What’s so great about a start-up?

I’m not kidding. Who cares? It’s a topic that keeps cropping up in my circle of friends/business acquaintances. Startups, startups, startups. It’s an obsession with some people. I’ve noticed it a lot recently. There are startup programmes at all the universities. There are incubators. There is funding to do it. There is support. There is a [...]

Can Aspirational Be The New Exit?

Like everyone else, I woke up this morning to the news that Steve Jobs has died. I’m not overly sentimental. I won’t be attending any iPhone vigils. I won’t shed any tears. I didn’t know the man, and I have no personal feelings about his death. But early this morning, as I checked my Twitter [...]

5 ways to ruin your new product launch

Bold and beautiful title, eh? Yep, today I have a very simple message to people who are looking to bring new products to the market: be careful. That’s not meant to be negative. There are lots of great examples of recent companies that have brought new and innovative (or some combination of the two) products [...]

Sometimes it’s my job to tell you that you look fat in that dress.

I was sitting down for coffee with a fellow marketing man the other day. To be fair, I try not to do that too often, but every once in a while it’s ok, right? Anyway, there was a bit of a sales pitch on his side of the table, but he was a nice guy [...]

You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them. Know when to walk away, and know when to run….

I know what you’re thinking, but trust me, this isn’t really a post about Kenny Rogers (as much as I might wish it to be). Quick back story. I was actually walking to the train station this morning and I pressed the play button on my iPhone. It randomly selected some Kenny Rogers. Me being [...]

Just because your mother thinks you’re handsome doesn’t make it true…

There are times (I can say with only a small hint of sarcasm) where my mouth gets me into trouble. I’ll pause now for you all to stop laughing. Anyway the point is  I’ve decided to self-censor the title of this post a bit. It’s normally a little more crude, and I have a habit [...]

Investment needs talent. Talent deserves investment.

I was at a good meeting this morning. There were three of us sitting around the table in a hotel bar (this isn’t the start of a really bad joke) having a good discussion about the mixture of talent and investment needed for a lot of the companies we regularly see. I think that’s an [...]

A useful way to spend (about) seven minutes…

Thanks to Andrew Burnett and Mike Coulter for flagging this video up to me. The void between Super Angels and VCs (for some reason I can’t embed the video here, sorry) Interesting interview. Worth (about) seven minutes of your time. -j

Investment – will it take you where you want to go?

I’ll put it bluntly. Over the past three months I have met with over twenty companies that are currently looking for investment. Only two or three have really thought it through. That does not make me happy. I’ve said it before, but my company does a lot of work with high-growth companies. These projects range [...]

How much is too much? How much is too little?

My company does a lot of work helping early stage technology companies commercialise. That means, more often than not, we are dealing with some pretty cool technology and, more importantly, a company that needs a source of investment in order to be successful. If we’re in early enough with our early-stage clients, we often work [...]