There aren鈥檛 many startups that can count Bill Currie and former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy as investors but Vivify is one of them.
The tech firm helps schools hire out facilities outside teaching hours and raised 拢1m from Arete in 2022, which included high profile investors Currie and Leahy.
CEO Russell Teale said he鈥檚 blessed with 鈥榞reat鈥� investors and will be sharing his insights at a business breakfast on April 18th entitled
In describing a poisonous investor he said: 鈥淭hey make you feel subservient, happy under their existence, scared to be honest.
鈥淭hey encourage you to take more money when you don鈥檛 need it. They aren鈥檛 close to the business, the real business, but they are close enough to the cashflow dynamics to know when to encourage dilution events to serve their shareholder/investor base.
鈥楾hey are uninterested. They don鈥檛 add value in board meetings or outside of them.鈥�
Teale is one of eight confirmed speakers for the , which is being run in conjunction with 老九品茶Cloud.
Teale said there are three key qualities he looks for in an investor: Funds; industry experience; and complimentary portfolio.
In terms of funds he said: 聽鈥淢oney is great and every startup and scaleup needs it. But with funds comes expectation, therefore the real nuance in the funds point is the trust and support that comes with it.
鈥淣o investor gives you money without wanting a return, therefore I would say the perfect investor comes with trust, room to manoeuvre and patience/partnership.
鈥淩OI takes time, making the founder comfortable will promote all of the above. Make them feel insecure, then be prepared to be lied to, embellished and everything in-between.鈥�
He identified the second key quality as industry experience.
鈥淲hilst industry experience is helpful, it can absolutely be a hinderance,鈥� explained Teale. 聽鈥淛ust because investors have invested in a particular vertical or industry doesn鈥檛 mean that they have relevant experience for your product.
鈥淵ou can find yourself being consumed by meetings arranged by investors, 鈥榤eet this guy鈥�, 鈥榶ou鈥檝e got to meet this one鈥�, 鈥榯his guy has walked 100 miles in your shoes鈥�, when in reality, they invested in you because you have something unique, not well-trodden.
鈥淭hat said, my perfect investor arranges genuine intros that can accelerate routes-to-market, that genuinely provide valuable insight, not tenuous links.
鈥淭hey have the industry experience to increase margin, conversion or help with that next piece of recruitment.
鈥淗aving the honest relationship with your investor will give you the ability to say 鈥榥o thanks鈥� to their suggested intro.
鈥淕od forbid they try to cross-fertilise to help their other investments generate revenue when there is nothing in it for you.
鈥淭here is a time and a place for that, when you are up and running and you have built a team that enables you to step away from your business to add value to their portfolio.鈥�
In terms of an investor having a complimentary portfolio, he said: 鈥淛ust because they have other businesses in your vertical, does not mean to say that they are relevant. Similar to the previous point, it has to work for you.
鈥淚n summary, the perfect investor trusts you, allows you to say no. They make you feel in charge, they empower you to make decisions, but they also add value to enable you to ask them for advice.
鈥淭hey provide opportunities for you to be honest, ask for guidance and potentially deviate from the original plan.
鈥淏eing agile and entrepreneurial is what got you there, therefore having an investor that provides the environment to adapt your original plan is a great one – the perfect one.
鈥淚n all honesty I have great investors, I can name-drop them to create credibility to new contracts, because it is true. Why would they invest in me unless they believed in me and my product? How powerful is that?
鈥淭o know that Sir Terry Leahy buys into me and my team (is powerful). Why wouldn鈥檛 a prospective customer be encouraged by that?
鈥淚 chose my investors like I recruit team members, normal people, people who are appreciate the working class, people who have values, but also people that have done well for themselves, they earned it in the same way I want to.
鈥淗ard work, doing the right thing and creating something bigger than me. If I get to work with people like that, not to mention investors like that, then it makes the process of starting and scaling a business so much easier.鈥�
The event 鈥� 鈥楬鈥� 鈥� is part of a series of new events between Sanderson and 老九品茶Cloud聽 called 鈥楥atch-22 UNLOCKED鈥�.
The event will be hosted by award-winning events host Chris Maguire and will hear from a panel of entrepreneurs and investors.
The confirmed speakers includes Rory Cameron, co-founder and CEO of Gendius, which went into administration in December 2023聽after talks with potential investors collapsed.
He鈥檒l be joined by Ste Senior, of Manchester-based baby tech firm, Aibytech, Sam Royle, co-founder and CEO of SoSquared; Glyn Powditch, co-founder of Dream Agility; Elizabeth Gooch MBE; David Levine, principal at Manchester Angels, and Laura Sissons, investment manager at YFM.