Michael Acton Smith

"Funding Collapse sends investment in start-ups to six year low" The Times today covering the shocking stats that VenturePath uncovered, with our partner Beauhurst. Great quotes from supporters Michael Moore CEO, BVCA and Julian David CEO, techUK. * UK VC funding at Series A is -44% from last year, and worsening * Q3 24 is down a staggering 57% from Q2, itself down from Q1 * 9 in 10 seed funded startups cannot access Series A VC funding, the next 'rung on the funding ladder' * Just 32 future scaleup companies across the whole of the UK were able to access their first VC funding round in Q3...a 6 year low * Half a billion less capital is going in to UK scaleups at Series A, than just 2 years ago! As the UK scaleup funding gap widens, we are losing ground against other countries, at both startup stage (a position the UK worked hard to achieve, since 2011), and for scaleup support. OECD data: 13th in the world for scaleup support, and that's before Series A funding access dried up. I get that its confusing. Another report (BBB, Nations & Regions) released this week spoke of positive trends in private investment, stating "The data for Q2 2024 shows that investment value has continued to grow". Great, I love to see optimistic data. But under analysis that bundles venture with private equity (later stage), where a few megadeals skew the numbers. Otherwise the exact opposite is true. Our independent research here, for the UK ScaleUp Investment Mission, is laser beam focussed on Series A. The funding round where companies move from the c.1m startups launched each year, through the 2,179 that access seed funding, into the rarefied category of being recognised as future scaleups, attracting Series A funding (£2-10m). The UK venture landscape is currently funding just 248 pa of these companies, and declining. We've been sharing this urgent call for support with the new Government since the day after the election. I've personally met with several Ministers, and spoke to all the relevant Government departments. I will shamelessly repeat loudly what is at stake. UK scaleup funding at Series A has nearly halved in a year, and continues to decline steeply, more than halving in the last quarter. VenturePath developed The UK ScaleUp Investment Mission to convene the scaleup support ecosystem and £7bn of funders to help address this problem, to improve nationwide access to VC investment, and create more venture-backed successes. We have clear support, clear recommendations to reverse this decline in UK scaleup investment, and have made a clear ask of Government for participation in this, to ensure immediate action is taken to create the conditions for success for UK scaleups, ensuring the focus on growth isn't undermined by lack of capital, or equitable access to it. Government decision makers, we'd love your interest, to progress to action. HM Treasury: Rt Hon Rachel Reeves Spencer Livermore James Murray & CC Poppy Gustafsson (welcome to the debate).

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I was in a room last week. There were 4 VCs on a panel. There were 16 founders. Every single VC made it as clear as crystal that any email, LinkedIn message or smoke signal that asks them to sign an NDA ends up in the bin. They WILL sign an NDA if it's deeptech/life sciences or similar but never ever ever at a first meeting or to get that first meeting. Only very VERY occasionally will they even bother to tell the founder they won't sign the NDA. And one founder took umbrage and ended up arguing with the VCs. That's not the way to get raises done. VCs don't sign NDAs. VCs don't invest in moronic founders who argue with them on something that is so universally accepted.

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Is VC really dead, as people would like us to believe? I think it's (rightly) transforming and setting up roots. Before writing VC's obituary, let’s look at the data. It's quite enticing to be a pessimist proclaiming all is gloom and doomed but it fundamentally misreads how venture capital evolves. All previous 'dying' periods birthed some of the world's most iconic companies, examples like LinkedIn from 2000's crash, Airbnb and Uber from 2008's winter. The 50% dip in overall funding in 2023 isn't death; it's a cleansing of 20-21's tourist VCs who jumped in mistaking momentum for value, lured by the uptrend. Resets are always a good thing for value creation and skill to come to the party. The top quartile firms are still raising oversubscribed funds. Why? Because real VC was never just about capital deployment. Just as mobile and cloud computing emerged from previous downturns, the AI revolution is catalyzing VC to evolve into something more nuanced, more specialized, and ultimately more enduring. The fat is being trimmed, but the muscle is getting stronger. Building enduring companies requires smart capital, strong network effects, and operational expertise, which AI is nowhere close to disrupting. Funds in India itself, deployed over $6.5 Bn+ in 2024 Q2 and Q3. Recently spoke to a VC stalwart who in addition to being long on India also mentioned on how India is ripe and brimming with the world’s finest talent — talent that needs capital to fuel its ambitions. India’s startup ecosystem is in its early years. This is the time when it needs nurturing, and VCs have an important role in that I believe VC is just strengthening its roots to become more thoughtful, value-added - driven by empathy, shared purpose and long-term alignment. Far from dead; alive and excited for what's to come!! Karthik Prabhakar Rohit M A

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Just a random thought: A few weeks ago I was in a group of US-based emerging VCs and this person - whom I'm always delighted to have a chat with, asked why there were more minority GPs in the group than the typical and archetype GPs (if you know what I mean). I told him that I didn't have an answer to the question because I wasn't part of the selection process - which was supposed to purely be based on their performance. But in the back of my head was another question: if most of the GPs in the group are of the similar background - e.g., 90%+ of them went to Stanford, Harvard, MIT, etc and they all had a previous career at other VC shops, does the skin color really matter? When they all came from similar paths in their lives, does more skin colors really make the VC ecosystem more diverse? I'm all for having more colors in the VC ecosystem - I'm +1 of that color anyway, but at the same time I just think truly diversifying the VC universe takes more than just adding more colors.

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

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"CTO titles should be earned, not given out without understanding the responsibilities that come with the title ..." 👀 Episode 19 of Now We Build by Forward Pursuit is now live! I was super lucky to be joined by Hubert Behaghel, former Head of Technology at Sky, Marks and Spencer, Typeform and now the CTO at Veriff! In the episode we covered: 👉🏽 How Hubert builds high functioning tech teams. 👉🏽 Why CTO titles need to be earned and not given out. 👉🏽 Why every startup needs to focus on it's internal tech alongside product. The episode is now live and you’ll find the links in the comments below 👇🏽 Proudly supported by Carta, Google Cloud, Fuelled | B Corp and Seven Legal. #founders #vc #startup #tech

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Survival of the Fittest in a Shifting Funding Landscape Founders are adopting a low-key approach, focusing their energy on internal growth. Armed with capital secured in 2021, many are strategically revitalising their businesses. But the big question remains: What will the dealmaking landscape look like in 2024? "Overall, capital infusion will be concentrated on a narrower spectrum of companies than in all. The private capital raising landscape is anticipated to be robust, showcasing significant improvement from 2022. However, the capital infusion will be concentrated on a narrower spectrum of companies compared to the prolific scene of 2021." Read More: https://lnkd.in/d3536qvA In the meantime, share your thoughts! Are you a founder facing a funding crunch? How are you adapting your strategy? #StartupFunding #Founders #Growth #DealMaking #SibaPanda

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Exposing harsh truths with data, not opinions. Practical, actionable steps for founders to thrive in their next funding round. The time is good to go fundraising - I'll show why and how. If you're at Bits & Pretzels, come have a chat!

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We had the pleasure of speaking to the inimitable Gordon Sanghera, co-founder and CEO of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, valued at around $6.8bn in 2021. Gordon somewhat accidentally ended up as an entrepreneur, breaking the conventional VC wisdom around 'born founders'. The technology is wild - democratising access to genomic sequencing giving us a new understanding of living organisms. In the episode of Riding Unicorns, we cover: 00:00 Defining Entrepreneurship 00:55 Understanding Oxford Nanopore's Technology 06:10 Gordon's Journey to Founding Oxford Nanopore 12:09 Commercialization Challenges and Strategies 16:27 Building a Strong Founding Team 20:55 Navigating the Ups and Downs of Deep Tech 25:54 Innovative Applications of Nanopore Technology 28:57 Company Culture and Operational Insights 35:05 Attracting Talent in a Competitive Market 37:22 The IPO Experience and Future Outlook https://lnkd.in/eQZVSGeK

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One of the many stories showing why my co-founder is better than me 😂- but also how he makes me a better founder 🤩. One of the ways I knew I wanted to build IfWeRaise with Tim Deeson was the way he holds true to our values, and the impact we want to have on the space, and how he holds me to them. When we were first naming the company (in a rush because I was speaking at Websummit the next week and wanted to announce it) I was ok to settle for something that sounded good (or at least I think so) even if it was actually counter to the message we wanted to get out there. So much of the startup world still seems to talk like fundraising is a "when" for founders. And if you don't do it, that must be because you tried and failed. At IfWeRaise, we're on a mission to help founders, especially first time founders, work out "if" funding is right for them. If it is, our goal is to help them connect into the ecosystem which is still very much a "who you know" game. Especially for underrepresented founders who don't benefit from affinity bias when reaching out cold. If not, we're here to help them grow and bootstrap, and make sure they don't feel alone in the process! Want to learn more about what we're building? Drop me a comment or DM! #startupcommunity #fundraising #entrepreneurship #cofounders #values #startups #investment #bootstrapping

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A few reflections on last week's Budget, from me, and a bunch of our fabulous FieldHouse Associates' clients. https://lnkd.in/exrefrpt #tech #innovation #investment #venturecapital #startups #scaleups #regulation #government #PR #publicaffairs #consultancy

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The new super techy looking Jaguar logo has got us all talking. But what really happened behind the scenes in that creative meeting? Here’s our comedic take on what may or may not have happened in that creative briefing… #comedy #parody

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In Amelia Hill's second article on the challenges facing #femtech founders, she outlines some of the other barriers which are just as much of a brake on growth as lack of investment... 😲 Of the 35 femtech companies that responded to censHERship's online survey, 75% had been refused a bank account; 60% had had an account closed, 50% faced “excessive scrutiny”, 32% experienced delays in processing and 21% were charged higher fees. 🛑 But even if you clear these hurdles, your online ads are likely to be blocked or banned. 🐣 As an eg from our portfolio, Béa Fertility is banned from using the word "vagina" in the description for their medical-grade fertility device on Amazon. (Of course, no such prudishness exists around male sex toys or products for erectile dysfunction!) 😇 There are no easy fixes, but we can all advocate for these businesses and buy their products. Some of us with spare cash to invest can choose to support them through angel investment. Read the full story here 👇 https://lnkd.in/e_xRFfUC Amber Vodegel John Souter Angela Cretu Faye Walsh Drouillard Deborah Gruenberger Rosalind Singleton Sally Kemkers #femalefounders #angelinvestors

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🤣 Founders when you ask them what is their product market fit. “The consumer didn’t want Jimi Hendrix, but they got him!” Is there something to be learnt in the relentless attitude of Noel Gallagher? Is it possible to create a product first and then make the market yield to your creation? Remember Apples first vision was their tablet but they pivoted into ipods 📱 so that they could flow with the market’s desires before slowing getting their customer base loyal and hooked on their products. Is it wise to go to market without a product market fit strategy? Let me know in the comments #techfounders #venturecapital #web3 #web3founders #VC #tech #pitchdeck #web3DemoDay #AngelInvestor #ai #depin #RWA #defi #cryptocurrency #businesscoach

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Counting down to launch :) Eva, Sam and I are hosting a webinar tomorrow at 1300 UK time on cold investor outreach. We'll cover best practice, along with investor + founder perspectives. Now at ~800 registrations - sign up link below. #capitalraising #startups #fundraising #founders

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📣 What to do when you lose Product Market Fit... The third blog in my series of "Losing Product Market Fit" is out! Key questions I tackle: If you've lost PMF, how do you get it back? 1️⃣ STOP 2️⃣ SIMPLIFY 3️⃣ SURVIVE Should you always ignore new opportunities? .... if you decide to explore a new opportunity then.... 1️⃣ BE DELIBERATE 2️⃣ RINGFENCE 3️⃣ START AGAIN But, what if you've exhausted your existing market? .... Unlikely unless you're already passed at least $10m in ARR. I hope you enjoy the blog - I'd love anyone's feedback: https://lnkd.in/dQa-dScf #losingproductmarketfit, #productmarketfit, #venturecapital, #saasfounder

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I was just talking to a founder about the Stella Service business model that Jordy Leiser had built--where you test the customer service experience at a brand and then charge them in various ways for the results, either showing them how to improve or licensing them a seal of approval. The founder hadn't heard of that model and wondered in what other areas it could apply--and it got me thinking about a repository of models and business structures. Has anything like this been built? Pay to get unbiased recs--a la Angie's list. Good for X, Y, and Z markets. Pros, cons. A plugin that pops up information about each site as you visit it, a la Honey, SiteAdvisor (Chris Dixon's old startup before Hunch). It would be great for founders stuck on something to be able to say I've got X, Y, and Z information flowing from here to there, and it has this criteria, or these types of community members, this kind of power dynamic, etc... What models work for this? Otherwise, you wind up with "Uber for neurosurgeons" without realizing that "Uber for" only works with relatively commoditized services.

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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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