Category: Angel/Venture Investing

This is NOT Fair!

Looking back on my own childhood I reckon raising kids must have been a piece of cake. Parents let their kids wander off to the nearest state school where justice was swift and harsh. Caning was all the rage and I certainly got my fair share. It was all pretty

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Why I Want My Kids to Grow Up Puking

Usain Bolt is one of the world’s top athletes and dubbed the “fastest man ever”. I just watched a video of him in action. Wow! I wasn’t aware that Jamaica had such advanced laboratories where the best and brightest could build such a machine. His body in motion is a brilliant

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Why I Don’t Really Care About Your Product

I’ve just gotten off the phone with a gentleman who runs a radio show dedicated to entrepreneurs. He reached out to us as he thought it’d be interesting speaking with me, as an entrepreneur, and as an Angel investing in entrepreneurs. He wanted to know what we look for in

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Passion – It’s Not Just What Happens Between the Sheets

Most of the really big returns made by investors and entrepreneurs come from companies which seem to have one unmistakable element. We look at a mountain of deals and consequently the filtering process is very rapid. In fact over 90% of the deals that hit our respective desks are pre-filtered

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IQ, IP and 8 Commandments of Corporate Governance

Recent dealings with a company led me to think about the relationship between corporate governance, creativity, innovation and what it takes to create or indeed wreck a successful enterprise. A result of having been involved in well over 100 private equity transactions (I’ve long ago stopped counting), Mark no doubt

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A Bull Market in PR

The World Cup is on. I sat and watched a game on the weekend with my son. “Dad, that guy completely faked that fall. Couldn’t the ref see that?” My son, who watches precious little television noticed immediately how many of the players were pretending to be hurt at the

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The March of Technology

My recent post “It’s over!” stirred up a lot of emotions. I received many thoughtful replies commending me on it, and quite a few others threatening me and wishing me bodily harm, disease, death or a job at the TSA. I’m not sure which would be worse…? In that piece

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These 7 Traits Make For Great Entrepreneurs

There is a scene in the movie “Madagascar”… Skipper: “We’ll fix it.” Alex: “How are you gonna fix this?” Skipper: “Grit, spit and a whole lot of duct tape.” This attitude epitomizes one of the traits we look for in founders. Great businesses are not dumb luck, they’re usually the

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