Our CEO Tales, ‘Selling your technology business successfully’ is now just about sold out but we have been able to make a few extra spaces available , if you’re interested in hearing the inside track on what makes a successful sale in the TMT sector, register now:
Speakers
- Martin Leuw, Clearswift (still Clearswift!)
- Wendy Tan White, Moonfruit (now hibu)
- Shirin Dehghan, Arieso (now JDSU)
- Ian Gotts, Nimbus (now TIBCO)
Questions – if you want a preview of the kind of things that people want to know about, here is a preview of some of the questions that people want to know about exits…
PROCESS
- Should an exit be an explicit goal?
- How much attention to exit should technology companies pay in the first 3 years of operations?
- What’s the optimum time to begin speaking to potential acquires?
- How do you judge when to say yes or no to an acquisition offer?
- How did you become attractive to the acquirer
- What was the process you went through?
- Building situation to create multiple bidders
- Were there any mis-alignments in sellers interests and how did you deal with them
ADVISERS
- How was your experience with the M&A adviser?
- What value does an investment bank bring to the table?
- Would you recommend using an advisor to sell your business – if so, why
- What the pros and cons of using a Corporate finance Advisor for a relatively small transaction?
CURRENT MARKET
- What is the M&A market actually doing at the moment?
- What does the panel think of the Summly sale? (SUMMLY was recently sold to Yahoo after 18 months of operations, reportedly for $30 million. Summly was founded by Nick D’Alosio, 17. Only two of the 5 staff will work for Yahoo).
- Valuations for tech businesses vary widely. Can you give some concrete examples of how valuations were settled.
- Assume a buyer had made the commercial decision to purchase a SaaS business based on an IA (financial metrics, team, market size etc) and enters into an NDA and starts a process of vendor due diligence on the company looking for reasons why they shouldn’t do the deal. In this situation, what do you think are the top three things, in your opinion, that would put off a potential purchaser of a SaaS business in a buy/sell situation?
- Are the exit prices companies are looking to achieve now more reflective of the economic environment?
PEOPLE & CULTURE
- To what extent should succession management be built in pre-sale and to what extent can the buyer be relied on to supply it?
- What was the main aspect of your business that you needed to change when preparing yourself for sale?
- What tips would the speakers have for an entrepreneur to deal with the emotional ups and downs of selling their technology business?
- What was your biggest mistake in the sale of your technology business and what would you do differently next time?
- What should you spend money on when you’re building your company to help get the best exit valuation or smoothest process?
- Do you have any regrets about selling your company?
- To the speakers – when growing your business when was the most difficult time and what did you do to overcome that situation?
- Would you do it again?
MISC
- Will being in the US & Asia increase value for a mobile ad technology business?
- Do I need IP Patents to create large value?
- What is the most valuable asset in a technology startup?
As well as our speakers, and the well informed perspectives of our supporters: Erevena Executive Search, First Capital, Rackspace and UBS, the discussion will be driven by our attendees. Here’s who is coming so far:
- Antony Abell, Managing Partner, Variable Pitch Partners
- Richard Adams, Founder, Startline
- Ismail Ahmed, Founder & CEO, WorldRemit
- Sara Alemzadeh, Founder, Tech Start Up
- Jason Allaway, CEO, Specialist Software Services
- Anthony Ashbrook, CEO, Mobile Acuity
- Richard Baker, Director, Beanstalk Management
- Jack Barnett, VP sales, Kognito
- Andy Batty, Managing Director, IN
- Andreas Bauer, Partner, four40 Ventures
- Max Bautin, Managing Partner, IQ Capital
- Malcolm Bell, Co-founder, Zaggora
- Charles Blake Thomas, Founder, Mobile Path
- Nick Bowles, Sales Director, Datahug
- Justin Brister, CTO, Stoneburn Software Services
- James Brooke, CEO, Amplience
- Ophelia Brown, Investor, Index ventures
- Martin Brown, Chairman, Real-Status
- Tim Burnett, Director, Connection Point Technology
- Matt Byatt, Founder, Beanstalk Management
- Jamie Cassell, Partner, Blick Rothenberg
- Philip Catterall, Director, Various
- Spela Cedilnik, Head of Product, ProFinda
- Jayne Chace, Managing Director, Portio Consult
- Angela Clarke, Director of Product, Call Trunk
- Paul Clayton, Managing Partner, Johnson Capital Advisory
- Daniel Comer, Business Development Consultant, Rackspace
- Simon Cook, CEO, DFJ Esprit
- Simon Cottee, Head of Finance, Liv-ex
- Hermione Crease, Marketing, The BLN
- David Cummings, Partner, Trinamo
- Chetan Damani, Director, TVGuide.co.uk
- Ben Davies, Partner, Erevena Executive Search
- Ian Day, Finance & Operations Director, Flixmedia
- Cabell de Marcellus, CTO, dianomi ltd
- Shirin Dehghan, CEO, Arieso Ltd
- Andrew Dixon, Partner, Arc Intercapital Limited
- Frances Doherty, Partner, Dorsey & Whitney
- Christine Dreier, Owner, Tagesklinik fuer Kleintiere
- Claudia Dreier – Poepperl, CEO & Founder, Adaffix
- Sean Duffy, Managing Director, Barclays Corporate
- George Ell, General Manager, EMEA, Yammer
- Stuart Evans, Chairman, Cambridge Green
- David Flower, Senior Vice President – EMEA, Everbridge Inc.
- Dean Forbes, Founder, Brand Dean
- Kate Francis, Partner, Dorsey & Whitney
- Penelope Garden, Partner, Field Seymour Parkes LLP
- Thomas Gatten, CEO, Pelucid Ltd
- Nathalie Gaveau, Founder & CEO, Shopcade
- Robert Glynne, COO, BullionVault
- Ben Godfrey, Head of Product Delivery, Wonga.com
- Neil Goodall, CEO, SocialGO plc
- James Goold, Partner, Taylor Wessing
- Roger Gorman, CEO, ProFinda
- Ian Gotts, VP, TIBCO
- Adam Green, Director, Syntomy
- Adrian Halley, CEO, Feedbackify
- Jan Hammer, Partner, Index ventures
- Paul Hartigan, Founder & CEO, PharmiWeb Solutions
- Piers Hartland-Swann, Director, FirstCapital
- James Healey, Manager, Technology & Media, Grant Thornton
- Gareth Healy, Investment Director, Inflexion Private Equity
- Alistair Hill, CEO, On Device Research
- Simon Hook, Managing Director, Rivo Software
- Daniel Hyde, CEO, Erevena Executive Search
- Jon Irvine, COO, Erevena Executive Search
- Zahid Jiwa, VP UK & I, Outsystems
- Veera Johnson, Managing Partner, Johnson Capital Advisory
- Istvan Juhasz, CEO, InPho Ltd
- Steve Karmeinsky, Director, City Meets Tech
- Andrey Kessel, Managing Director, Entrepreneur & Investor
- Ranya Khalil, Founder, Tech Start Up
- Adam Kingdon, CEO, i2O Water Ltd
- Bala Krishnan , Vice President, FirstCapital
- Greg Lamond, Partner, Bean Partners
- Steven Lawrence, Group CEO, Holiday Extras
- Scott Lester, CEO, Flixmedia
- Martin Leuw, Non Exec Chairman, Clearswift
- Rhydian Lewis, CEO, RateSetter.com
- Mark Littlewood, Director, The BLN
- Adrian Lloyd, Partner, Episode LLP
- Russell Lux , Commercial Director , Teliqo
- Gordon MacSween, CEO, Captive Media
- Audrey Mandela, Chair , Lotus Association
- Fei Manheche, Founder, Robobo
- Sam Manning, Director, WPL
- David Mardle, Partner, Taylor Wessing
- Mark Mason, CEO & founder, Mubaloo
- Barry Maytum, Partner, Field Seymour Parkes LLP
- Alix McCarter, EA, Artesian Solutions
- Paddy MccGwire, Partner, Cobalt Corporate Finance LLP
- Martin McNair, Founder, Martin McNair Consulting
- Mark Melford, Managing Director, Captive Media
- Philip Mettam, Associate, Meridian Growth Capital LLP
- James Miles, Managing Director, Liv-ex
- Ambarish Mitra, CEO & founder, Blippar
- Hazel Moore, Chairman, FirstCapital
- Mike Morgan, CEO, Relayware
- Andrew Muir, Investment Director, Midven
- Simon Murdoch, Exec Chairman, Storm Forward
- Paul Murphy, CEO, Call Trunk
- Prasad Naik , Analyst, FirstCapital
- Andre Nakkurt, UK Country Manager, GateMe
- Lucy Orme-Smith, Ex COO, PSL Group
- Douglas Orr, CEO, ShopChat
- Navid Ostadian-Binai, EMEA Business Development Director, Cogniance
- Julien Oussadon, Director, UBS
- Andrew Paszkowski, Operating Partner, Nova Capital Management
- Andrew Pearson, CEO, CloudPay
- Anthony Platt, Associate Director, Grant Thornton
- Jason Purcell, CEO, FirstCapital
- Roshan Puri, Investment Associate, Calculus Capital Limited
- Raphael Queisser, Co-founder, dianomi ltd
- Oliver Robinson, Director, WPL
- Daniel Rooke, Solicitor, Taylor Wessing
- Dan Sandhu, Chairman, JobinaSecond.com
- Diane Schofield, Solutions Specialist, Rackspace
- Doug Scott, Founder, ASAP Ventures
- Nilesh Shah, Head of Tax, Blick Rothenberg
- Terry Shaw, Senior Associate, Erevena Executive Search
- Ali Shirnia, Director – Management Consulting, Scale Abilities
- StJohn Smith, Founder & Managing Director, Quickflick World
- Jon Soar, Director of Investment, Restoration Partners
- Dave Stark, Non executive director, Green Ventures
- Lance Stevens, Managing Partner, Bean Partners
- Simon Stevens, Partner, Trinamo
- Jennifer Stratton , Associate, FirstCapital
- Neil Summers, Managing Director, Abriox
- Andy Sutton, CEO, BagThat.com
- John Taylor, CEO, ParcelGenie
- Hannah Taylor, Solution Specialist, Rackspace
- Johnathan Teh, Founder, Onswer
- Adrian Towers, Financial Director, Sentec
- Matthew Trowbridge, Founder & Managing Director, MGT Support
- Will Turner, Finance Director, Amplience
- Mike Turner, NED, Various
- Nazir Ulghani, CEO, Stoneburn Software Services
- Cain Ullah, Founder, Red badger
- Stephen Upstone, CEO & Founder, LoopMe
- Marco van de Bergh, CTO & Founder, LoopMe
- Dan Ward, Consulting Partner, SSH Group Holdings
- Yolanda Warwick, Events Manager, The BLN
- Betsy Weber, CEO, TechSmith
- Harvey West, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, HydroVenturi
- Wendy White, CEO, Moonfruit
- Colin Willis, Partner, Hotspur Capital
- Peter Wolfers, CFO, FirstCapital
- Simon Woodward, CEO, Woodward Solutions Ltd
- Roger Wylie, Owner, Access IS
- David Wynne, Founder, Red badger
- Andrew Yates, CEO, Artesian Solutions
- John Yeomans, Director, FirstCapital
- Marcin Zaba, Director, Cheekyshoes
If you can’t make it and would still like to get an idea of the themes and ideas we covered, we will be putting up a summary after the event. It’s not a substitute for being there, but hopefully should give you some food for thought.
Thanks to our sponsors, who bring their expertise to the evening and who share our interest in improving the quality of networking events.
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