The Startup Microdose Podcast & The Future of Information Sharing

Podcasts are becoming some of the most avidly consumed content available. More and more people are tuning for their ‘microdose’ of wisdom from industry leaders and pioneers. It’s a great and easy way to broaden your mind while you commute, work, cook, exercise and relax.

I’ve got in on the act with my colleague, Ed Stephens, from the senior team at Angel Investment Network.

On our show, The Startup Microdose Podcast, we interview successful entrepreneurs and investors to unpack their stories, opinions, quirks and wisdom.
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Popular episodes include:

Oleg Fomenko, Founder of Sweatcoin – the fastest growing health and fitness app in history

Anthony Rose, CEO of Seedlegals – angel investor and the man who built BBC iPlayer

Pip Jamieson, CEO of The Dots – ‘The LinkedIn for Creatives’

Tim Armoo – the 23-year- old marketing whizz behind Fanbytes – a Snapchat-focused influencer marketing platform

You can view all available episodes with full descriptions on iTunes or www.startupmicrodose.com

microdose itunes

The Future of Podcasting – The Interactive Experience with Entale

As part of this project, we’ve teamed up with our friends at Founders Factory-backed Entale.

They are revolutionising the podcast experience by incorporating visual context, time-stamped links and chaptering. These additional features allow listeners to derive a deeper and more interactive experience from their favourite podcasts.

microdose entale

They’ve got a tonne of great shows already on the platform including The Startup Microdose, so make sure you check out their app!

Coming up on The Startup Microdose Podcast:

Maya Pindeus, Founder of Humanising Autonomy (Deep Machine Learning in Autonomous Vehicles)

Emma Sayle, Founder of Killing Kittens & one of the UK’s leading ‘sex-entrepreneurs

Julian Hearn, Founder of Huel (Nutritionally complete food)

Giles Rhy-Jones, CMO of what3words (A new address sysstem for the world – previously featured on this blog in a post called “How what3words are Changing the World

We are very excited to share this with you – enjoy!

Do you want to be interviewed on the podcast? Or know someone with entrepreneurial flair and knowledge to share?

I’d love to hear from you…

What are the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals?

In the past few years, there has been a dramatic surge in interest relating to so-called ‘impact’ companies and investments. Public awareness and concern for global economic, environmental and social issues are at an all-time high. We attribute this in part to the so-called ‘Blue Planet Effect‘ and in part, to the ever more ominous severity of the issues we face. As a result, institutions like United Nations have set out strategies like their Sustainable Development Goals to help solve these issues (more on these below).

The data from Angel Investment Network‘s 1 million users reflect this growth in interest. We’ve seen an astonishing 250% increase in the number of investors interested in the Greentech & Environment industry in the UK since 2016. The number of companies raising money who define themselves as ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainable’ has blown up at a similar rate.

And we don’t expect this interest to dwindle anytime soon. Our newest product, Seedtribe, was built to support investors and companies in the ‘impact’ sector. In a previous post, I described how Seedtribe is encouraging investors to commit more to this space and I defined ‘impact’ in this context as:

…when an investor backs a business which has a social and/or environmental mission at its core…[but is also] targetting profitability alongside its social mission.

This works as a general definition. And makes the important point that investing in ‘impact’ is NOT philanthropy.

This point is reflected in Seedtribe’s model for selecting companies. There two key focus areas in our evaluation:
  • We are committed to generating returns for our investors. We select businesses that we believe have the strongest chance of achieving high-growth and/or high-profit. These will ultimately have the best chance of producing returns for investors. Our investment committee has 14 years’ experience investing in and raising finance for startups. It employs due diligence methods honed over this period to pick the most promising companies.
  • We are also committed to working on ‘impact’ businesses. Our investment committee also evaluates businesses according to criteria developed by the United Nations, known as ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs). It is these businesses which we believe will produce positive and lasting change in the world and allow our investors to invest in impact.

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But what are the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs)?

The SDGs, or Global Goals for Sustainable Development, are a collection of 17 global objectives set by the United Nations in 2015.

The 17 goals focus on global social, environmental and economic issues. Their purpose is to produce positive and lasting change across key development problems in all countries.

The official title for the project is ‘Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’.

The goals are broad and interdependent, but each has its own specific targets. Each goal is described in brief below:

Goal 1: No Poverty

End poverty in all its forms

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3: Good Health & Wellbeing

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4: Quality Education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5: Gender Equality

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6: Clean Water & Sanitation

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7: Affordable & Clean Energy

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption & Production

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13: Climate Action

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Goal 14: Life Below Water

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 15: Life on Land

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

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How is Seedtribe helping?

The UN recognises that successful implementation of these targets will be most realistically achieved by individuals and institutions working towards them on a local and regional level. Lasting global impact will then be realised provided there is a sufficient collective effort across different regions.

Seedtribe aims to contribute to this collective effort. We help investors and entrepreneurs use their skills and resources to create impactful businesses with the potential to affect positive change across all these SDGs.

Watch this space.

Impact Investing Interview #3: How what3words are Changing the World

My first project when I joined Angel Investment Network back in 2014 was to organise a pitching event in central London. We selected five of the most exciting UK companies who were fundraising; we had no specific agenda to include impact companies – we just wanted innovation! We prepped them to pitch to 150 investors whom we had specially invited from our network.

what3words was one of those companies.

Mike Lebus & James Badgett, the founders of Angel Investment Network, had already invested in what3words’ seed round – so they were keen for Chris Sheldrick, the CEO and co-founder, to put in a good performance.
chris what3words impact

He obliged. His understated charisma perfectly complemented the visionary nature of the project – dividing the globe into 57 trillion 3×3 squares and giving each a three-word “postcode”.

I was thoroughly impressed. The investors appeared less so, preferring to engage the other companies (some SaaS products and a few apps) in conversation during the post-pitch drinks. This lack of impact baffled me. I asked some of them what they thought of what3words – it was a cool idea but apparently, they couldn’t see its application.

Four years later they must be kicking themselves!

Since closing £600k through Angel Investment Network, they have gone on to raise $13.8m across several funding rounds with Intel Capital leading a $3.5m Series A; and Aramex International leading a $8.5m Series B. Their most recent round was a corporate one with German car manufacturer Daimler buying 10% of the company in January 2018.

And that application problem?

Well, I’ll let you read for yourself in my interview with the what3words team below.

Prepare to have your mind blown…

The Interview

Part 1 – About what3words

What’s your mission?

We are on a mission to make the world more efficient, less frustrating and safer. Our goal is to be a global standard, giving everyone and everything a simple, accurate and reliable address they can use whenever they need it. what3words impact 7

We want businesses, governments and services worldwide to use 3-word addresses to become more efficient, and improve their customer experience.

At the same time, we look forward to showing how better addressing can reduce businesses’ environmental impact, ease pressure on crowded cities, fuel economic growth in developing nations and save lives.
what3words impact 3

Who are your clients?

Our 3-word addresses are now used by over 650 businesses, government agencies and NGOs across over 170 countries, and by sectors including automotive, e-commerce, logistics, automotive & mobility, travel & navigation, post, national infrastructure, events, humanitarian, disaster response and emergency services.

Our customers include Mercedes-Benz, who are about to launch the world’s first car with built-in what3words voice navigation. Drivers will be able to say a 3-word address and navigate to a precise destination, anywhere in the world.

Global logistics giant Aramex has integrated what3words to optimise its last mile operations in the Middle East and South Africa. Many other couriers and food delivery customers are using 3-word addresses, including Domino’s Pizza in Saudi Arabia.

National postal services in 10 countries to date have adopted what3words, giving over 200 million people an accurate and reliable address, many for the first time. Many of our customers are innovative future-facing companies including DXC Drones and IBM’s #AccessibleOlli.

Our humanitarian partners include the United Nations, who have adopted the what3words system for its disaster response and recovery app UN-ASIGN, alongside the Red Cross. Other NGOs include Gateway Health in South Africa, who are using what3words to address township homes on the outskirts of Durban, and who have trained local ambulance drivers to use 3-word addresses to reach pregnant women faster in the township areas, saving lives.

(Remember that application problem?)

What stage are you at?

what3words started in March 2013. A team of three managed it through its early development and funding. We now have over 70 employees across the world and we’re growing fast.

what3words can be easily integrated by businesses, governments and NGOs into apps, platforms or websites, with just a few lines of code using our online API or SDKs. Our free what3words app, available for iOS and Android, and the online map enable people to find, share and navigate to 3-word addresses is available in 22 languages. 3-word addresses can be switched instantly into any supported language, and even looked up in one language and shared in another.

what3words impact 4

Our newest product, 3WordPhoto, allows people to easily label photos with a 3-word address and share them in any language. This means that a simple photo, shared in a message or on Twitter, can give a precise location.

We have already had great success integration our system with voice input with specific automotive partners, and intend to roll out voice capability into our own products in the future.

What is your business model?

what3words is free for individuals, and qualifying not-for-profit and humanitarian entities.

For business use, we sell licenses for our products including our API and SDKs, and services such as very large-scale batch conversion of 3-word addresses to GPS coordinates or vice versa.

How much funding have you raised to date?

To get to where we are today we put a lot of energy into seeking out the right investors to bring the business credibility, contacts, experience, and knowledge as-as well as funding.

We are incredibly lucky to have a range of industry-experts backing what3words, all drawing upon extensive expertise, following successful careers in the automotive, technology, venture capital, and challenger sectors.

Earlier this year, Daimler acquired a 10% stake in the business, following the announcement that Mercedes-Benz is about to launch the world’s first car with built-in what3words voice navigation. Our Series B investment round was led by Aramex, with other notable investors including Deutsche Bahn and Intel Capital.

What’s next?

Within the next year, we will launch our 28th language, allowing 3.8 billion people to use 3-word addresses in their home language (that’s 51% of the world).

We also expect to open more local offices to add to those we’ve opened in Mongolia and South Africa.

Our growth plans involve more global integrations to add to Daimler, Aramex and the UN, along with focused local market activity targeting all sectors within one country or region, creating an ecosystem in which 3-word addresses become a standard.

An example of this is Mongolia, where what3words is already used for post, e-commerce, taxis, banking, fast-food delivery, tourism and microfinance.

Part 2 – What3Words on Impact

What does “impact” mean to you as a profit-driven company?

We believe that companies should do good by doing business. We want to make our system as accessible as possible – what3words is free for individuals, and qualifying not-for-profit and humanitarian entities.

The practical impact of what3words is very clear: we give everyone and everywhere a simple address. Providing a simple way to communicate the location of homes, remote areas and disaster zone enables social and economic inclusion, the delivery of mail and facilitates emergency responses, registering to vote or opening a bank account.

We recently conducted global research and discovered that an astonishing 33% of people are open to trying an entirely new form of addressing.
what3words impact 2

Can you give me an example of how what3words is used in the UK? And in the “developing world”?

The what3words technology is being used all across the UK: from a number of police forces to the emergency response teams at Glastonbury, delivery companies and Black Tomato a luxury travel company.

But it’s not just companies benefiting from the technology; individuals in the UK are using what3words every day to meet friends at festivals, organise running clubs in Hyde Park, planning hikes in the Peak District, communicate the location of injured animals on farms and to guide guests to their AirBnB entrances.

We are enabling everyone, everywhere in the world, whether they are in cities, on remote islands or even in tents on the Mongolian plains, to have a simple and reliable address.

An example of this, as mentioned above, is the fast developing country of Mongolia – remote and nomadic in culture – who have adopted what3words as their official addressing system. Now, for the first time, Mongolians are able to receive mail, register for a bank account and receive food deliveries – all by using a 3-word address. Similarly, we have been adopted by countries such as the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, and Nigeria as a recognised form of address.

Do you support any charities?

what3words is, and always will be free for not-for-profit and humanitarian entities. We are used by diverse humanitarian partners, and it’s powerful to see our technology supporting those in need. We were used by the Mexican Government to aid disaster relief during last year’s earthquake, and are being used today by the Red Cross, NATO and the United Nations to provide humanitarian aid.

We are also used by a number of smaller nonprofits – one of our earlier partnerships which still remains incredibly special to us is Gateway Health. The Gateway Health Institute provides healthcare and community services in disadvantaged areas across South Africa. They run programs to deliver medicine, supply emergency transport for women in labour, and identify hot spots for human rights abuses. But many of these programs struggle due to the lack of reliable addressing.

Gateway Health uses 3-word addresses in the township of KwaNdengezi, near Durban. The what3words grid system means that every part of the township – including homes, community centres and facilities like water pumps – already has a pre-assigned and fixed address.

what3words impact 5

Once a home knows its 3-word address, its residents can share the location accurately and reliably. Medical services can identify where pregnant women live and provide them with essential pre-natal care. Should any complications occur during labour, ambulance crews also know exactly where to go, to provide life-saving assistance.

What is your current biggest challenge?

Our biggest challenge is that we’re trying to effect a huge, global behavioural change. People have been using street addresses their entire lives, without questioning them. They get lost, packages go astray and billions of people worldwide have no address at all but, until they’re challenged to really think about it, some people don’t inherently feel there’s a problem.

We’re overcoming that challenge by refining how we clearly and quickly demonstrate the problem, finding examples (and there are so many) of when poor street addressing frustrates individuals and costs companies billions. As soon as people see how poor addressing affects them personally, they immediately see the need for our solution.

What are you most proud of/excited about for your business?

The Mercedes-Benz partnership was a huge achievement, and the announcement at CES was an incredible memorable moment for us. The process was also especially fast – taking only 6 months from inception to integration – and there are already over 700,000 cars on the road which are what3words enabled.

what3words impact 6

Because poor addressing affects so many industries – from navigation to travel, logistics to events – it’s exciting to see the tangible impact that our technology brings, and the room for exponential adoption. Bad addressing is so universal that our potential partners and use cases are unconstrained.

So where does what3words come on the Impact Scale?

The vision of this company is extraordinary. Four years ago it was so extraordinary that many of our investors could not see its application and potential impact. The what3words team’s execution over the past four years has made a mockery of that.

Here is a company that can count itself among the most innovative to come out of the UK tech scene in recent years. Who knows what the future holds for them but I’d put my money on good things!

Angel Investment Network’s latest project SeedTribe, which focuses on angel-led crowdfunding for impact companies, was built to help companies like what3words get off the ground and change the world. You can view latest impact companies here.

I hope that what3words’ story can inspire budding impact entrepreneurs and investors to build impactful companies.

Impact Investing Interview #2: Netflix for Independent Films

Last month, I published our first ‘Impact Investing Interview’ with Work For Good who are revolutionising the market for corporate charity donations. Since the publication of that interview, Work For Good is now overfunding (accepting pledges until 30th April) on SeedTribe (Angel Investment Network’s impact-conscious crowdfunding platform). Thanks to those of you who contributed and shared!

For those new to impact investment, the post starts with a concise definition of impact investment, its benefits to investors and its ability to bring about positive and lasting change in the world.

The purpose of this series of interviews is to edify and entertain investors and entrepreneurs with an interest in impact and socially responsible investment/entrepreneurship.

Today’s interview is with Dean Fisher, the Director of Bow Street Media whose latest project ‘Film Ahoy‘ is bringing a socially-conscious angle to online film distribution. It’s an enormous market but often considered ethically-bankrupt.

Film Ahoy is working to change this…

The Interview

Part 1 – About Film Ahoy

What’s your mission?

Our mission is to create an alternative film distribution platform for both consumers and filmmakers. The product we’ve been developing will change the industry and offer great alternative programming. We plan to launch the platform soon with the aim to be online on mobile and eventually on smart TV’s.

Who are your clients?

The digital distribution market has now outgrown the physical distribution market. On one side, our clients are consumers who watch films online; and on the other side, content providers and filmmakers complete our client base.

Norjmaa_poster_awards impact

What stage are you at in your business?

We have developed the technology and the website is ready to go live. We have also got on board an advertising partner who can start selling advertising on the site. So far we have secured over 150 titles to the site and will continue to grow the films on offer. We are going to soft launch the website and then start marketing it to consumers to build traffic and awareness for the Film Ahoy brand.

What’s your business model?

We acquire and place films on the Film Ahoy platform where consumers can watch them for free. All they have to do is watch 2-minute commercial breaks every twenty minutes. If they don’t want to watch the commercials, they will pay £1 per film to own the title and be free of commercials. All revenue is split 50/50 with the filmmakers. We will also generate additional revenue through ad placements on the site.

How much funding have you raised to date?

We have raised £67,500 through SEIS.

What’s next for your company?

We are launching the site in the next couple of weeks. There are a few tweaks being done by our developer next week and then we are ready to go. All of our marketing materials are in place and ready to go live. Each film’s trailer will also be promoted on the web through social media and advert placements. (Here’s a link to the new consumer advert).

Once the site starts to build traffic, we are going to produce the app for IOS and Android. We also have some options to put the site on Smart TV’s which will give the consumer every chance of using the platform.

Part 2 – Film Ahoy’s Potential Impact

impact

What does “Impact” mean to you as a profit-driven company?

We will generate 50% from all advertising and pay per view revenue. We can also generate revenue from Google adverts, product placement, merchandise and the sale of statistics on how many times each film is viewed. The overheads of running the company are quite low so we feel we can turn this into a profitable business in a reasonable time frame.

What are the metrics you will use to track/measure your impact?

We have targets each year on how many views we are looking to achieve. We can assess our progress on a month by month basis. Our reporting system gives us the stats we need to monitor our progress. We can also what campaigns will help drive traffic to the site.

How do you go about choosing and confirming the films to list on your platform?

We attend film markets all year around. The three key film markets are Berlinale in February, Cannes in May and the AFM in November. At the markets, we meet with as many content providers as possible. These can be in the form of filmmakers, sales agents who represent films or distributors. So far we have some signed deals with a large number of companies. They provide us with multiple titles which we curate by initially watching the trailers and the films. At the end of the American Film Market, we had received over 1000 films.

What is the vision for the company?

The vision for the company is to launch in the UK first of all. We want to focus on building the brand and making the platform the go-to place for free independent films. Once we have established ourselves in the UK, we will then move into the US market.

Can you tell us more about the need for Film Ahoy in the film industry? What do you see as the biggest challenges in the film/media industry at the moment and how do you hope to address any of them?

The market has many subscription service providers for every genre. We feel we have a different angle and will appeal to both consumers and filmmakers. For consumers they do not want to subscribe to every service available and some people cannot afford monthly fees. Film Ahoy is an easy-to-use, no-commitment service. Consumers will put up with adverts if the content is free.

We don’t feel that an independent film should be £9.99 to purchase online. Independent films need to be more competitive and priced accordingly. When iTunes came out tracks were £0.69, this took away the need for people to download illegally as it was easier to purchase the track then look over the net and download a virus. Pricing films at £1 to own means that independent films can be competitive.

The industry is becoming more and more challenging. Hollywood Comic book films perform consistently but independent films have to fight to find their voice. We have got the support of the industry and many companies have signed up to provide content. For filmmakers, they can use Film Ahoy as an additional revenue stream. We will also be encouraging people to promote their films on the platform which will drive traffic to the site. Eventually, people will be making films just to go up on Film Ahoy which will give us unique content.

What is your current biggest challenge and how are you seeking to address it?

We feel we need a reasonable marketing budget to grow the company and create awareness for the brand. If we do not raise as much as we hope the growth of the company will be slower.

What are you most proud of/excited about for your business?

We feel this model can really shake up the industry. Cynical people would say how can you compete with Netflix or Amazon. The marketplace is big enough for new players and services which gives the consumer an alternative viewing experience. We feel that Film Ahoy can break into the market and become a global brand.

Interested in Impact Investment?

If you want to find out more about Film Ahoy and their current fundraising round, visit their pitch page on Seedtribe.

Do you anyone who might consider using Work For Good for their business?

Do you know anyone interested in impact investing?

Please consider sharing. You’ll be doing good!

Our Top Female Founders for International Women’s Day

Here’s our list of the top women founders we’ve worked with over the years. Why? To celebrate International Women’s Day 2018, of course!

There are some great names and some great companies. So in no particular order, our women of the moment and their success stories so far…

Tech Women

Pip Jamieson – Founder & CEO, The Dots

pip jamieson international womens day 2018
Pip started out in the British civil service, then worked with MTV (actually launching MTV in New Zealand aged just 24). She then founded a ‘LinkedIn for creatives’ called The Loop in Australia.

After exiting this, she returned to the UK and its £76bn creative sector to replicate that success. From her houseboat by King’s Cross, she started ‘The Dots’. The company is on a mission to connect 1 million creatives this year and is going viral across the sector.

Pip is a Sunday Times Top 100 Entrepreneur, an outspoken advocate for diversity in the workplace and a champion for dyslexics worldwide.

I recently interviewed her with my colleague for The Startup Microdose Podcast. We talk about the story of the Dots, diversity issues in the workplace and its important role in the creative process, on avoiding unconscious cultural biases and on how companies like The Dots are working to create more equality of opportunity.

? The podcast is not fully released yet, but you can listen to a chapter on diversity in tech here ?

Kim Nilsson – Founder & CEO, Pivigo

Recently named Entrepreneur of the Year, Kim has featured heavily on this blog over the years.
Kim-Nilsson international womens day 2018
Following a career in academia (including work on the Hubble Space Telescope), Dr Kim Nilsson has walked a gilded path since founding Pivigo in 2013. Pivigo has closed numerous funding rounds to propel its impressive growth – it is now the world’s largest community of data scientists.

Kat Bruce – Director, Nature Metrics

NatureMetrics is an award-winning technology start-up using cutting-edge genetic techniques to monitor biodiversity. Check out their website for more information.

Dupsy Abiola – Founder, Intern Avenue

After leaving a successful career as a barrister, Dupsy founded Intern Avenue in 2010.

Intern Avenue is a multi-award winning early stage tech company named best recruitment start up in Europe at the Techcrunch/Web Summit run Europas Award 2013. The platform connects with employers with students and graduates. It was acquired by Bright Network in December 2017.
dupsy abiola international womens day 2018
Dupsy was named as one of the most influential black businesswomen in the UK in 2013. She also successfully pitched on the Dragons Den TV series.

Julia Tan – Co-Founder & COO, Peg

The Peg platform help marketers collaborate with influential YouTube creators. They have raised £1.6m in funding to date.

On the side, Julia co-built a free, crowdsourced list of over 1000 investors. https://investorlist.co/; graduated from the Makers Academy coding bootcamp; and ran the Berlin and Rome marathons.

Food & Beverage Women

Olivia Sibony – Co-Founder, GrubClub

Olivia founded the FoodTech, sharing economy, start-up Grub Club in 2012. It’s an award-winning marketplace for unique, social dining experiences, featured in The Guardian, BBC, Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Stylist, Nudge, Time Out.
Liv Sibony international womens day 2018
Since exiting Grub Club late in 2017, Olivia has started as the Head of Crowdfunding at SeedTribe, Angel Investment Network’s new angel-led crowdfunding platform.

Tania Rahman – Founder & CEO, Chit Chaat Chai

Tania launched Chit Chaat Chai as a street food market stall across London and Hampshire, it has gone on to receive critical acclaim from the Independent and the BBC. The Asian Business Awards recently recognised Chit Chaat Chai as New Business of the Year 2017.

The restaurant has been featured widely across the media, including in The Telegraph, the BBC, CNN International, BBC Radio London, Hospitality Interiors magazine and in Time Out magazine, listed as one of the three best new Indian locals for 2017.
tania rahman international womens day 2018
She is a mentor for food start-up accelerators in both London and Singapore, helping young food start-ups, including as a panellist at the House of Commons empowering minority leaders in the UK workforce.

She was recognised in the British Bangladeshi Top 100, a celebration of 100 leading British Bangladeshi figures who are helping to shape a better Britain with their ideas, example and talent, and received an Honourable Mention as a Finalist in the Rising Star category at The Caterer Shine Awards 2017.

Fashion Women

Molly Goddard – Co-Founder, Desmond & Dempsey

Molly co-founded luxury sleepwear brand, Desmond & Dempsey, with her now-husband, Joel, in 2014. A Guardian Startup of the Year in 2015-16 and a graduate from Angel investment Network’s accelerator programme, the company continues to go from strength to strength. Renowned for its super-cool prints, slouchy cotton fabric and effortless tailored cuts, they’re now stocked in department stores from London to New York.

Polly McMaster – Founder & CEO, The Fold)

Polly set up The Fold London in January 2011. Her love of fashion and desire to empower women in the workplace were the inspiration to create a chic new brand for professional women.
polly mcmaster international womens day 2018
Polly comes from the competitive world of consulting and finance, with a Cambridge PhD in Molecular Biology and an MBA at London Business School. In July 2013, Management Today voted Polly one of ‘35 Women Under 35’.

It’s been a pleasure working with all of them. And we, at Angel Investment Network, wish them all the very best for the future.

Who was Entrepreneur of the Year 2017?

The Women in IT Awards, the world’s largest technology diversity event, recently revealed the winners of its 2017 programme including ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in front of 1,000 business and technology leaders.

It came as no surprise to us that Dr Kim Nilsson, founder of Pivigo, was ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’.

Pivigo’s upward trajectory…

18 months ago, I reported that data science marketplace, Pivigo, had closed its latest funding round (£300k through Angel Investment Network) off the back of some impressive growth.

6 months ago, I reported that Pivigo was one of the 15 fastest growing female-founded UK tech companies selected to represent the UK government in a link building initiative with Silicon Valley and the US tech scene. (The lowest growth rate of the 15 companies selected was 118% annually!).

pivigo data science entrepreneur

Following a career in academia (including work on the Hubble Space Telescope), Dr Kim Nilsson has walked a gilded path since founding Pivigo in 2013. Pivigo has closed numerous funding rounds to propel its impressive growth – it is now the world’s largest community of data scientists.

This latest accolade came at the Women in IT awards, an event aimed at celebrating diversity and inclusion in the tech industry, hosted by Maggie Philbin OBE and Martha Lane Fox.

Dr Kim was typically magnanimous in her acceptance of the award, highlighting the great work of the whole team at Pivigo:

To be chosen as the winner in a highly competitive category is great validation for the work we do at Pivigo, innovating and disrupting an exciting industry.

On behalf of the team at Angel Investment Network, I would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Kim and the team.

Keep up the good work!

If you’re a business looking to leverage the power of its data or an individual looking to build your career in data science, visit Pivigo to find out more.

How to perform due diligence on your investors

Why is due diligence important?

Strict due diligence was not always necessary.

In the past, if you wanted to find investment for your business, your options were closely tied to the reach of your personal network.

This had the following consequences:

On the one hand, any investor you were introduced would most likely have come from a referral you trusted. As a result, trusting the prospective investor and their credentials was relatively easy. Most of the due diligence was accomplished via the intimacy of the referral.

On the other hand, your reach would have been limited to your network. And as a result, many businesses would have failed to find funding because their entrepreneurs weren’t linked to any ‘Old Boys’ Club’ or similar.

due diligence old boys' club

Today, the rise of networking and connection sites like LinkedIn and more specifically, Angel Investment Network, means that you can now access investors from all over the world. Investors whose network would never have overlapped with yours.

This democratisation of access means that more and more people are receiving investment, irrespective of background. This is, of course, great news (though there is still much work to be done).

However, this brings its own dangers.

Entrepreneurs looking for funding are often in a vulnerable state. They have invested time, effort, passion and resources into a project, but they need financial support to take it further. As a result, they can be overeager to accept funding from wherever it is offered which can be a bad idea.

This is where simple due diligence work can help entrepreneurs to easily avoid the pitfalls of scammers and con-artists.

What is due diligence?

Due diligence is the general term used to describe any background check on a company or individual to see if they are legitimate and suitable to do business with.

Basically, in the case of angel investment, it’s checking that an investor is who they say they are and can help you in the ways they suggest they can.

This process starts, in a loose sense, from the moment you connect with a prospective investor as that’s when you start forming an impression of them. But you only need to formalise the process when you are sure they are interested.

In this sense, due diligence is a complementary part of investor relations.

You don’t then need to carry out full due diligence on every investor you speak to. But, when the relationship progresses to the point of meeting and discussing deal terms, then it’s a good idea to make sure you know exactly who you’re dealing with.

How do I perform due diligence on investors?

1. Talk to the investor

It is a good idea to be upfront and tell the investor that you want to research them.

This is such a simple course of action. But too many entrepreneurs are afraid of annoying their investor leads and scaring them away.

A good investor will not only understand why you want to check but will be reassured that you want to. It shows that you are diligent and professional.

Remember, they want to trust you too if they are going to invest in your company!

You can tell a lot from an investor’s reaction to this. If they help you in your research, then you’re onto a winner. They should provide you with links to their online profiles and emails addresses for people they have worked with.

If they are not happy with your desire to investigate them, it suggests they may have something to hide. A red flag for sure!

2. Conduct basic research online

A lot of investors will have websites, blogs, and profiles on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. They may be found in articles or have written articles themselves. These can all be found easily on Google.

due diligence power of google

Of course, a digital presence is more likely in different parts of the world and depends to some extent on the age demographic of the investor. So, you should factor this in.

3. Examine their business and financial status

You should ask the investor and anyone s/he puts you in touch with about their industry experience and about any previous investments. This will give you an idea of their authenticity as an investor and how useful they could be for you beyond simply financial help.

You will also want to find out where their funds are coming from – money from offshore accounts should be avoided unless they can give very good reasons (which you can verify with a lawyer).

You should also do a routine credit and criminal check.

4. Speak to any entrepreneurs the investor has worked with

A legitimate investor will let you which companies they have been/are involved with, and will give you a way to contact them. So, make sure you ask!

However, you may also want to do some research and approach people not referred by the investor.

You should dig into what the investor is like to work with and whether there were disagreements, and if so, whether/how they were resolved.

Try to do this in person as you’ll get a more detailed response. (Obviously, this won’t always be possible.)

5. Speak to other investors or brokers

If you can, speak to other investors (whether they have invested in your business or not). Ask them for a second opinion on your prospective investor.

Sometimes their reputation (good or bad) precedes them and other investors/brokers on the scene may be able to give you some useful insights.

due diligence good or bad (1)

6. Avoid upfront fees

Another major warning sign is if an investor asks for upfront fees before they invest. Fake investors will come up with all sorts of plausible reasons for the fee. These should be ignored without exception.

At Angel Investment Network, we constantly try to reiterate this to entrepreneurs on our platform:

No genuine investor will charge an upfront fee.

Conclusion:

While the danger is real, awareness of the information in this article and others like it, should provide every entrepreneur with a framework for spotting an investor who is not genuine.

They will, therefore, be able to process the situation rationally and to not act hastily in desperation to close their funding round.

There is a world of possibility out there for entrepreneurs. If it is treated with respect and due caution, it will yield its rewards.

Acknowledgement for this blog:

We’ve been selected by Feedspot in the Top 5 Angel Investment blogs

Angel Investor Blogs

Startup Idea Secrecy: Why fearless learners change the world. And how to be one…

An open letter to entrepreneurs who think their idea is worth stealing…

Dear smart person with $$$$ idea,

Well done on your $$$$ idea. I don’t know what the idea is (you won’t tell me!), but I’m sure it’s good.

Ideas are the motors of innovation; they move the world forward, often to a better place. Without them, civilization stagnates and withers away, pining for its former glory. Innovation is as essential to the world as food to our bodies, as love to our souls. So, thank you for your inspiration and for providing momentum to the great human mission.

Your idea is worth a lot. $$$$, as I understand it. In fact, it’s worth so much that telling people about it is a huge risk. What if they steal your idea? And with it your chance for $$$$? What a miserable outcome that would be. All your clever idea-making for nothing.

This line of reasoning produces the following reaction in many entrepreneurs:

They tell no one.
They don’t ask anyone for help, input, feedback, partnerships or funding.
They take the $$$$ idea to the grave.
Safely.

No one will find it there.

idea secrecy 1

But what if you want to realise the dream? To execute your idea? That’s great. You’re the type of person who takes risks to make a difference. Your fearlessness to try and to be wrong again and again until you are right is supreme.

This is the crux of the matter. An idea alone means very little. No matter how innovative or original your idea seems, someone else has probably had the same idea. In fact, hundreds have probably had it.

What matters then is execution.

Execution over Idea. This phrase is now so often quoted that it seems cliché. But many people still fail to act on its message. So, why does execution trump idea?

As you start out on the journey of making your idea reality, every person you speak to will offer a slightly different perspective. The input of some will have more value than others, sure. But until you ask, it won’t be clear from which data points you will derive most value.

This is so important. What matters is that the more people you ask, the more data points you collect for decision-making. The more informed your decisions are, the better your execution will be. Without ‘talking’, how do you verify assumptions?

How do you know you are doing the right thing?

idea

The truth of it is that no product matches the original idea born in the ‘lightbulb’ moment. Ever. No good product is the same as its first version or its second etc, necessarily. Products which survive and thrive are updated, continuously. Changing customer demands require constant innovation. To execute well, companies must be alive to this. They must be able to listen to feedback and iterate if need be.

This is widely understood and accepted for products which already exist in the marketplace. But, many people don’t see that this holds true for products which are still ideas. Executing well from idea-stage to completed product should be a similar process to updating an existing product based on customer needs.

Otherwise, you are building something without knowledge, without guidance, based only on your own opinion and assumptions.

How can that be good?

It can’t.
Consider this:

Your mother is retiring after 45 years. Her hard work ensured that you were fed, educated and entertained in warmth and security. Every good memory you have can be traced in some way to the opportunities her labour afforded you. You have a lot to be thankful for. You want to find the perfect gift to encapsulate how much she means to you.

Do you:

a) Go with the first idea that comes to mind.

b) Jar of dirt with a rude note about your deprived and wretched upbringing.

c) Brainstorm a few ideas that seem good to you. Then approach people who know your mother and ask what they think of your ideas and/or what they would give her in your position.

No prizes here!

Maybe one in a thousand times you’ll be blessed with a moment of visionary inspiration and option a) will work. But, those are not good odds. Especially when your mother’s happiness or the success of your dream business is at stake.

idea secrecy buddha

Consider this too:

Imagine a hypothetical situation in which you have the choice of investing in one of two companies at concept stage. Which would you choose for a £100,000 investment?

1. An average idea guaranteed to be executed outstandingly

OR,

2. An outstanding idea guaranteed to be executed averagely

While it is possible for great ideas to be successful through semi-competent, muddled execution, in the game of probability, your best bet will be to focus on a concept which is being executed efficiently and powerfully.

This ties in with a point I made in my post “How do investors evaluate startup pitches?” The article was based on a piece by Silicon Valley investor Paul Graham on his blog. The core point was that good investors spend a large portion of their due diligence analysing the merits of the team behind the project. Why? Because they know that the idea in its current form will have to go through many iterations before it can be truly successful. Given this, they want to be sure that the team are good enough to navigate the choppy waters of building a great product to fit their market.

In other words, they want to be sure that the EXECUTION is going to be on point.

You should not be concerned about someone stealing your idea. You should be concerned about someone executing it better than you.

Some of the best businesses are simple ideas.

Google’s core concept allows people to search for stuff on the internet. But it wasn’t the first internet search engine. Henry Ford built the most successful car manufacturing company of the 20th Century. But he didn’t invent the automobile.

What made them so successful?

You guessed it.

Execution.

Google brought the dynamism associated with startups to the corporate level. This means that it can measure and respond to changing user demands rapidly (and that it is an attractive place for top talent). There is a great article on TechCrunch about this called Why Google beat Yahoo in the war for the internet. (Worth a read if you have time).

Henry Ford helped revolutionise factory efficiency by sponsoring the development of the assembly line, and in so doing, he was able to mass produce the first affordable car.

They did the idea best. There was no pretence to ownership of the idea; no notion of ‘my’ idea. They just found an idea and executed it. That’s how they now own it.

This is not to say that the idea isn’t important. Terrible ideas don’t get very far. But how can you truly know whether the idea is good or bad until you share it and learn?

I am not suggesting that it’s okay to be totally indiscreet. There is merit in hiding what you are doing from competitors etc. You should be judicious in your choice of people to share it with. But not to the point of telling no-one!

We sometimes encounter this problem on Angel Investment Network. An entrepreneur wants to raise money for their concept. They sign up and submit a pitch. But they don’t want to reveal too much in case someone pinches the idea. And their pitch ends up containing no interesting info for our investors.

The result? Surprise, surprise. Zero investor leads. And some-number-more-than-zero complaints directed at us.

If you want to raise money from investors, you should be prepared to sell your idea. And to sell, you must tell; the story, the numbers, the notion. Otherwise, someone else will. It’s that simple.

In practical terms, there are protective measures available:

– NDA’s – You can ask anyone you show the idea to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. This means you have a contract with them. This can work out fine. But it is also a huge turn-off and friction point. Most VCs will tell you to get lost – they understand that execution beats idea!

– Teaser Pitches – you can try to write your initial pitch as a teaser which reveals enough to get people interested to sign an NDA. But this a real art form and there is a danger that you undersell the business and lose out on valuable feedback and/or leads.

– Patents/Trademarks – depending on your business, you can consider getting legal patents and trademarks for the idea.

These can all be useful ways of protection in some cases. But they do not grant 100% protection. And they can be impediments to getting useful feedback – the sort of feedback, which means your execution is good. The only way to get close to 100% protection is to make your business better than the rest! And to keep doing so. That’s what the best companies do.

In summary…

I commend you for your $$$$ idea. But I urge you to be brave. To hold your idea up for scrutiny. To listen to the feedback that will allow you to execute well; the feedback that will transform your idea into a successful and lucrative reality.

It is the fearless who change the world. Those with the courage to learn and listen; with the courage to face criticism; with the courage to be continuously wrong until they are right. And when they are right, they get it so right.

The startup community is an admirable one. You can expect a warm and attentive reception – the feedback will be critical, but that’s why it’s so useful. So, I encourage you to take full advantage of this. You can be sure your competitors will be (unless you still think they are trying to steal your idea).

I look forward to your feedback.

Happy Christmas!

Oliver

7 Positives for the UK Startup Scene from the Autumn Budget

Yesterday the Chancellor unveiled his budget plan for the UK.

The main headline was that we can expect slow growth (around 2%) for the next few years. And that Brexit seemed to be the principal cause of this. A gloomy budget indeed.

But, as ever, even in the murkiest river a nugget of gold can be found. With a little sifting, I’ve found some positive news for us spirited folk on the startup scene.

The sifting was very boring. I’ve tried to set out my findings as clearly as possible. So, you can enjoy the gold without getting your feet wet! You’re welcome.

The Treasury conducted a survey called ‘Patient Capital Review’ which set out to consider how to support innovative firms in getting funding and achieving scale. The conclusions drawn are positive and will be a boon for early-stage companies over the next 10 years.

These conclusions resulted in an ‘Action Plan’ in the budget which aims to unlock £20bn over the next 10 years to support growth in innovative firms.

The main points are as follows:

1. Tax Breaks (EIS & VCT)

– EIS allowance for people investing in ‘knowledge-intensive companies’ will double from £1m to £2m each year.
– ‘Knowledge-intensive companies’ can receive twice as much EIS & VCT investment each year. That’s a move from £5m to £10m.

(Check out a previous post for more info on the benefits of EIS.)
SEIS & EIS budget
Result: An estimated extra £7bn of investment.

2. Government-backed Co-investment Fund

– A £2.5bn Investment Fund incubated in the British Business Bank will be established to co-invest with the private sector.
Result: An estimated extra £7.5bn of investment.

3. Backing Fund of Funds

– The British Business Bank will invest in a series of private sector fund of funds.
Result: An estimated £4bn of investment will be unlocked.

4. Backing Fund Managers

– The British Business Bank will continue to back new and existing fund managers through its existing Enterprise Capital Fund.
Result: An estimated extra £1.5bn of investment.

5. Backing overseas investment into UK

– The Department of International Trade will support overseas venture capital into the UK.
Result: An estimated extra £1bn of investment.

6. Support for Regional Investment

– The British Business Bank will establish new investment programmes to support business angel groups outside of London. This will complement existing programmes like the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and the Midlands Engine Investment Fund.
– £21m is budgeted to expand Tech City UK’s reach across more regions.
Result: Unlocking of investment potential outside of the London hub.

tech city uk budget (1)

7. Other

– British Business Bank to investigate supporting Women Entrepreneurs getting access to equity investment
– £2.3bn increase in R&D spending
– £1m Games Fund to support video game development
– Helping Pension Funds invest in innovative firms
– Qualification for Entrepreneurs’ Relief will no longer de-incentivize accepting external investment

I hope all that makes sense.

It’s pleasing to see that, in difficult times, the government recognises the importance of supporting the innovation sector as a key driver of our economy.

If you want more detail on this Action Plan in the budget, I’ll be at the UKBAA National Investment Summit on 28th November. Keith Morgan CEO of British Business Bank will be leading the discussion on the Chancellor’s proposals.

You can get tickets here

Hope to see you there!

Free Access to Europe’s Biggest Business Show with Angel Investment Network

Angel Investment Network are proud to announce our latest partnership with the Business Show. As part of this, we are offering complimentary tickets to their London event on 16th & 17th November 2017. For more information and to claim your tickets please see the article below by Shane Ransom, Senior Marketing Manager at PRYSM Media Group:

Overview

After 19 years of running, PRYSM Group are proud to announce the 38th edition of The Business Show will be kicking off on the 16 & 17 November at London’s Olympia.

To anybody who has attended the show, it will come as no surprise that it has firmly established itself as Europe’s largest event dedicated to helping startups and SMEs successfully evolve or expand their businesses.

Due to the show’s sterling reputation within the B2B events community, 25,000 tenacious entrepreneurs and business owners will flock to The Business Show. All on a mission to source the latest services, solutions and strategies to take their business to the next level.

World-renowned Speakers & Business People

Renowned for acquiring a calibre of attendee unmatched by any rival show; over the years the exhibition has attracted industry legends looking to discover the latest business innovations to stay ahead of their fierce competitors. This list includes James Caan, Lord Alan Sugar, Peter Jones, Touker Suleyman and many more.

business dragons

The Business Show continues to be at the forefront of all other business exhibitions, from Apprentice winners to a plethora of dragons from Dragons’ Den, from the head of B2B marketing for Google UK to even the chairman of Crystal Palace F.C, our show consistently attracts the industry’s most relevant speakers and – as you can see – November’s speaker lineup is no exception.

See full keynote line-up here

Learn how to Grow your Business

With 350 visionary exhibitors showcasing the latest products, systems and services transforming the business world, our show allows more SMEs and startups to connect with more sought-after suppliers than ever before.

Every one of our 250 seminars features up-to-date content, based on current UK business trends. We have attracted a vast array of world-class speakers working within the health and fitness industry – a sector that has grown in popularity over the years – including; Peter Roberts, the founder of the largest gym operator, PureGym; and founder of LA Muscle Parham Donyai.

Our phenomenal lineup of speakers also consists of success stories that would inspire any ambitious business owner. Levi Roots will be here to provide you with the insights into how he became one of the most iconic and charismatic figures in business world. James Gold, co-founder of Skinnydip, will discuss how his creation of the phone case accessory helped him develop one of the most successful privately-owned companies of this generation. Ben Towers, who has been named by Richard Branson as “one of the UK’s most exciting entrepreneurs” will share his journey to becoming a multi-award winning business owner by the age of 19.

Business Show_Olympia_Main

Your Free Ticket

Your ticket grants you access to more than just the seminars and suppliers. November’s installment of The Business Show will play host to an endless array of features including the Google Digital Garage; which offers free digital skills training to people looking to grow their business, their career or their confidence online. If you register for a free ticket, you can even book a one-to-one mentoring slot with the world’s most influential business via our website, but you need to make sure you book in advance!

Over the two days visitors will also have access to 15 masterclasses; whether you’re looking to expand your knowledge of branding, digital marketing, e-commerce, trading or franchising, we have got you covered. You will gain all the information and guidance you need to achieve the business growth you desire.

To ensure you make the most out of your visit we have split the show into six different zones; the Startup Zone; the Marketplace; the Finance Zone; the Digital Zone; Going Global Live; and for the very first time, the Legal & HR Zone. These zones have been carefully crafted to provide expertise across all sectors of the business world.

To top it all off, the show offers visitors unrivalled networking opportunities; our Speed Networking Feature located in the SME Zone allows you to make 40 new contacts in just 40 minutes! It is the quickest and most efficient way for you to add potential suppliers, clients and partners to your contact list, but seats to this free feature are first come, first serve so make sure you get there early to secure your seat!

business show tickets

If you’re looking to start, grow or expand your business then you must register for a ticket to The Business Show, and you will have an opportunity to experience an exhibition like no other. Attending this event could define the future of your business, so what have you got to lose? Register for your free ticket now!

Thanks to Shane Ransom and the team for writing this post.

Hope to see you there!

10+ Best Practices for Engaging Potential Investors

Last week, I wrote an article called ‘How to Update your Investors for best results’. The post set out the importance of updating your investors; and how you should go about it. I laid out a useful (hopefully!) formula for your updates. And gave you some real-world examples from fast-growth companies in my network like Sweatcoin and ScreenCloud.

The post proved more popular than I expected; a number of people have been kind enough to contact me with their thoughts. The response was positive except for one thing: I had only covered one aspect of a broader theme…

Investor Relations.

Last week’s post gave advice for the tail end of the fundraising process i.e. after investors have actually invested in your business.

But what about before they’ve invested? When you’re still trying to persuade them to do so?

Angel Investment Network connects angel investors with startups looking for funding, contacts, advisory board members etc. It would be remiss of me not to complete the picture and give advice on investor relations for the first half of the fundraising process…

Engaging Potential Investors

When interacting with people you hope to convince to invest in your company, there are 3 principal types of interaction you will have:

1. Reaching out
2. Responding
3. Reminding

In this post, you will learn the best practices for each type of interaction.

I’ve been helping people do this for a long time now. I’ve seen some hilarious but tragic examples of how not to do it! But more importantly, I’ve built up a picture of the best approaches. I hope this article means that you or anyone you share it with can avoid the common conversation-ending mistakes.

The aim is to help you generate more leads, and convert a higher percentage into investors.

Reaching Out

To be clear, this section does not deal with how to find investors. That’s a different question for another time. You can find some ideas here though.
reaching out to investors

But assuming you’ve identified and acquired the contact details of potential investors, how do you go about approaching them?

Reaching out to potential investors is a tricky business. People hate cold approaches. Even if your company is the next big thing, people have a strong aversion to being hailed from out of the blue. A stranger danger thing perhaps. But get the tone and hook just right though, and you can overcome this aversion.

How?

The key is to keep the email short. Value is king. People want to understand it quickly. If they see huge chunks of text in an initial email, they will be put off before even reading.

At the same time, if you shorten your email but lose the articulation of your value proposition. Then the hook is gone.

So, while moderating the length, you need keep your sights on the purpose of the message. The ability to do this ultimately comes down to being able to pitch your venture clearly and concisely.

This is crucial. The purpose of the email is not to explain the whole idea. It’s to hook the contact into wanting to know more. Once you’ve engaged them, you can dive into the detail.

One way to make potential investors more receptive to your company’s cold approach is to offer them something of value upfront. This could be a free trial of your product or service, access to exclusive content or data, or even just a personalized message that shows you have done your research and understand their interests and needs. Additionally, having a well-established online presence and social media accounts that showcase your company’s mission and values can help establish credibility and trust with potential investors. Finally, it’s important to have a clear understanding of your company’s financials and growth potential and be able to articulate this concisely and compellingly.

The question you need to ask yourself is:

“What is the most attractive thing about my business likely to be for this potential investor?”

If you can answer this, then you can frame your message around it.

What are some good hooks?

– Introductions – if you can be introduced by someone they trust and know, your chances of engagement increase dramatically

– Relevant & large market opportunity

– Trending topics e.g. AI, Blockchain, Machine learning (obviously not always applicable but check this out!)

– Impressive traction e.g. funds raised, key partnerships, big-deal advisors

– Problem/solution articulation – can work for early-stage projects but is risky because they might not see the problem as you do

Beware, there are also some “anti-hooks”!

A contact of mine was approaching a VC company in London. He made the mistake of asking for an NDA. They never replied. Annoyed, he ACTUALLY walked into their offices and asked why he never got a response. They explained the NDA turn off and sent him on his way. (More on this next week).

Summary:

Keep it short and make sure your hook is clear.

End with a call-to-action. This gives them a framework to respond. At this stage, the most likely example is:
“Can I send you some more info? I’d love to get your feedback.”

Responding

This interaction is particularly important to anyone raising via the Angel Investment Network platform. On the platform, an entrepreneur submits a pitch using the template and onscreen instructions which is listed and sent to the network of angel investors. Interested investors can then click to connect. It’s at this point only that the entrepreneur can message an investor. So, there’s a lot riding on the response!

That said, this advice goes for any time you receive a message/email from an investor whether they are reaching out or responding to you.

What should you do then?
appropriate response to investors

The advice is dead simple. But you’d be amazed how often I see people do the opposite.

– Respond promptly (24-48 hours)
Quick responses make investors feel important. They also show that you are professional and organised.

– Avoid spelling and grammar errors
Duh!

– Make sure you address every point they make
You’ll leave a bad impression if you don’t have a considered response to address every issue they raise.

– Avoid blocks of text
Blocks are boring. And not easy to digest. Address questions/points they make with bullet points or numbering.

– End with a call-to-action
This gives them a framework for responding and will increase the chances that they do.

This advice seems so trivial that it pains me to write it (the first 3 in particular). But I’ve seen it go wrong too many times through haste, laziness and even stupidity.

Last year, I watched the final night of a play written by a friend. At the party afterwards, I was talking to one of the actors. During the performance we had all remarked on his incredibly muscular physique – the man was a monstrous! I asked him ‘why’.

“Why so much gym?”

His response impressed me. And can be applied to this situation and many others.

He said;

“Control the things you can control.”

In his case, he realised that one of the reasons he didn’t get every part he auditioned for was because he was out of shape. But more importantly, he realised that this was an aspect of his life and attitude that he could directly address. And as a result, he would optimise his chances of getting great roles. (I’m afraid I can’t say who he is!)

So, to optimise your chances, ‘control the things you can control’.

Remember this interaction with investors is a bit like an audition. The reality of it is that investors don’t have much time to judge you. Their impression of you will be created over the course of a few emails, a call and perhaps a coffee.

When deciding to invest a considerable sum of money in someone, that’s not a lot to go on!

So, in the small window of opportunity you are given to make an impression, ensure that what can be polished is polished. That way, you’ve given yourself the best chance.

Reminding

So, you reached out to an investor, they responded, you exchanged a few emails discussing the venture, it all seemed to be going so well. But now they’ve gone dead. No response to your last message. Cue tumbleweed and depression…

What can you do?

The first thing to remember is that in most cases, any investor worth having is going to be very busy.

So, you should never take it personally if you don’t get a response for a while. You don’t know what’s happening at the other end. They may be taking the time to carry out proper due diligence and discussions with various people before pushing ahead.

There is no sense fretting and waiting for a response. It may never come. In which case, you’ve wasted valuable time worrying about it. Equally, it may come. In which case, you’ve also wasted time.

That said, you shouldn’t wait indefinitely. It is perfectly acceptable to nudge people to respond.

But how do you do it without royally p***ing them off?!

Time is important. DO NOT nudge anyone if they haven’t responded after 3 days. (Unless they specifically asked you to).

7-10 days is an acceptable interlude. But longer is fine too. I was helping someone raise money once: we actually met the investor face-to-face before pitching anything as we had been connected via a strong introduction. He then said he would follow up via email after he had had time to think.

We waited 29 days and had given up all hope when his email finally came through. It was a positive one too!

What about the content of a reminder?

This will vary according to time and circumstance. But there is an optimal approach.

Consider:
a)

“Hi X,

Did you have any more thoughts about our project?

Thanks,
Founder Y”

b)

“Hi X,

It’s been a good few [insert time period] since we last spoke.

We are showing strong growth across the following key metrics: [insert impressive figures].

Also, [insert Mr/Mrs Big Deal] has committed £X and joined the advisory board.

Did you have any more thoughts about our project?

Thanks,
Founder Y”

Sometimes approach a) may be appropriate. But most of the time, b) will be better.

The reason for this is momentum.

This builds on the ‘hook’ idea we looked out when discussing reaching out to investors. You have to give them some incentive to respond. Hack their desire to engage with you.

At this stage of the process, you can do this by the impression of momentum. By updating them on your good progress, you can make them feel like the opportunity is a train leaving the station. Without them.
investors missing the train

Fear of missing out is a strong psychological influence to tap into. No investor wants your business to be the one that got away. So, make them feel like it is getting away with positive updates in your reminders. You should find an uplift in engagement.

That’s all folks! Thanks for reading.

Tweet me () if you think I missed something etc…

Or get me on oliver@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk

How to Update Your Investors for best results

Investor Updates: Why? How? When?

What you’ll get from this post:

  • 1. Why you should update your investors
  • 2. A template for great updates
  • 3. Example updates from fast-growth companies like Sweatcoin and ScreenCloud

“We connect entrepreneurs and angel investors.”

That’s our tagline at Angel Investment Network. We’ve been doing it for 14 years so it makes sense! We help make the initial connection that results in feedback, meetings and often investment. Startups get the funding they require. Investors get access to great and diverse deal flow.

But as a result of this, most of our advice and guidance focuses on the early part of the fundraising journey: how to meet investors, how to value your idea, how to find great deal flow, how to invest etc…

This is useful (we hope!). But only as far as it goes. There’s a danger this gives the impression that the relationship between entrepreneur and investor only needs to be fostered at the very start.

This is not true, of course.

Why?

Investor = Evangelist

Any investor in your company can be an evangelist. And an important one. The best investors are not those who sit silently hoping their portfolio grows. They are the people who bring to bear all their resources to help their companies grow. But there is no guarantee they will always do this just because they invested.

It’s down to you to keep them engaged. Your updates will give them the inclination and the material to shout about you to their network.

Investor = Wise

Sure, you wanted investors for their cash. But if that was all you wanted from them, it was short-sighted. It’s a truism about angel investors that they bring more to the table than money. A good angel will have a wealth of experience in business and hopefully your sector.

But they are busy people with active interests all over the place. You’ll only get their attention if you engage them enough to deserve it.

So, let them be a light for you when all other lights go out.

Investor = Capital Mine

Some businesses only need one funding round. Some businesses go through many as part of their growth strategy. It’s not always clear which business yours will be. But it would be naive to think that you’ll never do another round.

And who are likely to be your hottest leads for later rounds?

Your existing investors of course!

They will want to avoid dilution and help the company in which they’ve invested grow. Additionally, they will want to bring on more people to invest. It’s in their interest, after all, to support the company in its growth.

That said, there’s no guarantee they will want to invest more or bring their friends on board. If you haven’t fostered the relationship and kept the excitement burning, they may want to cut their losses.

But, if you’ve kept them sweet with exciting updates, they’ll be champing at the bit to buy in and involve their network.

Finally…

It’s good business practice to update your shareholders regularly. (Once a month is optimal and what the companies in my examples below go for). Good habits breed good habits. The more you force yourself to go through the motions of running a business properly, the more ably you will run the business, until it’s second nature. And, all of a sudden, you’re a business leader.

investor update

So, how then should you update investors?

It’s quite easy really. There’s a formula you can follow each time. Just have the relevant info ready for each section and input when your update is due:

Intro:

Open with some positive statement about the exciting times the company has been going through since the last update. This should set the tone of the email.

Overview/Highlights:

Investors are almost always busy people. There is no guarantee that they will read your whole email. In this overview, give the main points you want to put across. This should give them enough info to feel enthused about you and their investment without having to read more. It also serves a secondary purpose – it should entice them to read the rest of the email!

e.g.
– Revenue is up XX%
– New Product ABC is in the final testing phases. Watch this space.
– We closed two new major partnerships with Huge Brand X & Huge Brand Y.
– Big Deal XY joined the team/board. He/she will….

Key Metrics:

Your key metrics are the figures that show your concept works. They are the essential validation on which investor confidence hangs.
These figures will differ from company to company, but your presentation of them is the same.

e.g.
We’ve seen impressive momentum across our key metrics. KPI 1 has grown XX% month-to-month. KPI 2 has grown XX% month-to-month. We are on course for a huge {insert current month}.

This information can be displayed in a graph. Hopefully, one that looks like this:

update graph

Fundraising:

If you’re raising money, give details. You may want to indicate the impressive people/funds you are in talks with; and how far advanced the talks are.

You can also include your latest deck as an attachment. And invite them to take a look. Don’t forget to engage them directly by asking for feedback or to share with any contact who may be interested.

Learnings:

Investors may also be interested in your personal growth as a management team. So, details of any findings from tests, campaigns and product launches will make interesting reading. They may also encourage investors to give advice.

Team:

If someone on the team has had a big impact, you could shout about it here. The employee will thank you for it! It also adds to the general impression of accomplishment and progress you should be conveying throughout the whole email.

a-team_logo update

Future:

What are the plans, challenges and targets for the next period? Keeping the goals of the company in front of your investors is a great way to keep them aligned with your interests. And it will demonstrate that their investment is in competent hands.

Don’t hold back from requesting advice on any of the challenges ahead. Delve into the acumen of your investors and all the while keep them engaged.

There you have it. An important task fulfilled with minimal hassle.

It’s important to note that this formula is not prescriptive. Only mention sections that are relevant. There may be sections specific to you that you want to add too.

These emails do not have to be long (more on this in the examples below). Short and sweet will suit investors. But make sure you cover the essential details so investors don’t feel shortchanged.

There is no excuse. And, as we’ve seen, the upsides are huge.

Some Real-world Example Updates

This update from Sweatcoin is a masterclass in keeping it ‘short and sweet’. No bluster. No fluff. Just hard traction. It’s easy for them because they are growing so fast (they’ve added another million users in the last month!).

(Make sure you zoom to 90% or so to read it clearly).

Click to view Sweatcoin investor update

ScreenCloud’s is a longer piece which follows our update template more closely, making good use of HTML to give clear structure. Note how they give that important overview section for those who don’t read long emails!

Click to view ScreenCloud Investor Update

It’s worth saying that both companies do a good job of creating a sense of excitement and progress. They go about it in different ways, perhaps due to time constraints and what they find manageable. The point is that the info and the impression put across in both is excellent.

N.B. All this advice works as a template for keeping prospective investors interested; and investors you never closed too – make them feel like they missed out!

That’s all for now. Hope you found this useful!

Sceptic to Champion: Air Ticket Arena on Angel Investment Network

Fundraising on Angel Investment Network – A User Story:

Kresimir Budinski first reached out to me through LinkedIn. He is the founder of Air Ticket Arena – the first fully-automated platform allowing passengers to bid for unsold seats on scheduled flights; and helping airlines to recuperate some of the £120 billion in lost sales each year through unsold seats.

He recently closed a £350,000 of seed fundraising through Angel Investment Network.

Kresimir, or ‘The Bishop’, as he is affectionately known by his team, complimented me on my article about SEIS & EIS Tax relief. He had apparently used it as an explainer throughout his fundraising. Both for investors he had found through Angel Investment Network and other channels.

I thanked him and wished him luck with the fundraising. And we left it at that.

Messages like this are relatively frequent (depending on the quality of my article!). So I didn’t think any more of it.

But I was to hear a lot more from Kresimir and the story behind his fundraising. A few months later, pleased with his progress (now overfunding), he shared his fundraising experiences with me in full. It struck such a chord that I had to share the story.

It’s a tale of how courage through scepticism can bring great opportunity. And it’s a useful case study for anyone considering looking for investors on the Angel Investment Network platform, and more importantly, for anyone fundraising in general.

So, in the charismatic words of their Head of Marketing Grgomir ‘George’ Garić, the story of Air Ticket Arena’s fundraising journey from intense initial scepticism to success….

Air ticket arena fundraising

Part 1: Fundraising Scepticism

I had always considered investors a type of mythical creature, living somewhere in a distant fantasy land, creasing themselves with derisive laughter at most investment proposals. By investors, I mean real investors who can offer advice as well as capital. Not just people who masquerade as investors because they have a bit of cash.

Of course, I had heard about the likes of Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, and hundreds of other projects backed by investors – but I had never met anyone who would actually boost my bank account.

Except for my wife, of course.

In my life before Air Ticket Arena, I had met many who claimed to be investors. But few of them understood the symbiosis required between entrepreneur and investor to make a partnership mutually motivating. The interaction between idea and capital needs to be good for both the idea and the capital. The idea needs to grow and so does the value of the capital.

Too many investors wanted to buy into projects at way below the value of the idea and all the preceding hard work. They refused to realise that this was not optimal for the business and therefore not optimal for their investment.

Given these early experiences with “investors”, my approach to any kind of investor was always going to be like visiting an 18th-century dentist. Suspicious in the extreme.

Part 2: Misplaced Hope

So, when I started working on Air Ticket Arena and Kresimir, suggested fundraising our seed round through Angel Investment Network. I thought it was the beginning of the end.

I sincerely believed that Angel Investment Network, despite their 13-year history and impressive track record, was just another portal where anyone – even my mother – could masquerade as an investor.

So why did we go with them?

Sometime in 2009, a seemingly beautiful thing happened. Kickstarter kickstarted. This was the first time I had heard about crowdfunding.

The theory seemed inspired to me. This was a real innovation in the investment scene which promised a more efficient process for both investors and entrepreneurs. And promised to harness the power of the crowd with all the social proof that can bring.

Then equity crowdfunding platforms like Crowdcube and Seedrs emerged. Icing on the cake. Or so I thought.
Fundraising through crowdfunding

I had heard complaints about these platforms from founders who had tried them. But I dismissed them as over-fussy.

When Kresimir asked me to prepare a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube for Air Ticket Arena, it was a joyous occasion and I dove into the work with relish.

We prepared almost everything for the campaign and then one week before the launch, Crowdcube refused us. Their reason? We didn’t have a high street bank account. Right.

Not to be deterred, we immediately approached Seedrs hoping to re-purpose the material we had put so much effort into for the Crowdcube campaign. After a 15-minute call, they claimed that our valuation was too high to run.

My high hopes were thoroughly misplaced and I found myself floundering in a sense of gloom about the prospects of fundraising. Not simply for myself, but also for other regular people who do not have access to investors through their personal network.

It was in this state of despondency that Kresimir insisted we chance our hand on Angel Investment Network. You can imagine my reaction.

I already considered this platform inferior to the likes of Crowdcube and Seedrs who had just thoroughly disappointed me.

Thus, it was without much hope and intense reluctance that I agreed to create a pitch on Angel Investment network…

Part 3: Faith Rewarded

fundraising

Six months later, we have raised £350,000 and filled our seed round. The strength of the discussions means that we are now overfunding as I write this.

At this point, while we enjoy the security of fundraising mission accomplished and while the experience is still fresh in our minds, I thought it might be helpful to share some key findings from our campaign on Angel Investment Network.

– Are the investors active and real?

Most of the investors we spoke to were active and engaged in the investment community and had the capital to invest. Even those investors who did not ultimately invest provided useful feedback for us with which we were able to improve our pitch and even our business. The platform also monitors the activity of investor users. Anyone suspicious is removed pending investigation.

– How can I tell if an investor is really interested?

It will be straightforward to identify investors who are seriously interested. They will have read your pitch in detail and will ask the most pertinent questions so will stand out from the others.
It is also very important to do your own due diligence of any investor contact – you can be sure they’ll be doing it on you. So, don’t be afraid to ask people to identify themselves if their profile is not clear.

– How can I keep prospective investors interested?

When you are happy that a prospective investor’s interest is genuine, engage in dialogue with them in a clear manner. Your job is to clarify what you have written in your deck. Keep focused on it. Try to also give the impression of progress and momentum – update investors you’ve not heard back from as well as ones you actively talking to.

– What should I say about valuation?

Avoid any talk about valuations after a one-minute talk or a first email response. Send an investment package and give them up to a week to investigate the opportunity. An excellent counter-question is to ask them how much they want to earn? None of them gave us an exact answer.
When you do come to declare your valuation make sure that your reasons for it are clear and grounded in the reality of the space in which you are operating.

– What sort of investors should I aim for?

Expect that your investors will more likely be from a similar industry to your project. If it is a project from the travel industry, then more than likely the investors will come from the travel industry. These investors will certainly be most helpful to you. However, there are many investors who are interested in investing in an area but are not necessarily experts e.g. Bankers interested in AI. So be prepared for this too.

– Do I need to have all the legal stuff prepared?

Make a clear legal pathway for investors who make you an offer of investment. Your investment contracts need to prepared and ready to send. An offer is never really finalised until all the forms are signed and the money is in your account, so you don’t want to have any delay in sending over the necessary documents when an investor declares an offer.

– How much effort is required?

Prepare to invest time and some money to ensure your pitch is as good as possible and that it gets the exposure it needs to raise the capital you need.

To be successful your pitch needs to be excellent and you need to market it well. We wrote 50+ articles explaining our concept from a variety of angles which we shared across social media channels. Angel Investment Network were very willing to re-share these posts which helped to create a buzz.

What I want people to understand from our story is that anyone with a good idea can raise money from angel investors. It requires dedication and hard work, but so does running a successful business!

At this point, on behalf of the whole team at Angel Investment Network, I’d like to thank Kresimir, George and the guys at Air Ticket Arena for taking the time to share this. All the best with the business!

Want to know more about Air Ticket Arena?

Check out their explainer video below:

Want to share your experience on Angel Investment Network and get featured as part of this user story series?

Please contact me on oliver@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk or on Twitter

Startup Investment – How do you get good deal flow?

Investors are all looking for a startup investment they believe will be successful. That much is self-evident. Of course, some investors will be looking to invest in companies in which they are interested or experienced. But ultimately, everyone is linked by the shared ambition to back winners.

So that begs the question – How do you pick a winner?

Pick an investment winner

The answer to this comes in three parts: the first is to do with Deal Flow and will be discussed in this post; the second concerns Deal Evaluation which was discussed in a previous post; and the third part is to do with Due Diligence, which will be covered at a later date.

Deal Flow:

One of the most important factors in successfully picking a winner is to have a large and varied number of deals to choose from. Naturally, the more deals you can get eyes on, the more astute you will be when it comes to picking good ones to invest in. That statement comes with a slight caveat – the deals you view have to be of a reasonable quality for you to learn anything valuable.

So where can you find a constant stream of deals of reasonable to high quality?

Network, Contacts & Friends:

The traditional way to do this is through your contacts. If you’re acquainted with people in the startup/investment community, whether they be entrepreneurs or investors, it’s highly likely that they’ll send deals your way. Especially if you ask them. (Silicon Valley in the US is basically fuelled by referrals).

The more you get involved in conversations the more you’ll be included in further conversations. For instance, if a friend or investment broker, sends you a deal, even if you know you’re not going to invest this time around (for whatever reason), it’s still worth responding to them and thereby keep the conversation open by demonstrating your continued interest and engagement.

Many of our investors on Angel Investment Network say that carrying out Due Diligence on companies vastly increased their networks by the simple virtue of having conversations with the right people (even if most were via email!); and as a result, they all started coming across increasingly better opportunities.

In other words, the more you build and nurture your network within this sector, the more you will be exposed to better investment opportunities.

Angel Investment Sites:

Using your network, as set out above, is the traditional way, but it still holds just as true. However, since the digital networking boom with the rise of sites like LinkedIn, it has become easier to broaden your professional network in less ‘organic’ ways. You no longer have to know someone to know them.

It is now easier than ever to expose yourself to quality investment deals and startup contacts online, and in so doing expand your personal network as never before. And you are, no doubt, aware of this as you browse this content on a site called Angel Investment Network!

Further to this, when you actually invest in a startup not only are you casting yourself in a very positive light to the company you invest in, but also to whoever was involved in brokering the deal, other investors you spoke to during your Due Diligence and to friends of the company you invested in. Once you’ve done this, you can guarantee that an increasing number of deals will come your way a) from the fact that you’ve expanded your network in the right way and b) from the fact that people know your serious and not a time waster.

Paul Graham says the following in support of this in a talk he gave at AngelConf in 2009 called ‘How to be an Angel Investor’;

“The best way to get lots of referrals is to invest in startups. No matter how smart and nice you seem, insiders will be reluctant to send you referrals until you’ve proven yourself by doing a couple investments. Some smart, nice guys turn out to be flaky, high-maintenance investors. But once you prove yourself as a good investor, the deal flow, as they call it, will increase rapidly in both quality and quantity.”

(Paul Graham is the guy who founded Viaweb (the first SaaS company) which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998 for a reported $49million. He then founded Y Combinator which has funded over 1000 startups since 2005, including Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe, and Reddit. So he knows a thing or two about this.)

Startup Pitching & Networking Events:

The final string to your bow when it comes to receiving good deal flow is, of course, networking and pitching events. At these events, you’ll be able to both see deals pitched directly to you and to discuss them and network with other investors and entrepreneurs. You can learn a great deal and expand your network over complimentary drinks and nibbles.

There are tonnes of these events especially in startup-focused cities. We hold a pitching and networking event biannually. For information please send a quick email to info@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk.

Summary:

Ultimately, it all comes down to expanding your network and maintaining positive conversations with people in the industry. To recap the best ways to do this are:

– Startup events

– Angel Networking sites

– Investing

And in all cases, it’s the value of the interactions you make that will dictate the positive influence on your network and concomitantly, the standard and consistency of deal flow that gets referred to you.

Video Interview: What’s the difference between Angel Investors and VCs?

The difference between angel investors and venture capital firms always seems to confuse entrepreneurs.

In truth, the difference is fairly clear-cut.

Who are they? What do they look for? How can they help? How much are they likely to invest? These are all key differentiators.

As an entrepreneur looking for funding, it’s important to understand these differences. Your choice of who to approach and when could have a significant effect on the efficiency of your round.

Xavier Ballester, the co-director of Angel Investment Network’s brokerage division, explains more in this recent interview. He’s talking to our friends at Linear, a specialist prime broker and award-winning hedge fund incubator based in London and Hamburg.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcmQ70yw2EA

Prefer to digest your content in written format?

I wrote an article on the topic for Angel Investment Network’s Learn centre. You can read it by clicking here.

How do investors evaluate startup pitches?

An angel investor’s task is to predict the potential of a company based on early indications and very little else. There is no infallible process for doing this. This is the risk investors face; and the fear they must overcome to invest. Only then can they give themselves a shot at the returns available from a shrewd investment.

Your task as an entrepreneur seeking finance is to mitigate and alleviate that sense of fear and so lower each investor’s risk threshold. The two basic ways of doing this are:

1 – Demonstrate that the perceived risks are smaller or more easily overcome that they initially appear.

2 – Set out a credible vision for the success of the business such that the returns outweigh the risk.

This, you might argue, is easier said than done. And you’d be right.

In my experience, entrepreneurs who understand how investors assess deals, find it easiest to raise money. It’s part of the reason why people who’ve raised money before find it easier to do it again.

SO THIS BEGS THE QUESTION, HOW DO INVESTORS EVALUATE STARTUP DEALS?

As I touch on above, this is a hard thing to get right for investors – a company may tick all the boxes, but still fail down the line. But this is often a matter of luck and down to factors beyond the investors’ control.

In their evaluation steps, investors can take measures to ensure that the companies they do go into have the best chances of success.

So here’s a simple evaluation framework that we recommend to investors on Angel Investment Network. We base this on our own experience from 12 years’ hand-selecting startups for our brokerage division. Companies we’ve worked on include: SuperAwesome, SimbaSleep, Novastone, What3Words, Opun and Cornerstone.

Two of these were just named in the Independent’s Top 10 startups 2017.

A SIMPLE EVALUATION FRAMEWORK:

1. TEAM

A team for inestors

We interviewed Jos Evans who has made a number of successful investments through us. Jos gave the following advice:

“Everything comes down to the quality of the founders. If the people are excellent they will succeed regardless of whether the initial business idea works. Meet as many people as possible and cross check your network for people who might know the founders of a company you are considering investing in.”

This is sound advice from someone who is making a career from angel investing.

It is the people behind a company led by the founders and validated by their advisory board that will optimise its chances of success. If the founders are relentlessly resourceful they will find the iteration that makes the company a winner.

In their due diligence, investors spend a long time researching the founders’ backgrounds. They also often try to spend time with them on the phone and, if possible, in person. The qualities that come across go a long way to giving investors confidence and lowering their risk threshold.

Similarly, the strength of the company’s advisory board can be a very strong index of potential:

1 – It reflects well on the founders if they have managed to persuade impressive people to back them.

2 – The fact that impressive advisers have backed the idea lends credibility and validation to it.

3 – The financial and social clout of high- profile board members means that the idea will struggle to fail. propelled on by a strong support network, companies tend to find a way.

2. MARKET

Which is the more significant indicator of success – the team or the idea/market? This is an ongoing debate between investors.

Renowned US investor, Ron Conway, believes, like Jos, that the team are the foundation. The idea is liable to change, but the team’s motivation, talent and competence will remain to drive the project to success.

Other investors argue that great founders in a bad market are far less likely to succeed than bad founders in a great market.

But to polarise these two points of view misses the point a bit. Good founders will find good markets – otherwise they are not really good founders.

So, in your pitching docs you need to make sure you give clear details on the market opportunity. Are you pitching a scalable opportunity in a market of sufficient size and growth trajectory? And are you doing it at the right time?

Here is the advice we give to investors when they evaluate the market section of a pitch:

“…you want to research the market to ensure the opportunity is or will be as large as the founders claim. If your findings confirm theirs then you can feel comfortable that a) there is a significant market and b) the founders know what they’re on about!”

Remember, your pitch/business is as representative of you as you are of it. In trying to sell your pitch to investors you need to sell yourself and vice versa.

3. TRACTION

Investors want a startup investment to have as much real world proof of concept as possible.

What better way to give confidence? If you can exhibit positive feedback, high user retention, growing revenues, etc at an early stage, it proves the venture (as far as possible!).

The more traction a company has, the more ‘proven’ it appears and thus the less likely it seems that it will fail. When we remember that persuading investors is about lowering their risk threshold, it’s clear how important traction points are. Traction points instil confidence in the vision and its execution.

They are as close to evidence as an early-stage startup is likely to get.

An obvious concern for early-stage companies is that they feel they may lack traction. They are especially likely to feel this way if they are not generating revenue.

So what constitutes traction?

Traction is anything that validates your business. This will depend on the business: sometimes it will be revenue; sometimes it will be downloads or subscribers; sometimes it will be page views or awards.

In their efforts to provide traction points for their startup, entrepreneurs often make the mistake of relying on ‘vanity metrics’. For instance, an app may have had 100,000 downloads in its first month. But if 97% of those users never use the app again, the initial metric flatters to deceive. Most investors will work this out very quickly.

So the traction points you choose must actually prove the value of your business or they will undermine your pitch.

The best way to think about this, I have found, is to work out what your North Star Metric is. North Star Metric is a term coined by Growth Hackers to describe the one authentic value which shows that the business is doing what it set out to do.

4. IDEA

The points above help qualify the idea itself as valid. But we should not underestimate the effect of gut feeling when it comes to an investor’s initial assessment of an idea.

The timeless human fondness for the ego means that an initial gut feeling can have a powerful effect on the ultimate evaluation of the investor.

If an investor feels that an idea is good, they want to be proved right.idea for investors

So when an investor first reads about an idea, if they think it is a real solution to a real problem in a real market, they are likely to pursue the opportunity. They want to vindicate their instinct.

This is a classic example of cognitive bias. This is the term used in psychology to describe when it is hard to undo your initial judgment because your brain will keep finding evidence to support that judgement.

It’s why the hotel industry focuses so hard on the initial impression it creates in the lobby. If the atmosphere and décor feel high-end and luxurious and you are handed a complimentary glass of champagne, your whole stay will be filtered through the lens of this initial assessment. If the lobby is grubby, your bias will lean in the opposite direction.

This can be capitalised on by entrepreneurs. When you set out what your business actually does, do so in such a way that plays up to this bias. Make a clear and powerful first impression.

How?

The visual impression of the design of your pitch deck is very important. But so is the clear articulation of your value proposition.

We tell investors to assess whether the business is offering a real solution to a real problem. So, entrepreneurs should set out their idea using this ‘Problem/Solution framework’.

Here’s a quick example of what I could write for Angel Investment Network:

Problem: The startup industry is huge, but access to finance and investors remains difficult for entrepreneurs…

Solution: Angel Investment Network’s platform connects entrepreneurs with 130,000+ angel investors from around the world so that they can realise their potential and grow a lucrative and successful company….

The principal value of the service comes across clearly and concisely.

5. WHAT DO OTHER INVESTORS SAY?

We have seen how the advisory board can be considered a metric of sorts for future success. It follows from this that other investors can be invaluable sources of insight.

Many investors say it takes away a lot of the stress if you can share the experience. That’s why syndicates, both official ones and groups of like-minded friends, are so popular. Others may have spotted some key index of potential (success or failure) that one investor on their own may have missed.

If you already have investors on board, it is, therefore, a good idea to ask them if you can share their contact details with prospective investors.

This transparency is likely to give investors confidence in you. And allow them to allay any fears they may have by talking to people who have already invested. One caveat to this is that a prospective investor may point out a flaw that the existing investor may have overlooked!

Summary

There are many factors that any individual investor may take into account when they evaluate an opportunity. This article has aimed to cover the most general and universally useful for entrepreneurs.

But you should expect each new conversation to be different. Every prospective investor wants to see whether you are a good fit for their personal investment agenda.

On that note, it is worth saying that you should never take it personally when someone decides not to invest. It is a) a huge waste of emotional energy and b) pointless. There are so many reasons why someone may choose not to invest. One of our entrepreneurs once became despondent because a good investor had withdrawn. Little did they know it was because of a divorce!

Rejection is also a good opportunity to get candid and constructive feedback from people with real expertise – sometimes what hurts the most is the most useful in the long run.

I originally wrote this article for Toucan.co blog. It was well received so I thought I would share it again.

Women in Tech: Success & the Future…

We recently learned that Pivigo is one of 15 of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies founded by women selected to visit Silicon Valley.

The trip is part of an initiative to build ties with the US tech scene. The other firms heading to Silicon Valley include:

All are showing an annual growth rate of at least 118%.

Pivigo is a data science marketplace founded by the remarkable Dr Kim Nilsson. Their mission is to connect “…data scientists and businesses across the world…to revolutionise the way we work, live and stay healthy.”

Dr Kim left her role as an astronomer on the Hubble Space Telescope to complete an MBA and pursue a career in business. The move was a good one.

Since she founded Pivigo in 2013 the company has:

  • Raised nearly £1m in funding (£300k through our investors on Angel Investment Network!)
  • Become the world’s largest community of data scientists.
  • Completed over 80 data science projects to date. (Clients include KPMG, Barclays, British Gas, M&S and Royal Mail.)
  • Started Europe’s largest data science training programme S2DS (Science to Data Science). The programme supports career transitions of PhDs and MScs into data science roles.

pivigo data science women

Kim’s transition from academia to top founder is part of what makes her story so impressive and why, no doubt, she was a good choice to meet with executives from Apple, Google, Instagram and LinkedIn. Sherry Coutu CBE, the founder of Silicon Valley Comes to the UK, and the London Mayor’s office made the selection.

This link building through the UK’s most talented female founders comes at a time of high interest in the role of women in the growth of the European and UK tech sectors. Figures reported by LinkedIn and Founders4Schools show that:

  • Female-led companies have helped add £3bn to the economy over the past year.
  • The number of female-led companies with turnover of £250m+ grew by 14% in the same period.

But what about women business angels?

Despite the flourishing community of female founders and executives, only a small number are using their business acumen to invest in small businesses.

As a result, the UKBAA in partnership with Angel Academe, a network of female business angels, is conducting new research. They want to understand the barriers perceived by women about angel investing. The survey is being hosted and analysed by the the CASS Business School in London.

This research is also part of a their new Europe-wide project called “Women Business Angels for Europe’s Entrepreneurs”. The project will enable them to review the situation in Europe as well as the UK.

UKBAA logo women
The results will give important insight into how, as a community, we can engage more women in angel investing. Off the back of the research, the UKBAA plans to develop a programme with the goal of doubling the number of female angel investors in the UK over the next two years.

If you’re female and involved in startups, please do your bit for this iniative and fill out the 10 minute survey here.

Thanks!

SEIS and EIS Tax Relief Explained with a little help from Star Wars…

SEIS and EIS are the given acronyms for the generous tax breaks the UK government offers to investors in startup companies. (Seed) Enterprise Investment Scheme. The company must be UK registered and meet certain eligibility requirements. Eligibility is a great way to incentivize investors because it reduces their risk. Dramatically.

As it’s May the 4th. As in May the Fourth be with you. As in Star Wars Day. I thought it appropriate to share an article I wrote explaining the benefits of SEIS and EIS with a few lame Star Wars puns thrown in. You know, to keep it, well, Light.

**This article is relevant for companies registered in the UK only. However, companies registered outside of the UK may find it useful as there may be similar tax breaks offered by their local government.**

What are SEIS & EIS Tax breaks?

Investing in startup companies is generally much riskier than buying shares in much larger more established companies, although the returns are potentially much larger. As a means of offsetting this risk for investors and thereby incentivising them to invest, the UK government offers two attractive tax breaks known as SEIS and EIS (the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme; and its parent the Enterprise Investment Scheme).

The tax breaks are very generous to investors and have been instrumental in helping the startup industry grow in the UK. As a result, investors now place high value on companies that have qualified for SEIS & EIS.

Because of this, we recommend that all UK companies raising through our platform seek ‘advanced assurance’ for SEIS/EIS if they think they will qualify. As a general rule, if you consider your company early stage then you probably qualify for both, or at least EIS.

What’s SEIS?

HMRC gives the following overview:

“…[SEIS] is designed to help small, early-stage companies raise equity finance by offering tax reliefs to individual investors who purchase new shares in those companies.”

Startups who qualify will be eligible to offer up to £150,000 in SEIS shares to investors.

What are the principal benefits for investors?

  • SEIS is incredibly generous and investors will get 50% tax relief per tax year on investments up to £100,000. (Relief is given each year, but the shares must be held for at least 3 years)
  • Investors will also get Capital gains exemption on the disposal of assets
  • There is a ‘carry back’ facility which allows investors to treat shares as if they were acquired in the previous tax year. Hence the relief can be claimed for the tax year before the investment.

Example:

Angel Investor Skywalker invests £100,000 into ‘Force for Good’, a ground-breaking social enterprise startup which qualifies for SEIS. For the given tax year, Skywalker has a tax liability of £50,000. Because of his SEIS shares he gets 50% of the value of his investment in relief, so £50,000.

This means he pays £0 in tax rather than the £50,000 he owes in tax. This situation is irrespective of how well the company does.

If the company does well, Skywalker would also qualify for exemption from Capital Gains tax (up to £100,000) on the profit provided it is reinvested.

If the company folds, Skywalker will still receive his £50,000 in tax relief meaning only half his initial investment of £100,000 is at risk. When the company folds, he will also be given loss relief of 45% of the ‘at risk’ capital. 45% of £50,000 is £22,500.

So if the company folds, Skywalker will only have lost £27,500 even though he invested £100,000. That’s relief of 72.5%!
SEIS

Does your company qualify?

N.B. These tax breaks are only available to UK based companies; investors do not need to be UK resident but must have some UK tax liability against which to set the tax relief.

For a company to qualify for the SEIS scheme it must meet a number of qualification tests. The list below is not comprehensive as the rules in place are often quite detailed and nuanced, but it gives a helpful, broad picture:

  • Permanent UK Base- your company must have a permanent UK office or the owner must be a UK resident. This must remain the case for three years from when SEIS shares are issued.
  • Your company must not be listed on the stock exchange at the time the SEIS shares are issued.
  • Your company must have fewer than 25 full-time employees at the time the SEIS shares are issued.
  • The gross assets must not exceed £200k at the time the SEIS shares are issued.
  • Your company must be early stage in that it must not be continuing a trade that is more than two years old at the time the SEIS shares are issued.
  • Your company must not have raised money through EIS or VCT schemes in the three years prior to the SEIS share issue.
  • The funds raised must be spent within three years.
  • Your company must be independent i.e. it must not be controlled by any other company or anyone associated with that company.
  • Your company must not be a member of a partnership

To get formal approval of SEIS eligibility you need to fill out an SEIS1 form and send it to HMRC. Download the form and the notes here.

EIS

What’s EIS?

EIS is the parent of SEIS. The principle is the same – to encourage investors to invest in early stage companies by offering them a generous tax break based on the sum they invest.

When the scheme was launched in 1993 the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Michael Portillo, said;

“The purpose of Enterprise Investment Schemes is to recognise that unquoted trading companies can often face considerable difficulties in realising relatively small amounts of share capital. The new scheme is intended to provide a well-targeted means for some of those problems to be overcome.”

EIS is less generous in terms of relief but it is easier for companies to qualify for and there is a larger quota available for eligible companies to offer investors.

Startups are able to offer up to £2,000,000 in EIS shares.

What are the benefits for investors?

  • Can invest up to £1,000,000 a year in EIS shares.
  • Investors will get 30% tax relief per tax year
  • Any gain is exempt from Capital Gains tax provided the shares have been held for at least 3 years.
  • Loss relief via tax liability upon disposal of shares for a loss
  • Capital gains tax on assets can be deferred if the gain is re-invested in EIS shares
  • ‘Carry back’ facility so the shares can act as tax relief for the previous tax year

Example:

Angel Investor Vader invests £100,000 into ‘Death Star Inc’, a highly disruptive Fintech startup which qualifies for EIS.

For the given tax year, Vader has a tax liability of £50,000. Because of his EIS shares he gets 30% of the value of his investment in relief, so £30,000. This means he pays £20,000 in tax rather than the £50,000 he owes in tax. This situation is irrespective of how well the company does.

If the company folds, Vader will still receive his £30,000 in tax relief meaning only £70,000 of his initial investment is at risk. When the company folds, he will also be given loss relief of 45% of the ‘at risk’ capital. 45% of £70,000 is £31,500.

So if the company folds, Vader will only have lost £38,500 even though he invested £100,000. That’s relief of 61.5%!

Does your company qualify?

To qualify for EIS your company must satisfy the following criteria:

  • Permanent UK Base- your company must have a permanent UK office or the owner must be a UK resident. This must remain the case for three years from when EIS shares are issued.
  • Your company must not be listed on the stock exchange at the time the EIS shares are issued.
  • Your company must have fewer than 250 full-time employees at the time the EIS shares are issued.
  • The gross assets must not exceed £15 million at the time the EIS shares are issued.
  • The funds raised must be spent within three years.
  • Your company must be independent i.e. it must not be controlled by any other company or anyone associated with that company.
  • Your company must not be a member of a partnership

The full criteria and guidance on how to apply for advanced assurance can be found here on the HMRC website

Summary:

If you’re an early stage company registered in the UK and you’re raising money, you really should get advanced assurance for both SEIS and EIS. It can seem a little complicated, but in effect, all you need to do is submit the correct forms to HMRC and let them work out if you qualify.

You can be sure that all your competitors will be doing it – investors are far more likely to invest in an early stage company if they have the guaranteed risk mitigation that SEIS and EIS offer.

This article was originally written by Oliver Jones for Angel Investment Network‘s Learn centre. You can view the original and other similar articles covering all topics related to startup fundraising and investment here.

What’s the outlook for mobile app startups and investors in 2017?

“There’s an app for that”, or some variant of the phrase, is now one of the most common responses to anyone raising a complaint or bemoaning a problem, however small.

Rise and fall of man

The extreme sense of entitlement coupled with the profound idleness that characterises our age has created a market for apps which manage or assist with our dry-cleaning, our sex life, our tampon subscription, our polyphasic sleep-mapping, our pets’ bowel movements…I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in the murky depths of the App Store there’s an app for communing with the dead – or perhaps I’ve just been watching too much Black Mirror.

The last decade has seen the rapid and unstoppable emergence of the mobile application. And it’s not just quick-on-the-uptake millennials who are enamoured with this new way of being, by now nearly everyone is a smartphone-toting app addict.

But is this set to last? And what’s the outlook for mobile app entrepreneurs and investors?

The general consensus from anecdotal reports is that mobile app companies are finding it more difficult to raise finance. This requires some unpacking. Thanks to a report from our friends at Beauhurst, who track the funds raised by thousands of seed, venture and growth-stage companies, we can see that the amount invested in mobile apps in the UK reached its highest ever level of just over £560m in 2016 (that’s up from £67m in 2011 and circa £275m in 2015).

Mobile app deal numbers and amount invested 2011-2016
Mobile app deal numbers and amount invested 2011-2016

So what’s the problem? Clearly, there are enormous (and increasing) amounts of capital still being ploughed into the app industry by investors. But hold on, there’s a nuance to this.

The crucial change which gives credence to the consensus is that the stage of the app companies raising money has changed. In 2013, 70% of app companies who raised money were seed stage, but by 2016 that number had dropped to 62% with more investors opting for the more proven venture and growth-stage companies.

So from this, we can see that for early stage app companies the prospect of raising finance has indeed become marginally harder. However, the amounts being invested into the sector are still growing at an impressive rate so for apps good enough to compete, there’s still a world of opportunity.

With thanks to Beauhurst for permission to use their data. You can read their article here

Business Funding Show Event – Canary Wharf 23rd February

Angel Investment Network will once again be joining a host of other companies from the startup investment space at the latest Business Funding Show on 23rd February near Canary Wharf tube station.

PICTURE with Logos

Attendees will be given the opportunity to:

– Meet famous entrepreneurs like Mark Wright (BBC Apprentice Winner)
– Learn from Angel Investors such as Mike Greene (C4 Secret Millionaire)
– Meet a range of leading financial institutions
– Get free 1-2-1 with Top Investors & VCs
– Attend talks from industry experts

Wondering what it’s all about? Check out what it was like last year in the video below:
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If I were an SME today and I’d just started a business or I was growing a business in my early days, I’d be here at the Show, because I want to learn more and more about all the different forms of funding available, meet potential funders every year, meet with fellow entrepreneurs and learn from them, learn from the speakers, who are very experienced.” Lord Bilimoria of Cobra Beer

Picture Richard

My mission is to help entrepreneurs to set-up and grow their business. So, the Business Funding Show is a perfect event for this, as it’s all about helping entrepreneurs to learn how to get money and grow fast.” Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks

Our very own Xavier Ballester will also be giving a workshop on raising money through angel investors!