Many entrepreneurs fail due to lack of research and attitude towards strict graft, warns an investor in UK startups.
“We have people using the five-year futures valuation, ‘My company will be worth £ 25 million in 2027, that’s my valuation, and we now want to invest ,000 500,000.’
Jeb Buckler is the founder and CEO of Startup Giants plc. T.He is the company Supports 60 pre-seed technology and manufacturing initiatives across the UK.
Zeb says: “The UK is fortunate to be a magnet for entrepreneurs – Office of National Statistics In 2020, 358,000 business births were recorded – in about 981 days.
“But Many of them are doing the same thing they have always done; They arrive on the scene with a lot of enthusiasm on a call or a pitch.
“It simply came to our notice then.
“But they don’t qualify well enough – they can refine better and get rid of a lot of noise and focus only on what they have. The real thing.
Just one idea is not enough for startups.
Jeb added: “We also see that the founders are hoping to drop an interview, maybe do a follow-up and then be accepted or rejected. It’s an old way of doing things that hasn’t changed in 15 years. For them, it’s just a rush – and everyone. He knows that.
“Investment angels know it, people like us know it, call them and they will be bright, attractive, personable and everything else.
“But the slightest deviation from that, and telling them to jump with several hoops, and then some more hoops, they’ll close like a shot.”
“There is no loyalty because they will talk to other investors or intermediaries, or from whom they can get money. That relationship did not develop. “
Jeb founded Startup giants in 2015. It is controlled by Financial conduct authorityRecognized by Home office And a recognized investment exchange under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, listed on the Acquisition Stock Exchange Growth Market.
He further warned that some entrepreneurs do not understand How to potentially raise their first round money as well.
When the business is complicated, especially in the case of startups, then you try hard
Jeb says: “It’s a complex area, of course, but they haven’t looked at the fundraising aspects well enough and some applicants for our enterprise building programs have come in as immature.
“We have people using the five-year futures valuation, ‘My company will be worth £ 25 million in 2027, that’s my valuation, and we now want to invest ,000 500,000.’
“Funny things like maybe taking business lessons or taking an online course of money or joining a club for start-ups could have been avoided.
“Another key thing they don’t do is find evidence of what their business needs.
“If you’re doing business-to-business, it’s pretty easy – you don’t have to create a product because you go to your target clients either directly or through the network or through the back door or upstairs window. Chimney if you’re Santa.
“All you want is a letter of intent from your target client to say that once you have created a prototype they will use and pilot it and, if it is a successful trial, they will become a customer.
Evidence for startups is gold
“A letter of intent is like gold. If you have 15 of them and go to an investor and say, ‘Hey, we have 15 characters’, that door will open for funds. We had a UK client who did it, a world leader in technology services and digital transformation, and two other top brands.
“If you go to an investor and say, ‘Hey, I need £ 150,000 to finish this technology and product, to hire a few people and drop it, so that I can use these 15 characters’,” is a pitch with an idea. Makes it much more understandable than bringing a deck, but no evidence of demand
“It would be even more interesting if you had more founders come to the investor’s table to raise money on the basis of evidence.
“Here at Startup Giants we want to have relationships with people for a while, where we’ve been through hardships and problems and they’ve persevered, moved on and faced problems and come back. You want to work with people like that.”
Cherry Martin
Cherry is the Associate Editor of Business Matters, responsible for writing more in-depth for future features, interviews and current business news in the UK’s largest print and online source.
