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FREE service for all companies that have been funded by business angels or venture capitalists | May 2007 |
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| 'Welcome' from the Editor |
Dear Reader I am delighted to announce that we have a new Preferred Partner for AngelNews, MWB Business Exchange, www.mwbex.com. We deliberately sought out MWB to become one of our partners because we are very conscious that finding offices for your business is something that is “top of head” for many of our readers. (Did you know that at least a few of you move every month?). We also know from personal experience what an issue it is to find meeting rooms when you are away from home. MWB Business Exchange has 54 serviced offices around the UK and can offer you excellent meeting room facilities so you need never be stuck having a meeting in Starbucks again! If you are based overseas, let MWB Business Exchange know when you need a meeting room when you are next in the UK. They will be able to help. And for those of you who need virtual offices because you are always on the move, MWB offer a full range of services at very competitive rates. The person you need to talk to about MWB is Marcus Flacks: mflacks@mwbex.com or +44 (0) 207 479 9322. Feel free to get in touch with him anytime. We are looking forward to seeing many of you on Wednesday at our Partner, Predator or Prey seminar and hope even more of you will join us at our MAJOR ANGELNEWS EVENT - FOR THOSE WHO MATTER – MAKING IT & COMMUNICATIONS WORK FOR YOU ON 26TH JUNE 2007 AT 4.30PM AT BT TOWER, LONDON. If you are anything like us, the issue of IT & communications is the number 1 priority most days of the year. It’s an issue you cannot park, because change is happening daily. If you have received this AngelNewsletter Online you are welcome to come to this event! But you must reserve your place, as numbers are limited and security is tight – so you cannot just turn up on the night – sorry! To reserve your place email: susan@angelnews.co.uk or call 01275 333 443. You will see full details of the event in this AngelNewsletter, but remember as well as it being an excellent “learning” experience, we are going to have a great celebration at the top of the BT Tower afterwards. As well as normal networking over a buffet, we have organised a neat SPEED NETWORKING session so you really will take away ALL the contacts you need – whether its leads from major corporates working with AngelNews, angels or other entrepreneurs. Our mission is to make sure you FIND REAL OPPORTUNITIES by being involved with AngelNews, so don’t miss out on the opportunity. On the theme of IT & Communications check out our great interview with Bob Bissell of BT – it is fascinating hearing what Bob has to say about the issue from the perspective of one of the largest communications companies in the world. Also look at Not so Tricky – Convergence and our Convergence story of the month. There are loads of new companies that have signed up this month. They
would love to hear from you. Also make sure you keep yourself up to date
with the news from the companies. Check out That's neat, that's neat for the top stories I hope you have had a wonderful Bank Holiday – we had a great time relaxing at an excellent local Beer Festival on Saturday. I will tell you all about it when we meet on 26th June! Modwenna |
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| That’s neat, that’s
neat, that’s neat, that’s neat, I really love your…. ...with apologies to Mud
For more information on these stories look in the rest of the AngelNewsletter Online |
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| Do great entrepreneurs really take risks? |
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| Not so tricky – Convergence… |
| 1. What is Convergence? Convergence means different things to different people. Most commonly it refers to bringing together a company’s telephony systems, computer networks and applications into a single, integrated network. The convergence of fixed and mobile telephony is just one example of how taking an integrated approach can lead both to cost savings and a flexible, more extensive range of services. 2. Is it a big investment? It doesn’t have to be. You can start with the simplest upgrades to your existing equipment. Taking a step-by-step approach means the investment stays under your control and starts to deliver returns from day one. 3. Will it only benefit large organisations? Businesses of all sizes who are currently reaping the rewards of their investment would disagree. Every business can make cost savings, productivity gains and start to improve services. Convergence is a process not an end product and you can match your communications services to your business needs as they change. 4. So I’ll have to learn how to do everything again? Convergence means you only need to support one technology for all your applications. Managing networks and applications online can help reduce your overheads, improve your flexibility and help applications run faster and more efficiently. 5. Is it a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket? With the right supplier and an integrated approach to support, service
and assurance, your business can benefit from the optimum response, freeing
you from multiple management relationships and enabling to focus on your
core business and customers. |
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| FOR THOSE WHO MATTER: MAKING IT & COMMUNICATIONS WORK FOR YOU |
Making IT & communications work for you – with a twist and a laugh or two! Do you have a handle on the future of IT & communications systems? Are your systems about to fail you? Is there something out there that will take away your need to fire-fight your IT & communications crises? Do you want to have an opportunity to meet over 60 key investors, potential customers and fellow entrepreneurs and walk away with ALL their business cards at the end of the evening? Fancy an exclusive opportunity on the 34th floor of the BT Tower on a fine June evening, and to get the very best 360º views of London? If so, come along to AngelNews’s and BT’s very special event
on 26th June, starting at 4.30pm.
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| The women behind the men behind the guns |
| Or in this age of equality, should
that read the men behind the women behind the guns? As the buzz continues
around the cult of the entrepreneur, the world is beginning to understand
that these are special people who need to be nurtured and feted, if we are
not to lose our economic world position to the near and far East. Are investors
thinking this through properly; is it really just the entrepreneur that
matters?
Smart investors claim to back teams not individuals, which is great if you have a team. But what if the team is a bit more fragile than you would like to believe? What if the team breaks out into internecine warfare within weeks of an investment being made, or worse splits with different groups siding with different investors? And now stats are showing that there is another issue rearing its ugly head – the loyalty of the employees sitting behind the management team. Last November, Adecco published interesting research stating that in finance and business services most employees are “job flirts” with an “always on the look-out approach” even when they are happy and settled in their jobs. In the finance industry 51% had applied for a new job or registered with a recruitment agency in the previous 12 months and in business services it was 61%. What keeps them in their jobs is employer loyalty to the employee, interesting and challenging work and a pleasant working environment. What must it be like if you are an employee in a fast growing SME – are you a job flirt too? Well many SMEs will fall over big time on the last issue. Good high growth businesses don’t waste money on swanky offices. In contrast, probably the workload at the company is pretty good – building a business creates work that is nothing, if not interesting. If things are going well, employees should be too busy chasing the growth to get bored. Where there may be real issues for employers, I suspect is how loyal they are to their team. Have they actually awarded, as promised, those shares to the first few employees? Do they react well when employees raise issues about their jobs or even their career development? What is the mood at the office Christmas party? The evidence will be in the history and the current attitudes of management. As an investor always check out whether they had won their underlings respect in their previous jobs. Always check out staff turnover in previous and the current environment. I suspect if we researched the AngelNews companies we would see a succession of firms with pretty stable groups of employees. There should not be too many worries on this count and investors can return to focusing on optimising management performance. But keep checking, as it will be the people behind the managers you meet in the board meeting, who will cement the value created. Next time you are investing, reassure yourself that the women behind the men behind the guns are who you think they are; not job flirts, who you will next meet working for the competition. |
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| Something to make you smile |
| An angel and his entrepreneur were sitting having a coffee reflecting on the success of the business they were both in. The entrepreneur said to the angel: “Well its been 20 years now - when you first met me I was living
in a rented hovel, sleeping on the sofa, eating baked beans and with a
great idea. You were a young City buck with money, but no skills to help
me actually build a business on a day to day basis, so it has taken me
a long, long time. The angel replied to the entrepreneur: “You start thinking like that before you get me my money in an exit, and I will make sure that you are back living in a rented hovel, sleeping on a sofa and eating baked beans….” |
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“Brand may get you through the door, but it’s chemistry and rapport that win you business”. But Lucifer says: “It’s rapport and chemistry that actually
enables the crucial first meeting. Branding alone is worthless unless
people already believe you have a great offering for them.” |
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| An alternative, less risky model for healthcare investors - By Susan Aldridge PhD, freelance science writer, London |
| Opportunities for healthcare investors often seem polarised, consisting of either big pharma organisations with low risk, low growth profiles, or high risk biotech. Atlantic Healthcare, an emerging healthcare group, provides an opportunity in the middle. It was set up last year with the aim of realising the value of non-core assets of major healthcare and pharma groups and biotech companies without international commercial strategies. Backed by a group of wealthy entrepreneurs, Atlantic’s management team are all highly experienced in the commercial side of healthcare and in building corporate organisations. The group, based near Cambridge, plans to list on AIM in the near future to accelerate its growth plans. ‘There is a gap in the market in the healthcare sector when it comes to providing an upside for investors without the boom or bust of early stage biotech,’ says Toby Wilson Waterworth, Executive Chairman. ‘With our very experienced international commercial team who were also previously involved in building public listed company Alizyme plc, we mitigate the risk for investors and aim to avoid the downside by focusing on acquiring existing assets on which to build revenues, rather than undertaking the R&D to develop them in the first place.’ He explains that key to Atlantic’s strategy is growing by acquiring or licensing product and company opportunities with near term or existing revenues, where the commercial team can see they can add considerable value. Atlantic will sell direct in Europe and North America and commercialise in other parts of the world through third party arrangements. Atlantic is building up two divisions – specialty pharma (niche pharma products) and contract research (providing clinical trial services to pharma and biotech). In specialty pharma, they are acquiring products and companies with a pre-existing body of scientific and clinical data, focusing upon compounds with potential revenues of up to 250 million dollars per annum – too small to interest big pharma - with a clear marketing route into hospitals. The contract research organisation (CRO) division provides Atlantic with existing revenues and an infrastructure, giving operational benefit and economies of scale. Atlantic is acquiring CROs with a turnover of up to £30 million a year and an established scientific expertise and customer base. The personnel of these potential acquisitions are characteristically ex-pharma, very good operationally, who can benefit from formalisation of their business development and corporate processes to allow them to grow their companies to realise their full potential. ‘Atlantic has the experience to provide all of that, and the IPO also provides them with an exit and shares in Atlantic if they wish,’ says Wilson Waterworth. ‘And with our own CRO we intend to be faster to market with our own products.’ Atlantic’s first major deal involved the licensing of exclusive world wide rights to the intercellular adhesion molecule-1 antisense compound alicaforsen, and the related products AP1007 and AP1431 from Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc, a NASDAQ listed drug development company. Antisense compounds are a class of drug which switch off production of specific proteins that trigger inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, eyes and skin. Alicaforsen has excellent clinical trial data that demonstrates its potential effectiveness. AP 1007 is for the treatment of pouchitis, a complication following bowel surgery in ulcerative colitis patients. It is a niche Phase III compound for which there is a relatively low cost (6 million US dollars) for completing development and regulatory approval to get to the market, while AP1431 is also ready to commence Phase III trials in ulcerative colitis. Atlantic also has programmes in asthma and inflammatory eye conditions through the Isis deal, for which it has commenced out-licensing. Following its planned flotation on AIM later this year, Atlantic intends use the listing to accelerate growth, acquiring further product and company opportunities (including sale and marketing businesses to sell its own products), focusing on building revenues and cash flow. The company will fit into the global biotech scene as a player taking on the commercialization of late-stage products that major pharma has not licensed from biotech and, as such, provides investors with a new opportunity for de-risking their involvement in the healthcare sector. Key people at Atlantic Healthcare: Toby Wilson Waterworth, Executive Chairman, ex-Alizyme (07770 450 898); Allan Cambridge, CEO, ex Evans Medical; Fred Banti, Wood Mackenzie; James Culverwell, Sudbrook Associates. Website: www.atlantichc.com |
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| Events |
| We know you all want to meet each other, get more out of us and our Preferred Partners and generally make AngelNews work for you. So we have decided to up the ante on the number of events we would like to invite you to. Here is a list of them. We do hope you will be able to make it to one soon.
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| Convergence story of the month |
| Convergence story of the month There was this dog kennels that was facing a lot of competition from other local kennels. To make itself different it installed webcams in each of the dog’s kennels so that the owners could go online and check that their dog was happy. But to make it really good, the business also downloaded a photo of each dog from the webcam, printed it into a postcard, and then sent the postcard to the owners’ home in time for their return from holiday. The post card with a picture of their dog said words along the lines of “Having a great time here. Hope you had a good holiday. Come and get me whenever you feel like it, I’d love to see you.” It worked. |
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| The Headlines |
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| Profiles of angelnews companies |
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