Jamie True

🎙 We are live with #20Angel This episode is one of the most in-depth and enjoyable podcast conversations I’ve had. Kieran Hill and I explore a wide range of topics in a candid discussion about breaking into venture, both of us coming from non-traditional backgrounds, and why challenging the status quo with a beginner’s mindset is so important. 🗒 We dive into: • The state of pre-seed in Europe and the gap for founders due to old-school thinking. • Our evolution from angel investors to a pre-seed fund, leading to our first unicorn 🦄 , and the lessons we’ve learned from both our successes and failures. • The origins of Concept Ventures, and how we were underestimated—one LP even said we had less than a 0.5% chance of getting to where we are today, but we used that doubt to fuel our culture. • Our unique, people-first investment process and how we approach the venture world differently. 🔍 • War stories, including our biggest misses and the valuable insights they gave us. 🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/dPaVxp7s 🙌 Special Thank you for your thoughtful coverage and insights! Aayush Jain (Cliff.ai / Quantive), Caroline Grey (Treefera) and Daniel Svonava (Superlinked) #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startups #fundraising 20VC

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Liquidity or exit planning is often taboo leading to many companies being ill prepared. Successful outcomes are years in the making - they start and end with proactive prep (e.g. getting your house in order, developing strong relationships with strategic partners, potential investors and advisors). With Scott Colvin & Paul Perrett we lay out some key actions you should embed now that can set you up for exit success and also make you a better run business today Big thanks to Bree Fedele 🖋

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What is interesting in this sifted piece re the Babylon AI founder and his new project is they miss out on how he refused to allow clinical & evidence-based review of Babylon. It was fundamentally viewed as unsafe (couldn't tell the difference between MI and upper GI symptoms) https://lnkd.in/dX-S9Y22

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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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Jessie Healy and I talked last week on #EcommerceImpact about some do's & don'ts for early stage brands who are seeking additional capital for their business. The age old question of - how to raise money :) We're both here in #NewZealand helping entrepreneurs and brands get the best help they need to grow their marketing & operations. Thank you so much for having me, Jessie! https://lnkd.in/gQsTnPsv

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Lots of activity in the Media for Equity space in this autumn, and just in the last two days we have had some great news, one coming from the UK and second from Australia. 🫡 dmg ventures has announced the launch of their new fund with 50M GBP in cash capital, as well as their traditional media credits. They plan to invest into European as well as US-based startups, from two separate funds: "The Headline Fund will target startups between seed and series A, while the second, the Scale Fund, is for more established startups. The Scale Fund has already made two investments, into Trip, a UK maker of sparkling drinks that contain CBD, and Blue Stripes, which makes cacao-based products by reusing the fruit that is wasted by the chocolate industry." - Global Corporate Venturing The second announcement is coming from the Scaleup Mediafund, "backed by investors including News Corp Australia, NOVA Entertainment, Foxtel Group, REA Group, and oOh! Media and has committed over $45 million in advertising and marketing inventory to support the Australia's startup ecosystem. The two new investments are, Naked Life, a non-alcoholic cocktail drinks business, and Settle Easy, an online property conveyancing platform. 💪 These are great news for the media for equity, media capital, media credits or may you call it media investments, and great new set of proof points for the investment model. #MediaForEquity #MediaCapital #MediaCredit #MediaInvestments cc: Flavius Floare Borderbridge

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When Babylon Health failed, it was a shock to the UK startup industry. James Pringle and I spoke to Ali Parsa, the founder, back when things seemed to be going great and it makes for an interesting listen knowing what we now know. Ali is clearly an extraordinary entrepreneur who built Babylon into a big business and could’ve made it all the way had the capital kept flowing in 2022. I was sad when it failed. The NHS will ultimately be saved/disrupted/replaced by private companies starting at the edges of healthcare rather than from within. It’s just too big an organisation with too many stakeholder complexities for that to happen. Babylon was one company that could’ve continued to have a HUGE impact on our healthcare system. We covered so many interesting areas in this conversation, including: Entrepreneurship as a process of creativity How the healthcare industry is resistant to change and disruption due to vested interests and the influence of powerful stakeholders. Private sector involvement in healthcare can bring innovation and improve the quality of care. Technology and data have the potential to revolutionise healthcare by making it more accessible, affordable, and preventive. When fundraising, it is important to raise as little money as possible and be disciplined in financial management 🤔❗ Making decisions, even strategic ones, should not be overly time-consuming or fear-driven. Experimentation and adaptability are key. Learning and valuing human stories are essential for personal and professional growth. The future of healthcare lies in personalised, preventive care that utilises data and technology to intervene ahead of time. Well worth a listen below on Riding Unicorns ⤵

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With some time on our hands, we’ve launched a little project tooearly with a single and quite simple idea in-mind: personalised help for promising first-time founders. There is an abundance of resources online, but not enough 1:1 feedback, materials revision, as well as hands-on and community support. After working as a first-ticket/pre-seed investor, I’ve noticed how many stellar individuals out there are a little unsure when it comes to navigating the founding and fundraising journey (from ideation, to validating the hypotheses, speaking to the right customers, building your fundraising OS and raising VC funding), especially as first-time founders. If you’re looking to build something game-changing, let’s speak. Besides support, we will invite VCs to Investment Committees whenever we see actual winners inside the community to give them a kick-start on their raising journey. !!P.S. We have a 30% discount for the first 20 people who join. OMG!! Little disclaimer: This platform by no means suggest that everyone should raise from VCs or glorifies it (as it’s a tough journey), but this should help you figure out the best trajectory for your idea, and if the VC trajectory is indeed the right one for you, after some months, you should be ready to go out there and start speaking to investors (not stay with us forever, only if you wish to 😉 ). Martynas Cepas - a partner in crime 🙌

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Very proud to see the WVC:E dream team - Anisah Osman Britton MBE & Rachel Drapper - alongside long time friend and rockstar Ekaterina Gianelli on stage at TechBBQ discussing "Fixing the Talent Exodus in VC". Key Takeaways: 💰Impact of Consolidation on Culture and Talent: The ongoing consolidation in the VC industry is reshaping company culture, affecting morale, and influencing talent. 🚀Emerging Managers Aren’t Diversifying VC: Despite the rise of emerging managers, the industry remains largely homogenous, with many new managers still coming from the same traditional, non-diverse backgrounds. ⚠️Perceptions of Diversity as High Risk: Many in the VC industry continue to view diverse hires, investments, and business models as "high risk," "too time-consuming," or "too costly," perpetuating a cycle of exclusion. 🚼 Parental Leave Inequality: Inequities in parental leave policies are disproportionately affecting women in venture, creating additional barriers to progression. But there are funds, investors, LPs and organisations (like us!) that are trying to change this!

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Highlighting: "The market for a bespoke solution like Holoride may be narrower than its founders once hoped." "No shit, Sherlock." This was a niche of a niche of a niche that I honestly never understood. Imagine starting with the people who are VR enthusiasts, and then reducing by the people who want VR in cars, and then the people who have recent year Audis, and then people in Germany (the USA was added later), and then the people who will buy a $700 semi-enterprise package that comes with access to only a dozen games, but also a $20 a month subscription. This is like 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of 1%. The shocking thing is not that they ran out of funding. The shocking thing is that they EVER got any funding. Oh and keep in mind, all that fun stuff about VR being 6DoF, roomscale, body movements, arm movements, hand tracking? All gone. This is semi-3DOF locked in your seat holding a console style knock off bluetooth controller. The VR headset? HTC Vive Flow. The gamepad? 8BitDo Pro 2 Gamepad. The cars supported? Only the Audi A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, Q5, Q7, Q7, Q8, Audi e-tron, Audi e-tron Sportback, Audi e-tron GT* Nothing else. No other makes and models. Just a few Audis. Who does this?! Seriously? Its like developing a PC Game that can only be played by people in Madison, Wisconsin running Mac Pro towers built between 2009-2015, and they can play that game on Wednesday on odd dates of the month. Who does this?! This isn't a business. It's a boutique artisanal popup shop selling handcrafted farts to people who can't smell. It's just confusing. ----- UploadVR: "Holoride Insolvent As Investment Falls Through: 'Pioneering Is Painful'" (IAN HAMILTON) (10 MAY 2024) Holoride's founders say they've filed "for insolvency" after an investment round fell apart. The startup built a platform to present VR headset as in-car entertainment with demos offered at trade shows like CES showing off the concept and a partnership with Audi to sell it to for use in cars in Germany. Holoride CEO and co-founder Nils Wollny acknowledged making mistakes in a post on LinkedIn, that “pioneering is painful” and they "missed our first shot." Responding to questions from UploadVR, Wollny explained over direct message that some employees had been laid off “in February this year based on a new strategic direction. Our team's right-sizing was also based on terms we had agreed on with our planned lead investor.” “While our business operations continue, we are working with the provisional insolvency administrator to find a solution by the end of June to ensure the continued existence of holoride GmbH and conclude our strategic repositioning, which we have intensively worked on.” UploadVR: https://lnkd.in/g32pFPrA #vr #xr #holoride #puzzling

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Taking Windward public in London was a significant milestone, but the landscape has shifted dramatically. The startup and VC world is facing a silent recession as severe as 2008, yet it’s flying under the radar. Funding is scarce, and many promising companies are quietly closing their doors. But this isn't just about survival—it's about adapting and thriving. In tough times, resilience is key. The startups that emerge from this storm will be the next Airbnb, Uber, or Microsoft. How are we positioning ourselves to not just survive but lead in this new era? For us - it’s very clear. Leveraging our blue chip customer base, proprietary data and mature tech platform to build #generetiveai first products (stay tuned!) Don’t take anything as trivial . Success requires a combination of so many factors. Every day is day 1! Link to the full piece on Forbes : https://lnkd.in/e-5kENaT #wnwd

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Entrepreneurs like Tom Blomfield and Barney Hussey-Yeo are right to flag the risks facing the UK’s tech scene. But having built two tech companies here, in Beam and JustPark, I’ve seen the UK's moat that makes it a great place to grow a start-up. The talent here is world-class and we attract people from across the globe. The UK’s location, time zone and language makes it a gateway to global expansion. And, to top it off, it’s a great place to live. As #Budget2024 approaches, though, the government mustn’t be complacent about this. I know entrepreneurs in my network who are considering crossing the pond and growing their start-ups and scale-ups in the US, taking with them the jobs and growth these businesses create. The government's focus has to be on getting the financial incentives right for founders, getting more investment into UK start-ups from our institutions and from overseas, and keeping red tape in check to allow entrepreneurs to flourish. What do you think? Is the UK in danger of losing its status as a tech superpower?

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It was great to provide feedback on some wonderful pitches yesterday - together with HubSpot For Startups, Said Alib Haschemi and Clementine Gazay! Some of my favorite nuggets that came out: ⏳ 1) Why the time is now? Every pitch should highlight what market tailwinds are making right now the perfect time for your startup. What's changing in regulation, customer sentiments, buying behavior, or competition? Keep in mind that GenAI is only ONE driver - it unlocks capability but not whole markets. 📖 2) In a 3-5 minute pitch, should founders cover everything - or just key points on the problem/solution/team and leave the rest for Q&A? We investors were highly divided! I like to hear a high-level overview of the whole business - problem, solution, team, market size, GTM, business model, etc - to understand the big story. Other panelists preferred to hear about the problem and solution more in depth and get into specifics in the Q&A. For founders, that means - tell the story in the way that feels best fit for your storytelling technique and audience. 📨 3) How can founders succeed in cold outreach to VCs? You can't get a warm introduction to everyone - but you're more likely to get a response if you run your fundraising process like a sales process. Make a list of target funds with an investment strategy, stage, and geographic focus that match your startup. When you reach out to those priority funds, include your deck, short blurb on what makes your company a good venture bet, and a link to your calendar for a speedy next step. Thanks again to everyone who joined! #startups #fundraising #VC #pitchperfect #pitch

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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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Industry experts call for tailored AI rules in post-election UK

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I don't go in for 'building in public' in general, but every now and then I think it's worth sharing what I'm seeing in the market. The below graph shows the average time to close a deal over time at EmergeOne and you can see that this has been creeping up since last year (adjusted for seasonality) and is currently close to 3 months to close a deal. So what's happening? Well, I was recently at an CFO event where we got a bit of a data driven view into the state of private markets. Some key points that came out: 🏷️ Median post money at Series A has dropped from 80m USD in 21/22 to 65m USD in 2024. This is still up from 40m from circa 2020. ％ Top quartile is significantly over at 107m. 📈 Series B median post money is $137m, top quartile $287m USD, but bottom quartile significantly struggling. 🚀 Deal velocity has slowed but started recovering. 💰 Lots of deals are happening but not priced - bridges abound. So how does this therefore relate to what we're seeing in terms of time to close? Firstly, we are a consultancy providing fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups typically post Seed and pre Series A so this data reflects what we are generally seeing in the market as well. But the two main issues that are seemingly impacting our numbers are around deal velocity and bridge financing. There are simply fewer deals being done and they are taking longer to close, so the volume of potential clients we can target has dropped significantly. This does, however, mean that the quality of deals we're working on is significantly higher this year. Secondly, as companies struggle to raise priced rounds, they are raising lower amounts of capital on convertibles. This impacts us as CFOs are only truly valuable when there is a significant balance sheet to manage, less capital = less need for CFOs and hence the decision as to when to bring us in gets pushed out. But equally, that insecurity over funds means that founders are much more hesitant to make significant hiring decisions, prioritising hires that can directly influence revenue / traction in the near term. But they also know that they need the support so are often waiting for the 'magic moment' where they hit an inflection point that gives them confidence to pull the trigger. Outside of the deal data, we are also seeing venture indexing towards more R&D heavy businesses (life science, hardware etc.) and these sort of companies are often not commercialising for several years. They have security over spend and regard finance as a future problem. We are seeing a lot of companies approaching Series B without anyone in finance, deferring that decision till they close. But we are also seeing leads come through from a multitude of sources proving there is appetite for strong commercially minded CFOs to support and grow these scaling businesses. So as the market stabilises, I would expect to see these numbers come back. Business wouldn't be any fun if it was all easy, would it?!

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Maternity in VC in the spotlight. Well done Rachel Drapper, Sophie Winwood & the WVC:E team on getting this important report out there. In VC we’re dealing often with small firms, network & event heavy schedules and FOMO of being left behind if we take time out (I refuse to use the word off as anyone who’s had a child knows that’s the furthest from how it feels). If you’re thinking about having a child or in the throes of the early-stages, navigating how to even try and get some semblance or balance, then hopefully this report can provide some useful tips. Most importantly showcasing that you’re not alone.

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I'm speaking at SuperVenture 2024 on the 5th of June in Berlin. The topic of the panel is emerging VC managers: time to shine or out of their depth? Are LPs fleeing to established names and those that cut their teeth during previous cycles? Or is now the time for emerging managers to bring something different to the table? Is volatility leading to true innovation and disruption? We’re on track to see approximately 44% of the total LP capital committed to US VC funds since the start of the year go to just two large established VC platforms, according to PitchBook data. While many established VCs maintain their allure, there is a subset of LPs who are making a deliberate choice to increase their allocations to specialist emerging VC managers - managers who have spun out from established funds and have an attributable track record, founders with deep operational experience turned funders or academics with deep domain expertise. There is non-trivial added complexity when it comes to emerging VC selection – given the large number of funds needed to be screened and the more complicated referencing and DD process. Data highlights how important it is for GPs to identify & back ‘big winners’ early on to drive fund returns. Typically, ~5% of invested capital in a few winners drives most of the return (>50%). The VC model is built around investing in early-stage companies each with the potential to more than return the whole fund. Who has the right to win? Who will the best founders (and LPs) decide to partner with? #SuperVenture #VC SuperReturn

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