Fielding expertise: WeFarm founder Kenny Ewan on mangoes, peer reviews, and foot and mouth December 14, 2015 Look on the We Farm home page, and you’ll see a feed of questions like, “please, I need a reason as to why my coffee leaves are changing into yellow”. Answer: “It’s mainly due to lack of nitrogen. Foliar spray with a good foliar fertiliser like Omex will help clear this.” Or, “what is the [...]
Cracking the emerging company finance problem – Invest Comment December 14, 2015 An important sector of the UK economy – private companies making profits of between £1m and £5m each year – is not getting the attention it deserves. These firms (also known as emerging companies) don’t grab the headlines like large FTSE 100 businesses. Nor do they receive the media coverage enjoyed by fast-growth startups. And [...]
Unicorn or donkey? Investors need to forget mythical valuations and look at intangible assets to spot a good startup December 7, 2015 Investors need to base their decisions on data rather than hope when looking at tech companies Unicorns are extremely rare, magical creatures. At least they were. Until a few years ago, when “unicorn” became shorthand for a handful of mainly US venture capital-backed companies with pre-IPO valuations of $1bn or more. Today, depending on how [...]
The social changemaker: Unforgettable founder James Ashwell on jigsaws, BP and changing the world for people with dementia December 6, 2015 When James Ashwell was 24 years old, working for Accenture in London, he got a phone call telling him his dad was dead. “I remember literally falling to the floor; it took all the wind out of me. I put on my coat and that was it. I ended up never going back.” It wasn’t [...]
Should you invest in high risk fast growth firms? December 6, 2015 Pensions are still a highly attractive vehicle for long-term saving. You get tax relief on the way in, investments within the wrapper are shielded from tax on capital gains and dividends, and in most cases your pension assets can be passed onto your heirs free of inheritance tax. Yet for higher earners, pensions are about [...]
Now you can invest in £10,000 casks of Scotch whisky to help fund a fledgling distillery December 3, 2015 Bored of ordinary bonds, and sick of shares? If you have a spare £10,000 you can now invest in a cask of Scotch whisky. The £10,000 whisky "bonds" are being offered by new Scottish distillery Arbikie, which is producing its first whisky line and looking for investors with the patience to wait until the spirit has aged sufficiently to sell on and [...]
The self-made mastermind: Malwarebytes founder Marcin Kleczynski on giving away software and what it’s like making half a million bucks at 18 November 29, 2015 After I’d met Marcin Kleczynski, I came across someone who has known and worked with him for several years. A few seconds in and he said to me: “when you meet Marcin, the first thing you think is ‘I might be talking to the next Mark Zuckerberg… but this one’s a lot nicer’”. It’s hard [...]
The challenging landscape for the UK’s serial entrepreneurs November 25, 2015 Gone is the job for life; the portable career is a thing of the past too; even owning your own business is no longer what it used to be. These days, it’s all about scaling fast, exiting and starting again – welcome to the world of serial entrepreneurship. The energy, innovation and determination which [...]
Tech City UK’s Gerard Grech on blockchain, BMWs and the Commonwealth November 22, 2015 A View To A Kill, with Roger Moore – you know, the one where Max Zorin plots to blow up Silicon Valley and halt microchip production? That was back in the mid-80s!” says Gerard Grech, chief executive of Tech City UK, the government-funded tech cluster at the heart of Silicon Roundabout and London’s burgeoning tech [...]
Win-win: Breaking down barriers for young people – Investec Comment November 22, 2015 It is a priority for all businesses to access talented employees from a range of backgrounds, to harness a broad set of skills and experiences. Yet many exceptional young people face barriers to accessing professional jobs – some obvious, many more subtle – that put them off such a career as an option or take [...]