Applications for Cohort #9 of Creative Bridge are now closed. Cohort #9 will be the final cohort as the Creative Informatics funding draws to a close. For more information, see our FAQs below.

Creative Bridge was a course for creatives with early stage ideas keen to learn about startup thinking, innovation and digital product development. 

The programme focused on three key things: helping you turn a creative idea into a sustainable business; breaking down barriers to the startup world by demystifying the jargon around tech entrepreneurship; and sharing toolkits and processes to give creatives the power to respond to fast change and cultivate resilience in a turbulent world.

Ran by CodeBase and funded via Creative Informatics, Creative Bridge offered free places to successful applicants to participate over 10 consecutive weeks. Since 2019, 220 creatives have completed the programme and joined a community of alumni spanning the creative industries.

Take a look at what a few of our alumni have to say, or browse our online community pages.

We also hosted the Creative Bridge Podcast! You can listen to stories of Creative Bridge alumni right here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sessions and Speakers

The content of the course changed from cohort to cohort, but broadly covered the following core topics: Markets; Understanding Your Customers; the Build-Measure-Learn cycle; Pitch Decks; and Funding & Investment. Speakers were invited locally as well as from around the world to share their stories of entrepreneurial success and failure.

Some of our guests included Sahil Lavignia, founder, Gumroad; Danae Shell, co-founder & CEO, Valla; Narie Foster, co-founder, M.M.LaFleur; Amy Williams, founder, Good-Loop; Abhishek Lahoti, DropBox; Didier Sibellas, Design Lead, Canva; Sarah Stenhouse, founder, Oodls; Neil Mackintosh, 25+ Design; and Ivana McConnell, Senior Product Designer, HashiCorp.

As a taster, you can watch Sahil Lavignia’s talk on YouTube right now. We don’t usually make our talks public, but this is one exception.

FAQs

When did Creative Bridge take place?
Creative Bridge took place between March 2019 and December 2022. Across ten cohorts, 220 creatives were funded to complete the programme.

How did Creative Bridge come about?
Creative Bridge was part of Creative Informatics, a partnership between the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, Creative Edinburgh and CodeBase. Through six research and development initiatives, Creative Informatics enabled creatives and cultural organisations to explore and better understand how data-driven technologies can be used to enhance their work. 
Creative Bridge, run by CodeBase, was a pre-accelerator for creatives with early stage ideas (or no idea yet!) to learn startup thinking, innovation and digital product development.

Can I apply to Creative Bridge?
Unfortunately not. The final cohort of Creative Bridge took place September - November 2022 and there are no current plans for any further cohorts.

I’m building a startup and want to connect with others - how do I get involved?
Take a look at the Events page on our website where you’ll find a host of meetups, workshops and more, organised by the community as well as CodeBase, where you can meet people from the wider tech ecosystem. 

I want to learn about startups and how to build a product - how can I do this?
CodeBase is developing a series of educational programmes which teach just this. They’ll be targeted at various stages of growth and cover a similar curriculum to Creative Bridge. Updates on these programmes are coming soon so keep checking our website. 

 I’m a Creative Bridge alumni - what happens now there are no more cohorts?
The Creative Bridge team are still around to support our alumni in all the usual ways and will continue to be in touch with ongoing opportunities! If you want to chat, just email kath@thisiscodebase.com.
Creative Informatics will also remain active until 2024, continuing to build and connect the alumni community across all six initiatives. You can email creativeinformatics@ed.ac.uk to keep connected.