lando.blog » british tech http://www.landoweb.com The ramblings of an almost madman Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:42:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 New Europe Fund Setup By PROFounders http://www.landoweb.com/2009/07/10/new-europe-fund-setup-by-profounders/ http://www.landoweb.com/2009/07/10/new-europe-fund-setup-by-profounders/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:18:45 +0000 Landon http://www.landoweb.com/?p=341 ProFoundersCapital Logo

Just read on the grapevine that a new fund is being setup specifically targetting tech companies in Europe (although the founders tend to be predominantly British)

“Leading the fund will be Michael Birch, the founder of Bebo and BirthdayAlarm; Brent Hoberman, the founder of Lastminute and Mydeco; Peter Dubens, the founder of Oakley Capital and Freedom4 Group; and Jonathan Goodwin, the founder of LongAcre Partners.” – techcrunch uk

It would seem that Bebo founder My. Birch is the predominate funder of the fund and it is very much a fund “by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs” which may come as a delight to many tech savvy people here in Britain. They also plan on not performing any of the standard tricks played on new Entrepreneurs by VC’s such as “double dipping” which means that the VC’s put in the contract that they have the option of taking a bigger stake when the next round of funding takes place diluting ownership quite significantly for the founders.

Well I hope that it works out for them (and the companies they fund) and it’s good to know that I may have a place to go in the future if I ever require funding. It is really nice to know that it is localish and being run by people who have been in the same boat themselves and know the many pitfalls that most fall into first time around.

]]> http://www.landoweb.com/2009/07/10/new-europe-fund-setup-by-profounders/feed/ 0 Is it Boom Time for British Tech? http://www.landoweb.com/2007/12/10/is-it-boom-time-for-british-tech/ http://www.landoweb.com/2007/12/10/is-it-boom-time-for-british-tech/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:53:40 +0000 Landon http://www.landoweb.com/?p=10 According to an article on the BBC it is, but I am not so sure. The truth of the matter is that we definitely have the talent available in the UK. Almost everyone I work with is very smart and very able, but that has never really been our problem. The people with the money is our problem as they are usually just more careful about what they do with it or at least expect too much of the business to make it viable for someone to put all their time and effort into making it a success compared to our American counterparts. I imagine that the only way of getting the funding that you need is to either be part of a university offshoot company (preferably from Cambridge) which obviously seem to be favored or pack your bags and make the move to America and put your money where you mouth is, as did the lads who started auctomatic.com which seems to have worked wonders for them. Although of course they did get accepted to Y Combinator, which seems to be an excellent venture capital firm who invest in ideas, brains and potential rather than just experience and a business plan. Plus it is being run by people who have been in the same position themselves and created successful companies. Now I am not saying that you do not need a business plan or experience as they are both crucial for success, but I would put someone with brains and get-up-and-go over that any day of the week, especially for high tech companies that need to be on the cutting edge. After all you can easily employ the suits to handle all the other stuff that comes with running a business. What you cant easily find is people with the brains to imagine how things should be and create the next “Google”. This is what we are lacking. It seems that investment companies don’t seem to be happy with just the brainy guys, they want them to be able to run the business like GE as well which most brainiacs/entrepreneurs just don’t want to do. This explains why most entrepreneurs seem to move on quickly after turning a company into a success and bring in the normal suits for the day to day running when things get “boring”.

I cannot base my rantings on anything other than what I have read as I have never had any experience dealing with investment companies at all and hope that I do not have to as I can imagine it being a very daunting task, but you never know when the day will come that I need to finance a business of mine. When the day does come I will not hesitate to jump on a plane to the states if that’s what it takes, although it would be nice to jump on the bus instead ;)

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