Why was IBM Global Entrepreneur founded?

We know that working with startups can drive change. Today, the world’s physical systems are being infused with intelligence, and this opportunity to apply information technology to physical infrastructure opens up vast new markets for the IT industry.  With disruptive, new technologies, this is the perfect scenario for innovative entrepreneurs to play a major role.  With IBM’s unique vision of a Smarter Planet (ibm.com/smarterplanet/uk), we are looking to partner with technology entrepreneurs who share this vision and want to work together to address this new market opportunity.

What kinds of support do you offer to entrepreneurs?

IBM Global Entrepreneur has the products, people, and promotion that can help technology startups extend the size and reach of their company.  The initiative provides support and resources in the areas these startups need most:

1. Product
   • No charge access to IBM’s software portfolio on-site or through the cloud to accelerate software development
2. People
   • Dedicated technical enablement support to help startups develop their product and get to the marketplace faster.
   • Mentors at IBM SmartCamps around the world who can help them grow their business.
   • Industry market intelligence from our top industry experts that can help them understand the enterprise customer and the market opportunity.
3. Promotion
   • Visibility as part of the IBM Smarter Planet agenda to set themselves apart from the competition.
   • Recognition and additional benefits to partners with the most innovative solutions
   • Opportunity to showcase their company in the IBM Global Entrepreneur directory.

When was the initiative started and how many entrepreneurs have you helped?

IBM Global Entrepreneur launched on 31st March 2010, so is very new at the moment. Given this, we are at the stage of raising awareness of what we have to offer, and encouraging participation. We are doing this by engaging with individuals and organisations who are already well established in this community, and we are delighted that School for Startups is working with us as one of our ecosystem partners. Hundreds of startups have shown interest in our new initiative, and I am delighted with how enthusiastic people have been who I’ve spoken to about what we are doing.

How do entrepreneurs participate?

Startups who meet the eligibility criteria can register at ibm.com/isv/startup. On our application form we ask a few simple questions to help us understand a little about their companies, and once accepted they will be contacted by one of our Project Resource Managers (PRM). The assigned PRM will make a personal call  to welcome them, and will guide them through how they can make best us of the resources we provide on a one-to-one basis.

Startups can also apply to participate in our IBM SmartCamp London event which is taking place on 21st July at Imperial College London. SmartCamp is an exclusive event that brings together entrepreneurs, investors and experienced mentors who want to help us build a Smarter Planet. SmartCamp provides startups access to world-class advisors, plus a direct route to seed and venture capital. Applications for the London event can be made from now until 2nd July 2010.

What is your background and how did you come to IBM?

In 1987 IBM launched an integrated degree scheme with the University of Portsmouth, and I was one of the original intake to the scheme of 20 students. The initiative was pioneering as it was the first time in the UK that a company’s in-house training counted as credits towards a degree – a BSc in Computer Science. Our time was split on a weekly basis between our studies and doing a real job in IBM, so a very different model to a traditional sandwich course. The great thing was that we were paid a salary for the 3 years of the course, which certainly enhanced the experience!

Since graduating, I’ve performed a very diverse mixture of technical and business roles in IBM, both in the UK and across Europe. In 2005 I took on responsibility for establishing the IBM Academic Initiative (ibm.com/academicinitiative) across Europe, Middle East and Africa, and it was through this programme that I first started engaging with entrepreneurial students in the universities. I still look after this programme in the UK & Ireland, and am very excited about the new opportunities that leading the IBM Global Entrepreneur initiative is bringing. It is such an inspirational community of people to be collaborating with.

Is there a way entrepreneurs can learn more about the initiative online?

Our website is the best place to go to learn more: ibm.com/isv/startup

Additional information on IBM SmartCamp London can be found at ibm.com/ie/smarterplanet/smartcamp

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1. Featured Entrepreneur: Kevin Matthew
2. The Dirty Secret of Credit For Small Business: the Failure of the EFG Scheme
3. Sex, Lies and the Bottom Feeders of the Angel Community

If your business rises above the pack, you’ll be invited to the national competition where you’ll meet more people who can help you, encounter more business professionals who may be able to support you, and present your business to working angels, venture capitalists and investors. Experts advise you, and you hone your presentation until it just can’t get any better.   If you win the competition, you get crowned ‘Britain’s  Best New Business’ and win a prize package worth £50,000.

If you are thinking of starting a new business, we encourage you to have a look at the Competition Website to see where your regional competition will be held and to download an application form. Entries must be in before 15 June, with the first heat, the South West, taking place in Bristol on 21 June.

Remember that we have a great online and face to face Perfect your Pitch event coming up on June 21. Even if you aren’t going to participate in the competition, you should attend our event.  Every business needs a perfect pitch.  It is the single most important tool you have for acquiring customers, team members, strategic partners, investors and support for your business from the community.

Related posts:

1. The Pitch 2010
2. Perfect Your Pitch with Doug Richard on June 21, 6:30 – 8PM! Join Us Online or Face to Face
3. The Original Dragon Joins Judges Panel at The Pitch 09

Can’t make it to London?  That’s OK! Join us online for the full event! You’ll be an active participant in our class.

As an entrepreneur you start pitching your business long before there is even a business to pitch.  You pitch potential team members, customers, industry partners, lenders, investors and members of the community in which you will work.  How you position your business in the minds of others is key to your marketing and sales efforts, your website design, the delivery of your products and services; even your future growth.

Getting your pitch right can dramatically increase your profitability and it can dramatically reduce the time it takes you to get your business up and running.  It can make your business more profitable more quickly.

Why?  Because the right pitch compellingly identifies the value you deliver to those you are serving and to those with whom you plan to work.  That clarity is key to your success.

For complete details about this event, please sign up by following the link below.  If you know others who might benefit, we hope you’ll forward a link to this page.  We think this is going to be one of our most important, and most entertaining events ever.

Why? Because there is nothing more important to learn, and little more fun to master, than the art and science of delivering the Perfect Pitch.  A great pitch delivered well is the closest thing you’ll see to “Practical Magic” in the business world.

For those attending online through S4Stv, the event starts at 6:30. For those attending the live event, registration starts at 5:30.  See You There!

http://www.schoolforstartups.co.uk/2010/05/17/perfect-your-pitch-s4stv-hosted-by-university-college-london/

Related posts:

1. The Pitch 2010 – A Very Important Event for UK Entrepreneurs
2. UK Startups Get Accelerated Training in How to Find Investors from Doug Richard at The Royal Institution of Great Britain
3. UK Startups are Prey for Rip Off Artists Disguised as Angel Groups & Financiers, says Doug Richard

Some people say that it is not what you know but who you know.  Truth is, it is both. If you are an entrepreneur running a business-to-business enterprise, investing time into social networking sites like Facebook (www.facebook.com) can seem like a waste of time because it probably is.  There’s little point in delivering your message about photocopiers and courier services to folks discussing dating venues and baby bottles. How can your business posts not seem like spam in that context?

That is why there is LinkedIn.com, a site where business people can talk business to other business people safely.  You really can find a large percentage of the business people you know, and those you want to know, on this website.  Perhaps more important, there are several tools that let you connect to those open to new business proposals and new networking relationships.

Using LinkedIn effectively is easy if you do the following:

1. To create an account, just go to www.linkedin.com.  Provide all the usual data.  Linked in has tools that will mine your email box for friends. If that email box happens to be your business email box, allowing LinkedIn to issue invitations is probably appropriate.  You can pick and choose contacts if you prefer.
2. Once your account is setup, your resume entered, your friends invited, go join some Groups in the business areas that matter most to you. Media, manufacturing, import/export, etc.  Groups are for people that actively want to network through LinkedIn.  Important: Being in a group with someone means you can contact them for free through LinkedIn messages. Because it means you can search for the people you need to know, based on their job title let’s say, and if you find a contact that’s in a group with you . . . you can send him a well written message and far more often than not he will reply. This means you don’t have to pay for InMail messages.
3. You can search for people by company, title, location and other parameters.  This is handy.  If you need to find potential funders for example, try searching for angel investor, private equity, venture capital, private lender, investment manager or hedge fund manager. You’ll get some useful results.
4. Make sure your profile links to your website, and make sure your website has your phone number, email address and Twitter account.
5. Ask questions on the Answers forum if you need help.  Answering questions for others is a great way to create new networking connects and demonstrate special expertise.
6. Post jobs on LinkedIn when you need to hire people.  You’ll be surprised how many well qualified people find you here.  It is also very useful to see applicant profiles, including connections, when folks respond.
7. You can now post ads on LinkedIn, and they offer some useful targeting tools. This may be a great option for straight business-to-business promotion.
8. Within Linkedin Groups, you can post links to news articles and start new discussions.  This is great for your SEO and link building efforts.

One thing that you must remember is that LinkedIn is not Facebook.  So this is not the place to post baby pictures, expose political or religious preferences, or discuss who you are dating.   The negative reactions you receive from such a breach are every bit as bad as you get from “spamming” Facebook with a blatant business message.

LinkedIn is an exceptionally good place to make new business connections and to maintain them for long periods of time.  It is a great place to market your business and promote all your website has to offer.  It really is a fully functional business community, and for business-to-business enterpreneurs it is much better than Facebook.   I look forward to seeing you there.

Related posts:

1. Pay Per Click Advertising on LinkedIn
2. I Have to Show You Cracklytics
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The 4 Ps?

Product, Price, Promotion, Place, the Four P’s that historically have defined marketing operations have long been a road map for businesses who want to bring a product to market.

• Develop a product that packages a set of features and benefits
• Determine the proper price for that product
• Decide how to promote it
• Determine how to distribute it.

That’s how you market a product. At least it used to be.

For many businesses the traditional interpretation of the 4 P’s is is misleading at best and toxic at worst.  Online games and iphone apps, open source software and social networking sites blur the line between promotion and product.  Grocery stores now take orders online for home delivery. Print shops let you upload documents that are subsequently printed and couriered to clients. Many schools now consist of students and faculty that never meet face to face. Aren’t we all Internet businesses these days?

Understanding What Has Changed . . .

The reality is that over the last decade the process by which products are brought to market has changed radically and many otherwise competent business professionals are still struggling to cope with new realities.

For example, many software startups still identify their product as being a long series of specific features that let the customer achieve a given set of objectives.   When you ask these businesses to add a form that lets someone invite a friend to use the application, or to create a Facebook widget that lets the product communicate with customers through their favorite social network, these developers say “We need to work on core features first.  Lets save that for Version 2.”

• They see all “code” as a component of the “product”.
• They don’t understand that they, like everyone else in the market, must create the code required to connect their product to customers and their customers to one another.
• They don’t understand that they never get a version 2 if they haven’t integrated their product or service into its marketplace by creating the necessary code.
• They seem to believe, despite the fact that they have no customers and usually haven’t done much in the way of classic marketing research, that they know what the customer wants and it is embodied in their feature list.

The last decade of software successes demonstrates that this is “flawed” thinking. Twitter does one thing very well and everyone that uses it invites others to use it.  There is no clear division between the Twitter service and its methodology. Facebook, Linkedin, Google, Magento, and many other very successful businesses have discovered the same solution.

More traditional businesses face other cognitive challenges.

• Brick and Mortar companies believe they have a “core business” which may be anything from producing cast iron pots to selling accounting services.
• They use the web for this thing called “marketing” which is seen as an auxilliary operation they undertake in order to increase product sales.
• Annually, or quarterly, the marketing budget is calculated. Some money is spent on advertising, some is spent on the website, some is spend on bulk mail. There is no adherence to any kind of specific strategy or methodology for this development which is considered “marketing”. Companies still think in terms of campaigns.

These businesses do not see the Internet and other communication connectivity as a necessary core element to their product or service because they do not see themselves as a “software” or “internet” company. Over the last fifteen years, Amazon, Lulu, Netflix and Ebay are just a few of the businesses that have re-envisioned traditionally brick and mortar businesses leveraging new communication options.

There is a new road map for bring products and services to market because what businesses are now expected to sell is a good “customer experience” that extends all the way from presales, to product adoption, to long term use.  Actually, businesses have always been in the business of selling “good customer experiences” it is just that these days that requires that elements of “marketing” and “software development” be incorporated into almost every successful widely-adopted product or service.

Ship Early, Ship a Little, Ship Fast

Given the changes in how products are developed, priced, promoted and distributed, there has been a concurrent change to how most enterpreneurs should launch their businesses.

• Create a very stripped down version of your product or service with a very small number of features, maybe even just one really great feature.  Ceate all the code required to connect this product or service to its target market.
• Launch the product aggressively, so people who need the tool can find it and share it with friends.
• Wait for the “wall of sound” that comes as customers adopt the product and begin providing feedback. Release new versions of the product based on what actual customers want from the product rather than what they imagine the “ideal feature set” to be.

This methodology for bringing a product to market offers many advantages over more traditional strategies.

• It allows startups and small businesses to start their business with a minimum of debt or outside investment and in a relatively short period of time.  The objective is to create a very elegant, very useful, very simple solution to a given customer problem.
• It lets them leverage the Internet for solution distribution at a minimum cost and for a minimum purchase price at a reasonable profit.
• It lets them refine the product over time based on feedback from paying customers.

The Ship Early, Ship Little, Ship Fast methodology works for almost any new product or service because it jetisons an antiquated understanding of what a product is, how it is promoted and how it will be delivered.

Related posts:

1. What Businesses Will Be Worrying About Next Year
2. The Price of Money (At Least You Can Eat Catfish)
3. Sex, Lies and the Bottom Feeders of the Angel Community

The School for Startups team would like to introduce Mykel Sprinkles, Entrepreneur Chair for the VCIC 2010, announcing a wonderful opportunity for businesses out there looking to grow and become successful:

I am very excited to bring to the S4S community a great opportunity for entrepreneurs seeking investment capital to take their venture to the next level…the 2010 Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC).

VCIC 2010 provides an excellent chance to gain access to top venture capital firms seeking new opportunities in areas as diverse as:

• clean tech
• business services
• energy, consumer products
• social networking
• software / IT
• food & beverage
• telecommunications
• life sciences
• internet & others

25% of all companies presenting at VCIC events receive funding – the average is £6 million.

As Entrepreneur Chair for this year’s European competition, I am responsible for sourcing ten outstanding entrepreneurs to pitch their deal/opportunity.

We are looking for high quality and diverse companies.  VCIC is best geared towards companies that are established and seeking further investment to hit target growth stages.  At the same time, earlier stage companies or those with fast-to-market expectations and/or larger capital requirements are also encouraged to participate.

How it works…VCIC is a global competition in which teams of MBA students from elite business schools evaluate deal pitches. Entrepreneurs submit a full business plan, perform a 10-minute pitch, participate in Q&A sessions, and perform mock negotiations. Entrepreneurs receive candid feedback while VCs evaluating the teams receive direct access to pre-screened deals. Following each event there is a networking session with executives from top VC firms and participants.

There will be two VCIC events taking place – On the 12th & 26th of February 2010.  Both events will be held at the London Business School.

If you would like to receive an application or if you have any questions, please contact Mykel Sprinkles at msprinkles.mba2011@london.edu  or telephone +44(0) 755 468 4717.

-Mykel Sprinkles

Related posts:

1. The Pitch 2010 – A Very Important Event for UK Entrepreneurs
2. Finance Tree
3. Kevin Farrar, IBM Global Entrepreneur Lead, UK & Ireland

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The defense these networks make is two-fold: that they provide support before the event and that they are really corporate finance specialists. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, I will only believe an entities’ assertions, implicit or explicit, that they are serving the corporate finance role, if, when they present themselves to the public (ie their website) they show the tombstones of prior deals. Tombstones, as you may recall, are the list of their prior funding successes which would be in their self interest to promote to persuade new potential customers to work with them. Of course if their hit rate of prior funding successes were very low they would be inclined not to be so transparent as it would put entrepreneurs off from paying them a fee. It is, to me, the bellwether indicator: are they bragging about success or hiding failure?

An example of a worthy angel network is Pi Capital run by David Giampaolo. Pi Capital does not take a fee from the entrepreneur because Giampaolo views it as an inherent conflict of interest.  (www.picapital.co.uk) Not surprisingly, Pi is quite candid about their successes. More to the point it serves as a reminder that there are business models for intermediaries to run a successful business marrying angels and opportunities without charging the entrepreneurs.

Getting back to my original point though that angel networks provide essential training is also bordering on a scam. By tying the preparation to the money raising they are of course claiming that everyone needs it which is absurd and that their pricing because it is bundled cannot be directly compared to the same type of service provided elsewhere. Tying is the oldest game in the book. After all, if a company comes to one of these networks and despite preparation is still not investment ready, what do they do then? Not present them? They’ve taken their money…Welcome to the conflict of interest.

But of course this is the state of business support in the UK. We have firms charging to help young startups write their business plan. In fact they write their business plan for them. This is the antithesis of everything we believe at S4S. The entire point of a business plan is to document your thinking, analysis and efforts to discover in the real world your business proposition and model and cogently describe that to potential investors and partners. What possible purpose is served having someone write it for you? It’s like outsourcing childbirth or an orgasm or your birthday. It’s yours. It cannot be done by someone else. Even if you want to.

I am particularly galled by organizations that have managed to win contracts from RDA’s to help companies write their business plans. I know this happens because the unfortunate wretches end up on my doorstep, formulaic business plan in hand, clutched totemically in front of them as though, like a voodoo doll, it will ward off my evil questions.

Providers of such services may very well assert that startups need a great deal of help figuring out how to put their business plan together. I agree.

I agree, that is, if they mean that new entrepreneurs need help figuring out whether their idea makes a viable business and what sort of business it will make.

I agree if it means determining their capital needs and what sort of return that capital will make.

I agree if it means determining their pricing models and whether those prices support the sort of infrastructure their business will need to prosper,

Then sure they need help.  In fact, I agree so much I started School for Startups. What we are talking about is the need for entrepreneurs to be able to answer the key questions that will shape their business.

If they want to write all of their conclusions down in one place and neatly format it, then I guess they’ve got themselves a business plan.  But they could post it on a blog, or just get started on the business and that would make me just as happy. S4S is about teaching people what questions need to be answered and how to make sense of the answers they discover. It’s about being creative and realizing that businesses can take any form and that there are no limits. It’s not about writing the damn business plan.

But what about the business plan writing service that charges £1,000 and does the whole thing? Who is doing what for whom? Is this service going to run the business as well? Would any investor take any entrepreneur seriously who showed up with an outsourced business plan? Most professional investors have a dislike for corporate financiers because of the added fees and the implication that the company cannot present itself.  It doesn’t mean they won’t sometimes use them, but there is an underlying assumption that more due diligence needs to be done to ensure the company was not using the intermediary as a crutch to prop up their own failings.

If you are a startup you must realize that if it’s too good to be true, then it’s too good to be true. People will want your money, what little you have, and will say or do anything to get it.

Other articles on this site detail what I expect from an angel investor and how you the entrepreneur can spot a good one and a real one. Meanwhile if you have had a bad experience with a firm offering to write your business plan, let me know at info@schoolforstartups.co.uk.

Related posts:

1. The Price of Money Part 4: Say No, No, No, No Till Your Tongue Bleeds
2. Sex, Lies and the Bottom Feeders of the Angel Community
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“Why it’s wrong to charge startups to pitch =========== I’ve been in the startup scene since 1994 and in those 15 years I’ve met, interviewed — and in some cases, pitched — the most powerful investors in technology. None of them have ever charged me a dime for doing so. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE RICH!”  (http://calacanis.com/2009/10/09/why-startups-shouldnt-have-to-pay-to-pitch-angel-investors/).

Just to be clear, I completely agree with Jason, start-ups should not be charged to pitch their businesses to angel investors. What struck me about Jason’s very strident blog is how astonished he seemed to be that such un-ethical activity existed and, secondarily, I am quite sure that he is wrong about why they should not charge. It is not because they are rich, but rather because they have all the bargaining power and further, if they are indeed actually angel investors then it is not in their self-interest.

Money is in scarce supply and it creates a very imbalanced marketplace. Charging entrepreneurs to pitch merely because they can is not an adequate reason to do so. Moreover most angel groups that actually want to create successful investments know that it is not in their self interest. When I started the Cambridge Angels (http://cambridgeangels.angelgroups.net/) with Robert Sansom in 2001 we took the decision to only charge the other Angels and never to charge the entrepreneurs at all. This extended well beyond a pitching fee. Our reasoning then was that many start-ups had good ideas but no money and we would be arbitrarily denying ourselves valid opportunities because they lacked the very thing we were in a position to commit: money. Second, that if we indeed took money it would be difficult to turn away the opposite entrepreneurs: those with bad ideas and enough cash to pay a fee.

As it turns out, the commentary surrounding Calacanis’ blog supports our decision back then with one ex-employee of Keiretsu Forum describing the business as follows,

“Keiretsu recruited me directly out of college, yet I only worked for the company for about [REMOVED] months: the amount of time, I suppose, that it takes a reasonable and ethical person to come to terms with the reality of this scam…. These networks charge because they have to. They know that they have their business model upside down; I know that they know this because that was the first input that I offered to the head of one of the largest branches….Why didn’t Keiretsu charge the investor? Because no investor was willing to pay to be a member. While they say that they have membership dues (and other branches may very well collect them), I watched as a full year’s worth of membership dues went uncollected for the branch where I worked. When I asked multiple Keiretsu investors (off the record) what was up, they explained that, if they were charged even a cent, they would simply terminate their membership. And why was this the case? 3) Because Keiretsu attracted sub-par entrepreneurs, of course. For the exact reasons that you described. The goal, in any given month, was to have five entrepreneurs pitch, yet it was a rare month where we could dig up that many who were willing to pay Keiretsu’s fees ($7,500 to pitch at all four regional locations). So, in reality, we were essentially accepting anyone who was willing to pay.” (http://calacanis.com/2009/10/13/and-now-some-smoking-guns-or-part-two-of-angels-that-charge/)

I note with interest that Keiretsu Forums who have received much of the negative publicity in the US also apparently have a London chapter (http://keiretsuforum.com/frontend/ManageChapterSection.aspx?Page=Welcome&ChapterID=9) which is fascinating as I had never even heard of them prior to this controversy. I have sent them an email asking if they charge in London as well. I shall await their response.

One other UK group that was highlighted on the Calacanis site is Angels Den (http://www.angelsden.co.uk/) who apparently charge £800 to present. (http://calacanis.com/2009/10/09/why-startups-shouldnt-have-to-pay-to-pitch-angel-investors/)  Bill Morrow, the founder of Angels Den has vigorously defended his right to charge. He was quoted in the Guardian as saying,

“The base assertion that if you’re an angel, you should not be charging people to see you, is quite correct,” he said. “But there really has to be a distinction between those companies who actually have the capital and companies, like ours, who introduce you to people with the capital.”

“For £800 we help you write your business review, we spend half an hour on the phone with you, meet you, give you pitch training,” he added. “I’m happy to stand up and say that we genuinely believe that it’s a service for both sides – before we started the training or help you with a business plan, nobody’s getting funded.”  Asked whether it was fair to take a potential portion of funding away from young companies, Morrow said it was normal practice for European investment networks to do this – in fact, he said, many of his competitors demand much more for their services.  ”We’re slightly bemused that he [Calacanis] has chosen us, as we are by far and away the cheapest,” he said. “We’re the largest player, we’ve got the largest number of angels and we’ve got the most activity in the marketplace – but we’re also the cheapest. The number two charges £15,000 to pitch, a 5% success fee and then a 3% equity stake. The next biggest player charges £7,000 and charges a 5% fee.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/13/angelsden-funding)

Bill makes an interesting point but one that needs clarifying. But first I do not agree with him that prior to Angels Den nobody was getting funded. That is plain silly. Further I do not think that a 30 minute phone call and help with writing a business review is what separates the fundable from the unfundable. The final point I disagree with is that it is normal practice for angel networks to charge. Cambridge Angels don’t and have raised millions of pounds from its members and friends over its 8 years of existence.

In deference to Bill though, he does make a serious point. He is essentially differentiating between three activities: corporate finance, angel group investing and rip-off artists. In the first group are organizations that have rolodexes of people with money and who charge entrepreneurs to raise money from those networks. Corporate financiers usually charge a fee and a percentage of the money raised, just as Bill at Angels Den does. So to the extent Angels Den is essentially a boutique corporate finance house with a network of high net worth individuals then his business practices are no more or less legitimate than any of the other corporate finance houses.

But there are differences. Corporate financiers do not make their money on their fees, they make their money on the percentage they get of the money raised. And the “book” that they prepare is a time consuming, very professional document that is created to show the company in its best light and to also preserve the reputation of the corporate financier who is as worried about maintaining his money relationships as he is about any given entrepreneur. The evidence of their success is seen in the wall of tombstones that every corporate financier has on their site (See http://www.gpbullhound.com/trans.php or  http://www.cobaltcf.com/index1.php?page=track for examples). Their ability to raise money (or sell or buy businesses) is transparent.

Angels Den does not have that transparency. There are some case studies on the site but every money raising is not listed on the site. Given how radical a departure that is from customary practice it leaves one wondering how much money has been raised? How successful have they been? It is easy enough to remedy. If Angels Den is to be regarded as a proper corporate finance house then it should probably present itself as one and be very transparent about their successes to date.

I do not know who he is referring to who charges £15,000 or $7,000 for the right to pitch but I would assert on those numbers alone that they fall squarely into the third group: rip off artists.

I started this post noting that what astonished me about Jason’s post was how astonished he was. I am not. When I wrote the report for the Conservative Party on small business support and its effectiveness or ineffectiveness (http://www.bl.uk/bipc/pdfs/richardreport2008.pdf) I was struck by the number of bottom feeders in the marketplace who make their money by preying on insecure and inexperienced entrepreneurs.  If you know of, or encounter, businesses that engage in this practice, I hope you will let me know at info@schoolforstartups.co.uk.

Related posts:

1. What Angel Investing & 1 Night Stands Have In Common
2. The Price of Money (At Least You Can Eat Catfish)
3. UK Startups are Prey for Rip Off Artists Disguised as Angel Groups & Financiers, says Doug Richard