Friday Linkfest: Startups, investors, money, pitching
We’re being given pitching advice up the wazoo here at Ignite Cambridge. Yet the main pointers to websites are all printed, and some out of date. So let’s pass on some of the wisdom, and track down in-date versions of the links:
- Structure of an investor pitch – very similar to the TechCrunch advice I already blogged, and worth a second writeup all of its own. A quick google turns up this guide by Tom McKaskill (PDF) which is wonderfully thorough. Key points to answer: what are you looking for and what are you going to do with it?
- Sources of non-equity finance:
- Grants from BusinessLink (although personally I find the website almost impenetrable. Even if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool geek like me, see if you can talk to someone. Seriously.)
- NESTA grants and awards
- Geographic or sector-specific sources like the Scottish Arts Council
- R&D grants e.g. the EU Framework Programme 7, LINK Collaborative Research, Export Marketing Research Scheme, research and development tax credits, and the Enterprise Finance Guarantee
- More grants listed on j4b
- Local investors (Cambridge): Cambridge Angels, the Great Eastern Investment Forum, IQ Capital, Amadeus
- And more links from the University of Cambridge
- Finally, some presentation tips; I don’t have a link to the stuff we were learnt, but googling some of the key tips turns up this wonderful eyesore of a site with some genuinely decent advice.
As a Business Link adviser, can I highlight that Business Link is not a source of equity funding as suggested in this post. Business Link’s mission is to offer impartial, authoritative and easy-to-access business information. It will refer businesses to appropriate solutions in both the public and private sector that can really help businesses to achieve their goals. The service is free and is funded by the Government.
Business Link is not only available online, we also offer an advisory service, workshops and a helpline so you can talk to someone. The home page of the Business Link site includes the helpline number 0845 600 9 006 and through that number you will be able to access your local advisory service.
I have also passed your comments to the team managing the website as I know that they welcome customer feedback and have proactively spoken to 20,000 businesses for this reason. The site currently attracts over 1 million visitors a month and more than 90% of users rated the site as good, very good, or excellent.