The BLN ‘High Growth Software Business’ Discussion Dinner, 20th October, 17.30 start, to be followed by roundtable discussion, cocktails, and dinner from 19:30.

We have been working with Deloitte on their annual Fast 50 programme and are inviting some of the entrants to this competition along with some of the other fastest growing software/SaaS businesses in the UK. This is a chance to meet your peers and discuss some issues of common interest. We would be particularly interested in hearing your thoughts on how you have managed to maintain growth in the face of some challenging economic times for a forthcoming report we are producing – we would love to get your input.

The Business Leaders Network (The BLN) is a national community of entrepreneurs, business leaders and institutional investors involved in building and working with growth businesses. We facilitate peer networking, discover future leaders and stimulate debate about the development of key growth sectors in the UK economy. We help organisations grow – by connecting corporates to sources of innovation, entrepreneurs to investors or partners and investors to high quality entrepreneurs.

BLN discussion dinners are run under the Chatham House Rule and are for high-value people who appreciate the opportunity to discuss new ideas and explore business relationships with their peers in a relaxed, informal and fun atmosphere. Participants in previous events in this series have included founders/CEOs/senior executives from companies including: Iris Software, SalesForce, Alfresco, Grove Group, OmPrompt, FoxIT, xCalibre, Corebridge, AVEVA Group, Cloudsoft and Huddle; as well as European VC and PE investors including Index, Gresham, Balderton and Intel Capital.

We are delighted to be partnering with Deloitte on this discussion.

There are many opportunities to attend networking events but we like to think that The BLN events are both high quality and a little different. You can see feedback from previous attendees here.

Places are limited so a prompt response is necessary to be considered for a place.

Also we are always interested in talking to founders, Chairs and CEOs who can contribute actively to the discussion.

We think the Business of  Software conference is probably the most valuable event in the US that CEOs and Founders of software companies can participate in. Successful businesses are not all obsessed with coming up with a new and exciting idea, raising venture capital then exiting. This event is for people who want to build sustainable software businesses.

We are delighted to host a workshop at the conclusion of this event for a small group of delegates who want to discuss  practical ways to fund the growth of their businesses without selling equity. Venture Capital is often seen as being the obvious choice for funding the growth of software businesses. In fact venture capital probably represents the most expensive money that can be put into a business and should in most cases be viewed not as the first, but the last resort for funding growth.

So how can you fund growth without selling the company or ceding control? This workshop, for a maximum of 18 participants, will help you think through your growth strategy, subsequent funding requirements and the various finance options you have to achieve these goals.

To offer an insider’s view on why you should think very hard about selling equity in your business, and to highlight some of the alternative sources of capital available to you, we are pleased to be joined for this workshop by Mark Gallagher, Senior Vice President, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). SVB has investments in 405+ venture funds with more than 600 venture capital firms are SVB clients so they have an almost unique inside track on the market.

Mark will spend a little time explaining how banks and venture capitalists make money in order that he can show you how to exploit them, and other sources of cash, to fund your growth. The principal aim of the session will be to use the issues faced by entrepreneurs participating in the workshop to illustrate some alternative ways of financing your business.

Places are limited and will be awarded to those individuals who are likely to receive most value from the session. To apply, please register here by 30th September. We will notify all applicants within 24 hours of this deadline in order that you can make necessary travel arrangements.

Hope to see you there. More info: Business of  Software

About Mark Gallagher

Mark has provided financial services to venture capital funds and technology and life science companies for the majority of his career. Today, having spent the last 10 years with the company, Gallagher is Silicon Valley Bank’s senior sales and business development professional in the Northeast, working primarily with new, growth-stage technology companies in the region. Most recently, Gallagher led SVB’s Life Science practice in the Northeast with great success. Prior to this, Gallagher held a senior role in the Boston technology practice for SVB. Gallagher earned a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness from University College in Dublin, Ireland and an MBA from Trinity College, also in Dublin. He is fluent in Italian and received a diploma in Italian from Scuola Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy. He is married with three young children, all of whom run rings around him.

About SVB

Today, half of all venture-backed companies in the U.S. are SVB clients and SVB has investments in 405+ venture funds with more than 600 venture capital firms are SVB clients. Forbes ranked SVB #5 among America’s Best Banks in 2010.SVB Financial Group provides diversified financial services to emerging, growth and established technology companies and the life science, venture capital and premium wine markets. Through its focus on specialized markets and extensive knowledge of the people and business issues driving them, SVB Financial Group provides a level of service and partnership that measurably impacts its clients’ success.

The company has created innovative solutions for some of the world’s most successful technology and life sciences companies. These companies face unique challenges and require special services, such as finding the right venture capitalist or angel investor, securing capital to support rapid growth, or driving overseas expansion. Today, SVB Financial Group has more than 1,200 employees and $12.5 billion in average assets. The company operates offices throughout Silicon Valley in Pleasanton, Menlo Park – the center of California’s venture capital community, Santa Clara and Palo Alto. Other regional offices within California include Irvine, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, St. Helena, and Sherman Oaks. Across the country, SVB Financial Group operates in Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Beaverton, Oregon; Broomfield, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Minnetonka, Minnesota; Morrisville, North Carolina; New York, New York; Newton, Massachusetts; Radnor, Pennsylvania; Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle, Washington; Tempe, Arizona; and Vienna, Virginia. International subsidiaries are located in Bangalore, India; Mumbai, India; Herzliya Pituach, Israel; Shanghai, China; and London, United Kingdom.

An important move in the European venture space as Laurence Garrett, the former Head of 3i’s European technology team has joined Highland Capital Partners based in Geneva (though Laurence will remain living in the UK). 3i effectively abandoned the technology venture sector a few years ago much to the chagrin of individuals like Laurence who believed in the long term future of the sector.  For him to be joining an organisation such as Highland demonstrates their commitment to the technology sector in Europe and their belief that there are still significant opportunities in the space.

This is one of a number of moves that will be announced over the next few months as some of the more established players in the European venture scene take steps to retool their businesses to suit the current funding climate in Europe.

For some, these changes will be seen as defensive (too many partners with too little management fees so under-performing, frustrated or otherwise under-utilised people leave), while others will prove to be fairly aggressive moves to increase fund performance in the medium term. Expect to see more seasoned entrepreneurs, rather than financiers, joining funds. (It almost seems to be a novel idea for some reason to get experienced entrepreneurs to help build entrepreneurial businesses in Europe). This has been the norm in the US since venture began.

Highland Capital had this to say:

‘Highland Capital Partners, a leading venture capital firm with a more than twenty year history of helping great people build great companies, today announced that Laurence Garrett has joined the firm as a General Partner. Based in Highland’s Geneva office, Garrett will work to identify, fund, and grow Europe’s most promising technology and internet companies.

“We are focused on partnering with leading entrepreneurs with the ambition to build breakthrough companies and market leaders,” said Fergal Mullen, General Partner with Highland. “Laurence has a proven track record of doing so, and a strong reputation with entrepreneurs and the European venture community. He’ll be a terrific addition to the Highland team.”

Garrett is a former Partner of 3i Ventures and most recently led the 3i European technology team. He spent 14 years with 3i and led investments in several communications and technology companies, producing realized returns of over 3 times invested capital. While at 3i, Garrett’s investments included: CSR plc (IPO), UbiNetics Ltd (acquired by Aeroflex Inc), Trigenix Ltd (sold to Qualcomm Inc), Ezurio Ltd (acquired by Laird Technologies plc), Icera Inc, and Insensys Ltd (acquired by Moog Inc). He currently sits on the investment committee for Cambridge Enterprise, endorsing investments made by the Cambridge University venture funds, and is on the board of BlueGnome Ltd.

“With their global platform, Highland has an outstanding track record of being a value-add partner to exceptional entrepreneurs and management teams,” said Garrett. “I am truly excited to be working with such a dynamic group of partners committed to nurturing the next generation of market leaders.”

Highland has a significant and growing presence in Europe. The firms’ European portfolio includes such companies as Autoquake, Glasses Direct, PhotoBox, picoChip, Privalia and Spartoo.com. Garrett will be joining existing European investors Fergal Mullen and Irena Goldenberg in Highland’s Geneva office.’

Good luck to the new team and to the others forming across Europe even as we speak.

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Interesting insights into the world of fast growth technology companies from research into previous winners of the Deloitte Fast 50 Awards over the past decade. This is one of the only global competitions to use hard numbers to rank technology companies and is celebrating its tenth year in 2010.

The UK always features very highly in the European rankings of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Europe and so can perhaps be used as a bellwether for European technology companies more generally. What really struck me about this survey was the difference in attitudes between the entrants into the 2008 awards (going into a global recession) and the 2009 awards (right in the thick of it).

Impact of the Recession

• The survey of 2008 entrants revealed that only 3% of them expected the recession to have a significant negative effect on their business.
• In 2009, 14% of the entrants expected the recession to have a significant negative effect on their business.

This is a significant change but was counter-balanced by a far more interesting response.

• In 2008, not a single company reported that it expected the recession to have a positive effect on their business.
• In 2009, 18% reported that the recession had had a positive effect on their business.

Apart from showing that CEOs and founders were as spooked by the markets as much as investors were as the recession started, we wondered what was going on here. I would be interested in other opinions and views.

The fastest growing technology businesses, (a proxy for best run?), seem to have employed a combination of these issues in their organisations to profit from the downturn.

• The internet as both a cost saver and a way of extending the geographical reach of a business. (Duh!). As many of the companies in the Fast 50 are Internet businesses, this factor is magnified.
• Outsourcing and streamlining activities, especially back office functions, as a cost cutting measure.
• More marketing. Many businesses actually spent more time, not necessarily more money, on marketing during this period. This meant that they were able to focus on cleaner customer propositions and make their marketing spend go further as the competition for marketing spend intensified.
• Lower capital requirements Many CEOs recognised that raising capital was going to be very hard very early on. They adjusted their plans accordingly, got their heads down and didn’t waste time looking for sources of capital that weren’t there. Others didn’t, got hugely frustrated and were not running their businesses.
• Excuse to Spring Clean Almost no business can claim to be running completely efficiently. The arrival of the recession gave many the opportunity to take a hard look at their staffing levels, activities – core and non-core, pet projects and make a whole bunch of hard decisions all in one go.

We would be interested to hear of the experience of others.

If you would like to enter the Deloitte Fast 50 awards, you don’t have long to do so. Closing deadline is 17th September. More information at http://www.fast50.co.uk

Download the Deloitte Fast 50 Survey here: Deloitte Tech Fast 50 Decade in Review

Here are the UK winners for the past 10 years:

• 2000, Phytopharm
• 2001, Sourcing Partnerships
• 2002, Cambridge Display Technology
• 2003, Active Hotels Ltd
• 2004, Lastminute.com
• 2005, Trigold
• 2006, MX Telecom
• 2007, ByBox Holdings
• 2008, Thunderhead
• 2009, Distribution Technology
• 2010, ???????

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We think there are far too many events in the world that focus on fluffy, new, shiny stuff and not enough that focus on turning new things into sustainable businesses. We think this is why so many people say nice things about our events – that and they get to meet other high quality people.

I wonder how many of you feel the same way?

The BLN and Business of Software share the same philosophy. That is one reason why we think the Business of  Software conference is probably the most valuable event in the US that CEOs and Founders of software companies can participate in. Successful businesses are not all obsessed with coming up with a new and exciting idea, raising venture capital then exiting. This event is for people with the vision to see beyond the hype.

If you are a CEO or Founder of  software business, whether organically grown or venture backed, or if you are a VC and want to meet some of the best practitioners in the business, you should give some very serious thought to getting to Boston between October 4th and 6th this year.

Here is a two minute video that gives you a quick view of last year’s event.

One thing makes an awesome conference – awesome people. Here are some of the awesome speakers that will be talking, eating, meeting and learning from the awesome participants:

Joel Spolsky, Fog Creek Software

Seth Godin, sethgodin.com

Eric Sink, SourceGear

Paul Kenny, Ocean Learning

Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot

Giacomo ‘Peldi’ Guilizzoni, Balsamiq

Jason Cohen, Smart Bear Software

Eric Ries, The Lean Startup

David Russo, Eno River Associates, Inc.

Scott Farquhar, Atlassian

Derek Sivers, MuckWork

Rob Walling, SoftwareByRob.com

The Cranky Product Manager, DysfunctoSoft

Mark Stephens, IDRSolutions

Dan Bricklin, Software Garden, Inc.

If those people mean nothing to you, and the themes of their talks don’t get you interested, you are probably not the right sort of participant. If they do, then find a way to get there and take part.

The BLN  will be there and we strongly suggest you give it some thought too. If you want to get involved, use the code ‘BLN’ on registration and you will receive a $200 discount. (And, ‘No!’, we don’t get commission, we just think this is an awesome event and that our members are the kind of people who would value taking part).

Hope to see you there. More info: Business of  Software