Tweetdeck CEO on Twitter 'rumour'

As the UK government announces £1 million in funding for a new Tech City Launchpad competition, Shoreditch-based Tweetdeck addresses a report that it's been acquired by Twitter.

The UK government is backing this part of London to become the centre of a technology hub to rival Silicon Valley.

At the inaugural Digital Shoreditch summit, the government's Technology Strategy Board announced 1 million pounds in funding to help fuel that effort.

Innovation Programmes Director David Bott explains how Tech City Launchpad will work.

David Bott, Technology Strategy Board Director of Innovation Programmes saying:

"The front end is basically putting in a two-minute video explaining why you think you've got a really cool idea and what you're going to do with it. We're going to down select that to about 20 proposals, get people to put in a small business plan - not a big heavy duty thing and that's going to be assessed and the top ten will get a promisary note, a cheque. Whatever you want to call it, to go out into the community and find the matching funds from the angels, the venture funders, other corporates and so on."

Nearby in a non-descript building affectionately known as MOO HQ for the print business it houses, a small team of software engineers works quietly away on an application that's been the subject of a lot of cyberspeculation of late.

Tweetdeck is a tool that allows people to organise their Twitter and Facebook feeds to make them more manageable. Earlier in the week, the technology site TechCrunch reported that Tweetdeck had been acquired by Twitter for cash and Twitter stock worth between 40 and 50 million dollars, quoting a source familiar with the matter.

Tweetdeck founder and CEO Iain Dodworth:

Iain Dodsworth, Tweetdeck Founder and CEO saying:

"Well they're rumours. We're not going to comment on rumours."

Regardless, for a London-based company with only 14 employees, Tweetdeck is demonstrating the power of a good idea combined with effective execution.

Iain Dodsworth, Tweetdeck Founder and CEO saying:

"It's been an interesting ride. I put out Tweetdeck as a product two and a half years ago and it took off from day one and it was never designed as a product for everyone. It wasn't even a product that was designed. It was just a product that fixed my problems with Twitter and from there it became very apparent that other people were having the same problems."

Dodsworth may have started Tweetdeck with minimal ambition, but he says he's open to opportunities that will could help it go a lot further.

Iain Dodsworth, Tweetdeck Founder and CEO saying):

"You get to a very obvious point in the life cycle of a very small team. You either need more funding, you need to crack the revenue thing that we haven't cracked."

From where Dodsworth is sitting, the fact that Tweetdeck is constructing its product so far from the tech capital of the world is neither here nor there.

Iain Dodsworth, Tweetdeck Founder and CEO saying:

"It hasn't been a factor that we're not in Silicon Valley. Over the last two and a half years you've seen London grow to - and I think this is still the case - the biggest concentration of Twitterers is actually in London and that's a coincidence, but what a great coincidence for us to be here in the middle of things when normally you'd expect that to be in Silicon Valley."

Back at the Digital Shoreditch festival, in a room built beside a Roman wall - London's wealth of creative talent inspired one rather bold claim.

Unidentified speaker saying:

"The vision is simply this - we are going to be the world's number one place for digital creativity. If you want to do tech, got to Silicon Valley. If you want to do digital creative, come to Shoreditch."

It's worth noting that this part of town has launched a fair few creative talents over the years - including that of aspiring poet and playwright who landed here from Stratford in the late 1500s. His name was Shakespeare.

Still today, the narrative of Shoreditch remains compelling.

Matt Cowan, Reuters