Always the best way of increasing sales is for the government to introduce legislation that moves your product from the desirable category to the necessity. 90% of Artimi sales for its search software are driven by regulation and the business will do well from the crisis engulfing the financial services sector, according to Mike Lynch, founder and chief executive.
It reminds me of the 80s when Domino Printing “date stamping” ink jet printing technology was spot on for tremendous growth fueled by new legislation.
Perhaps Artimi should open an office near the home of Norther Rock in Newcastle to offer work to the thousands who will lose their jobs hope.
Since the dot com boom ended in 2000, investors have done well in the property market. But things are changing. Persimmon, one of the nation’s top house-builders, has just frozen all plans for future projects and warned that new homes built in the UK this year could drop by nearly a third due to the “unprecedented” mortgage famine.
A good time to switch to the technology market or to keep liquid and buy at the bottom of the property market? So many people make their living from the property and building industries, tough times could be ahead for many, not just employees of Northern Rock. Let us hope that the entrepreneurs turn their hand from sand to silica.
Fred Wilson runs a great blog. He replied to questions about entrepreneurs and the answer I liked most was this one:
“What do you look for in entrepreneurs? First and foremost, they need to be magnets. For talent. For money. For attention. And for much more. ” Remind me next time I invest in a company to take my magnetometer along, or better still, follow the example of 3i (before they gave up investing in small companies) and take lots of references to get an idea of the strenght of the magnet field surrounding an entrepreneur. Better than measuring the ego! Perhaps we should measure the number of mobile phone calls/messages received every hour.
This is the headline on a special Coutts supplement in the Cambridge Evening News and the article is about family divorce. It could just as well apply to the shareholders of a business. Could we soon have vesting shares in marriage?
I am a tiny investor in a Cambridge active equity company. I do not wish to mention names at this stage but all will be revealed if and when we realise our investment. A group of angels, some making six figure investments, backed two industry veterans, one a bean counter the other a savvy commercial operator to build a business based on the IP of two young, energetic graduates. All went Continue Reading »
General Motors’ new plug-in Volt will give the users headaches. The batteries are great for short commutes but then the charging motor is never used and will slowly cease up and the fuel with deteriorate. You need to have aged friends who will take it for a Sunday run to keep it fresh. But more power stations will be required to charge the batteries and will everyone be able to use off-peak times to charge. 220v halves the charge time compared to 110v users who will have to wait six hours for a full charge.
The best way to stay green is to live close to work and play and walk or cycle. I must remember to turn the computer off and not use the mobile phone or that will need charging. It is a tough call and easy for those “Leaders” who fly around the world to tell us all how to live! What happens to all the batteries? Aerodynamics is the key to low fuel consumption so perhaps this will be the end of “White Van Man!”.
Colin Macnab has moved on from Artimi (developer of high-speed wireless semiconductors for portable consumer electronics) after three successful years bringing the company through the Continue Reading »
It could only be English. Watchmaker Christopher Ward raised funds from Mike France and Peter Ellis to produce the cheapest “most expensive” watches in the world. Having crossed the initial chasm and charmed early adopters in many countries (5,000 sold in 2007 at an average price of £200), CW now is now trying to cross the next chasm to the broader market. The “most expensive” watches achieve this with extensive marketing and product endorsement by celebrities which all adds to the cost of the watch.
Woodworm Cricket Bats took the opposite approach and invested Continue Reading »
They are changing the guard at the top of BT. Ben Verwaayen leaves with his most impressive figures being the increase in broadband users from 167k to 12million and counting by cutting the wholesale price of broadband down from £30 per month to £14.75. Thanks, I could not post without it whilst watching the Master on the Internet and looking forward to my next iPlayer programme from the BBC.
But it might be time to move to a phone USB stick for broadband so I no longer need to look for wireless hotspots.
3i has announced that they are closing the last of their regional offices and moving up to the major deals and away from the risky start-ups and young companies. Like so many of the major firms of accountants and solicitors, 3i has provided a steady stream of people who have run a wide range of VC companies. Very few have gone on to run companies but many have enjoyed a carry percent or two!
I am proud to be a 3i graduate. It was a tough world and the sharp end of business. You got to see such a range of businesses but most important was seeing and greeting the entrepreneurs through the ups and downs of the strange world building an Active Equity Company.
Nic Frances MBE (47) founded Cool NRG after learning the hard way in Australia. Frances makes money out of social enterprise projects such as providing low energy light bulbs for the Sun to give away. On 19 January, the Sun gave away 2.5million light bulbs and sold an extra 400,000 extra copies. So everyone was pleased. Tony Blair is writing the foreword to Frances’s new book The End of Charity.
But best of all Cool NRG has an Equity Fingerprint with the 14 0ther employees holding a 20% stake and turnover forecast at £200million.
An Active Equity Company with profitable greenback credentials. But then Frances comes from a successful rich family that floated their hotel business. So he has first hand experience of Equity Fingerprint.