The Investor's Forum: "Let us show you the money!"

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What: Panel on Early Stage Investment in the Credit Crunch
When: 11th February 2009
Where: Law Faculty, LG18

Agenda:
   5.45pm Registration
   6:30pm Panel discussion followed by Q&A's
   8.00pm Networking session, Food & Drinks

Panelists:

Alex Van Someren (nCipher) - moderator
Kerry Baldwin (IQ Capital)
Simon Cook (DFJ Espirit)
Laurence John (Amadeus)
Reshma Sohoni (SeedCamp)
Sitar Teli (Doughty Hanson Tech Ventures)

Download Handout and Poster

Visit www.theinvestorsforum.org

CUTEC and Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) successfully combined efforts to host the Investors' Forum on the 11th of February. The current economic climate poses significant challenges for budding entrepreneurs, but for truly exceptional ideas there is always money. A stellar panel of early-stage investors, who currently have funds available, offered their insight into:

why it is still a good time to invest
how the crisis affects their strategy
where startups can find money
what investors are looking for
how one can recession-proof their business plan

Alex van Someren, moderating the panel, opened the forum by asking, “How has investing changed in the new economic environment?” A diverse panel of early-stage investors addressed this and a range of other questions pertaining to venture capital. The panel unanimously had a positive tone for start-up companies in today’s market, but as Kerry Baldwin (IQ Capital) poetically put it - investors are looking for companies that are leaner and meaner with their money.

This event has been a milestone in the history of CUTEC and CUE marked by their first collaboration in the many years of existence of both clubs. When asked, the CUTEC president stated: "Dr. Michael Lynch, in his Enterprise Tuesday talk dated 27th February 2009*, made the point that a critical factor in a company's progress is to have an opponent. While there is nothing wrong with healthy competition motivating CUE and CUTEC to maintain their unique identities, it has been a good opportunity tonight for our members to realize that not only the nature and activities of CUE and CUTEC are complementary, but in the macro-perspective the 2 clubs are close allies having common interests that could only be met by establishing a long-term, non-theoretical, fruitful relationship. Our goal is to establish at least one such collaborative effort per year."

* Click here for more details

Workshop Album

Speakers Profile

	Alex van Someren, nCipher, Moderator Alex van Someren grew up near Cambridge, became involved with local firm Acorn Computer as a young teenager and left school at 17 to join the company, where he worked on the BBC Microcomputer and its successor the Acorn Electron.With his brother, Dr. Nicko van Someren, he established a business selling computer hardware products within their father's company, Aleph One, in 1986. They went on to set up their first independent business ANT Ltd, now ANT plc, in 1990 to produce networking products including Web Browser software which they licensed to the Oracle Corporation. ANT plc was listed on the London AIM market in 2005 and is now positioned in the embedded software market for IPTV. In 1996 he and Nicko founded nCipher with venture capital backing to develop internet security products using cryptography. nCipher plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 and counts major banking, finance and government among its customers around the world. It was sold to Thales SA in 2008 and returned more than £150 million to shareholders. Alex has authored several books on computer applications and microprocessors, including the first published book on the ARM RISC chips, which was also translated into Japanese. He still lives in Cambridge with his wife and three children, where he is an active member of the local entrepreneurial community. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and a Non-Executive Director of Inkski Limited.
	Kerry Baldwin, IQ Capital Kerry Baldwin has ten years venture capital experience, starting between 1998-2001 as an Investment Manager with Venture Technologies (a £35 million high-technology fund with important successes in the cases of Autonomy Corporation plc, WhereonEarth, Trustbase and Durlacher plc). Between 2002-2006 Kerry worked with a group of London-based high net worth individuals for whom she specialised in taking businesses from the concept stage to AIM floatation. Kerry has also worked with Concept Dynamics Ltd. Kerry began her career with BDO Stoy Hayward following the Royal College of Music. She specialises in research, trade sale opportunities and competitive intelligence and enjoys off shore racing.
	Simon Cook, DFJ Espirit Simon Cook is the CEO of DFJ Esprit and has been involved with the UK venture capital industry since 1995. In 2006 he led the merger of Cazenove Private Equity with Prelude Ventures and in 2007 he completed the next stage of Espritï¿½s expansion plan, negotiating the partnership with DFJ to form DFJ Esprit. Previously Simon was a partner with Elderstreet Investments and a Director at 3i in Cambridge. He has been involved with a number of Europe's most successful technology start-ups. His past successes include Cambridge Silicon Radio, Virata, nCipher and KVS. Simon is now responsible for DFJ Esprit's investment in LOVEFiLM. Prior to venture capital, Simon worked as a strategy and IT consultant at KPMG (where he established the Internet practice) and as a computer games developer.
	Laurence John, Amadeus Laurence John is chief executive of the Amadeus & Angels Seed Fund (AASF), with £10 million under management and up to £10 million for co-investment from Amadeus III. AASF is dedicated to providing seed money for start-up companies spanning the technology sectors, with the exception of Life Sciences. Since joining Amadeus in 2001 Laurence has established Amadeus' seed activity with the Amadeus Mobile Seed Fund (AMSF) and made a number of investments. These include: Enigmatec, which has developed an automated policy-driven management system; Nujira, which is developing advanced power amplifier technology for the cellular industry; and XMOS, a company revolutionising re-configurable silicon. Laurence brings a wealth of experience to his role in evaluating these opportunities. He spent seven years at Motorola, working in a variety of hands-on roles managing businesses in the traditional mobile sector as well as its mobile commerce ventures. Many of his jobs at Motorola involved developing strategy and implementing new business ideas. Laurence started his career at Smiths Industries in the Aerospace Sensors division, moving on to engine controls and fuel gauging systems.
	Reshma Sohoni,SeedCamp Reshma Sohoni is the CEO of SeedCamp, a new kind of incubator which aims to provide a catalyst for Europe’s next generation of entrepreneurs through the provision of seed capital and a world class network of mentors. She joined Seedcamp from the Venture team at 3i. Prior to 3i, Reshma spent over 3 years at Vodafone in their Commercial Strategy team, working across the Europe and Japan footprints in marketing strategy and pricing functions. Reshma started her career in the US in investment banking (Broadview) and venture capital (Softbank).
	Sitar Teli, Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures Sitar Teli joined Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures in 2005. Her investment interests include Internet-based software and services and mobile internet services. Sitar is a board observer on Mobango and actively supports several portfolio companies, including Handmade Mobile, Deepstream Technologies and Odersun. Sitar was previously with Jefferies Broadview, the technology investment banking division of Jefferies & Co. Her most recent position was senior analyst, where she worked on mergers and acquisitions for US technology companies, executing over $1bn in transactions in the software, healthcare technology and IT services sectors. Sitar graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University, US, with a BSE in mechanical engineering and materials science and a BS in economics. In her spare time, Sitar enjoys live music, outdoor activities and travelling.