You guys need to sleep with eachother. Actually, let’s clarify that. You can “sleep rough” for one night to raise money for homeless kids. Plus it’s an awesome way to make contacts. Did we say that? Yes.

Let’s be cynical for a moment. Byte Night is a UK-wide charity event from the technology industry – more the corporate “I.T.” world than startups – which has been going for 10 years. Every year mostly corporate technology CEOs and executives bed down in sleeping bags to support and raise awareness for the charity Action for Children, raising over £550,000. This year there will be 700 sleepers across all Byte Night locations, including London, Reading, Cambridge, Manchester and Edinburgh, all on 8th October.

But frankly let’s cut to the chase here.

Roaming the Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt I came across Teamly, a new web app designed to help businesses manage their employees better. Yes, I know that sounds familiar, but what I liked about it was that this was a super, super simple app compared to a lot of the feature-crammed companies out there in this space.

The issue here is that a lot of corporate systems for managing people are really not designed for small businesses. They are just too complex, being packed full of to-do’s, tasks and projects. So Teamly is out to try and makes all that performance monitoring way easier.

EngageSciences, exhibiting in the Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt this week, has revealed it’s closed an angel investment of $750,000 from private European investors. Terms were not disclosed but we understand the round came from some UK and European angels.

The startup has been developing its application since December, focusing the concept of “social nurturing” – a fancy way of saying its about getting more fans for brand brands and companies. The startup is slightly different form the the current crop of U.S. social media marketing vendors, in that too many of these companies just focus on just getting more “Likes” for brands or increasing their fan count or simply running a one-off contest. This is rather tactical and avoids the issue of user retention in the longer term.

Let’s see now, exactly how did Silicon Valley become Silicon Valley? Well, there was decades of history from the 1930s onwards. Hewlett and Packard in their garage; World War 2 and the development of the military industrial complex in the Bay Area; and of course the creation of the technology industry. That’s not all, but those were some of the crucial elements.

But what really helped create the Valley was an almost zero barrier to entry and an open environment committed to sharing information and a huge tolerance of risk. Companies clustered in geography, but also hung out with eachother in a random, serendipitous manner which created sparks of ideas and innovation. In other words, the Valley was not really built on formality in the way that too many things in Europe are for it’s own good.

Which is why we’re supporting the new #TechHubFriday events in London at the new work space for the tech community in London TechHub, and especially this Friday which will be a free demo night for entrepreneurs and startups (interest disclosed). You can come along, meet other tech entrepreneurs, have a drink and show people what you’re working on.

Looks like Jaiku founder and former Googler Jyri Engeström is up to something new. According to an SEC filing, a startup listing Engeström as chief executive officer called Pingpin has just raised $775,000 in financing.

Backers are BetaWorks (the startup’s address matches that of the early-stage investment firm) and True Ventures, as founder and managing partner Jon Callaghan is listed as a director as well.

Dawn Capital has invested a “substantial” but undisclosed amount in Optimalprint, the European online printing company. Optimalprint says it will use the new capital to expand its existing technology and distribution platform, initially in Europe but eventually globally.

The company, founded in 2007, offers premium quality, low cost printed materials for residential and business customers, such as greeting and business cards, office stationery, invitations and calendars, targeting 50 countries worldwide.

Geomium, a new location-based social network, gets its official launch today, in London first but with other UK cites and then Europe and the U.S. to follow.

As with other such services, it lets users connect with friends, but it also emphasises meeting new people and throws in venue data such as bars, restaurants, etc., as well as local deals and events — all with a focus on real time. If anything the service is in danger of overwhelming the user while also coming across as another me-too offering: How is Geomium different to the likes of Facebook Places, Foursquare, Rummble, Yelp etc.? But actually, that’s why it might just work.

For anyone that has ever struggled to string together a music playlist – whether it be for listening to at the gym, a party, at work or just casually – you may want to listen up. Playlistnow.fm, a brand new startup coming out of Paris, recently launched a microblogging platform that allows users to discover new music by sharing playlists.

When we covered the startup in TechCrunch France, it was nothing shy of a hit with our readers. Perhaps that’s because the platform also managed to do what Apple’s Ping does not do so well: integrate social.

Citing a change in the “political landscape”, The Difference Engine, a publicly-funded Ycombinator-style acceleration programme for early-stage tech businesses, is making cuts to its investment budget.

As a result, they’ve reduced the overall funding from £20k per team to £5k for the idea plus £3,200 per founder (max 3 founders) for which they have also reduced the shareholding from 8% to 6%. The Different Engine, funded in part by One North East, is keen, however, to stress that there have been no cutbacks in the programme itself, which along with investment, offers mentoring and free accommodation for 16 weeks.

Germany’s leading online private shopping club, Brands4friends, has hit somewhat of a milestone this week, ratcheting up €1 million worth of sales in a single day. Just in time for its third birthday, apparently.