Building advisory relationships with Tech Nation #2

At the beginning of 2022, Invigorate and Tech Nation partnered to improve business outcomes for businesses in their community, provide experienced alumni with opportunities for further professional development, and power transformative advisory relationships across the Tech Nation ecosystem.

Quality advisors can be hard to find in the UK, and advisors with experience scaling and operating a high-growth business are even rarer. Invigorate and Tech Nation’s partnership was created to change this, giving members of their incredible alumni community the tools to confidently step into advisory roles, and thereby providing earlier-stage businesses in their ecosystem with an invaluable resource.

Building advisory relationships with Tech Nation #3

At the beginning of 2022, Invigorate and Tech Nation partnered to improve business outcomes for businesses in their community, provide experienced alumni with opportunities for further professional development, and power transformative advisory relationships across the Tech Nation ecosystem.

Quality advisors can be hard to find in the UK, and advisors with experience scaling and operating a high-growth business are even rarer. Invigorate and Tech Nation’s partnership was created to change this, giving members of their incredible alumni community the tools to confidently step into advisory roles, and thereby providing earlier-stage businesses in their ecosystem with an invaluable resource.

What’s the difference between a board advisor and a NED, and other big questions for growing startups #2

We recently ran a fantastic masterclass for London and Partners on how to build advisory boards and external support networks. They are a vital resource for growing startups, and should form the basis of your support and accountability network, helping you grow and setting your business up for scale.

The scaleups that participated had some great questions about managing boards and external support, from how much to pay to how to get your team on board with external advisors. So if you’ve also found yourself asking questions about advisors and boards read on for answers, resources and more!

A Deep(Tech) Dive into the Future of VC – Part Two #2

A Deep(Tech) Dive into the Future of VC

Deeptech is a key part of the future of innovation. Deeptech startups have the potential to revolutionise our society and help tackle some of the existential challenges we face today – from climate change to resource scarcity. At a time when software revenue multiples and funding have started to decline, deeptech offers a unique opportunity to founders and investors to create enormous amounts of value alongside real technological innovation. However, the relative immaturity of the deeptech ecosystem can also pose significant challenges to businesses and investors operating within this space.

A Deep(Tech) Dive into the Future of VC – Part One #2

A Deep(Tech) Dive into the Future of VC

This report, written with input from leading VCs, operators, angels and founders from across the industry, explores the potential of VC-backed deep tech in a new era of technological, societal and environmental change, and the challenges facing VCs if they wish to be at the forefront of this new wave of innovation, and the value creation opportunities it brings. It was written primarily with a view to the UK ecosystem, but many of the learnings may be globally applicable. 

How VCs Really Pick Teams to Invest In – Part 2 the Team #2

team stood facing away from viewer

Part 2: The Team. We’ve already broken down VC expectations for founders and CEOs in our article ‘Forget the business plan – how VCs really pick teams to invest in. Part 1: the founder’. So in this article we are tackling the rest! If you plan on achieving scale (and you are on the wrong website if you don’t) you’ll need a kick-ass team to help you build, execute and lead. And the VCs definitely know this. So what are they looking for?

How VCs Really Pick Teams to Invest In – Part 1 the Founder and CEO #2

Part 1: The Founder and CEO. When it comes to investing their money, VCs have to weigh up a huge number of competing and sometimes contradictory factors. But as Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, once said during an interview – ‘the decision ultimately is and should be around people.’ 

What to Do When Things Aren’t Going as Planned #2

Man at laptop with head in hands

Nine out of ten startups fail, and every start-up that survives will go through its own tricky periods. What separates the failures from the successes is how the founders and their exec team choose to deal with these problem periods. 

The Investment Memo – How VCs Evaluate Your Business #2

People working on a laptop

Applying for venture capital is an exhausting and time-consuming process on which a huge amount of literature has been written. We have a big database of articles breaking down the fundraising process ourselves. But what is it like on the other side of the table, and how do VCs deal with these applications?