After a conversation with our CEO, Jeb Buckler , we thought we’d share his thoughts on why Startup Giants is just so unique to investors and what’s coming up next in the pipeline for the global funding, investment focused, venture builder
You always say that it’s interesting talking to investors and seeing their appreciation of the Startup Giants model, why is that?
Success for Startup Giants’ entrepreneurs never comes from handouts. It comes from the highest standards of due diligence, expert guidance through fundraising rounds and ongoing commitment through our unrivalled business support programmes. In our experience, any entrepreneur who is given funds can spend them – whereas not everyone is tenacious enough to use funds to grow a business, particularly at the pre-seed stage. To further strength test each entrepreneur’s mindset, concept and MVP, no money is handed out at the start.
Instead you focus on training them to become true entrepreneurs which makes them investable …
Yes, my team works alongside each founder to enable them to get their visa if it’s appropriate, or to prepare them for funding rounds if a visa is not needed. Either way we help them with advice from our experts on how to develop their concept, preparing them in every way to be able to pitch for investment on their own terms as business owners. before any money is exchanged.
This creates a bond of hard work, respect and a grit to meet the future milestones that together we set. With access to our workplace sessions and team of specialised experts, we mentor each entrepreneur and assist them to bring their ideas to life on UK soil.
How do you that each Founder is worth your team’s time and attention?
Each of our entrepreneurs has to go through such rigorous testing to qualify for our venture builder that we celebrate each one and give them with our 100% effort when they succeed. I’m proud of our process of elimination. I take the time to speak individually to each entrepreneur and am always proud of the high calibre mix of ingenuity and drive that they have – the perfect mix for Startup Giants.
How do we know this? Because we’ve been there too. Every business was once a startup, scrabbling around wanting to plug a gap, rock the status quo, make their mark, be meaningful…
Do you think that with a recession looming there still needs to be a focus on startups?
Yes, now more than ever. Unfortunately some businesses We take our work seriously; the world always needs good ideas and it might be that someone comes up with a system of tech that saves people thousands of pounds and helps them to survive a recession. Recessions actually often create many opportunities which we will fine tune our Founder’s into recognising.
Whether the news is portraying times of chaos or times of wealth, the future needs to be worked towards in an innovative manner. There will always be some form of challenge or conflict of interest in business because that’s life. This is why we pay so much attention to the Founder’s acumen and attitude to adaptability and tenacity, because just having the idea is not enough. They need to be able to navigate the pressures of thriving in a commercially tough environment.
For our entrepreneurs, for investors and for the UK as a whole, we’re energetic, we’re future focused, we’re positive.
There’s a wealth of talent and opportunity in the world and I’m proud of my team for not only helping to bring this talent to the UK but their work on a now global basis, nurturing each respective entrepreneur to flourish.
Was it always important to you to offer more than one source of investment for investors?
Absolutely. Giving investors choice on how they invest is key to the relationships and opportunities that we have. The admission document we had when we went on to the Exchange provided an additional element for investors.
They can invest into the end deal of the company, they can invest into a fund (such as the SEIS fund), which is indirectly linked to the end companies anyway, or they can put their money in Startup Giants as a portfolio which can be traded on the Exchange and provide government-approved inheritance tax relief – there are different tax benefits which are different to investing in the deals. Nobody else is doing, as far as I know, what we are doing.
What’s next for Startup Giants?
Ultimately we know that each Founder starts their journey with us in someway orientated around the fact that they need funding. We’re so pleased to announce that we’ll be launching Echion, our first, and arguably one of the most important bootcamps, for startups. It’s set to prime their financial savviness to prepare their company and themselves for investment via our RAISE programme. Our Head of Venture, Sam Keisner will be delivering the four bootcamp sessions and imparting the essential wisdom and steps to each attendee to prepare them for funding. This is something that I’ve wanted to launch for a long time as it will really benefit each Founder, you only get one shot with an investor so preparation is absolutely key.