Advising companies
A theme repeated now several times during my mentoring sessions, is the misunderstanding of what legal advice is or should be. The first time this happened, was about a year ago, when a promising startup asked for my advice on how to offer share options to new employees. Now any startup with some traction has […]
I realised that I had discussed company valuations several times, but had not explored or discussed the most common mistake that many startups make, the cliched “My startup is worth £1M” Here are a few compelling reasons why you’re not: 1. As mentioned in a previous blog, if your startup really is worth £1M, why […]
My old family founded company, Densitron is about to be bought by a group of former employees through their new company Quixant see here: http://goo.gl/BSzC7a It was a company founded by my Father in 1972 in the UK, a Mr Degawa in Japan and Mr Luskin in the USA. The group took the Japanese companies […]
So I’ve just had another mentoring session with my Incubator in London. It was organised in a slightly ad-hoc manner, so I ended up meeting startups I’d already speed mentored a couple of weeks prior. One startup was a mobile app for black cab customers. It was a slightly awkward meeting as we had been […]
After observing the Tech City Media, one would think that the goal of a startup is to raise finance. Most success stories both here and in the States centre around that theme and for an early stage startup with little traction there are often no other metrics to go on. However, let’s not get distracted, […]
So I was offered an investment in a mid cap company. They were seeking £600K for an 8% investment in their holding company. The money was going to be split, with £250K for working capital and £350K to pay outstanding debts. The working capital requirement I could understand, but I wanted to know more about […]
I got another business plan today that fails to describe what the product does and how it works. It also spends a significant amount of time giving client testimonials and potential market without explaining what investment is required, what its going to be used for. A ROI estimate would have been useful as well. So […]
I have a very selective memory, my wife will tell you I can’t remember names, not just people, but places or things. It’s kind of a handicap and causes occasional embarrassment, however it leaves room in my brain for important stuff. As an investor and businessman I remember everything, I mean everything. If you tell […]
I’m currently about halfway through Eric Schmidt’s book: How Google Works, and I’m not really getting that much from it. It reads a little parochial and tame, while the advice it offers is unrealistic. Most companies and CEO’s have a much broader job with many more challenges and a lot harder mountain to climb. Now […]
If you’ve been following my blog on “The Secrets of Investing”, you’ll be aware of my dilemma on providing startup funding to pay founders salaries. Today I had an epiphany and I’d like to share it with you. If I am investing an amount of money in exchange for a percentage of the company, then […]