforms.
Twitter: @ingeniousbrit, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ingenious.Britain, LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/2485712?trk=tyah, or Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/106575312945862060568/106575312945862060568/posts.
Contact for further information:
James Day
Social Media Manager, Ingenious Britain
237 Regents Park Road, London, N3 3LF
0203 540 0555
In just four days we leapt from 60% of our total to the full 100%, making PixelPin the first startup to raise the full £150,000 on the crowd funding site Seedrs. Seedrs has been operating for eight and a half months and has now funded 18 startups, making them the fastest-growing equity crowdfunding platform in Europe. We’ve been overwhelmed by the support for PixelPin and the levels of interest we’ve received, reaching our total in just over a month with 193 investors on board.
Image: Seedrs
Dale Murray presenting the award to Geoff & Sarah (Image: https://www.innovateuk2013.co.uk/mediagallery/images/7)
Thanks to the UKTI & TSB, last week we were lucky enough to exhibit at Innovate UK, the UK’s leading multi-sector innovation trade event for business. PixelPin had a stand right in the centre of the London Business Design Centre which saw a lot of footfall throughout the event. We met some very interesting people & had some exciting and productive conversations.
Brian was also invited to speak on the panel at the Investor Breakfast hosted by the TSB alongside Lord Deighton.
To top it all off, PixelPin won the award for Most Innovative Product as voted for by our peers! Big congratulations also go to Snap Fashion for winning the Most Innovative Process award.
Spot PixelPin amongst the crowd? (Image: https://www.innovateuk2013.co.uk/mediagallery/images/7)
Geoff doing his thing
PixelPin replaces passwords with, erm….burgers
Proud
TECHNOLOGY IS GREAT
Back in October 2012 our CEO and founder, Brian Taylor, pitched at Mobile Monday London and won PixelPin a highly-coveted spot on the UKTI Great Britain Stand at Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona. Having got back from Barcelona just over a week ago here is our report covering our first (and hopefully not last!) MWC experience.
The UKTI Great Britain stand was the perfect place for us to showcase PixelPin. The stand was split across two levels: a buzzing ground floor area exhibiting 9 of the most exciting and diverse technology companies in the UK, and an upper level reserved for meetings (and coffee!).
As first time visitors to Mobile World Congress we certainly weren’t disappointed. During all four days of the congress the UKTI stand saw heavy footfall from visitors from around the world. Needless to say, we met some very interesting people and had some exciting and productive conversations with many to follow up back in London. There was a lot of interest in PixelPin; one visitor even claimed we had ‘the most creative idea in the whole of MWC’ which was great to hear in an event exhibiting thousands of companies from across the globe.
As well as manning the stand we had a busy agenda of events to attend throughout the week, including several organised by Heroes of the Mobile Fringe and UKTI. Our COO, Geoff Anderson, pitched at Innovation on the Fringe on Sunday 24th and delivered a talk ‘Making security usable for devices: access control for everyone’ as part of the UKTI Seminar programme during the week. PixelPin also did very well securing second place at TechCrunch Barcelona – well done Brian!
PIXELPIN IN THE PRESS
We had considerable interest from the press throughout the week too – highlights include podcasts, an article on LSN Global, a top mention in UK Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey’s report on MWC, a feature in the Metro back in the UK and an interview with BBC Radio 1, to name but a few.
In true Spanish style, for every day of networking, pitching and seminars at MWC there was an evening of networking, pitching and well…drinking to match. After-show highlights for us included the UKTI networking event, a buzzing Apps Fiesta party held by MagicSolver (delicious food and cocktails all round, thanks guys) the Swedish Beers event and the packed MLove party at the end of the week. We should also probably mention our favourite bar, Paris Taxi, which provided us with all the beer we could drink and all the rugby & football we could watch. Its location was also tip-top – right underneath our apartment.
All in all we had a fantastic time at MWC13 and the experience was invaluable to PixelPin. We would like thank MoMoLo, UKTI and ICTKTN for providing us with such a great opportunity.
When in Barcelona!
The team on the stand
Fira Gran Via
No expense spared on the Firefox stand
Geoff being interviewed for Radio 1
Brian pitching at TechCrunch, with a little help from Polly!
There are lots of words we use in the “Industry” that mean precisely zero to most of the rest of the population and one of these is Authentication. If you asked most people, they might guess it has something to do with passwords and logging in but what is it?
Authentication is how something/somebody verifies that you are who you say you are.
If there was a web application that only required a username, it wouldn’t be much of a verification because anyone could type in the same name and pretend to be someone else. We could say that would be “very weak authentication”.
The first way we can ensure that authentication is strong (or the “first factor” – something you know) would be to ask the user for something that they, and only they, know such as a password. Theoretically, if only you know your password then it is not enough to know someone’s name in order to log into a system.
We will re-visit passwords later but the obvious problem is that it is in fact possible to gain someone else’s password. They might tell you, they might write it down somewhere or it could be obtained by social engineering (emails offering various things in return for entering your login details). The other issue is that it is often impossible to know that your password has been stolen until it is used to break into an account or suchlike. Passwords are “free to copy” which is a real weakness.
Another, 2nd factor we can add to authentication is “something you have“. Often used in conjunction with your username and password, this might be a hardware token that generates numbers which appear random to the user but which can be verified by the system. Immediately, the cost of our authentication is rising with hardware devices but it is not a bad supplement to authentication. The chance of someone knowing your username, password and being able to obtain your hardware token before you notice and have it blocked are of course much lower than a simple password theft. There are social problems however. What if it is lost or stolen? How quickly can I get a replacement and will I be able to access potentially essential services in the meantime? How much will it cost to implement and what if I am Mr Facebook or Mr Google and I support millions of people, largely for free? Can I afford 500 million hardware tokens and will people simply stop using my service because of the hassle?
For the most secure systems, 2-factor authentication is not seen as secure enough. It is feasible that someone could steal, or perhaps even borrow (with permission) their friend’s hardware token and username/password. Ultimately, 2-factor authentication is transferable which means it does not ultimately prove that the person logging on is who they claim to be.
A 3rd factor that is available in various styles is “something you are“, in other words, biometrics that are either hard or impossible to fake and which, at least on paper, are a foolproof way to authenticate someone in a way that means it cannot be transferred. Ignoring the fact that we might be able to chop certain things off of people, there are issues related to this type of authentication that cannot currently be solved (and perhaps never will be). Currently, the technology is expensive, both to buy but also to roll-out and maintain. How much is an iris scanner if it were to be fitted to every ATM machine for example? There are physical problems in that someone who, for example, has no hands cannot use a fingerprint reader so will they be excluded or will they be allowed a weaker authentication which kind of defeats the point of the 3rd factor authentication. There is a sociological issue in that people are not keen to shine things in their eyes or offer their physical identity to a machine. Alos, how will the information be secured? In the light of some major corporate data breaches, it is obvious that most companies are incapable, not only of securing the most important data but also carrying out even basic good-practices like correctly encrypting passwords in their databases? How then can I tell where the information is, where it might end up in the future, what government databases it might end up on permanently? How can I be sure that the data will not be stolen, at which point I can’t reset my fingerprints or iris pattern! The reality is that these system are electronic so it will always be possible for someone to send my biometrics to a system, whether I am present or not.
3-factor authentication, therefore, only seems genuinely viable on small controlled groups of users where the data is held by, for instance, their employer and that person effectively agrees to it because of their employment.
Well, back to passwords. A seemingly good balance between security, cost and convenience albeit with the obvious weaknesses of human memory, psychology and laziness! What can we do about that? Enter PixelPin. We believe we have a product that avoids the hassle and cost of multi-factor authentication, avoids many of the weaknesses and pitfalls of the password while at the same time providing a level of security on par-with and in some cases far exceeding that of the humble password. It is not a replacement for iris scanners at airports and will not require your life story to use and best-of-all, because it uses pictures, it is fun and much easier to remember. So what are you waiting for?
Kill the password!
On Friday 15th February PixelPin went live on Seedrs.com – we have raised £18K so far – a great start. We’ll be keeping you posted on our progress, in the meantime, take a look at our company profile & please share the link with anyone you think might be interested – let’s do this!
Back in October last year we were lucky enough to win a spot on the UKTI stand at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona 2013 (Thank you MoMoLo). Time has passed very quickly since then and this week we’re getting ready to head to Barcelona in full force! PixelPin will be engaging in some of the many events at MWC’13, here are our highlights:
Innovation on the Fringe – BCN 2013
Sunday 24th February
Photo by Thomas Hawk via mobileheroes.net
Our COO, Geoff Anderson, will be speaking at Innovation on the Fringe on Sunday 24th February:
‘Ease into the week by spending Sunday afternoon with us looking at mobile innovation from the perspective of investors, start-ups and network operators. Discussion panels, demos and plenty opportunities to mingle with your fellow mobilists, this relaxed session should whet your appetite for what will be a fantastic week of celebrating all things mobile.’
The event is already sold out, so those of you already attending we look forward to seeing you there!
http://mobileheroes.net/events/event/innovation-on-the-fringe-bcn-2013/
UKTI Thought Leadership Seminars
Seminar 4: Cyber Security in the Mobile World
Tuesday 26th February 9.45am – 12.00pm
Geoff will also be delivering a talk, “Making security usable for devices: access control for everyone” at the UKTI’s Seminar 4:
‘It is critical for all companies that they can do business in a safe way. 2012 saw major cyber-attacks against multi-national companies, including mobile phone and telecoms companies. Open data, M2M, small cells and other technologies are going to vastly increase the number of connected devices and accessible data over the next few years, increasing the exposure of companies and individuals to a cyber-attack. All of these rely on maintaining the security and stability of mobile networks. With the continuing development of the “internet of things” it is vital that end users are secure.
This session will discuss what is meant by “Cyber Security” for mobile devices and networks, what the future holds in terms of threats, how real those threats are and what security could be put in place to secure technologies, businesses and customers.’
Register for the free seminar here:
http://ictktnmwc4.eventbrite.co.uk/
AND FINALLY:
PixelPin will be exhibiting all week at the UKTI stand. Come and see us in Hall 7 at stand 7E100 – we look forward to meeting you!
@PixelPin
PixelPin at Wayra London Demo Day 2013
We’ve had an incredibly busy & exciting couple of months here at PixelPin. Wayra held it’s very first London Demo Day on the 30th & 31st January & we’re pleased to say the days were a huge success for PixelPin. Our CEO, Brian Taylor, gave a fantastic pitch to a diverse audience of potential investors and industry professionals. The interest in PixelPin was overwhelming, and, needless to say, we have been very busy since following up with meetings and further pitches.
Below you can see pictures from the event and Brian’s successful pitch:
The audience take their seats
Brian pitching to an eager audience
Pitching to a packed house
A populated PixelPin pod post-pitch (there’s some alliteration for you!)
Interested passers-by
Our campaign, #KillThePassword
Brian’s pitch: