We are holding a discussion event for a very small number of ‘super-angels’ and early stage institutional investors, to consider how angels can collaborate more effectively – both together and with the venture community. This is a follow on from our original early stage investor summit held earlier in the year – details here.

This is a small, invitation-only event for significant, active, investors in early-stage Cleantech focused businesses. The afternoon session, to be held at a central London location and feature a focused round table discussion designed to facilitate networking, information and deal flow between active investors in the European investment ecosystem.

If you would like to suggest a participant, please contact us directly at events@thebln.com

• Anyone recommend good camera under £ 200? @ArthyLittlewood broke my trusty Canon IXUS which I liked. Camera & son are 3. #
• staggered by economists and analysts… https://thebln.com/2010/03/economists-must-be-good-for-something-surely/ #
• Thinking about coming to our CEO Tales, March 18th? Will be sold out by end of today. http://bit.ly/adNDgq #
• we have >40 institutional investors for discussion, March 18th. Looks like we are sold out by end of day. http://bit.ly/adNDgq #
• Liking @timetric's graphing stuff. If I can put a chart in a blog & insult economists – foolproof. http://bit.ly/98wg7A #
• .@plc Looking for internS Couple of great projects to get teeth into. http://bit.ly/bpO7eT Not sure @Laurencejohn1 has right skillset. 🙂 #
• looking for interns who want to meet top entrepreneurs & investors in UK. https://thebln.com/2010/03/bln-internship-opportunities/ #
• RT @agentGav: RT @BobMetcalfe: Intel Capital says next big thing is "micro-grids" through which distributed energy generators upload power #
• |@OliBarrett Though 5% female prison population is higher than % of VC & PE backed female entrepreneurs. Go figure. #
• Any thoughts on who are the top 3 #VC investors in #games in #Europe #
• Congrats on promotion! @andrewsmall Speak to @alexhoye – not just because he runs a top SEO, top Internet/angel guy too #

One of the the things that everyone knows about economics is that a weak pound is bad for us when we take our holidays but is actually good for companies that export to the rest of the world. The weak Sterling means that UK companies get more £££s in their bank when the stuff they have sold in other countries is converted back into home currency.

We have had a staggeringly weak pound for the entirety of this recession – this is the Pound vs the Euro since 2007.

Strangely, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a UK trade deficit of £7.99bn in January (£7.01bn in December 2009). More here. This is about £1bn more than economists had predicted and was down to a drop in exports of £1.4 billion (to £19.5 billion) and a decline in imports of £0.5 billion (to £27.4 billion). This is the biggest monthly deficit since August 2008 – pre Lehman Brothers.

“Economists were expecting the deficit to shrink to £6.9 billion in January, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey last week.” Wall Street Journal

Some ‘expert’ economic analysis:

“The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there was no obvious reason for the wider trade deficit, although some have suggested that the particularly bad weather in January may have disrupted trade flows.” Sky News.

“It could be that the weakening of sterling is taking time to feed through – but that may be painting too much of a positive on a negative set of numbers.” Jeremy Stretch, senior market strategist, Rabobank

“It’s a pretty disappointing number,” Alan Clarke, analyst, BNP Paribas.

“There is no getting away from the fact that the January trade deficit is disappointing and also worrying for hopes that the economy can rebalance over the coming months. The total trade deficit widened to a 17-month high in January as exports fell appreciably and imports declined modestly. This suggests that net trade is set to be a drag on the economy in the first quarter of 2010 as it was in both the fourth and third quarters of 2009.” Howard Archer, chief UK economist, IHS Global Insight

Am I the only person that worries that the clever people who are called in to advise on the management of our financial system don’t even seem able to get close to explaining some of the most elementary numbers that are the constituent parts of the economy?

• Who’s who of European #VC discussing what’s what. Join them. London, March 18th, 18.00. http://bit.ly/9UQNl9 #
• If EMI had their way, you wouldn’t see OK GO like this. http://bit.ly/2yVvJm No wonder the record industry is screwed. #
• Angel vs VC for first round? Good questions to ask about investors. http://bit.ly/b2J5lw #
• RT @NeilDavidson: To avoid delay, never stand behind Satan in the post office queue. The Devil takes many forms. #

Internship Period: Ongoing and urgent requirement! Can run for 3-4 months depending on candidate.

The Business Leaders Network (BLN) is a national network for entrepreneurs and investors engaged in building growth businesses. We promote and arrange introductions for our members; we run a blog covering high growth business for the entrepreneurial community; we run events across the UK that promote interaction, investment and discussion between the individuals behind the UK’s most active investors, businesses and innovation clusters.

BLN is looking for a couple of bright and enthusiastic team players for intern roles. Roles will involve researching, planning and delivering projects in a number of interesting sectors. They all require individuals who are capable and eager to take ownership of tasks to ensure that not only are deadlines met, but you deliver the highest quality results.

You will spend the majority of your time researching, evaluating and engaging with fast growth companies but will also have the opportunity to work on the BLN event programmes. Successful applicants will have responsibility for creating and implementing multiple projects across sectors including ecommerce, SaaS, Cleantech, Digital Media, gaming etc. Other projects include developing a membership services offering, and working on a national entrepreneurship competition.

Candidate Requirements:

• Previous undergraduate work experience, preferably in contacting/interviewing people on the phone and performing research over the web
• Professional attitude and ability to interact with senior-level executives (CEO, CFO, and VP) over the telephone, and in person
• Strong follow-up and time management skills, as well as the ability to work on multiple projects at the same time
• Self-motivated, “can-do” mentality and structured work habits
• Fluent English (verbal and written)
• Blogging experience an advantage
• Competence with standard Office applicaitons, interest and engagement in social media and web
• Ability to work as part of a small, focused team and have FUN.

How to Apply: please simply send your CV and a covering letter via email to darren@TheBLN.com. We will review and respond to all applicants. Successful applications will be called for interview shortly afterwards.

EU nationality or a valid residency and/or work permit is required prior to the internship.

Interesting blog by Ben Horowitz on when to take angel money and when to take VC alongside a bit of the history of venture capital. Ben’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, is a fund that invests small amounts in lots of deals so it is no great surprise that he concludes that this is probably the ideal operating model.

Ben argues that most early venture deals were for hardware businesses selling into complex supply chains, and sophisticated and expensive requirements for people, land and manufacturing equipment.

This meant that the best investors would have some well defined attributes:

“Access to large amounts of money to fund the many complex activities

Access to very senior executives such as an experienced head of manufacturing

Access to early adopter customers

Intense, hands-on expert help from the very beginning of the company to avoid serious mistakes”

Venture firms that met those requirements tended to organise themselves in similar, economically rational, ways (and not one mention of maximising the management fee per partner):

• “Raise a large amount of capital from institutional investors
• Assemble a set of experienced partners who can provide hands-on expertise in building the product and then the company
• Evaluate each deal very carefully with extensive due diligence and broad partner consensus
• Employ strong governance to protect the large amount of capital deployed in each deal. This includes requisite board seats and complex deal terms including the ability to control subsequent financings
• Manage own resources effectively by calculating the amount of capital/number of partners/maximum number of board seats per partner to derive the minimum amount of capital that must be invested in each deal”

Ben argues that this way of working is totally incompatible with the requirements of modern organisations that are far less reliant on capital at an early capital. (And here he may be right about certain types of web companies but the same rules still apply to hardware businesses). Organisations like the ones he describes above harm early stage businesses as:

As a result, for a modern startup, funding the initial product can be incompatible with the traditional venture capital model in the following ways:

“Lengthy diligence process. Venture capitalists take too long to decide whether or not they want to invest because they are set up to take large risks and have complex processes to evaluate those risks.

Too much capital. Venture capitalists need to put too much capital to work – often a VC will want to invest a minimum of $3M. If you only need 4 people to build the product and get it into market, this likely won’t make sense for your business.

Board seat. Venture capitalists often require a board seat and, for that matter, a board of directors be formed. If 100% of the company is building the product and the team knows how to do that, then a board of directors may be overkill. In addition, it may be too early to decide who you want to be on the board.”

Not surprisingly, Ben’s fund changes all those rules as it invests early, at a low level and doesn’t take board seats. Whether this approach is one that will show better ROI than current venture models is as yet unproven. His advice for deciding whether to accept VC money into an angel round is spot on though:

Don’t take VC money in an angel round unless the VC can…

“Be comfortable investing a small amount of money, e.g. $50,000.

Be able to make an investment decision quickly, e.g. in one or two meetings

Be able to invest without taking a board seat

Not require control of subsequent funding rounds

Not impose complex terms

If the VC wants to be in the angel round, but refuses to behave like an angel, then entrepreneur beware. Having a VC who behaves like a VC in the angel round can jeopardize subsequent financings.”

You don’t need to look far to find evidence that executives in large corporations might miss some of the nuances of emerging culture and the business opportunities that might ensue. I was amused to hear that OK GO in the recent negotiations surrounding the release of their latest album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, were told by their record company, Capitol, (a wholly owned EMI subsidiary), that their record label would have to control their activities on such sites as YouTube in order to promote the band effectively.

OK Go know a bit about using videos to promote themselves. In fact, OK Go are probably the most successful band on the video Internet. Their first video, A million ways, became the most viewed video of all time with over 10,000,000 downloads.

Here it Goes Again, featuring treadmills, has been viewed over 50,000,000 times. It was also the most blatantly ripped off video of recent years – Berocca anyone?

They have just released their latest video for, ‘This too shall pass’.

A quick update on our upcoming drinks event. We have 85 registered places, with capacity for 110 people max…

‘The 3^rd BLN CEO Tales and Networking Drinks’ event will be held on the evening of 18^th March from 6.00 pm at the recently opened offices of Taylor Wessing, 5 New Street Square, London, EC4A 3TW. Our subject for the evening, the Emerging VC Investment Landscape, and the speakers, seem to have piqued the interest of the venture community alongside some of the more established entrepreneurs in the market.

We currently have a great line up of confirmed investor attendees including: 4iP, Accel, Advent, Amadeus, Archangel, Aster Capital, Balderton, Cambridge Capital Group, Delta Partners, DFJ Esprit, DN Capital, Eden, Gresham Capital, Grow VC, Hotspur Capital, Index, NESTA, Pentech, Pond, SEP, Sofinnova, Solon Ventures, SVB & TLcom Capital Partners.

Featured speakers include: Aster (closed E70 million 2^nd fund in January); Sofinnova (closed E260 million fund in February), and SVB who have been providing debt finance to venture backed companies in Europe since 2004. As well as an evening of peer networking with CEOs, this is an excellent opportunity to meet VC and PE investors.

Video Interviews: We are using this opportunity to run video interviews with some of our attendees to feature on our forthcoming BLN video channel. As well as being a great way to showcase some of the most interesting high growth businesses in the UK, we hope this will offer some of our attendees an opportunity to spread the news about their businesses to a wider audience. If you are interested in participating, please indicate your interest when you register to attend.

REGISTER: We have 30 remaining places and every event we have run so far in 2010 has sold out so we would encourage you to reserve your place quickly. You can find out a little more about our speakers and register here. On registration, please use the code ‘BLN241’ if you would like to bring a guest, as your guest, at no charge.

Other events: Do take a look at our upcoming events. The next few months see a hectic schedule of activity and we have discussion dinners lined up around Exits, Advertising, Video, Future of Publishing, Cleantech, Gaming and mobile amongst others so there should be something for everyone…

We hope to see you on the night. With best regards,

Mark Littlewood

Director

The BLN

07760 171 929

mark@TheBLN.com

www.TheBLN.com/blog

@marklittlewood

• Startling video evidence from unexpected source on extent of Gordon Brown's bullying. http://bit.ly/Bullybully #
• BBC apparently using illiterate teen fanbase to report Cheryl Cole's split with footballer. http://twitpic.com/14x4ku #
• Meanwhile, BBC business asks what this means for 'Brand Cole'? Not as big as Beckhams they conclude insightfully. #
• Looking forward to thebln.com discussion shortly. Will @plasticlogic bring a Que Reader…? Guessing, 'No'. #
• Consumers, not companies, need European Commission protection from Google & themselves. http://bit.ly/98BRp9 #
• RT @cdixon: "every product Apple makes (sits) on 1 table, yet revs are $40B. only others who cld say that are oil companies" bit.ly/cOuFb7 #
• King's Cross Station got their Christo Installation inside out by mistake. Is it still art? http://twitpic.com/153mqn #
• pleased so many great people have registered for March 18th Emerging Venture Landscape CEO Tales already. https://thebln.com/event/9012/ #
• RT @intelcapital: Intel's Mike Buckley speaking at Early Stage investor Summit, March 24, London. http://bit.ly/bTz4O5 #
• Test. Early stage investor summit. Internet technologies. http://tinyurl.com/yfhqmdn #
• l @tedshelton Re conversation yesterday – where you live matters a lot. You also get to choose. http://bit.ly/4oXsHO #
• Mentally ranking overnight senders of 'better sex' tweets by improbability. Pleased I'm not following John Prescott #