NorthernMAX Demo Day

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Jane Lambert

I mentioned the launch of the NorthernMAX health accelerator programme in  Northern Max - a new Healthcare Accelerator in Bradford 12 Jan 2018. That programme ends on 29 March 2018.  I was lucky enough to attend a demo day on Thursday, 22 March 2018 at which several of the participants presented their businesses.

The event took place in the reception area of the Digital Exchange in Little Germany.  Each of the businesses on the programme was allocated space for a stand in the reception area or adjoining side rooms. Doors opened to visitors at 10:00 and the first hour was used for introductions, demonstrations and general discussions over coffee.

At about 11:00 Tom Strodtbeck invited visitors to take a seat and listen to short presentations from the participating companies.  All the ideas were interesting and they were very varied.  Some businesses such as V & V innovations had developed apparatus for diagnosis. Others like John Baruch's Mulberrybush had devised systems for facilitating social care. Most of the products were for healthcare or social care but one of them used data from sensors to gaie early warning of flooding.  I had expected the presenters to be very young men and women straight out of medical or graduate school.  I was pleased to find that they were of all ages and backgrounds.

The presentations ended at 12:30 when a light lunch was served.  I spoke to Tom Strodbeck and Amanda Lennon about the programme and met as many participants as possible. All seemed to be very satisfied with the programme as I had expected  them to be.

At 13:00 we were invited to resume our seats for two short talks from Paul Jones, chief technical officer of BUPA and Taz Aldawould chief executive of DocAbode who had secured funding for his project.

I attended the event to listen and learn rather than to promote my services but I was glad that several of the participants were aware of the need for legal protection for their innovation and creativity. One or two of them requested my business card asked me a lot of general questions on intellectual property.

Should anyone wish to discuss this article he or she should call me on 020 7404 5252 during usual office hours or message me through my contact form.

"SpeedFunding", Lean Startups and Teaching Children about Invention

On 29 March 2012 I wrote that my friend Amanda Lennon had been appointed to run Angels Den in Yorkshire and the Humber. On 14 May 2012 I was delighted to introduce Amanda to the Sheffield Inventors Group to speak on "Raising Business Growth Investment- alternatives to bank finance".  She attracted a good audience and held their attention for the best part of two hours.

After outlining the types of funding available and how to raise it, Amanda focused on equity funding in general and angel investment in particular.   She told us who angels were and what they did.   She discussed angel networks such as Angels' Den and their relationships with angels and entrepreneurs before introducing us to her company.

Angels Den differs from other angel networks in that it pioneered a process called "SpeedFunding"(TM).   According .to its website the concept is rather like speed dating. Entrepreneurs are given an opportunity to pitch their proposition individually to a number of angels for up to 3 minutes at a time.   The advantages of this process to the entrepreneur is that he or she gets an opportunity to refine his or her pitch and possibly his or her business model as well as meet a wider selection of potential investors than would otherwise be the case in the course of the session.   I imagine that it can also be very entertaining - at least for the angels.

When Amanda spoke about "SpeedFunding" (TM) I was immediately reminded of Eric Ries's concept of "the lean startup", a process that I mentioned in my Inventors Club blog (see "Lean Startup" 6 May 2012).   Could the 3 minute pitch be compared to the "minimal viable product" and the angels to "early adopters"? I asked myself.   If you want to learn more about "lean startup" there is a lean startup group in Manchester which meets regularly at the Manchester Business School and I know there was a meeting at Sheffield University last week to set up a similar group in Yorkshire.   If you contact me I would be glad to pass your name on to the organizer

Anyway, returning to Angels Den, the company appears to offer more conventional ways of raising equity funding, though those appear to be more expensive than "SpeedFunding" (TM) (see "How much do you charge" on the Angels' Den website).   The company charges £799 + VAT for the SpeedFunding (TM) package plus a 5% success fee when funding is raised.   Apparently, entrepreneurs get opportunities to choose the approach at "funding clinics" held from time to time and to develop their pitch at training sessions known as "pitch school" (see "10 steps to getting funded through Angels Den").

While I do not endorse any particular angel network and emphasize that angel funding is not for everyone I hope to arrange a forum where angels can meet some of the bright lads and lasses from the North's inventors' clubs and "FabLabs" in July as well as a Northern innovation academy in September.   I will invite Amanda or one of her colleagues to speak at both events.

Sheffield and the other great cities of Yorkshire indicate that this county once had an entrepreneurial culture which must have been very similar to that of Silicon Valley in the 1980s and perhaps the BRIC and CIVETS countries today.   Can this can do culture be revived?   The success of Silicon Roundabout and Tech City in London shows there is no reason why it cannot.   Many of those responsible for those new businesses in London were either born or educated in Yorkshire.   The well known inventor Trevor Baylis has suggested that pupils should be taught about innovation and enterprise at school.   Visiting the Sheffield Quaker meeting house yesterday I was delighted to see in the children's meeting (equivalent of Sunday school) a popup book on invention for young children.   It was attractive, entertaining and informative.   Leafing through the pages, I learned something new from it even though I am old enough to have been the kids' grandmother and have practised patent law for the last 35 years.   That sort of book could do more good in the long term than the loan scheme announced by the Prime Minister today (see "PM wants start-up loans scheme to help young" 28 May 2012 on the BBC website).

If anyone wants to discuss this article further, call me on 0113 320 3232 or click here.

Lennon to run Angels' Den in Yorkshire and the Humber

Yesterday I received an email from Amanda Lennon to say that she is now running Angels Den in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Amanda has recently returned to the UK from New Zealand where she worked for a number of enterprises in the public and private sectors. These included project management for the Rugby World Cup in Auckland, Commercial Manager of the Geospatial Research Centre and Incubator Manager of powerHouse, a university incubation service in Christchurch. I first met Amanda when she ran the University of Huddersfield "Business Mine" and later set up and ran the Bradford IP clinic for her at Velocity.

Angels Den is one of the biggest angel networks in the UK with branches throughout the nation and overseas. I have already written about the Qatar network in NIPC Gulf ("Angels' Den in Qatar" 26 Sept 2011) and they have expressed interest in participating a seminar for the FabLabs and similar organizations which I discussed with Haydn Insley of Manchester FabLab after his presentation to the Liverpool Inventors Club last month (see "Liverpool Inventors Club Re-launched" IP North West 29 Feb 2012).

Angels are equity investors who often can offer skills and experience as well as capital to promising start-ups and other small and medium enterprises. They fill the gap between fools, friends and family and private equity. For an introduction, see my article on "Business Angels" on the NIPC Inventors Club website and "On the Side of the Angels" on my chambers website on the 6 July 2011 and my article "What Business Angels and VCs need to know about IP" on 21 June 2011.

Amanda can be contacted by email at Amanda@angelsden.co.uk or by telephone on  07805 313904.

If anybody has any questions or comments about this post or angels funding generally, he or she can contact me through my contact form,, Facebook, Linkedin, Xing or twitter or call me on 0113 320 3232 .