http://manojranaweera.com/2010/01/16/insider-morning-with-whos-who-of-manchester-corporate-sector Building a great tech company (edocr.com) and tech ecosystem (techcelerate.org) in the north of England Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:03:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://manojranaweera.com/2010/01/16/insider-morning-with-whos-who-of-manchester-corporate-sector/comment-page-1#comment-728 ManojRanaweera Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:53:22 +0000 http://manojranaweera.com/?p=1045#comment-728 Hi Ed, glad that you responded. Yes, facts are important and it would be good if you could share more statistics with us. I was merely commenting on the current sentiment within the tech entrepreneurship community. <br><br>In terms of my business, as you very well know, I have not made a serious effort to raise venture capital, as I know very well that we do not tick most of the boxes VCs are looking for. However, we may look for external capital at a future date. So please do not think I was having a go at VC community due to lack of venture capital in my own business. <br><br>I have been entertaining few more thought after yesterday tech CEO round table discussions, at which most of us felt that there was a need for our companies to get "investor ready". I would be keen to discuss how this need could be addressed with participation of the venture capital community. Will be calling you next week to explore your own thoughts on this.<br><br>More than anything, discussions could help us narrow the gap in misunderstandings. Over to you...
In terms of my business, as you very well know, I have not made a serious effort to raise venture capital, as I know very well that we do not tick most of the boxes VCs are looking for. However, we may look for external capital at a future date. So please do not think I was having a go at VC community due to lack of venture capital in my own business.

I have been entertaining few more thought after yesterday tech CEO round table discussions, at which most of us felt that there was a need for our companies to get “investor ready”. I would be keen to discuss how this need could be addressed with participation of the venture capital community. Will be calling you next week to explore your own thoughts on this.

More than anything, discussions could help us narrow the gap in misunderstandings. Over to you…]]> http://manojranaweera.com/2010/01/16/insider-morning-with-whos-who-of-manchester-corporate-sector/comment-page-1#comment-727 EdFrench Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:50:09 +0000 http://manojranaweera.com/?p=1045#comment-727 Manoj, <br>On one level I've got to agree with your sentiment that there's a shortage of VC in the North. But, following a couple of years when most SE funds failed to raise new money, that shortage is not much different anywhere else right now. We're seeing more an more businesses from the South East seeking funding from us. Indeed, the top tier firms that do still have cash have been able to move later stage predominantly to post-revenue companies due to the lack of competition. However, you chose to describe us as "risk-averse as hell", which isn't supported by the facts. On a simplistic basis if you looked across the UK I'd challenge you to find any other commercial VC where ten out of the last ten deals done were pre-revenue. I'm sorry that your own venture was one that didn't meet our criteria for investment, but we do monitor our rejection reasons, and therefore I can say with confidence that we reject only a very small proportion of businesses on the grounds of risk. By far the commonest causes of rejection are lack of differentiation from competition and the opportunity not being large enough to have the potential to produce a venture-scale exit. I hope that helps you understand a little better and to appreciate that whilst there is a need for more capital in this sector there will still be a large number of disappointed entrepreneurs. On one level I've got to agree with your sentiment that there's a shortage of VC in the North. But, following a couple of years when most SE funds failed to raise new money, that shortage is not much different anywhere else right now. We're seeing more an more businesses from the South East seeking funding from us. Indeed, the top tier firms that do still have cash have been able to move later stage predominantly to post-revenue companies due to the lack of competition. However, you chose to describe us as “risk-averse as hell”, which isn't supported by the facts. On a simplistic basis if you looked across the UK I'd challenge you to find any other commercial VC where ten out of the last ten deals done were pre-revenue. I'm sorry that your own venture was one that didn't meet our criteria for investment, but we do monitor our rejection reasons, and therefore I can say with confidence that we reject only a very small proportion of businesses on the grounds of risk. By far the commonest causes of rejection are lack of differentiation from competition and the opportunity not being large enough to have the potential to produce a venture-scale exit. I hope that helps you understand a little better and to appreciate that whilst there is a need for more capital in this sector there will still be a large number of disappointed entrepreneurs.]]>