“Simon has been a great support to both Glow and me personally over the past 18 months since joining our board. He is a fantastic connector and has been a very positive influence in our success. Fair, honest and the giver of excellent advice, especially through various fund raising stages. Highly recommended for any early stage software business.”
Contributions
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How do you protect your stake and influence in portfolio companies?
From my experience as a pre-seed to series A investor, as other institutional investors join the CAP table in later (and larger) rounds, your legal rights are naturally subjugated to theirs. This is natural but (sometimes) not recognised by early investors which can bring tensions to round negotiations. However, your best protection against non-market/onerous terms is the relationship you have hopefully built with the founder; if you have been helpful and supportive in the critical (and risky) early days of a business, a good founder is more likely to be minded to ensure legal protection of your position, as well as theirs. In negotiations with VCs, there is none more powerful voice than the founder.
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How do you get ready for investor scrutiny?
Ensure that your financials are appropriate to your raise. By this I mean, if you are a pre-seed or seed, then the level of detail that I would expect in your forecast is much less than those at a Series A or beyond who have historic data. However, be prepared to justify the assumptions you have made, possibly by comparibles to similar companies in your space. Wise early-stage investors will know a lot of your forecasts are based on assumptions, but need to feel comfortable that those assumptions are realistic.
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How do you get ready for investor scrutiny?
Most of my portfolio companies do pitch practice with me or other 'friendly' investors to ensure that you are getting the key messages across from the Investor perspective. I would also suggest that you don't do your first pitch with your hottest/key potential investor; you are likely to refine and improve your pitch as you go along, so give yourself the chance to make mistakes in the first pitch or two!
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How do you get ready for investor scrutiny?
Put together a data room for your fundraise in advance of your fundraise. This collates much of the info that investors might ask of you and ensures that you maintain momentum in the deal process. As an investor it is a red flag if I have to wait days for a piece of info - conversely a dataroom shows that the company has prepared for the fundraise. The list of what to include is specific to you, but should likely include pitch deck, financials, CVs of founders, employment contracts, patents and corporate documents as appropriate. It doesn't have to be a static folder either; some of the best founders update it during the DD process, induding a Q&A document that gives answers to questions that are regularly asked.
Activity
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A gentle hike from Fort William into the clouds on Ben Nevis, followed by a knee-challenging descent (1,345 metres or 4,400 feet). Short health…
A gentle hike from Fort William into the clouds on Ben Nevis, followed by a knee-challenging descent (1,345 metres or 4,400 feet). Short health…
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Energy Density vs. Power Density: An Electrode Microstructure Perspective 🔬 The microstructure of battery electrodes is critical to performance…
Energy Density vs. Power Density: An Electrode Microstructure Perspective 🔬 The microstructure of battery electrodes is critical to performance…
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Had a great time last night at the Breega WimbleTech networking padel event! Probably the most VC I have ever felt - shame I forgot my Patagonia…
Had a great time last night at the Breega WimbleTech networking padel event! Probably the most VC I have ever felt - shame I forgot my Patagonia…
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Experience & Education
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Playfair Capital
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💸 The power of philanthropy 💸 🫴🏼 Mike Bloomberg has just pledged an incredible $1 billion to The Johns Hopkins University, on top of his $1.8…
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It's official... we're an award-winning angel group 🖤 South East Angels was awarded Most Active Investor in the Regions at the UK Business Angels…
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Massive congratulations to Kristina Pereckaite and Jake Fox who won the UK Business Angels Association award for most active in region. Not only…
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