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High growth technology companies go through many phases; in the case of edocr.com, we recognise five phases in our road map; development, commercial trials, launch, growth and dominance. Each phase present a challenge; from many options open, which one (or few) should be pursued to achieve the end market dominance and increase exit multiples. Getting this wrong could result in your business becoming mediocre and loose the competitive advantage it was seeking to establish.

We are lucky to have two of the most successful tech entrepreneurs to emerge from the North West over the last decade, sharing how they managed growth of their respective tech companies, and then led to successful exits.

Chris Allen co-founded laterooms.com, an on-line hotel booking site in 1999, which allowed web users to access top hotels at low prices ensuring that hotels can dispose their excess stock without overtly advertising they had empty rooms. The company was sold in 2007 to First Choice for £120 million in 2007, two years after a MBO.

In 1996, Steve Purdham co-founded Surf Control, a global provider of internet filtering software and listed the company on AIM two years after raising $13 million. The company was sold to US rival Websense in 2007 for a staggering £201 million. In 2007, Steve co-founded we7.com teaming up with Genesis front-man Peter Gabriel.

		Chris Allen – £108m exit Laterooms.com Co-founder of successful and highly profitable internet business startup LateRooms.com; finalist NW Entrepreneur of the year 2006; M.E.N. Small business of the year winner 2006; Sunday Times Tech Track 100 company (2005 number 16); lead £21 million MBO of LateRooms to develop for future sale and within 2 years the company was sold to First Choice for £108 million
		Steve Purdham – £201m exit SurfControl & CEO We7.com Founder & CEO of Surfcontrol; sold SurfControl to Websense for £201 m in 2007; latest venture is We7, a music download business that was set up with musician Peter Gabriel; Awards include IOD Director of the Year, Technology CEO of the Year, Technology Entrepreneur of the Year, and Techmark Personality of the Year.

Get in touch if you wish to sponsor this event or take up the single 20-minute Start4Slaughter slot

I just got back from the inaugural event of UK India Business Council Next Gen North West, which Imran Hakim arranged on behalf of the Board on the textile industry at the University of Bolton. The event was well attended, and included some of the hottest names in the textile industry in the north west of England, including Tariq Marfani (Tarameen #850 staff), Neeraj Takiar (Eternity Clothing), Charles Wood (Baltex), Adrian Tracey (Future Textiles), Ashok Kallumpram (Premier Textiles), Andrew Borman (Helston Forensics) and Mark Pedley (Smartlife Technology). Notably absent was Raj Ruia, but he was represented by the General Manager of Richard Haworth. Vikas Shah (Swiscot) also missed the event.

The event covered the subject in detail from history to new opportunities. Mark Pedley introduced smart cloths, whilst prof Subhash Anand entertained the audience.

The event was organised in association with number of other organisations and included an exhibition.

I believe I was the only one to tweet the event. Click on the thumbnail to access my tweets. Please do ignore the tweets of others, as their conversation was not relevant to this event.

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