Investors
Jeff Lynn is Co-Founder and CEO of Seedrs, the world's fastest growing equity crowdfunding site, and was ranked number 55 in GQ magazine’s UK’s Most Influential Men earlier in the year.
Seedrs is the world’s first fully regulated online platform for investing in startups. It lets entrepreneurs seeking investment list their businesses on its website, and the public can invest modest (or large) amounts in the ones they think will succeed or maybe even be the next big thing - all through an entirely online process.
Since Seedrs launched in July last year, 21 highly promising startup businesses have secured the seed capital they were seeking and it was announced earlier this month that funding has just passed the £1 million mark. £700,000 was raised in the just the last 3 months, reflecting the rapid acceleration in growth that is underway.
One of the leading lights of the UK’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’ scene, Jeff is passionate about bringing the returns and excitement of investing in startups to a much wider audience, helping to bolster the UK’s economic recovery in the process. Jeff is American but adopted London as his home nearly a decade ago, and he believes that Britain is the best place in the world to build a high-growth, global business today.
The NextWomen Career Theme: Venture Capital.
For this month’s theme, we will be interviewing a number of women from around the globe who have reached the top of the world’s most prestigious and/or male dominated professions. This is the story of Lila Ibrahim, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Lila Ibrahim is currently an Operating Partner and Chief of Staff at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and works across the firm’s digital and greentech portfolios, leading KPCB's business development efforts, key partnerships and strategic initiatives for the firm and its portfolio companies..
The NextWomen Social Entrepreneurship Theme
Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Mexican-based IGNIA, the largest base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) impact venture capital fund in the world; focused on commercial enterprises serving the BoP.
Álvaro also serves as Chairman of the Board of Americas largest microfinance organization, Grupo Compartamos, which is also based in Mexico, with 2.3 million clients, an average loan balance of US$400, approximately US$1 billion in total assets and US$200 million of net income.
He formerly served as Chairman of the Board of ACCION International, a US-based not-for-profit and leading global development organization which has helped build 62 microfinance institutions in 31 countries.
Álvaro also formerly served as Chairman of the Board of Unidos Somos Iguales, a Mexico-based NGO that works to transform society to improve the integration of persons with disabilities into society.
We are so excited to publish this 12-part series by angel investor
Elizabeth Crowell, which will examine the various fundraising/financing options
for starting and growing a business.
I wrote a provocative post a few months ago, titled "Go ahead and start a business, just use your credit card!" Sarcasm aside, as a business owner and angel investor, I am in the trenches of how businesses are financed and funded and as much I would like to report that as an entrepreneur you can choose to spend 100% of your time the way you wish, the truth is you may well devote significant time and energy to securing capital over the life of your business. And it's no newsflash that capital raising is a tremendously time-consuming aspect of launching and running a business, as many entrepreneurs will gladly complain to you.
But that doesn't mean you should pause in your quest to open your own business. Rather, it means you need to educate yourself about your options and wisely match your needs to market opportunities. Obviously, this is easier said than done, which is why NextWomen has asked me to outline the landscape for funding and financing for new businesses, soup to nuts, in a 12 article series. So if you have thought about starting a business, or already have the game-changing idea spec’d out, it's high time you acquaint yourself with the financing and funding landscape.
Consider this series your map, as you wade into the ever-changing funding territory.
The NextWomen Finance Theme.
Priyanka Gill is an angel investor, lifestyle blogger and journalist based in London.
The NextWomen Finance Theme.
Mary Strother is Managing Director of Investor Relations at Athenian Venture Partners, a tech-focused VC firm specialising in IT and healthcare.
Mary joined the Athenian team in 2007 to build and head up the firm's Investor Relations program. This includes IR, fundraising, and marketing and PR functions. She also participates in the deal flow, investment screening, and due diligence process of the firm.
Prior to Athenian, her professional career spanned over 17 years in finance, healthcare, and higher education. She has 14 years of financial sales and marketing experience and 16 years of institutional and high-net-worth-individual Investor Relations and fundraising experience in a Fortune 100 company and with a university foundation endowment.
Guest post by Natalia Martinez.
I recently attended a networking event organized by The NextWomen magazine. The event itself was an “Investment Pitch” evening in which a number of start-up companies had the opportunity to present their business plans to a diverse audience and a real panel of investors.
It was my first time at a The NextWomen event and an experience that I would recommend to any budding female entrepreneur.
I was straight away amazed by the venue itself. The event was sponsored by Orrick and took place at their office in the heart of the City of London. An elegant and sophisticated building with a nice bright conference room all for ourselves.
The event followed a tight agenda, with keynotes from a female entrepreneur and a female investor framing the challenges women face as they strive to bcome successful in business, followed by seven startup pitches. Each presentation lasted for 3 minutes followed by five minutes Q&A from a panel composed of a mixture of non-executive directors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and business angels).
One of The NextWomen contributors is one of the most vocal and visible female angel investors: Joanne Wilson. Her blog, the Gotham Gal, is a great read and we are happy to publish the interviews she conducts with female startups she meets in her daily life. Now it's her turn to be interviewed, here is an interview produced by Business Insider.
We are delighted to publish this exclusive interview with Dale Murray, Angel Investor of the Year 2011 and a panelist at our London Pitch event last week.
Most of us will spend our lives waiting for ‘the day’. We will work relentlessly towards ‘the day’, we are likely to spend our days dreaming about ‘the day’ and spending much of our time hoping and praying that ‘the day’ actually comes. Depending on who we are, our ambitions and our motivations, our ‘day’ could be the day we meet the love of our lives, the day we meet our hero, the day we win the lottery, secure investment, sell our business or perhaps just the day we meet a truly exceptional entrepreneur and investor who will change every other day of our career. In 2010 The Next Women interviewed Dale Murray, now it was my time for an exclusive update.
This morning I walked into a quiet coffee shop in Parsons Green to meet with Dale Murray, who I knew as the woman behind mobile phone top ups, angel investor of the year and the lady who had recently joined Doug Richard on a tour of the UK, raising awareness of the new SEIS scheme and helping people access finance. Although we had never met, I already knew that Dale was a giving and genuine woman. I already knew that she was a moving, engaging and inspirational speaker and knew that despite huge levels of success, she was humble, approachable and entirely down to earth.
I was keen to know what made Dale Murrays ‘day’ without realising that she would be making mine.
In a study performed by the Startup Genome
Project, it was found that only 1 in 12 businesses succeed. At Visual.ly a
fantastic infographic designed by Ernesto
Olivares illustrates five core areas in which startups and businesses
should achieve proper balance to ensure sustainability. (See http://visual.ly/why-startups-fail )
As capital is mentioned as one of the five critical areas, The NextWomen sat down with capital expert Pasha Baker (pictured left), Chairman and CEO of Life of a CEO Capital, a capital firm that offers lending solutions and venture capital to businesses.
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