From a new report by Deloitte.

We briefly scratched the surface of the dozens of potential terms that could be included in a  term sheet, but I wanted to emphasise a few points from our discussions. 1. In most cases the “terms” in a term sheet (or more accurately in the Investor Agreement – which is the legal document) are not [...]

Next week @Start\UP bootcamp, we’re going to be looking at strategies and plans for getting investment. Of course, a significant proportion of that will be what VC’s are looking for in a company and business opportunity, but equally, we will be covering what a company should look for in a VC. In most cases I [...]

There was very lively discussion tonight at @startvi on the, seemingly, blind requirement, for startup software companies to have patents. Rather that repeat the discussion here, let me summarize. Patents do almost nothing for software startups, and do a lot of actual harm via the opportunity cost (in time and money) to gain an illusion [...]

(Title idea stolen for @cimota blog) I was attracted to a post over the weekend from Steve Blank. In particular, this caught my eye … “business plans are a poor planning and execution tool for startups”. I agree 100%. I also agree with much of Steve’s reasoning, but not all. Without being repetitive, I thought [...]

This was a question asked by “Rutherford” earlier this week. This is an interesting subject that needs its own post. The context of the quest was in respect to “they spin a new dynamic around the product concept, it gets traction and suddenly people are ‘getting it’.” Firstly, I don’t think that it’s given that [...]

One of the challenges in only having three hours per session, is that, to cover all of a subject, you need 2 or three sessions. Last week, we looked at Cap Tables and Dilution, and last night we looked at VC arithmetic. Next week we’ll pull it all together with investments and valuations. But, being [...]

StartVI is just about ready to take applications. We’ll be making this as simple and transparent as possible. Everyone will know the criteria and everyone will know very quickly whether they accepted or not. And if not, then why. So, what we are looking for are companies: – with a big idea (hot product) – [...]

When you take an investment in your company, generally you are selling shares for an agreed (and negotiated) price.  In general you take  £x for y shares, and by simple arithmetic you can see that you’ve sold the shares each for £x/y per share.  That deceptively simple calculation has some very interesting consequences, based on [...]

The Start\UP Brief: StartUps and Shares, covered those elements of shares that needed to be decided at registration. The implication of those decisions comes into play when you are looking for investment. If you never, ever, ever plan on seeking outside investment – from friends and family, angel investors or VC’s – you’re done. But just [...]