This month’s Invested Investor thoughts focuses on whether you are born an entrepreneur or you develop into one. Peter Cowley explores his thoughts around the topic, delving into his own experiences to understand whether it was nature or nurture that led to the launch of his 14 start-ups…
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Peter Cowley founded Camdata, an electronic engineering, product design and turnkey development company, in 1984. To date, Camdata has delivered over 17,000 products and revenue of more than £16 million. Now a tech entrepreneur, angel investor and speaker…
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Pilgrim Beart shares his journey from Silicon Valley to his Cambridge homeland and gives us his insight into the similarities between the two. He discusses how start-ups can adopt the valley’s culture in order to be diverse, both in forming partnerships and buying into other peoples expertise. This is to ride the scaling wave and not get left behind. You can hear more by listening to his podcast…
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Most in our industry have heard the term “pivot”, but what does it mean?
I am an engineer by training and a pivot point is a fulcrum about which an object rotates, which can be by a few degrees, but more often by full rotations.
How does that apply to a startup? How can a startup rotate and avoid becoming dizzy?
This article is a short insight in to Peter Cowley's thoughts on losing a founder from the point of view of an investor and entrepreneur. He explores the resignation or removal of founders and that there is no formula or rule book that can be consulted. We hope his experience will help anyone having to go through the process.
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Shirin Dehghan is a hugely successful entrepreneur, having built Arieso and sold it to JDSU. In part 2 of her podcast, we hear how she decided to take a year out before getting bored and subsequently gravitating back to the start-up ecosystem. She has made a number of angel investments, including a lesson in letting her guard down as she invested in a team she knew well. Shirin is now a senior partner at Frog Capital, where she sits on four start-up boards. A tip to entrepreneurs, “Don’t turn up to a board meeting with a laundry list of problems without thinking of possible solutions. Your board will lose faith quickly”.
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Shirin Dehghan has a fascinating story about resilience, understanding when to make tough decisions and planning for her company’s sale. Shirin is a successful entrepreneur, having founded and sold Arieso. She is a seasoned angel investor and is a Senior Partner for Frog Capital. In Part 1 of her podcast you will hear how she learnt so much from the pitfall of a lost contract, and how much time and effort she spent to ensure the company was ready for a potential buy-out. This is a truly exciting entrepreneurial story, that includes a tough decision to ask her husband to step down as her CTO in order for the company to succeed in the States.
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Dr Simon Murdoch follows his instincts. He set up Bookpages in the mid-90's because he saw an opportunity to emulate Amazon in the UK. He has invested in some the most iconic UK start-ups of the last twenty years. He has become a figurehead for invested investors in London. He loves what he does, particularly learning something new everyday. In this podcast Simon describes why he set up a competitor to Amazon, what it's to work for Jeff Bezos and how he transitioned into investing. Although he has experienced his share of failures, his eye for a successful start-up is remarkable.
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