Tag Archives: equity investors

What we miss out on when we don’t take risks!

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There is an advertisement on TV right now whereby a guy is touting tickets in a shopping area to see his friend’s band in a local pub. Probably London. He is handing out free tickets and asking passers-by to come along and see his friend’s band perform live in a pub around the corner. It is actually an advert for a new drink; typically, many people turn down the offer as too good to be true or can’t be bothered, however some take him up on the free drink offer and the chance to potentially see a new hot band live. The ad cuts to the inside of the pub, the band turns out to be Plan B and the drinks are all free as it is the launch of Bulmer’s new exciting and hip cider. What can we draw from this? As I see it it’s about taking a risk, a chance of a new experience, we weigh up the risk/reward factors, assessing how threatened or confident we feel about an offer.

In accepting the invitation certain individuals experience free drinks, and, ironically, the experience of meeting new liked minded people and seeing live, arguably one of the best new artists around; and those that turned it down, missed the opportunity!

I am curious as to how many times we do this in our lives. The point is, I personally am the sort of person who would have gone for the free drink and to see ‘his friend’s band’ but then I am naturally curious and from my experience, it’s what true entrepreneurs do. We do not turn down an opportunity as we are eternal optimists, however many motorways I found in business, I entered 10 times as many cul-de-sacs! I often still do. I rarely ever turn down the chance of an opportunity, despite my advancing years, particularly the chance of experiencing something new and stimulating, to be exposed to an area that potentially could involve an opening and growth.

Most of today’s top companies were started by people with this ethos, by enthusiastic entrepreneurs, innovators and pioneers, carving out new lands of opportunity for yet unproven ideas and technologies. The sad fact today is the cynical corporate world is too risk averse, the investment community have turned venture capital into an oxymoron and no one has any confidence any more, or they simply see something as too good to be true. The band could have been rubbish!

Imagine then my delight following three years with a client when we delivered an 11X return on their investment; imagine then, our gearing up to promote this and offer to share this experience with liked minded businesses who could see how strong this proposition was particularly in today’s economy.

Do you want a ticket to see my friend’s band?

To learn more about using Conduit services together with information on how our clients receive 11:1 ratio return on their investment please email Holly Munns; hollymunns@conduitpartners.co.uk or telephone 01235 831777.

 

Why cleantech is the only investment game in town

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It has never been a better time to be a cleantech entrepreneur. The sector is valued at £4.3 trillion globally, and there’s a lot of excitement around low-carbon opportunities that Conduit Partners is helping inventors and investors tap into.

Clean technologies are key to our economic, social and environmental future. Not only do they help tackle climate change, but companies developing green technologies create new jobs, boost exports, and help buoy the UK in the low-carbon economy, and may even be the only investment game in town right now!

From a big-picture perspective, they also help meet strenuous emissions reduction targets, as stipulated by the Kyoto Agreement, and they help meet Big Society and corporate social responsibility objectives. Cleantech touches every aspect of our lives. Indeed, the way we consume and conserve energy will dominate national and international agendas for at least the next 20 years. Quite simply, it’s changing our lives.

These are hefty reasons why cleantech is the sector to be investing in right now, and why it needs support. We need to make sure that the market opportunities for cleantech innovations are identified, nurtured and commercialised. We can’t afford to let brilliant ideas in the cleantech sector go to waste or go abroad.

That is why, with all these economic drivers, Conduit Partners is stepping on the cleantech accelerator. We want to help fuel that growth even further by giving cleantech innovations the horsepower they need to prime them for commercial success.

We partner with the Carbon Trust in its Entrepreneurs Fast Track programme. There’s up to £70,000 of our services offered to early-stage cleantech ventures to help accelerate the market entry of those who qualify for the programme. We have already guided dozens of companies through the stages from business planning through to securing investment, and we’re proactively looking to find and support innovative ideas and businesses to take part in the programme.

This is also a sterling opportunity for the investment community, too. Returns may be longer on your investment – perhaps something of a change there too – but the multiples are potentially much higher. Don’t just take our word for it, however. Come and see for yourselves the businesses that can bring you that return.

Conduit is hosting an investment event in November where we will showcase for the first time five companies that have benefited from the Entrepreneurs Fast Track interventions and are now seeking equity capital for growth.

Come along to probe and question these five cleantech entrepreneurs and discover why you should invest in them.

For more information about the event, and to register your interest, email info@conduitpartners.co.uk or call 01235 831777.