Barney Hussey-Yeo

In 2019, I led a £9m Seed Round. It was the largest Seed Round in the UK that year. Now... You would expect the usual reasons why we invested so much: 1. A clear story 2. Special founders 3. A large opportunity But there was also something else that was a big reason for why we invested. What was it? The founders were able to hire in some of the best people we had seen. They had already built exactly what this company needed to. They had extreme amounts of success doing it. And now were willing to risk everything to join this tiny little start-up. Funnily enough one of those exceptional hires ended up being the CEO! That’s how good their hiring was. At the end of the day, investors invest into teams. And those teams are the people who are going to be the difference between a successful company or not. So as a founder you have to show investors that you can, will and have hired the best of the best. Because second-rate hires will never cut it. -- P.S. What do you think about team-building and its importance? ♻️ Repost to help a founder in your network

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LOOKING FOR INVESTMENT? 💰👀 Fuel Ventures 🚀 is one of the most active early stage tech investors in the UK. We back disruptive & ambitious founders at all the early stages: 👉 Concept/Pre-Seed 👉 Seed & Seed+ 👉 Series A stages 170 Investments and counting… 🚀 We look for/focus on fast growth digital/tech businesses. We like software, platforms fintech, e-commerce, B2B and B2C with super ambitious hard working founder/s or founding teams, companies that have large global growth potential with multibillion market opportunities. We really want to see companies that have the potential to deliver x100 potential growth, mostly meaning £1billion+ future market cap potential. 📈🚀 We have funds that can invest from Concept/Pre-Seed, Early Seed, Seed, Pre-A and A stages, so if your at any of these stages we are keen to hear from you. The best way for us to take a look at you business if you are looking for investment is to submit the business to our web form for me and our investment team of 8 people all get it directly into their inbox to review within our process, we review weekly in our investment meetings and will come back to you if we spot something of interest that gets us excited. So be punchy, ambitious and bold! Please do highlight why your business is special, the market size and opportunity and any traction or progress achieved. Please submit the business here: https://lnkd.in/d6AK2rjy

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On 22nd Feb, Dan Siroker and I disagreed about funding round dilution on Twitter. In this episode we hash it out 🥊 ❌ Fundraising rules that are BS 🗣️ What VC’s really mean & want 💸 Getting Peter Fenton to invest for less than 10% My key lessons from winning this fight 👇 1. The Importance of Focus I worked on thousands of things at my first company & thought everything was important. In hindsight, there were only 3 or 4 things that made a difference. Founders need to distinguish between which tasks are truly important & focus on them. 2. The Big Secret When An Investor Asks How Much Are You Raising? They are actually asking how much you think you’re worth. Instead of giving a number, say you’re selling a certain percentage & letting the market decide the valuation. This annoys investors because they don’t get what they want. 3. Elad Gil on When and How to Pivot  The things that work tend to work really fast. Sticking it out & being perseverant doesn’t always work. You have to see some glimmer of hope in the early days. 4. Contrarian View on Selling Stock as Employees Founders should let employees sell their stock at any point. I’ve let my employees sell up to 25% when we were oversubscribed in our series A. My theory is more liquidity = more retention. 5. When They Bring up Title It Is a Bad Sign It shows you where their values are. The best people I’ve hired never brought up titles during the interview. They care about the problem & the company. 6. Why Always Be Raising is Total BS You need to have an on & off switch on fundraising. I have all my investor meetings in a week every two quarters. This removes any distractions when I’m building the company. 7. The Best Question Peter Fenton Asks Founders "What will excite you about being at this business in five years?" Great founders need to be perseverant. They have to stay in love with the business in 5, 10, or 20 years. (links in comments) #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup #seed #funding #fundraising

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PE and VC firms still only have women in 11% of key investing positions. Only 2p out of every 100p invested goes to backing female-led companies. Unlocking the potential of female-led enterprises will contribute about £250 billion to the UK economy. The bottleneck for female entrepreneurs is still access to funding. I’ve been there, pitching your business to a room full of men always feels a little strange. While some of them are supportive, there remains an unconscious bias against female-led companies. This is heightened when pitching companies that solve problems and pain points specific to women. The answer to this problem is creating and supporting more female angel investors. With the support of the British Business Bank, the Invest in Women Taskforce is exploring ways to amplify the value of women backing other women through match funding. Forbes did a feature on IWT’s work titled “When Women Mean Business For Women”. To learn more, read the full piece for yourself here: https://lnkd.in/ezN9AjTQ

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This year is all about survival. I've seen enough data to call it. Multiple reports are showing Flat -> No growth. Wayflyer/Iris Finance report had Q1 overall growth at +4% YoY. Common Thread Collective Index has same store sales flat YoY. What does this mean? This year is about survival. The industry as a whole isn’t growing. We can blame this on whatever we want. But the outcome remains the same. Instead of obsessing about your topline growth. (Which is a steep mountain to climb.) Focusing on growing your bottom line. In a low topline growth year, spend time becoming more profitable. 100% YoY growth doesn’t do you any good if you’re out of biz in 2 years. The goal needs to be surviving to 2025. #shopify

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🔥 UK’s Top 10 Conscious Angel Investors 🌱 It's inspiring to see angel investors backing tech for good, driving positive change and innovation. Today, I'm excited to highlight the UK's top 10 conscious angel investors making a difference. These investors are not just funding startups; they’re empowering ventures that aim to make the world a better place. Sarah Drinkwater Chris Adelsbach Nick Lyth Amina Ahmad Vera Elizabeth B. Oksana Stowe Meganne Houghton-Berry Andrea Sinclair Scott Mackin Andy Ayim MBE These visionaries are investing in tech that addresses social, environmental, and economic challenges. Their commitment to conscious investing is setting a new standard in the industry. #ConsciousInvesting #TechForGood #AngelInvestors #Sustainability

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Founders, If you're in the fundraising game.... You know there's a phase I like to call 'the gap.' It's that tricky period between getting a verbal nod from an investor and actually seeing the funds hit your account. Verbal commitments are great, but they don't always guarantee a closed deal. Here's how I handle this to keep things moving smoothly: Be Prepared to Act Fast: As soon as you get a verbal commitment, make the next steps as easy as possible for your investor. Any delays on your part can open the door for them to reconsider. Set Clear Deadlines: Make sure your investors know exactly when the round is closing. Setting a firm deadline for contributions helps keep everyone on schedule. Keep the Lines Open: Follow up with your investors regularly. Make sure they have all the information they need and gently remind them of the deadlines. And a little tip for peace of mind. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Hold off on the celebration until the funds are securely in your bank. That's when you know you've really crossed the finish line. ✌️ #venturecapital #vcfunding #entrepreneurship #familyoffice #raisingcapital #fundraising #growth #startups #startupcommunity #startupecosystem #startupfunding

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This chart from Dealroom is telling. The UK is not the friendliest or simplest place to raise and run a venture fund, yet we are one of the top three tech ecosystems by investment size. How is this possible? Simples, most of the funding is coming from the US. What does this mean? The UK is doing a fantastic job attracting foreign investments, but its tech ecosystem is heavily dependent on said foreign investors. When things are going well, this may not seem significant. However, any crisis that leads to a pullback of international capital will leave UK's startup investment sector in serious trouble.

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Compare this to founders and startups from developing Asia. The avg pre-seed round would be around €100K and Founder's salary would be around €10K PA. Startups with lower burn will be invincible as Innovation and tech tools aren't geo-restricted anymore. #Startups #VentureCapital #Investment #Innovation #Funding

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Sales processes Of products and services Of businesses Planning ahead Here’s a thought👇🏼 The wheels of profitable commerce depend on sales, so it’s always a bit strange that in the UK that sales people are still somehow under rated. We talk of technical founders and non technical founders, we talk about operations teams, we talk about fund raising, we rightly focus on client segmentation, and we should be talking about client needs. And so the list goes on. But rarely about the art and skills of selling. We talk about it obliquely when we talk of product market fit and go to market strategies. Because guess who makes those cogs go round? Sales teams do. Who provides the feedback mechanism? Sales people do. Marketeers design the messages and claim the strategy, they build the plans and write the content, they pick the channels, they quantify and qualify the feedback. All good and vital. Investopedia tells us that “Marketing refers to the activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of its products or services. Marketing includes advertising and allows businesses to sell products and services to consumers, other businesses, and organizations.” However sales is the main event that makes this business happen. So many cost lines and sales teams are the revenue line. The content conversations on here talk about fund raising and then celebrate exits. I’ve rarely seen content about sales processes and an even rarer sight is talking about selling businesses. The latter is going to be part of the cycle unless you are focussed on building an evergreen family business. It’s definitely going to be part of the cycle if you have taken in external capital because that’s how they will crystallise their profit . It makes me think we all better have a plan for that leg of the journey so that it’s not full of surprises. Let’s hope more people start writing about it and then it’ll start being discussed openly. #ThinkLikeAClient #GrumpyOptimism #TechStartUps #VentureStudios #Innovations Footnote: all my content is written daily by me with no additives or tricks. If it interests you please tag the 🔔 in my profile to get it delivered straight to you. Otherwise if you search #GrumpyOptimism and #GrumpyOptimist you’ll find my library of past posts. Never recycled, always fresh.

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Venture capital funding raised by UK start-ups dropped sharply in the third quarter of 2024, new research from Dealroom.co has found; adding further pressure for founders in search of new investment.  British start-ups secured around $2.9bn in VC funding in Q3, a 50% drop from the previous quarter but the funding trend is broadly consistent with levels seen in 2023. Fintech has been Britain’s best-funded tech sector so far this year, pulling in $3.3bn, down from $4.5bn in 2023.  

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One of the best things about being +7 hours ahead of your founders is being able to plagiarise their analogies before they wake up. Good morning, Stuart Dale 🌞 We're about to bring in several top-tier fractionals to help support growth here at OrbitalX Catching up on recent interviews to give my perspective. I came across this absolutely cracker about startup life and early stage building of SaaS. (see below). 🤣 -------- BTW, if you know of a CMO or fractional leader who is world-class at storytelling and wants a unique opportunity to work across several progressive companies driving performance, a POD P&L, and an amazing culture with everyone in the team winning under your guidance, please get in touch. Founder life! early stage building SaaS. At first, You're the SAS. You're at the frontline dealing with complex problems, often on solo missions to figure stuff out, moving at pace, taking huge bets on yourself and your small team. The risk is high! The reward is high! You then evolve into an army; you know who your commands are, quite a bit more structure and formation. Teamwork and culture need to be strong, but a lot less of a focus is on quick attack, and a more considered mindset is needed. Positive steps consistently win the game rather than heroic moments of greatness. As you grow you evolve into the police. Where you spend more timing policing situations to drive the best outcome. Police get a bad press but the good ones are calm, controlled, pragmatic. Get in touch ------- we're hiring! Mark Choueke James Ford

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Should you drop everything & get onto Gen AI? Most founders I speak with are in this dilemma Platform shifts can be a tricky time Here is how founders can think & navigate the GenAI hype 1) Companies are throwing money at the problem - Companies are throwing Innovation budgets - But these are 1 time things - Most AI projects are not successful yet 2) Don’t re-dress your SaaS & call it AI - Tiny AI inside your large SaaS is still SaaS - Result: You don't deliver dramatically more value to your customer 3) Can you change customer behavior? - Customer behavior has to change for your AI solution to work - FACT: Customers don’t/won’t change their behavior easily - This doesn’t work if no change in behavior 4) What should your approach be? - Find areas where clients are ready to change - Aim for 80% success rate at selling with AI - SaaS STAT: 0.1% success rate in SaaS 5) Goal: Make your customer life much much better - Don’t make it another tool they’ve to adopt - If their life is the same, you aren't adding value

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Here's a list of some of the most influential UK-based venture capital firms that are actively investing in AI: The UK has become a hotbed for AI innovation, thanks to the vibrant ecosystem of venture capital firms backing these startups. These VCs are key in supporting and funding AI companies, helping them expand and advance technology. 1. Playfair Focus: Pre-Seed Ventures Investment Size: £100K-£1.5M Top Portcos: Orca AI, Protex AI, sprout.AI 2. 7percent Ventures Focus: Angel, Pre-Seed and Seed Ventures Investment Size: $250K-$2M (with angel checks $5K-$100K depending on the stage) Top Portcos: Gensyn, BreezeAI, PlumerAI 3. Crane Venture Partners Focus: Pre-Seed and Seed Ventures Investment Size: $1M-$5M Top Portcos: SeeChange, Deta, h2o.ai 4. Concept Ventures Focus: Pre-Seed Ventures Investment Size: £750K Top Portcos: SCliff.ai, Browse AI 5. SFC Capital Focus: Angel, Pre-Seed and Seed Ventures Investment Size: £124K Top Portcos: Cognism, Magic AI, TrainThis.AI 6. BGF Focus: Early, Growth and Late Stage Ventures Investment Size: £1M-£20M Top Portcos: Machine Discovery, Aimbrain, Celaton 7. Atomico Focus: Seed, Series A, Series B and Series C Ventures Investment Size: $1M-$20M Top Portcos: DeepL, Corti 8. Hoxton Ventures Focus: Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A Ventures Investment Size: $250K-$5M Top Portcos: biotx.ai, BioCorteX, Darktrace 9. Notion Capital Focus: Pre-seed, Seed and Series A+ Ventures Investment Size: $5M Top Portcos: Five AI, Protex AI 10. IQ Capital Focus: Seed and Series A Ventures Investment Size: £500K–£10M Top Portcos: Mindgard, AI Build, Myrtle 12. Episode 1 Ventures Focus: Seed and Series A Ventures Investment Size: £500K–£2M Top Portcos: kleene.ai, Auquan, PandasAI Who’s your favorite AI VC firm in the UK? Did I miss someone? Give them a shoutout in the comments! Ready to connect with the perfect investor for your AI startup? Drop a “LIST” in the comments, and I’ll tailor a personalized investor lineup just for you. At Thunder, we specialize in matching your fintech startup with venture capital firms that align with your sector, growth stage, and goals. Let’s find the right partner to fuel your growth!

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🎉 Exciting News! ThirdRetail has secured SEIS advance assurance within 24 hours of self-application! 🚀 🔍 What is SEIS? The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is a UK government initiative designed to encourage investment in early-stage startups. It offers tax reliefs to investors, making it easier for young companies like ours to raise capital. 👋 Who are we? ThirdRetail is revolutionizing offline distribution for D2C brands! 🏪 We're the Airbnb of retail shelves, making it affordable and accessible for direct-to-consumer brands to scale their physical presence. Our AI-powered platform removes cross-channel blindspots, providing seamless integration between online and offline retail. 💡 Our mission: - Empower D2C brands to expand offline - Optimize retail space utilization - Bridge the gap between digital and physical retail 🤝 Calling SEIS Funds! Are you interested in being part of the third channel of retail sales? We're currently raising our pre-seed round and would love to chat with SEIS funds looking for exciting investment opportunities. Let's connect and explore how we can shape the future of retail together! 📈 Anil Junagal #RetailTech #SEIS #SEISFUNDS #Startup #D2C #Retail #Marketplace #B2B #SaaS

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Numbers & insights from a deep tech venture studio that launched 11 companies (all are active) in the last 7 years, reaching £85M valuation across the portfolio: 1. Post Urban, initially bootstrapped by Luke Robinson, an academic with a PhD in physics from Cambridge, now operates with external funding from a UK-based fund. 2. Launched 5 companies during the first 5 years and 6 companies during the last 2 years. 3. All 11 completed pre-seed rounds; 1 of them got Series A, 2 of them are approaching their Series A. 4. The startups have collectively raised ~£25M in venture capital, in addition to receiving grants. The total valuation of the 11 companies is ~£85M, half of which have not yet undergone subsequent funding rounds. 5. Initial equity splits: the venture builder 20%, CEOs of startups 35% (vests over 4 years), CTOs – 20-25%, employees 10-15%. 6. The initial valuation of startups was £2 million, with £300K invested by the venture builder. The last 2 startups were at £3.5-4M initial valuation. 7. Building deep tech ventures requires significantly higher initial funding because these projects need more time to develop demonstrable products. Two portfolio companies hit £1M in ARR. 8. The venture builder has increased the capital for the last 2 startups to ensure they reach meaningful milestones. The CEOs of the startups were able to secure additional funding through their networks, £350K and £450K, respectively. 9. The deep tech investor pool is smaller than that for sectors like SaaS, which requires a stronger proof of concept and market readiness to attract funding. 10. 3-4 times, potential customers became investors in Post Urban Ventures. This is a great approach because it secures investment and validates the concept by gauging whether these potential customers truly believe in the solution and its market necessity. 11. They don't start with a technology or an idea; instead, they integrate insights about global problems and, by actively engaging with advisory boards, founders, and industry experts, identify pain points and align them with technological solutions. 12. They do not bring universities in as co-founders but source scientists or professors to contribute to research and development. This involves leveraging academic expertise to support the technical aspects of startup projects until a prototype is developed. 13. The studio maintains strong connections with major academic institutions, including Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, and UCL, supporting its deep tech focus and facilitating access to new technologies and potential founders. 14. Areas of focus in deep tech: AI (Knowledge Graphs, NLP, DNNs, Computer Vision, Edge AI, Active Learning), Quantum Technologies, Biotech, AgTech, Enterprise SaaS. Watch the full interview to gain insights into the portfolio companies, handling IP collaborations with universities, key challenges, and team construction: https://lnkd.in/dCi7fZ7G

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⏰There is a Tick Tock pulse in fundraising and sales⏱️ If Tick is fundraising, Tock is sales. ❌ The problem is most founders go Tick Tick Tick > Tock Tock Tock ❗️Now the next Tick will be much harder because your valuation has now priced in all that past revenue (fair) but without a clear line of sight to future revenues that drive venture-scale growth. 🕥This can prolong the fundraising process as investors wait to see your next batch of contracts come in. 💡One solution is to fundraise after signing a contract but before servicing it. In other words, pre-A/B rounds. It’s a short window but this is the Tick Tock pulse that works incredibly well if you get it right. Here’s the narrative: 1️⃣We have $x in signed contracts and will have to service them over the next 12 months 2️⃣We’re raising now so we can focus on pleasing our customers when the time comes. 3️⃣For this peace of mind, we’re willing to take a 20% discount on our next round valuation given the contracts are already signed. 4️⃣Of course, you are welcomed to join after we’ve closed the revenues. We might be raising at 20% discount to the following round by then. 💡As an added benefit, founders get to focus on one thing at a time - fundraising > sales > fundraising > sales (Tick Tock Tick Tock!) ➡️As with most things I share, works for B2B deep tech. I think? 🧐 💸Don’t try this at home (consumer tech).

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#Manchester based past SkilledUp Life tech startup customer Cytix raises £1.6 million Seed investment from Manchester based Praetura Ventures founded by David Foreman. Michael Rees well done. Limited Partner (LP) in this case is Northern Powerhouse Fund II operated by British Business Bank British Business Bank North of England Delyth Lloyd Edwards. Simon Cunnington SkilledUp Life helped Thomas Ballin and the team during the earliest stages of the tech startup when they were self-funded and bootstrapping. I also had the pleasure to mingle with Ben Armstrong at Techcelerate when they were just starting up and trying to build the first version of the product. Both Ben and Thomas stood up as a strong pair of co-founders. They came from the same industry, worked for the same boss and knew the market inside out. They knew how to innovate the market and slice a portion of the market for themselves. They also had a superb unfair advantage in addition to above. The pair was perfect to start a tech product company. Let me explain why. When you talk about building tech startups, especially at the very earliest stages, you need to two people: - Some one who can code and build - Thomas Ballin - Some one who can sell - Ben Armstrong Having been in the tech startup world for 20 years, I rarely see this ideal combination. I knew they would go places. And they had. A massive congratulations from me to Thomas, Ben and the team. My only regret was I could not convince them to join Techcelerate. 😁 Here's the story https://lnkd.in/ec7VzXp2 covered by Deal Lite. Here's the story about Pre-Seed round https://lnkd.in/eR4UQ9fi I look forward to reading the story about Series A investment not too long in the near future. Congrats all. A good day for #Manchester! 🥂 Oh, by the way, we have a ton of #cybersecurity volunteers on https://skilledup.life Here is a bunch of Manchester tech startups who are leveraging SkilledUp Life as they self-fund and bootstrap their businesses in the early stage. These companies are cash-efficient and understand how hard the journey is: - Dustid run by Michael Livingstone - Orakly run by Craig A. Taylor - also a Techcelerate member - mutuals run by eddy D. SkilledUp Life de-risked Cytix over 20 months period. SkilledUp Life is here to give a leg up to tech startups in early years. #Cytix #Cybersecurity #Manchester #TechManchester #SkilledUpLife

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This is an excellent article (loong one, pls note) on a step by step guide to hitting PMF or product-market fit. Love how PostHog cofounder 🦔 james hawkins visualises PMF akin to a game, with 5 levels and how to jump levels. More relevant for B2B / SaaS founders than B2C given James' experience w Posthog. One quibble would be keeping the ICP definition process on Level 5, whereas it should be something that you freeze on with picking the problem (his Level 1) ideally. While James describes this as getting to PMF, in my #pmfplaybook this is actually PPF or product to problem fit. In my definition, PPF + MMF (GTM Motion to Market Fit) = PMF. Repeatable scaling post this stage (5 reference customers) via a scalable GTM playbook is what is truly PMF. But this is my opinion against his opinion + track record of building to $20m ARR. This is a truly masterful resource for iterating to PMF. Every B2B / SaaS founder starting out or an aspiring B2B / SaaS founder should eyeball / read this. https://lnkd.in/ghGhBn-v

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