Find Invest Grow

Our Funding Drive, Winter 2010 seems to have generated a lot of interest over the past few weeks, proving to us once again that there is a wealth of talent, business acumen, drive as well as great ideas amongst the UK’s student and recent graduate demographic. 

FIG is well placed to support young start-ups as we have all started companies ourselves. FIG itself is a young company – a mere 11 months old.

One of the discoveries the founders of FIG have all made is a simple, but important one;

Friends can be really helpful.

When we started FIG we spoke to lots of friends to let them know what were planning to do, to get feedback, advice and pool suggestions. Then our friends did what they do best. They offered help, in abundance. And wow, did they deliver!

•    “If you don’t ask, you don’t receive”

They made introductions, helped organise legal compliance and even helped us expand on initial research.

With their help we set about solving a problem that many people faced and creating a product that serviced a need as well as a want.

For early stage companies it is important to know that you can trust the people you are working with and are helping you. But not just for the reason that immediately jumps to mind…

New FIGureheads, Pitch To Investors details, Global Enterprise Week and we got a few awards.

What a week!

After coming third in the Website of the year awards (link) and James being selected as part of the Future 100 (link) we didn’t think the week could get better. It did.

Launching today, FIG has started the winter funding drive.

10 budding entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to pitch for investment to a panel of active investors (our FIGureheads) who are looking to mentor and fund student and recent graduates’ start-up businesses.

Find Invest Grow is going to be awarding small grants to the companies pitching. That is on top of any investment offered by our FIGureheads!

One young entrepreneur will be awarded a £1000 grant to invest in their young business/ idea.

FIG is also giving the university with the most complete business proposals submitted a Spine Strength fitness machine for their gym.  Spine Strength is a FIG seed company that raised £70,000 investment using the FIG process.  Founded by Doug Higgins an Imperial graduate, he designed and built the £5,700 machine that mimics the rugby scrum and is now working with the Matt Hampson Trust.  The first machine is already on the Christmas list of many UK rugby clubs (including the England Rugby team itself!) and is sparking interest from Formula 1 and NFL.   If Doug can do it, so can you.   You can see a case study on SpineStrength here and a video of the prototype here.

 I nipped over to Costa today to grab my morning coffee on the way to work. I got to the front of the queue and was asked for the usual £2.49 when I went to my wallet and realised I had lost my loyalty card (the thing they stamp each time you buy a drink, giving you a 10th cup for free).

I was miffed, I knew the card was full and my drink this morning should have been free. Then a guy standing behind me in the queue said;

"I hate it when that happens, it feels like you've lost 25 quid!"

There was a small murmur of giggles, nods and looks of empathy from the other people waiting for me to pay. I handed over the cash and went on my way.

The lighthearted banter reminded me of a common question we get at FIG - "What is the value of my company?" 

We will start with the word “arrogant”.

If you ask people to define arrogance, you are likely to hear something along the lines of “someone who has a big head” or “someone who thinks they are better they are”.

You could say the common vernacular and adoption in language results in clarification of definition… or more simply… if the majority of people perceive a word to mean something, then, as words are a form of communication, then the meaning of the word to the majority should become the definition.

There is some merit in that, but with mass media and, indeed, the medium of the internet, it is all to easy for language change to come from the ill-informed or based on poor information… that sounds a bit snobby… some may say arrogant.

I take arrogant to mean “thinking you are better than someone else”. Which is drastically different to just appearing over confident.

So, what does this have to do with the word “Entrepreneurship”?

We continue to look at models that aren't working... Models, that if you fix them, will make you rich / a hero.

Lets kick things off with newspapers...