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12 May 2011

Awaiting publication

Currently a UK operation with regular monthly meetings in and around London they aspire to be an international network.

7 April 2011

The three smoothies created a business by sticking to their values and developing cunning plans. They found an investor who committed himself to their growth when others could see no value. They are successful, are still friends, have happy employees and loyal customers.

See the map for the summary and the answers to the awkward questions.

Members are typically the founder/owner of a mid sized company or an investor with experience of entrepreneurial businesses or a business partner who supports such organisations.

10 March 2011

Lesson 1 - Keep control of the equity

Lesson 2 - Give shares away later

Lesson 3 - Get the right people and look after them

Lesson 4 - Simple Business Plan

Lesson 5 - Take Time Out

17 February 2011

Taking the known into the unknown.  

Victoria had personally researched the weight loss market and found that the boot camp was the best.  

Deciding to buy a property in Devon and set up a business servicing the high end of that market was a big risk.  

Tim's story over 3 decades. Finance and deals in the UK and USA. The numbers grow as you go down the map.

10 November 2010

A business road movie from musician, to 3D graphics, back to on-line music and now cloud applications. He shared five important lessons in his speech. These were expanded in the question and answer session. 

13 October 2010

Two publishing businesses and now a new opportunity in the mobile sector. What happened along the way? How did diligence both in the business and the process of selling the businesses plus a bit of luck enable Judy to have a rewarding life both in business and personally.

15 September 2010

Two start ups, both Internet companies, amazing founders, business changing products, growing rapidly and lots of learning for the next business. The questions and answer give insights into the future of business.

Drayton Bird - Drayton Bird Associates

4 August 2010

Drayton is a professional mistake maker. Some mistakes have been a disaster leading to bankruptcy and leading a secret life for seven years with a pseudonym! Others were less distressing, unless it was your wig. Drayton shared his mistakes and the lessons learned during the life of a copywriter. The speech is also available as an mp3 download.

7 July 2010

"Politics is my Business" and How I made a business with politicians and Can political behaviour translate to business. At least three ways to view this speech and subsequent discussion. Check out Neil's influencers, views on politics and his business.

21 April 2010

Focusing on customer service and maintaining a price premium over your competitors leads to clients such as The Queen!

Click on the map to raise your awareness of how Lena made this work.

A business called Sondex gradually realised they needed a management team. Martin and Chris joined. Sondex went through several stages of financing before being sold to GE Energy. For an overview of this journey and the audience questions and answers, click on the map 

9th December 2009

A journey from the depravation of North West England to leading a £50m company providing training to government and other organisations.

On the way Janette has lost contracts, relocated her employees, expanded her management team, products and locations. During all this change she has maintained her values and kept in close contact with all her staff.

There were a few important lessons on route: cash matters, delegate & develop excellent people.

11th November 2009

A frustration turned into a brilliant idea for mobile phone users - voice mails converted to text. Daniel's product is penetrating the market of 2 Billion users of mobile phones via the networks which have embedded it into their service. 

He recommends working backwards from the user to the solution.

SpinVox are now considering how they can grow their business.

8th July 2009

A story which takes us from academic oblivion to being recognised as a talented employee and given responsibility.  Then on to starting her own business and a life changing illness.

Elizabeth does not like nearly people.  She likes people who say they will do something and get it done.  Her attitude has pushed her blindness to one side and put her on the podium with Donald Trump, Anita Roddick and others.

10th June 2009

William transits from McKinsey to establishing a subscription based business on the internet.  He started  ScreenSelect which eventually merged with LOVEFiLM. Interesting thoughts about customers:

14th May 2009

A journey from Israel through DealTime to Shopping.com to selling to eBay.  Then starting LookUpPage an on-line CV service which promises high visibility on the search engines.

Ehud explains the courtship between them and eBay, and how all a whole combination of things led to a sale after a disappointing start.

22nd April 2009

Uzair specialising in recruiting in the Banking and Technology sectors.  They have offices in London, India and Singapore.  The credit crunch required a quick reaction from them reducing from 110 to 37 employees. His keys to survival are looking at costs, having a strategy and getting the right people.

18th March 2009

John describes how an education in Astro-Physics and Music results in a career in headhunting and investing. He has both property and start up business portfolios. He sees himself as a good archangel coordinating investors and taking an active interest in the new businesses.

25th February 2009

Simon presents the background to ViaPost (sending letters in the post / mail from your PC), the lessons learned and answers questions on entrepreneurship.