Podcasts by The EIS Navigator

87 How marketing data can be used when lending to growth companies with Katherine Chan of Juice from 2023-12-12T07:00

In this episode we take another look at debt funding for high growth companies. Juice has a novel approach using marketing data and its CEO, Katherine Chan, comes on to discuss their approach an...

86 Investing in consumer companies and finding out what consumers really want with Phoebe Scriven of VGC Partners from 2023-11-28T07:00

Amongst EIS funds and VCTs, consumer companies is less popular than B2B investments but still have their attractions. VGC Partners is one of the few managers that focus on this area and we get I...

84 How the macroeconomy affects venture capital investments with Ewan MacKinnon of Maven from 2023-10-31T07:00

While there is much discussion in the media of the macro-economy, its effect on startups is not always a obvious as it is for quoted companies. Ewan MacKinnon, a Partner at Maven, has been inves...

83 Avoiding startup failure, getting boards working well, work/life balance, fintech and much more with Elliot Limb of Cubed from 2023-10-17T07:00

Elliot Limb is co-founder and CEO of Cubed and spends his days supporting fintech companies scale. Having worked with many startups, he has a broad insight into their challenges and difficulties...

82 British Business Bank CEO Louis Taylor on the UK funding market and addressing market failures from 2023-10-03T07:00

Since its founding eight years ago, British Business Bank has established itself as an important participant in the funding markets for UK SMEs and startups. In this episode, its CEO Louis Taylo...

80 A VC perspective on AI's impact on startups with James Pringle of Portfolio Ventures from 2023-08-15T07:00

Anyone with a passing interest in technology or venture capital cannot have missed the rapid increase in interest in AI over the past few months. We are overdue talking about it on the podcast, ...

78B Investor confidence and ESG: how the new disclosure rules will drive responsibility with Lee Coates of ESG Accord from 2023-07-18T07:00

There have been two recent changes that will affect how ESG is applied in practice by fund managers, advisers and, most importantly, investors. Lee Coates of ESG Accord has been advising on ethi...

78A How ESG rule changes will make investors happier with Lee Coates of ESG Accord from 2023-07-11T07:00

There have been two recent changes that will affect how ESG is applied in practice to fund managers, advisers and, most importantly, investors. Lee Coates of ESG Accord has been advising on ethi...

76 How venture debt works with David Hayers of Hambro Perks from 2023-05-16T07:00

Venture debt is a niche within the venture capital market that has been growing in importance. In this episode we get David Hayers, who is Head of Venture Debt at Hambro Perks, to explain what v...

75 Fundraising market from equity crowdfunding to Series B with Antonia Burridge and John Baker of PwC from 2023-05-02T07:00

In today's episode we get more of a corporate finance perspective on venture capital, with two guests from PwC. Antonia Burridge co-founded the Raise team and John Baker is heavily involved in e...

74 Making GP/LP venture capital funds accessible to retail investors with Jonny Blausten of Sprout from 2023-04-18T07:00

While we usually focus on EIS and VCT in this podcast, there is a larger venture capital industry outside this area. Although its been mainly for institutional investors to date, Sprout is looki...

73 Patterns in venture capital exits with Henry Whorwood of Beauhurst from 2023-04-04T07:00

Exits were described by an earlier guest as mythical beasts, but the reality is much more positive. Beauhurst used their database in report that they published in 2022, we we get their Head of R...

72 What happened at Silicon Valley Bank and its effect on UK startups with Brian Moretta of Hardman&Co from 2023-03-21T07:00

The events with Silicon Valley Bank have been dramatic and concerning for the venture capital industry in the US and UK. The EIS Navigator's host, Brian Moretta, has spent much of his career ana...

71 Why agritech's time has come with Paul Rous of Regenerate Ventures from 2023-03-07T07:00

Whether agritech or agtech, agricultural technology is an area that hasn't quite hit the heights of some other areas of technology venture capital. In this episode, Paul Rous of Regenerate Ventu...

70 The challenges and successes of supporting companies after investment with Ben Leslie of Puma from 2023-02-21T07:00

In venture capital investing it is easy to focus on the excitement of doing deals, but the reality is all the hard work happens after the investment is made. In this episode, Ben Leslie of Puma...

69 Why venture building will become more important, controlled experiments and fixing EIS with Andy Davidson of Nova from 2023-02-07T07:00

Venture builders has only one representative amongst SEIS and EIS fund managers, but Andy Davidson of Nova strongly believes it will become more important in the future. We get him to explain ho...

68 How companies should prepare to fundraise with Richard Cooper of Oxford Innovation Finance from 2023-01-24T07:00

Raising money through angels or fund managers is something that most management does, at best, infrequently. For SEIS, EIS and VCT money, it is often the first time founders have sought equity. ...

67 Tax advantaged AIM investing with Matt Currie of Seneca Partners from 2023-01-10T07:00

Although investing on AIM through EIS fund and VCTs would appear to have several attractions, there are very few fund managers who invest in this area. Seneca Partners are one and we get fund ma...

66 An all-star panel looks back on the year for EIS&VCTs and how 2023 is shaping up from 2022-12-27T07:00

Despite hopes that we may have a quieter year, 2022 turned out to be much more dramatic than 2021. The EIS navigator team have got another all-star panel to discuss what happened. Cristiana Stew...

65 How leisure investments successfully navigated covid and will cope with the recession with Harry Heartfield of Edition from 2022-12-13T07:00

The leisure sector faces very different challenges from the more tech focussed companies that most EIS and VCTs focus on. Harry Heartfield of Edition Capital specialises this area and gives insi...

64 How the power law affects your investing with Graham Schwickkard of SyndicateRoom from 2022-11-29T07:00

The power law is something that most venture capital investors are aware of, but usually only in the most general sense. Graham Schwikkard, CEO of SyndicateRoom, has just written a white paper o...

63. A new plan to generate secondary liquidity with Rufus Pearl of PlanD from 2022-11-15T07:00

The lack of secondary market liquidity has been a long term challenge, especially for companies that are not venture scale but still viable. Rufus Pearl is trying to improve that with a new sche...

61. How to choose a VCT or EIS fund with Ewoud Karelse of Evelyn Partners from 2022-10-18T07:00

We've spoken a lot about tax advantaged investing, but how should an investor choose which VCT or EIS fund to give their money to? Ewoud Karelse is one of the long-standing analysts in the tax-a...

60. Biotech update and investing with Sunil Shah of o2h Ventures from 2022-10-04T07:00

The biotech industry attracted huge amounts of capital during the pandemic, but how is it faring in the post-pandemic world? Sunil Shah of o2h returns to give us an update on what's been happeni...

59. Impact companies and their investors: Weedingtech with Boundary Capital and Go Thrift with OnePlanetCapital from 2022-09-20T07:00

While we have focused on venture capital and EIS/ VCT investors on the podcast, ultimately it is all about the companies that we invest in. Here we find out about two of them, together with the ...

58. Valuations in venture investing with Dave Foreman of Praetura Ventures from 2022-09-06T07:00

Valuations are a frequent topic of discussion for venture capitalists and founders alike, and are extra topical just now. We get Dave Foreman to draw on his experience to place them in context.<...

57. Lessons from edtech investing with Matthew O'Kane of Nexus Investment Ventures from 2022-08-23T07:00

Edtech is far from uncommon in EIS investing, but is still a little away from the mainstream. Today Matthew O'Kane from Nexus Investment Ventures discusses his experiences from investing in the ...

56. Foresight's acquisition of Downing's venture businesses with Matt Smith and Jack Eadie of Foresight from 2022-08-09T07:00

Foresight Group recently announced that it was buying most of Downing's venture business, including two VCTS and EIS funds. To talk about, this episode's guests are Matt Smith, a long-standing P...

55. How regional investing is changing with Michael Vassallo of Maven from 2022-07-26T07:00

While we have touched on regional investing several times in the podcast, we have never discussed it directly. Michael Vassallo worked as in London before returning to the North East, where he s...

54. How to make ESG work in venture capital with Andrew Noble of Par Equity from 2022-07-12T07:00

ESG is an area that is work in progress at the moment. Andrew Noble is a partner at Par Equity, but is also on the Steering Committee of the ESG_VC initiative, which is trying to pull together a...

53. The evolution of tax advantaged platforms with Dan Rodwell of GrowthInvest from 2022-06-28T07:00

Platforms are part of the essential plumbing for advisers and investors in most investment areas, but the tax-advantaged space has lagged mainstream markets. Dan Rodwell, CEO of GrowthInvest, co...

52. Building a new IFA firm focused on tax advantaged products with Matthew Bugden of One Four Nine from 2022-06-14T07:00

Its rare for an IFA firm to be started from scratch, and even rarer for it to have a preference for tax advantaged or efficient business like EIS, VCTs, BR and SEIS products. Matthew Bugden cofo...

50. Venture capital portfolio diversification with Brian Moretta of Hardman&Co and guests from 2022-05-03T07:00

In a slightly different episode, the EIS Navigator host, Brian Moretta, talks about diversification drawing strongly on excerpts from previous guests. Support is supplied by Tom Britton of Syndi...

49. Developing secondary markets for venture capital investments with Mason Doick of JP Jenkins from 2022-04-19T07:00

One of the challenges that venture capital investors have to accept is that there probably won't be liquidity for their shares until the company exits. Several companies have been trying to chan...

48. How to start your first VC fund with Richard Hoskins of Kin Group from 2022-04-05T07:00

The venture capital industry has seen steady flow of new entrant over the past few years, whether EIS or GP/LP funds. Richard Hoskins of Kin Group speaks with almost all of them and discusses th...

44. A case study on consumer investment and corporate partners with Parminder Basran of VGC from 2022-02-08T07:00

Unusually for an EIS fund manager, VGC has moved it the market from the institutional end. Their focus on consumer and digital media is somewhat unusual in the sector and we effectively do a case s...

43. Making good returns while doing social good with Emma Steele of Ascension from 2022-01-25T07:00

Social impact investing is an area that sounds good in principle but is often not well understood by those not involved in it. We asked Emma Steele, who runs the social benefit funds at Ascensio...

42. Building a differentiated angel investment network with Paul Tselentis of 24Haymarket from 2022-01-11T07:00

Most angel networks start organically, with the members drawn from a geography or having a particular interest. 24Haymarket has taken a different approach, with a distinct philosophy. We invited...

41 An all-star panel looks back on 2021 for EIS&VCTs and into 2022 from 2021-12-28T07:00

While 2021 wasn't quite as dramatic as the previous year, it was still an eventful one. The EIS navigator team have got another all-star panel to discuss what happened. Mark Brownridge, Director...

40 - How investing in startups to save the planet makes financial sense with Nick Lyth of Green Angel Syndicate from 2021-12-14T07:00

The recent COP26 conference has stimulated a surge of interest in how we can make a difference as investors. Nick Lyth set up Green Angel Syndicate to solve that problem and in a wider ranging disc...

39 - Why most investors are underweight venture capital with Brian Moretta of Hardman&Co from 2021-11-30T07:00

In this episode the tables are turned as the usual host, Brian Moretta, has recently published a paper on how venture capital fits into retail investor portfolios, with some surprising results. ...

38 - Why ESG isn't making the right difference and what will fix it with Matt Jellicoe of OnePlanetCapital from 2021-11-16T07:00

With COP26 having just finished, ESG is back on investors agenda but so far it hasn't delivered. We get Matt Jellicoe of OnePlanetCapital on to discuss why and what we can do about it.

Mat...

37 - State of seed investing with Stephen Page of SFC Capital from 2021-11-02T07:00

Recently, SFC Capital and Beauhurst issued a report about the seed investing market. It showed some interesting, and rather worrying, trends. In this episode, Stephen Page, CEO of SFC Capital di...

36 - Buying Mobeus and state of the VCT market with Bevan Duncan of Gresham House from 2021-10-19T07:00

In September, Gresham House announced the intention to buy Mobeus and add their four VCTs to its existing Baronsmead VCTs. Bevan Duncan returns to the podcast to discuss the deal and its rationa...

35 - Why fintech is fun for investors with James Pringle from 2021-10-05T07:00

Fintech has been a hot VC area for some time, so its about time we discussed it on the podcast. For this we turn to James Pringle, a former entrepreneur turned fund manager who specialises in finte...

34 - Investing in early-stage science companies with Lucius Cary from 2021-09-21T07:00

Lucius Cary first raised money for a small restaurant chain in the late 1970s. The difficulties of doing that inspired him to start a newsletter connecting startups and investors. Four decades l...

33 - A long-term perspective on EIS and VCT investing with John Glencross from 2021-09-07T07:00

John Glencross has been at the forefront of the EIS and VCT world for over two decades, co-launching the first approved EIS fund in 1999. We take advantage of this to get a long-term perspective on...

32 - Building a second multi-million pound exit and lessons learnt with Scott Weavers-Wright from 2021-08-24T07:00

Scott Weavers-Wright is a serial entrepreneur. When we had him on last year ( Listen

31 - How legals can solve investor and founder problems with Anthony Rose from 2021-08-10T07:00

Investors and founders all-to-often see legals as a necessary evil. SeedLegals is changing that, thinking about how how to get better and solutions for all parties. In this episode its Founder, ...

30 - What to look for when video game investing with Steve Iles from 2021-07-27T07:00

Video gaming is a huge market, but relatively niche within EIS. Steve Iles has spent his whole career working in and helping the video games industry and his current focus is at the intersection...

Bonus - An advisor's perspective on EIS and VCT product selection with Stephen Jones from 2021-07-20T07:00

EIS & VCTs have been described by several guests as one of finances best kept secrets, which makes the job of advisers challenging when they recommend them. Stephen Jones has a lot of experi...

29 - An advisor's perspective on making EIS and VCT investments with Stephen Jones from 2021-07-13T07:00

EIS & VCTs have been described by several guests as one of finances best kept secrets, which makes the job of advisers challenging when they recommend them. Stephen Jones has a lot of experi...

28 - When and how startups should expand overseas with Tofiq Qureshi from 2021-06-29T07:00

International expansion is key to success for many startups, but also fraught with difficulties. Tofiq Qureshi of Innvotec has worked in several countries and brought technology to many more, so...

27 - Insights into angel investing with Kirsten Connell from 2021-06-15T07:00

We've touched on angel investing several times on the podcast, so it was time we got a business angel on. Kirsten Connell is an unusual angel, in that she has a background in venture capital, but, ...

27 - Insights into angel investing with Kirsten Connell from 2021-06-15T07:00

We've touched on angel investing several times on the podcast, so it was time we got a business angel on. Kirsten Connell is an unusual angel, in that she has a background in venture capital, bu...

26 - Mads Jensen on developing sales and sales processes in B2B SaaS from 2021-06-01T07:00

Generating sales in critical for any business, so its good to get someone on who has a playbook that works. Mads Jensen of Superseed focusses on B2B SaaS and helping his investee companies get t...

25 - Dr. Paul Mattick on multi-stage investing and having a regional focus from 2021-05-18T07:00

While multi-stage venture capital management is common in the US, few firms have, so far, managed to develop it successfully here. Mercia is has probably developed the widest range of capital po...

24 - Dan Somers on making big ideas investible and measuring impact from 2021-05-04T07:00

We all can see big ideas, but its often not clear how to translate them into investible ideas. Impact investment is one of the highest profile ideas just now, so we have Dan Somers of impact inv...

23 - Steve Harris on the corporate finance approach to venture capital investing from 2021-04-20T07:00

Corporate finance is an essential aspect of venture capital investing. Steve Harris is CEO of Committed Capital, with a strong corporate finance background and a long history of venture capital ...

22 - Will Goodwin and Fred Ursell on investing in consumer businesses and how their process has evolved from 2021-04-06T07:00

Although consumer markets are a big part of quoted markets, they are something of a niche in EIS & VCTs. Pembroke specialise in consumer companies, with a portfolio including hospitality, fo...

21 - Matthew Cushen on product market fit: what it is, how you get it and how you know you have it from 2021-03-23T07:00

Product market fit is a much discussed, and much misunderstood topic, in venture capital. Matthew Cushen from Worth Capital recently wrote a great blog article on the topic, so we though we'd ge...

20 - Jasper Smith on transitioning from serial entrepreneur to venture capital investor from 2021-03-09T07:00

We love a good entrepreneurial story and Jasper Smith has a great one. We discuss how he started as an 18-year old building demonstrators for Sky, and how that developed into a series of televis...

19 - Sunil Shah on investing in drug and therapeutic development from 2021-02-23T07:00

Although investing in drug development would seem to be ideal for EIS investment, it has been a somewhat niche area. Sunil Shah is hoping to change that, with o2h Ventures have recently launched...

18 - Tom Britton on systematic venture capital investing and radical diversification from 2021-02-09T07:00

Venture capital has long been dominated by idiosyncratic decision making, so SyndicateRoom's systematic data-driven approach is genuinely unique.

This hasn't developed overnight, and we di...

16 - Rajeev Saxena on marketing for startups from 2021-01-12T07:00

Marketing is a make-or-break area for almost all startups. Having started his career in advertising, Velocity Capital's Rajeev Saxena is an expert on the topic, particularly digital, and we probe h...

15 - an all-star panel look back on 2020 and look forward to 2021 from 2020-12-29T07:00

2020 has been a challenging year for many and the EIS industry is no exception. The EIS Navigator team have got together an all-star panel to discuss what happened. Mark Brownridge, Director Gen...

14 - Max Middleton & Jake Wombwell-Povey on measuring sustainability from 2020-12-15T07:00

Measuring sustainability is not a trivial challenge and there seems to be a plethora of options now. Vala Capital's Max Middleton and Jake Wombwell-Povey have done a huge amount of work in figuring...

13 - Ian Warwick on transforming companies and lessons for EIS investing from 2020-12-01T07:00

Ian Warwick worked in various executive roles in the US before founding Deepbridge. We focus on one of these, Aftersoft, a software company that Ian was brought in to turn round. Over five years, h...

12 - Scott Weavers-Wright on building a family company into a £70m exit from 2020-11-17T07:00

Scott Weavers-Wright achieved two very successful exits before he founded Haatch. In the late 1990s, Kiddicare was a family shop selling pushchairs, car seats and the paraphernalia that babies a...

11 - Sanjeev Gordhan on how much to invest in venture capital from 2020-11-03T07:00

Before joining Newable, Sanjeev Gordhan worked on the advisory side of the industry. He has a lot of experience in helping investors decided how much money to put into venture capital and unquot...

Bonus - Andy Davidson on reforming EIS investing from 2020-10-27T07:00

As a relative newcomer to the EIS industry, Andy Davidson of We Are Nova sees it a little differently to many of us. For the last year or so, he's been challenging the industry to create market fun...

10 - Andy Davidson on the 5 reasons startups fail from 2020-10-20T07:00

Andy Davidson has created the Nova Co-foundery to help develop businesses from before day one. We discuss how it works and how he developed his company building philosophy.

As well as his ...

9 - Ilian Iliev on investing in hardware companies and managing intellectual property from 2020-10-06T07:00

Hardware investing is a relatively niche area within EIS investing, but still has many attractions. Dr Ilian Iliev of EMV Capital talks about how the capital intensity has improved and how the e...

8 - Andreas Roald on making and investing in films from 2020-09-22T07:00

Film investing through EIS has changed radically since the Patient Capital Review. Andeas Roald is CEO of Sovereign Media, whose background is in making films rather than simply financing them, ...

7 - Rob Murray Brown on equity crowdfunding from 2020-09-08T07:00

While equity crowdfunding hasn't taken off the way that many hoped, it is an important influence on startups and the EIS industry. Rob Murray Brown is one of the few crowdfunding experts outside...

6 - Andy Round on supporting companies after investment from 2020-08-25T07:00

As investors, it is easy to focus on the process of making investments and forget that the real work happens afterwards. Dr Andy Round discusses supporting companies after an investment is made....

5 - Pippa Gawley on climate investing from 2020-08-11T07:00

We are joined by Pippa Gawley from Zero Carbon Capital who are focussed on climate investing. We talk about Pippa's belief that the climate crisis is the most important issue an investor can loo...

4 - Matthew O'Kane on thematic EIS investing from 2020-07-28T07:00

We are joined by Matthew O'Kane from Nexus Ventures. Nexus are thematic investors and we discuss how to find and invest in good themes. Matthew gives a couple of examples, showing how he built an i...

BONUS - Introducing EIS for companies looking to raise money from 2020-07-21T07:00

This is the second of our bonus episodes introducing EIS and tax-advantaged schemes. This time we take the perspective of companies trying to raise money. To help us, our guest is Simon Thorn fr...

3 - Paul Miller on accelerators and social impact investing from 2020-07-14T07:00

Interview with Paul Miller, Managing Partner and CEO at Bethnal Green Ventures. We talk about running an acclerator, what Paul thinks is important for companies to develop and how the markets fo...

BONUS - Introducing EIS for investors and advisors from 2020-07-07T07:00

We had requests for episodes that were more introductory, for those new to investing in the Enterprise Investment Scheme, the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts. In the...

2 - Reuben Wilcock on creating an investment process from 2020-06-30T07:00

Interview with Dr Reuben Wilcock, Ventures Director at Blackfinch Ventures. We talk about the challenges of creating an investment process from scratch, including establishing a quality pipeline...

1 - Andrew Castell talks about investing with angels from 2020-06-16T07:00

Interview with Andrew Castell from Par Equity in Edinburgh. We talk about angel investing, running an angel syndicate and the merits of being an angel versus a passive investor.

0 - EIS Navigator Trailer from 2020-06-03T09:00

A brief discussion of this new podcast on EIS and venture capital and what you can expect to hear about very soon.

0 - EIS Navigator Trailer from 2020-06-03T09:00

A brief discussion of this new podcast on EIS and venture capital and what you can expect to hear about very soon.