Press Release

For immediate release

Start-up tips from Drinksin, one of the UK’s

Smartest Small Businesses
Drinksin, ®, the location-based Pub and Bar Community start-up, with web sites in 25 UK cities and recent
winner of SMARTA 100, award for UK’s smartest small businesses, today released a series of start up tips in
order to share some of the knowledge they have picked up along their journey. Jaime Keen on Drinksin said
“The support and mentoring of friends, family and peers has been invaluable to us on our journey, so it feels
really nice to now be at a stage where we can offer some advice and support in return.”

Ideas & creativity

Tip 1: Ideas and Creativity are what drives a business

forwards, always support ideas and creativity within your
company but keep dogged focus on what ideas are really
priority and be ruthless about removing the ‘nice to haves’.
Jaime Keenan, Co-founder - Marketing, Drinksin

Tip 2: Don’t lose a spark of an idea, no matter how far

fetched it may seem at the time. Quickly record things that
come to mind, and as a company keep them all in one
central place so you can review regularly and sort by
priority. Laurence Williams, Co-founder - Sales, Drinksin

Tip 3: Never set boundaries. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec

Director, Drinksin

Tip 4: Never stop generating new ideas. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Starting up

Tip 1: Its hard work and then its hard work again. The best journey you will ever go on. David Murray-
Hundley, Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Tip 2: Don’t be afraid to make changes. It’s sometimes hard to do this, if you have spent along time
down one road but failure to be flexible when there’s a problem can be a real risk. What often starts
out as a good idea may one day take you somewhere completely unexpected, and even then it may
change again. Jaime Keenan, Co-founder - Marketing, Drinksin

Tip 3: Be honest with yourself, are you a start up kid or n everyday business person? Can you cut it?
David Murray-Hundley, Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Tip 4: Keep it simple, and take a step back from time to time to remind yourself what it is your trying to
achieve and if your achieving it in your current activity. Laurence Williams, Co-founder - Sales,
Drinksin

Tip 5: Do something you are passionate about. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Tip 6: research, research, research…….Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Planning

Tip 1: Plan and Plan again. Projects evolve and don’t forget that. Time always equals cost! David Murray-
Hundley, Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Tip 2: 90% planning, 10% execution. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Funding & finance

Tip 1: If you can organically grow, then do so where you can. If you go for finance always make sure you are
in the strongest possible position and know everything about your finance inside out.David Murray-Hundley,
Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Resources

Tip 1: When starting up you have to be prepared to take on work that may not be your forte. Do as much of
this as you can in the early stages to save on costs but make sure that you recognise the need to bring the
right people in when cash flow eases or funding comes in. Jaime Keenan, Co-founder - Marketing, Drinksin

Tip 2: define clearly profiles of roles and people. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Ethics

Tip 1: Small world we trade in. David Murray-Hundley, Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Tip 2: Integrity is a major advantage in business. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

People (staff & customer service)

Tip 1: Get the best people. Always stand by your teams and never wash laundry in public. Your staff will
make you look good and never as a leader take the credit. Lead, never be afraid to mentor. David Murray-
Hundley, Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Tip 2: Just because you are co-founder of the company, doesn’t mean you will always know more. Seek out
people more experienced than you that can fill gaps you can’t cover. Be open to advice and seek guidance
from everyone you meet. Jaime Keenan, co-founder – Marketing, Drinksin

Tip 3: When your in startup people often work in isolation often from home. If there’s more than one of you
make sure you have regular meet ups over a coffee or a drink to make sure that your all on the same page
and offer support to each other. Laurence Williams, Co-founder - Sales, Drinksin

Tip 4: Everyone you meet can be a doorway to new opportunity. Always be passionate and talk about what
you do, so your contacts can spread the good word for you. You never know who they’ll meet. Laurence
Williams, Co-founder - Sales, Drinksin

Tip 5: work with people you like and respect. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Tip 6: work with people who are better than you and have complementary skills. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec
Director, Drinksin

Tip 7: The best businesses have a massive team ethic. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Tip 8: diversity in your talent pool bears the best results. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Press Release: Start-up Tips 3.3.2010 Page 2 of 5

Marketing & advertising

Tip 1: You don’t need to spend lots of money on marketing in the beginning, but you do need to look
professional. If you use a graphic designer ask them to provide you with editable versions of everything you
will use, so you can make changes to collateral yourself when needed. Jaime Keenan, co-founder –
Marketing, Drinksin

Tip 2: Email Marketing. This is a great low-cost way of marketing if carried out properly. To improve your
email marketing, take note of every good email you receive personally and file the ones you like. Going to
this file when in need of inspiration can help you to understand how to improve your own. Jaime Keenan, co-
founder – Marketing, Drinksin.

Tip 3: The best advertising is simple and re-enforces the brands credentials. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec
Director, Drinksin

Social media

Tip 1: Twitter is a great free tool to spread your message to an interested audience, network with peers and
industry contacts, receive feedback from customers and potential clients and learn about best marketing
practices. BUT whatever you do don’t use it as an advertising channel, Twitter is about having conversations
– that involves talking and listening. Jaime Keenan, co-founder – Marketing, Drinksin

Tip 1: Encourage everyone in your start up to have their own Company Twitter account. Allow them to be
ambassadors of the company, just be clear on what information is sensitive and what information is free to
discuss and promote. Jaime Keenan, co-founder – Marketing, Drinksin

Premises

Tip 1: Unless you physically aren’t able to, work from home as often as possible. Pubs and Bars can be
great places for meetings and with so many offering wi-fi connections and great coffee nowadays, there’s no
reason to pay for offices. If you ever need to find a pub with wi-fi for your next meeting – the Drinskin sites
are a great place to start  Jaime Keenan, co-founder – Marketing, Drinksin

Tech

Tip 1: There are no barriers to what technology can do. Its usually time and cost that pulls it back.David
Murray-Hundley, Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Online business

Tip 1: When planning, look out there in the history of online business and ask why some succeed and some
fail.David Murray-Hundley, Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Suppliers & distribution

Tip 1: Everything is negotiable. David Murray-Hundley, Chief Technology Officer, Drinksin

Exit strategies

Tip 1: What is your business Exit? what are your partners Exit stratergy? are they the same? or different.
Map down how you get there and where the current gaps are. Ask yourself the same question every few
months to make sure you are still on track and it’s what you want. David Murray-Hundley, Chief Technology
Officer, Drinksin

Tip 2: like will-making, don’t delay, have a plan! Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Press Release: Start-up Tips 3.3.2010 Page 3 of 5

Tip 3: decide on the format. Complete, partial, staged etc. Paul Sambrook, Non-Exec Director, Drinksin

Notes for Editors

More available on request

Drinksin®, the location-based Pub and Bar Community start-up, with web sites in 25 UK cities, is a
revolutionary web platform for browsing pubs and bars, checking what’s on, accessing special offers and
planning nights out with friends.

Drinksin’s innovative personalisation tools learn what you like and provide recommendations for where to
visit and what to do when visiting a new city or wishing to better discover your own cities bar culture - making
it even easier to get straight to the action and guarantee a great night out.

Drinksin’s city based web sites such as Drinksinlondon.com and Drinksinbristol.com are currently available in
Bath, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds,
Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newquay, Reading, Southampton, Windsor. Each city also offers
city specific Twitter, Facebook and Mobile sites so users can access information in a variety of formats.

Focused around technology in particular the latest in mobile location based services and personalised
customisation. Drinksin will connect people to drinking establishments of interest wherever their location in
the world via the internet or mobile device.

Drinksin is a privately funded start up based in London. Co-founded by Laurence Williams, serial-
entrepreneur and former Sony BMG music producer, Mark Wallis (35), previously Senior Technical Lead for
Multimedia Services at O2 and Jaime Keenan (29), BA Hons Advertising and Marketing Graduate, formerly
of Marketpoint, privately held marketing and advertising agency and CIT a Fortune 500 company.

Contact Info
Contact: Jaime Keenan
Daytime Tel: 07595 624343 or 0207 1930109
Evening Tel: 07595 624343
Email: jaime@drinksin.com or support@drinksin.com
Address: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX (Mailing address only)
Websites: www.drinksinreading.com, www.drinksinzagreb.com,
www.drinksinbristol.com For all URL’s visit www.drinksin.com

Awards: Smarta 100 company:

http://www.smarta.com/smarta100/what-is-the-smarta-100
http://www.smarta.com/smarta100/2010-winners/drinksin

LinkedIn Business Leader of the Year 2010:

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 http://www.linkedinbusinessawards.com/Nomination/Details/590

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