Latest News

• Drinksin App launches today! Its your pub finding personal assistant
  

  We’re delighted to announce that the Drinksin iPhone App is now available to download for Free from the Apple App store for your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Filled to the rafters with all the pub information you will ever need to have the most fun in the neighborhood you’re in right now.

  The app is available for use Globally with data currently available for the UK, West Coast US and Zagreb, Croatia. Watch this space for other countries coming up soon.

  Features

  What’s On Nearby: One tap takes you straight to events happening in pubs and bars just round the corner from where you’re stood.

  Offers Nearby: If you’re strapped for cash or just love a bargain, use this feature to access money saving offers and promotions from pubs and bars nearby. From food and drink offers to group discounts and incentives, they’re all there waiting for you.

  Pubs Nearby: Not sure what pubs are nearby but fancy a drink, or need somewhere to meet a colleague for a coffee meeting. Tap the screen for a list and full details of venues nearby (includes photos, description, and contact info – even use the directions feature for a step by step guide on how to get to your venue of choice.

  What’s next?

  Over the coming weeks and months Drinksin will be adding lots of new features and services to the application including 1000’s more pub listings from up and down the UK and Worldwide. Expect enhanced search features, user tip-offs as well as a heap more offers and events to make sure you can have the most fun with minimum planning fuss. Some other top secret goodies also coming up but we have all been sworn to secrecy at Drinksin HQ. As soon as we can tell, you’ll be the first to know.

  We’d love to hear what you think about the app and any suggestions you have for the future, you can contact us at support@drinksin.com or say hi via the contact us form on this blog.

  
  drinksin.com Ltd - Posted on August 20, 2010
  
• Confident Sales People needed for various locations in the UK
  

  Award winning Drinksin.com is looking to rapidly expand its sales team in the UK. We currently are looking to recruit people in the following cities, Windsor, London, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Newquay, Reading, Bath, Cambridge, Leicester and Southampton. Our sales teams in other countries are achieving high revenues and commissions of up to £150k. Full marketing and technology support given to all sales staff. Please send CV’s to david@drinksin.com.

  
  drinksin.com Ltd - Posted on July 14, 2010
  
• Drinksin start-up supremo on the value of Trust, dotcom madness & bankruptcy
  

  Director Magazine recently interviewed David Murray-Hundley for a frank chat  on the value of trust, dotcom madness and why bankruptcy provided a lesson he’ll never forget

  You have to be pretty busy to describe your role as CEO of a tech start-up as “part-time”. But that’s exactly how David Murray-Hundley, the recently crowned LinkedIn Business Leader of the Year, views his position at mobile app company Drinksin. Murray-Hundley joined the London start-up in January to help founders Laurence Williams, Mark Wallis and Jaime Keenan monetise the service, which connects pubs and bars with nearby customers.

  Murray-Hundley is also managing director of Adaro Red, an IT consultancy. “I don’t mind working every hour of the day as long as it’s fun,” says Murray-Hundley. Enterprise, he adds, feels “like a hobby.”

  He says the biggest challenge for Drinksin is demonstrating to the trade that the geolocation app can “get people into pubs and bars”. The service works by combining user preferences with current location to suggest appropriate venues. Artificial intelligence plays a key role, says Murray-Hundley. “Within three to five years, we’ll be at the point where the profile within the site actually knows you better than you know yourself. You’re meeting your wife, she likes this type of pub because that’s where you’ve been before. How about that place round the corner? It’s about helping you decide where you want to be.”

  Murray-Hundley describes his career to date as “extremely colourful”. A precocious technophile, he helped develop a game for the BBC Micro aged 11, before moving to Canada to complete a degree in artificial intelligence. He says the British don’t understand how to treat young talent—success makes us envious and resentful, he says. “The reason I went to Canada so young is that no one in the UK wants you to succeed.”

  After graduation, Murray-Hundley moved to New York to join Intelisys, craving the kind of success he feels he couldn’t enjoy on the other side of the Atlantic. The strategy worked, propelling him back to Europe, aged 24, to become number three and then number two at Commerce One, a software firm with a onetime market capitalisation of £22bn. But the success he craved came at a price. “I was completely off the rails, he says. “Too much money, living in Monaco: cars, women, and everything else that goes with it.”

  The “everything else” turns out to include dating the King of Norway’s niece and smashing a Sunseeker yacht into a jetty, writing off a Ferrari in the process. Founder of Commerce One Europe and mentor Jon Sofield told him: “calm down, you’re losing the plot”. Murray-Hundley blames the glut of the dotcom boom, a collective madness fuelled by an endless torrent of capital and IPOs that only seemed to go up. Until of course, the market peaked: “You were thinking, ‘this is never going to end,’” he says.

  Another mentor, Kevin Doyle, whom Murray-Hundley first worked with in 1994, says the outlandish valuations of dotcom companies gave too much money to people with little experience of running businesses at a profit. “We’ve seen quite a few guys over the last few years making lots of money on the back of these types of companies. And I guess what you don’t realise is that very few of them actually got out.” Murray-Hundley accepts he had “no concept of money control. Cars, houses, it got completely nuts. Obviously I lost it all. I went bankrupt at 29.”

  Murray-Hundley’s downfall mirrored an industry-wide implosion.  He lost £400,000 on a stockmarket gamble in the time it took his plane to reach London from California. A £300,000 tax bill for Commerce One shares “that were worth nothing” eventually sunk him. “It was bizarre really. The company that made me all the money also bankrupted me.” It taught Murray-Hundley a big lesson. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says.

  That he managed to turn his life around is testament to an attitude Murray-Hundley says people often mistake for arrogance. “If people tell me I can’t do something, I just go and do it”. He joined Utility One as chief technology officer, “did a few” Web 2.0 start-ups alongside Jon Sofield, and was eventually persuaded to rejoin Doyle at Adaro Group, despite the fact the two often clashed. “In the past maybe he hasn’t necessarily listened to what I’m saying,” says Doyle with a chuckle.

  Murray-Hundley considers himself “really lucky” to count Doyle and Sofield as mentors, fellow entrepreneurs he describes as  “the best you can get in technology”.  Doyle’s venture fund Adaro Group has a stake in Murray-Hundley’s Adaro Red, a public sector IT consultancy that specialises in providing technology to NHS trusts. Current clients include North Merseyside Health Informatics Service, Barnet Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, and Sheffield City Council.

  Murray-Hundley says he is both inspired and frustrated by the NHS. The QIPP agenda (QIPP stands for Quality, Innovation, Prevention and Productivity) is a government directive to find between £15bn and £20bn of efficiency savings by the end of 2014—savings that won’t be realised without installing more effective IT. But trusts will find such cost-cutting difficult, he says, partly because “for the last seven years money hasn’t been an issue”, and partly because the procurement process actively encourages a poor deal for the tax payer. “You have to go for the lowest offer, whether or not it’s the right one. So everyone comes in with a low price.” Needless to say, he adds, the contract price often escalates out of control.

  “The amount of money that flies around—it’s serious capital with no governance around it.” Many suppliers, he adds, “assume that everyone in the NHS is stupid. They come in to sell a solution, do a great pre-sale job, then 10 years later they’ve got support agreements worth a few hundred thousand a year that have never been used. The guy who sold it must be laughing his head off. It’s crazy.”

  Murray-Hundley says he wants to do things differently. As a result, Adaro Red operates an open-book policy. Transparency, he says, is key. “We show them everything, all our margins. I’m an upfront person, and that’s how I want to do business with them.” Murray-Hundley says he provides all NHS trusts with a quarterly report, which shows where the contractor has made a profit “and sometimes where we haven’t.” That way, he says, he can do business with “a clear conscience.”

  “It’s about doing fair deals,” says Doyle. “We’re not going to do anything for nothing. It is a for-profit organisation. However, when you think about the public sector, there are so many agencies out there just ripping people off.”

  Murray-Hundley is just as keen to turn a profit, but he admits it often feels like running a social enterprise. Is open book a model that could work in other areas of public procurement? Absolutely, he says. Forcing suppliers to become more transparent would immediately qualify their motives. “Are you in it to make a mountain of money? It shows your dedication.” Murray-Hundley says trust is a valuable commodity. “I thought if I can build confidence, people would realise you’re not there to rip them off. That’s the one thing I’ve learned, that if you build trust in one area they will use you forever.”

  Unfortunately, says Murray-Hundley, NHS trusts are inconsistent in their treatment of small firms, an attitude that prevents them from winning mutually beneficial contracts. “They say they want more SMEs to supply the NHS, but when you talk to the financial directors [they ask] how big the company is—how old is it? They’re not interested [in start-ups]. Part of the reason we are linked to Adaro is that we can use the group turnover and age. If I hadn’t had that they wouldn’t have touched me.”

  Source: Director Magazine (online)

  
  drinksin.com Ltd - Posted on July 6, 2010
  
• Footy Pubs 2010 App, helping you discover World Cup Pubs nearby just got better…
  

  Yesterday saw the launch of an update to Footy Pubs 2010. The Free mobile app available on iPhone and Nokia handsets.

  Users can now find pubs showing the World Cup by searching for venue name, street, town, city and postcode as well as all the usual nice stuff such as hitting matches nearby to find a list of pubs near to your location.

  The second big improvement to the app, is a new feature called Offers. This brings up all pubs nearby with offers and special World Cup promotions, helping you not only pick the best spot to watch the footy this summer but also save money – nice! Unfortunately we can’t promise that Capello’s boy’s sparkle on the pitch, but here’s hoping the next match blows us all away…at least you’ll have a nice pint in your hand

  Download Footy Pubs 2010 today for your iPhone or Nokia here

  

  
  Other, drinksin.com Ltd - Posted on June 19, 2010
  
• BarlifeUK bring us World Cup Drinks – Second Half
  
  

  What on earth have you been smoking? Ohh your Dutch...

  You can almost taste the World Cup in the air, you can feel the excitement building in the nations bones, you can hear ill informed idiots suddenly thinking they know it all just because they read a story in a Sunday paper.

  As we all know football is a game of two halves and a pint is made up of two halves – coincidence? Well we don’t think so and as a result here are another 16 fine drinks* relating to this year’s World Cup nations (the first 16 can be found here).

  So get pouring, get cheering and get ready to make a fortune in tips if England make it all the way!!

  *BarLifeUK cannot be held responsible if these drinks turn out to be shit – BarLifeUK Legal Team

  GROUP E

  Netherlands
  Ahhh the Dutch, surely most supporters favourite ‘second’ team! The men in orange invented Total Football and still play with a joy and freedom that is better to watch than an Amsterdam shop window. They also have a history of mighty fine booze and the Heineken Brewery is one of the must see tourist attractions (providing you still can see of course), so it has to be:

  Drink: Heineken

  Denmark
  The great Danes aren’t expected to do a whole lot this year and will do well to qualify from this tough group. It is also a close fight for best beer in this group and Denmark’s trademark brew is none less than Carlsberg.
  Drink: Carlsberg

  Japan
  You have to have a bit of a soft spot for the Japanese, such enthusiasm should be rewarded and they do properly love their footy. They also love good drinks and more and more excellent bars are popping up across the country. When it comes to beer they wade in with the lovely Kirin and for the ladies look no further than some Midori

  Drink: Kirin and Midori

  Cameroon
  Remember Roger Milla? The oldest bloke to score in a World Cup Finals? Well this drink has nothing to do with him at all. I know the Mojito is Cuban but bear with me! A lot of historians say it was invented by African slaves working the sugar cane fields of Cuba and Cameroon makes a killer Sugar Cane Wine so this, to me, makes perfect sense! The Cameroon Mojito
  Mojito
  30ml Rum
  3 wedges fresh lime
  12 fresh mint leaves
  2 bar spoons sugar cane juice or sugar syrup
  Soda water
  Muddle together the mint and lime briefly in a Collins Glass, chuck in the rum and sugar syrup and give it another quick muddle. Half-fill glass with crushed ice. Give it a damn good stirring, top up with more crushed ice and add soda to fill. Garnish with a fresh sprig of mint.

  GROUP F

  Italy
  The Italians care more about their hair than their football, which makes it even more depressing that they are still better than us. When it comes to booze they have given us some classics and if the sun is shining then break out a bottle of Tuaca and offer shots or even jugs of Tuscan Mules (Tuaca, Ginger Ale and fresh Lime juice)
  

  Drink: Tuaca or Peroni

  New Zealand
  No this isn’t a late April fool’s joke, New Zealand really are in the World Cup. They are a crazy bunch with their bridge jumping and white water jet boating but probably the oddest thing they have given the world is Feijoa. Tried it? Tastes like Peter Stringfellow’s posing pouch. They did however give us 42 Below vodka and if you can find them some awesome beers

  Drink: 42 Below & beer (try tracking down Monteiths or Speights)

  Paraguay
  Before I started this mission I didn’t know much about Paraguay…. I still don’t but I do know that their national drinks is a brewed beverage using dried leaves from the yerba tea plant called Mate (it does have more authentic sounding names but Mate works too and I can spell it!). You can’t get that here and quite frankly who wants a cup of tea when watching the football? Luckily for us they also make a rather nice beer.
  Drink: Pilsen

  Slovakia
  Slovakia has always struck me as one of those words that is actually easier to say after a few beers – the slur helps the pronunciation. It appears they agree and have gone a step further in giving their nations favourite beer a name which follows the same rule.

  Drink: Zlaty Bazant

  GROUP G

  Brazil
  As a friend once exclaimed ‘Is there anything hotter than a girl in a tight Brazil footy top?’ Well no, in the same way there is nothing sadder than a 35 yo man dribbling at a 19 yo girl in a tight Brazilian footy top!! They also manage to liven up all world cups and any beach they come in contact with. They haven’t forgotten about booze either – this is an oldie but a goodie.
  

  Drink: Caipirinha
  60ml Cachaca (Sagatiba for example)
  Half lime (wedged)
  2 bar spoons white sugar
  Muddle up the lime and sugar in the bottom of a shaker glass, add ice, shake like you’re doing the samba then chuck the whole lot into a rocks glass.

  Ivory Coast
  Whilst scratching my head about a drink for these folk I found myself humming Ebony & Ivory, then it hit me (I really shouldn’t call my wife ‘it’ that’s why she keeps hitting me!), a black a white shot. Mini Guinness. Excellent!
  Drink: Mini Guinness
  Grab a shot glass, fill it with 2/3rds Kaluha and then top up with Bailey’s!

  North Korea
  I’ll be honest all my Korea knowledge was used up in my South Korea drink so I thought I would just put in a favourite cocktail of mine, at random, picked out of a hat, any relation the name has to racial stereotypes about eating habits is purely coincidental…… The Salty Dog like the martini creates arguments about ratios that can go on forever. Personally I use one part gin (gin NOT vodka) and 2 parts grapefruit juice – ohh and a martini glass!!
  

  Drink: Salty Dog
  30ml Gin
  60ml Grapefruit Juice
  Lime wedge
  Salt
  Rim the glass edge using the lime and salt. Shake the gin and grapefruit with ice and fine strain into the chilled and rimmed martini glass. Perhaps offer a discount for anyone who can Cane Nine!!!

  Portugal
  Let’s face it, 11 bow legged toddlers on a bouncy castle covered in baby oil have got more chance of staying upright for 90 minutes than the Portuguese football team. Chief of the jelly legs is The Winker Christiano Ronaldo. As for beer well it has to be their best selling brew Sagres.
  Drink: Sagres

  GROUP H

  Chile
  The good people of Chile have become one of the major exporters of wine across the world when no-one was looking. As a result why not celebrate Chile’s games by offer a bottle of lovely Chilean white wine and 4 glasses to groups. Remembering to serve it Chilled!!!!
  Drink: Chilean White Wine

  Honduras
  Honduras in the WC reminds me of Jamaica in the bobsleigh, unfortunately I can’t remember the end of Cool Runnings so I have no idea if this bodes well for them or not. I did however learn that the fantastic Rum which is Flor de Cana is made in Honduras as well as Nicaragua! So grab a shot and enjoy.
  Drink: Flor de Cana

  Spain

  Spain always remind me of England, a fantastic league with fantastic teams full of foreigners! Just like England they will probably flatter to deceive. As for booze nothing says Spain like Sangria and there is very few drinks in the world easier to bulk pre-prepare. So make the Sangria mix the night before ideally (minus the club soda) and store in fridge. Serve it in jugs to groups. Alternatively grab a few palates of Estrella beer and relax.
  

  Drink: Sangria or Estrella

  Switzerland
  I have never understood Switzerland – everyone hides their money there yet their army defends itself with a Scouts prized possession, although I guess their horses would never go lame! Anyway ignoring this security issue Switzerland is very bling and in the world of spirits surely the most bling thing has to be Goldschlager. Also it turns out that despite Goldschlager being produced in Italy these days has its roots in Switzerland!
  Drink: Goldschlager

  So there we are at the end of the list and I must say I learnt a lot about the worlds drinking habits researching this one. It seems that booze like football can bring the world together, then bad jokes in search of a cheap laugh can ruin it for everyone!!

  I hope that this inspires you to make the most out of this years World Cup and I’ll have a Union Jack!

  If you missed the first half of this extravaganza check them out here.

  

  
  Other, drinksin.com Ltd - Posted on June 9, 2010
  
• Drinksin and Nokia partner to get you to the big games this summer!
  
  To celebrate the launch of Ovi maps and to help get customers in the mood this footbal season, Drinksin has partnered with Nokia to bring the ‘Footy Pubs 2010’ application to Nokia’s new navigation optimised phones.

  Footy Pubs 2010, launching 1^st June will help you plan where to watch the World Cup, by leading you directly to pubs nearby showing matches nearby using GPS technology and Ovi maps.
  To promote this summer’s football season, Nokia and Drinksin have also partnered with Phones4U, the UK’s fastest growing independent mobile phone retailer with more than 440 stores nationwide for a football focused poster campaign across all Phones4U outlets.
  Jaime Keenan of Drinksin, interviewed David Murray-Hundley, Drinksin CEO to talk about the partnership and understand a little more on how the partnership will benefit Nokia’s and Drinksin’s customers.

  Why have Drinksin and Nokia decided to partner on this application?

  It’s a win for both sides. We had already developed Footy Pubs 2010 as an iPhone app and were keen to explore other areas of the market, so Nokia was a great choice, considering how many phone units in the world Nokia have. For Nokia it was about the data we were able to provide and the app fitting in nicely with the launch of Ovi Maps on the Ovi Store, whilst also being a great product to boost traffic around the World Cup.

  Tell us a little more about the app?

  In simple terms, it finds your location and then gives you a list of bars and the matches they are showing. Or you can look for a particular match and it will find a bar nearest to you. Also helps you find your way to the pub. Keep thinking we should have an app that also helps find your way home, if alcoholic beverages are your choice for a football game. It also works in its own right after World Cup fever has ended.

  What are the benefits of the partnership for Drinksin?

  Coverage. We have in the last 6 months really built up our traffic and now its time to really start delivering benefits to our users and the bar community. So Nokia opens up a whole new window for us and I’m very excited to be associated with the brand.

  Times are tough in the drinks industry right now, with unprecedented pub closures across the country. How can the Nokia and Drinksin partnership benefit the on-trade?

  It’s about people in pubs and sometimes the right pubs, so I think being able to almost create an experience for a user before they even get to the pub is great. Being able to allow pubs to push what they are doing, not just on a sandwich board in the street but in a way that modern users want to find information means they will get new visibility.

  How do you see the Nokia Drinksin partnership evolving in the future?

  We are talking about a number of options. Would like to work with Nokia on some off our non-UK specific ideas and also some ideas around Rugby, Ozzie rules football etc.

  The location based space is very exciting right now, what does Drinksin offer that makes it different?

  We actually do something with it. I get frustrated that everyone goes on about it and the app tells me, I am here!! Well I already knew that, what I want to know is where are my options and how do I get there.

  Any exciting football related stories to tell us on a final note?

  I am rubbish at football. This is a fact well known to a lot of people. I once met Pele in a bar in Monte Carlo and challenged him to a game of kick about in casino square. Obviously he didn’t take me up my offer, but then introduced me to at the time some very famous football players. I had no idea who they were until the next day, when someone told me. He was a nice guy, we shared some drinks and that’s the only story I have.

  
  At Work, drinksin.com Ltd - Posted on June 6, 2010
  

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