Thoughts on technology start-ups in Scotland
May 28, 2012 1 Comment
The final resting place of most business plans…
Investors base their investment decisions on some combination of the Team, the Idea, and the Market. As long as I can communicate effectively about these three areas, I am ready to start talking to investors. Talking to investors DOES NOT NEED A WRITTEN BUSINESS PLAN.
May 25, 2012 1 Comment
Sandy Finlayson at MBM Commercial writes an interesting blog, but this post about Preferences and Angels is a MUST READ for startup founders. It explains a really important structural difference between the Angel market in the UK and elsewhere relating to EIS (the Enterprise Investment Scheme) tax breaks and ordinary/preference shares.
May 24, 2012 2 Comments
Start NOW!
One of the ways I judge a book as really good is when it still has me thinking about its content a few weeks later. I recently read Angels, Dragons and Vultures by Simon Acland and quickly wrote one post on the subject of having a plan B, and I have been continuing to think about a lot of the ideas in it. I almost universally agree with the ideas, but I think that there are lots of practical details of the experience that differ from location to location.
I started trying to capture some of my thoughts in a blog post, but it got crazy long so I’ve split is into a mini-series, and this is the first one. I have the following list of working titles for the instalments – this may change as I fill in the details:
As always I am sure plenty of people with other experiences will read this and have different ideas – please share them and help to get a debate going!
Investment (Part 1) – Start Now
May 18, 2012 Leave a comment
Don’t Waste Time is great advice for start-ups on avoiding getting caught up in the minutia of running a business while missing the bigger issues. It also links a wealth of other information to help with areas that often take up more time in small companies than is really justified. It is part of the HumbledMBA blog, which is an eclectic collection of thoughts form startup-land which I find both informative and enjoyable.
May 11, 2012 Leave a comment
If you’ve ever wanted practical tips on demonstrating software, particularly Software as a Service, then you should check out this post Stunningly Awful SaaS Demos – Lost in the Clouds. It is just one example of the wealth of thoughts and advice around demoing software that you can find on the Great Demo! blog, much of which is actually pretty widely applicable outside of software too…
May 10, 2012 2 Comments
Grants: A road to nowhere?
Public money and business are often uneasy bedfellows. Stimulating a healthy economy is a core function for government as no-one can prosper without a sound business base, at least in a capitalist society (I’ll leave the debate about whether we should be capitalists to those far more knowledgeable than me). Governments use legislation and the tax system to promote activity they believe will contribute to a healthy society (such as job creation), and to discourage activity they consider unhealthy (such as making people redundant or polluting the environment). The public purse spends billions of pounds each year acquiring products and services from the private sector, and can use this spending to promote positive business behaviour too, although in practice this seldom seems to happen. In comparison with legislation, taxation, and public spending, grants represent a minuscule amount of money.
Yet I believe that grants can have an incredibly toxic effect on businesses – especially small and startup businesses. If small businesses were irrelevant to the economy as a whole then perhaps this wouldn’t matter, but small businesses are not irrelevant. Small businesses (collectively) employ a huge number of people, contribute a massive proportion of job creation, and are the big businesses of tomorrow. Governments claim to have support for small business right at the forefront of their agenda.
Here are some of the dangers of grants for businesses – and I believe I have seen businesses fail as a result of these. My comments come largely from my perspective as a someone working mostly with Scottish technology companies, however I believe many of my observations have wider applicability.
May 4, 2012 Leave a comment
A colleague passed this link on to me a couple of weeks ago, after a discussion about how to use commission effectively with a sales team. I found it rather amusing, if a little contrived, and a great warning that you have to be very careful what you measure and reward, as that is exactly what you will get: The Story of the The Well Intentioned Commisar.
May 1, 2012 3 Comments
Any spare change?
Back in December I blogged about some of the different types of crowdfunding under the title Crowdfunding Chaos, where I tried to categorise some of the types of crowdfunding that were emerging and link to some relevant sites and articles.
Since then things have moved on somewhat, especially in the Crowd Equity space where funders receive shares in the ownership of a business they are funding.
