A TECHNOLOGY start-up has criticised what its founder said is a “ma baw” culture in the Scottish start-up community, which inhibits the sort of collaborative partnerships that encourage fledgling technology firms to prosper.

The founders of Centric App secured $600,000 angel investment in New York after failing to find funding in a “difficult” and “bureaucratic” Scottish investment culture.

Centric App was launched in the US and UK last month. The mobile app aggregates video content from social media platforms with the aim of providing users with a digest of what is happening in their area, from gig clips to comedy or local news.

Chief executive Vincent Gibson and co-founder Ed Brooks launched parent company ifussss (If you see something, share something) in 2013 after meeting when Mr Gibson answered an advert seeking collaboration on a video business.

“We believe there should be a platform that allows people to know what’s around them without moving from one platform to another and searching. The content should come to them rather than them going to the content.”

Users download the app, which uses geographical metadata to aggregate localised video content from Twitter, YouTube and Periscope, filtering results from street level to a 22 mile radius.

Mr Gibson explained: “If I’m in Glasgow and there’s a gig in the Hydro, I’m in the west end so I’ll see a lot of footage from that gig. I’ll also get local news stories published on YouTube. Every city, it’s about people recording their own music, comedy, putting it up there. The undiscovered stuff, there for the sake of it, rather than controlled content.”

Mr Gibson, who has worked with the likes of social platform Kiltr, BBC Scotland and Glasgow Caledonian University, conceded that there was a degree of luck involved in breaking through in an intensely crowded market where the likes of Twitter truly stand out.

But by focussing on video-only content, he believes Centric App has a genuine point of difference. “Video is how people are communicating, it’s only going to get bigger.”

YouTube statistics show that three billion hours of content are viewed every month, and Cisco has predicted that 69 per cent of all internet traffic will be video in 2017.

Back in 2013, the founders held discussions with Business Gateway, but say they ran into problems because the business was registered in both New York – where Mr Brooks was living by this point – and Scotland.

“We fell down a rabbit hole; they said we had to prove we were Scottish, and I said, well I’m from Paisley and Ed’s from Hyndland.

“It started a bureaucratic nightmare that went on and on.”

Business Gateway have indicated that funding may have been dependent on the company’s registered trading address.

The issue ended when the pair secured $600,000 angel investment in New York and opted to dissolve the business in Scotland.

Speaking of the investment culture in Scotland, Mr Gibson said it was “very difficult.”

“It’s not very inclusive, it’s not very collaborative. Scotland brought enlightenment to the world, we invented half the industrial world, and now there’s this huge technology revolution and we’re contributing hee-haw. And the talent is still here so why is that?

“Scotland has a ‘ma baw’ culture. In New York everyone’s helping each other, ‘we know a guy that can give you money’ and so on.”

To illustrate his point, Mr Gibson tells of a meeting with Buzzfeed and Huffington Post investor Lerer Hippeau Ventures where he used a five-year business plan that had been put together for prospective Scottish investors.

“They asked if I was monk,” he said. “I asked what he meant and he said ‘only monks have visions’. These were New York guys who just wanted to know what it did.”

“What strikes me in Scotland, is people who think they’re on Dragon’s Den, they want to make a bit of money, that’s my experience from a couple of years ago. Maybe it’s changed. Hopefully it’s changed. It just seemed a more difficult process.”

Now launched on Apple's app store and with 3,000 downloads in its first month, Mr Gibson is about to launch a second round of funding which will refine the product and help it grow.

“Some people think the role of a start-up is to raise money but the role of a start-up is to make a product that is sustainable,” said Mr Gibson. “Raising money is just part of that. You’ve got to do what your core business is and we need to have the expertise to do that and to bring it to market.”