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blimp's blogDo UK VCs Value Design-led Businesses?David Sainsbury, the former Science & Innovation Minister, visited the Design Council earlier this month to attend a seminar looking at the impact of design on technology businesses. Blimp considers the lessons that Lord Sainsbury might take away from the seminar.
MIDEM - Music Industry Suffers The BluesI was lucky to spend five days last week at MIDEM, the international music conference held in Cannes.
Apparently, the state of the conference reflected that of the industry - 8,000 delegates this year compared 12,000 last. The overriding concerns expressed in all the keynotes and panel sessions were:
Why Doesn't UK Venture Capital Work? Part 1 - The Lingering Death of ICFC (aka 3i).UK venture capital investment activity - investment in early-stage companies - fell in 2008 to its lowest level for three years. Despite the Government's announcement of the £150M UK Innovation Fund in June this year, it is the culmination of a process in which investors have become increasingly disillusioned with UK venture investment. This three part post seeks to expose the factors that have led to this disillusionment and to ask whether there is a credible future for commercial, early-stage venture investment or is it destined to remain a public sector activity. Part 1 looks at the role and legacy of 3i in UK venture capital. From the Foundation of ICFC to Present Day 3iWalking the Talk and a TightropeIt's a nerve-wracking business; waiting to see whether a new web service can grow virally! We started to open up the Psonar website to users from the wild last week (perhaps not-so-wild, since most had come via mailing to our own and friends' Facebook contacts). Nonetheless, the majority are users whom we don't know directly and who haven't been aware of Psonar previously. We've been letting them in in batches, typically 50 at a time, to make sure that we don't overwhelm the system and can identify and rectify any problems without a catastrophic loss of service. The data looks encouraging:
Laptops, Lochs & the Digital DivideIs the digital divide really about access to the internet or is it more about what you do when you get there? I had a week's holiday on South Uist (one of the Scottish Western Isles) earlier this month.
Alice, my 16 year old daughter, was vocal in her fear of finding no internet access when we arrived. Fortunately our hosts turned out to be subscribers to Hebrides.Net - the ISP for the Western Isles that uses fixed wireless links to provide a 2Mbps DSL-like broadband service. I also was relieved to find that we would be connected. Getting that Elusive TractionEvery Web 2.0 start-up needs to get user traction - after all building a website built on user generated content, needs users who want to contribute. Blinking into the SunlightBlimp reveals all - starting the ultimate music management service. In my last post Gamekeeper to Poacher, I promised to reveal the start-up that I'm doing. It's called Psonar and it's the ultimate personal music management service.
Gamekeeper to PoacherTime to walk the talk: blimp launches a business A nagging thought that crosses the mind of every venture investor is "could I make it as an entrepreneur myself?" I've been in venture capital for over twenty years without break (apart from a three year foray into working on a couple of start-ups which were abortive - i.e. never really launched) and the desire to start a business has got stronger in recent years. Maybe it's frustration caused by the increasing frequency with which investee management teams make all the same mistakes I've seen before! Now They Love You, Now They Don't...The VC investor often finds that the lustre of his role fades as an investment matures and hard decisions have to be made about selling the business or otherwise realising value. It's the nature of venture investment that timing is critical to the success, or otherwise, of a deal. Investors are constrained by the lifespan of the funds they manage (typically 10 years); by the lifecycle of the companies in which they invest; and by the wider economic cycle. Getting to exit in years 7-10 of a fund's life, when the business has hit a sweet spot and when there are willing buyers with cash looking to buy, is a trick much aspired-to but infrequently achieved. Pipes Sound a Plaintiff NoteThe Mobile Operators (MNOs) at the Mobile2.0 conference in Barcelona today, sang a plaintiff song of explosive traffic growth and puzzlement over how to replace fast - dwindling voice revenues: the audience was not sympathetic. The Mobile2.0 conference organised at Barcelona business school this week has been a fascinating insight into an introverted and confused industry.
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