FGB004 – Jonathan Lea on legal issues to consider in closing a funding round
Jonathan Lea of the Jonathan Lea Network joins me this week to discuss legal issues to consider when seeking to close an early stage funding round.
Legal issues to consider when closing a fundraising round
In this podcast we cover:
- What documents most investors will typically expect startup founders to have in place – from investors’ agreement to Articles + shareholders agreement etc
- Managing the process of investors committing and exchanging documents at different times
- Potential pitfalls to watch out for if you are seeking to issue shares under SEIS / EIS
- How to structure a joint SEIS / EIS funding round
You can read more that Jonathan drafted on this subject here in this post.
Resource of the Week
This weeks’ resource of the week comes courtesy of Jonathan himself – it is Cloud Employee.
Your chance to access overseas software development support sourced on your behalf by a UK company at a fraction of the normal cost – with rates as low as £8 ph.
Head over to cloudemployee.co.uk for more…
Get interactive!
Please leave any comments or feedback via Twitter – @iptaxsolutions or use the #fgbpodcast
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FGB003: Richard Harrison, Inovaris talks SME grants | Horizon2020 | Business Growth Service demise
In this third edition of the Fast Growth Business podcast, Richard Harrison, Director of innovation consultants, Inovaris, provides founders and entrepreneurs with some tips on navigating the world of grants and also gives us his thoughts on recent cut-backs to business support services such as the Business Growth Service.
Before we dive into the interview, our resource of the week is ScheduleOnce – you know those times when you’re trying to find a mutually convenient time for a meeting or call and you find yourself making suggestions and nothing quite fits in….! Well with ScheduleOnce you can email a link that provides live access to your calendar in that it suggests slots that it knows you are free. I’ve been tinkering with this for a few weeks and early signs are good. Give it a try!
Please get interactive with us on Twitter and leave your feedback in iTunes.
Diving into the interview with Richard Harrison we discuss the following:
- Horizon 2020 – challenges involved and which organisations it typically suits
- Typical time-frames for grant applications
- Alternatives to Horizon2020 – that might be preferable for many SMEs
- Certain grants that can allow salary costs as the ‘matched funding’
- Problems in navigating available grant funding (without expert help)
- Closure of the Business Growth Service – impact on Growth Accelerator, Manufacturing Advisory Service etc
You can find Richard at Inovaris or on Linkedin.
Please subscribe for past and future episodes at iTunes.
We hope you enjoy it!
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FGB002: Modwenna Rees-Mogg talks raising funding |Crowdfunding | CrowdRating
We are delighted to bring you this second episode of the Fast Growth Business podcast, this week we are pleased to welcome as our guest, Modwenna Rees-Mogg, founder of leading private investor news service, Angel News, amongst other entrepreneurial ventures including a new venture aimed at entrepreneurs called CrowdRating.
This podcast is brought to you by ip tax solutions | the innovation tax specialists.
Useful Resource of the Week
Our resource of the week is Rapportive – a useful Gmail extension that brings your social media connections, such as Linkedin, directly into your inbox. It is a good way of keeping in touch with existing contacts and for reaching out to potential new connections…
Guest: Modwenna Rees-Mogg: Angel News | CrowdRating
In this conversation, we cover how Modwenna made the transition from corporate financier to entrepreneur and founded Angel News which brings thought-leadership and insights into the field of private company investment – aimed at both investors and entrepreneurs.
She penned a book on crowdfunding: Crowd Funding: How to Raise Money and Make Money in the Crowd – at a time that was arguably ahead of the curve (much of her forecasts fortunately came true!) – and has she since co-launched a new venture called CrowdRating – the ratings agency for equity crowd funding. This new venture will be of particular interest to founders and entrepreneurs who might be considering raising funding via crowd funding platforms such as Crowdcube.
Modwenna shares her thoughts and views on the private company investing landscape (including SEIS & EIS) plus her view that most founders’ investors might be closer than they think….
You can listen below or access via iTunes.
Seeking your input
Please get in touch with your questions and feedback via Twitter: @iptaxsolutions and/or #fgbpodcast
If you are a UK entrepreneur and would like to share your story, please get in touch as above. Also, if you are involved in advising entrepreneurs on building scalable businesses, we would be delighted to hear from you and to get you involved if you’re the right fit.
Subscribe to receive future episodes
You can subscribe via iTunes or find us on the BusinessN2K.com network.
Listen to this week’s podcast here:
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FGB001 – Richard Mills, CEO of Sleepcogni – Kickstarter
We are pleased to welcome Richard Mills, CEO and Founder of new UK startup Sleepcogni to the first episode of the Fast Growth Business podcast.
Before we dive into this insightful interview on launching a product business via Kickstarter, we should introduce the aims and objectives of the Fast Growth Business podcast.
Fast Growth Business Podcast – Objectives
Fast Growth Business is aimed at UK entrepreneurs and founders seeking to start up a new business with the aim of scaling to exit fast – aka a fast growth business. We’ll aim to share interviews and tips from entrepreneurs plus advice and strategies from professionals such as VCs, lawyers, accountants etc with a focus on:
- Raising funding – including VC, business angels (SEIS / EIS), crowdfunding e.g. Crowdcube, Seedrs etc; pledge funding e.g. Kickstarter, Indiegogo etc
- Building a team
- Scaling your business
- Preparing for exit
Who are we?
Being as it’s the first episode, we should explain who we are…..
The Fast Growth Business podcast is brought to you by ip tax solutions | the innovation tax specialists with a focus on:
- SEIS / EIS tax efficient structuring
- R&D tax credits
- Patent Box
- Video Games Tax Relief
- Other creative sector tax breaks e.g. film tax credits, animation tax relief etc
Find us at http://www.iptaxsolutions.co.uk
Or @iptaxsolutions on Twitter
(Enough about us!)
Get interactive!
Enough about us, this podcast is all about you and we want you to be as interactive as possible with your views, questions and feedback – reach out via Twitter to @iptaxsolutions and / or use the hashtag #fgbpodcast so that we can round up your tweets and perhaps give you a shout out on the podcast if you too are a fast growth UK business!
Business info tip of the day
Today we explain how you can access all UK company information e.g. annual financial accounts, free of charge. This information has been available for a while via the Companies House website; however, it has been a ‘paid for’ service. Now under a new release, users can access all of this information for free.
This can be especially useful for accessing information on customers, suppliers and / or competitors.
You can access this information via the following beta site:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/
Try it out – its very useful.
Interview with Richard Mills, CEO of Sleepcogni – launched on Kickstarter
In this interview, Richard outlines his approach to building his latest venture, Sleepcogni, and launching it via Kickstarter.
His approach to finding the right people and specialists to help him build his team is summarised plus Richard explains how the Kickstarter launch process helps focus the entrepreneur’s mind on the most important factors and how it helps ensure that momentum is maintained. Richard also explains the added benefits of crowdfunding in terms of testing product viability and building a following of fans.
You can find the Sleepcogni Kickstarter campaign here.
The campaign runs until 10 December 2015 so get over there quick to lend your support!
Looking for your input
Please get in touch with your questions and feedback via Twitter: @iptaxsolutions and/or #fgbpodcast
If you are a UK entrepreneur and would like to share your story, please get in touch as above. Also, if you are involved in advising entrepreneurs on building scalable businesses, we would be delighted to hear from you and to get you involved if you’re the right fit.
Subscribe to receive future episodes
You can subscribe via iTunes or find us on the BusinessN2K.com network.
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