Is your digital business ready for investment?
Find out at our one day workshop packed full of industry gurus. With a mixture of learning and panel Q&A you will have the opportunity to speak directly with mentors, investors and successful entrepreneurs to help you decide and prepare for investment, followed by an amazing opportunity to pitch to a live panel of investors within a month.
Generator, in association with Digital Union and Secret Sauce, are proud to present this exclusive Prepare and Pitch opportunity at Gateshead International Business Centre on 25th September – with live pitch sessions on 9th and 23rd October in front of fund management company Rivers Capital.
PREPARE TO PITCH
The day starts off with a key note address from local entrepreneur, Jonathan Grubin, founder of SoPost and successful recipient of a round of investment over £350,000. Chat with Jonathan to find out how he made the decision to raise investment and what it meant to his business.
During the course of the workshop you will receive top tips on how to write the best business case, be introduced to investment and what it means to your business, learn how to pitch perfectly and find out about other funding opportunities within the region.
Time for reflection at the end of the day, general chat with all the gurus and decide if you would like to pitch on 9th or 23rd October depending your readiness. Remember you can have the assistance of the guru of your choice, to get you and your business investor ready.
THE LIVE PITCH
Rivers Capital are providing the live investment panel on the 9th and 23rd October. After a 10-15 minute pitch the panel will have a 5 minute Q&A session, if necessary. Businesses, if successful, will receive offer letter within the week. This really is prepare and pitch for real!
REGISTER NOW
Places at this event are of high value, but thanks to Generator’s ERDF funding we can offer spaces FREE OF CHARGE for creative businesses from the North East of England.* Spaces are limited, so businesses seriously thinking of investment should sign up now.
*County Durham, Northumberland, Tees Valley, Tyne & Wear
MEET THE GURUS
Key Note – Jonathan Grubin
Founder & CEO of SoPost. Jonathan has 10 years’ experience of early-stage businesses, having launched his first venture at the age of 14. Jonathan was named as the youngest ‘Rising Star and Future Leader’ in a Journal guide to North East England, and dropped out of university in 2009 to take the enterprising journey full-time.
SoPost combines the power of product sampling with personal recommendations to help brands drive trials in a highly targeted way. Its technology allows consumers to send physical items to their friends via social media. The company was founded in 2012 and works with leading brands, including Britvic, Liz Earle Beauty Co and Bare Escentuals. SoPost has offices in London and Newcastle and is backed by Northstar Ventures, amongst a number of high calibre angel investors.
Mike Ormesher, an entrepreneurial Software Company executive with over 25 years of experience in the sector. Mike has founded and raised funds for a number of software organisations including e-tempest, Smart Approach Group & CODA Group. He understands first hand, the stresses and strains of self-funding young ambitious technology businesses, raising Angel funding, VC finance and on to London Stock Exchange floatation.
Pete Watson, has a wealth of experience in seed and early stage fundraising where he led his own consultancy Sherpa. In recent years Pete has joined one of his clients – AtlasCloud a national hosted desktop business where he leads the team as CEO. Pete continues to raise funds both from regional funds as well as angel investors. He mentors on programmes such as Ignite100, therefore understands what a good proposition and business case needs to look like if it’s going to interest investors.
Dave Gibson, Director at Blu Sky. A chartered accountancy practice that deals in providing financial and business services to SME’s specifically in the Digital & Creative sector. Proud to be part of some of the finest business support programmes in the North East. Blu Sky are official sponsors of Digital Union, the largest digital and commercial creative network in the North East. Sponsors of Campus North, an incubator space for digital startups which forms part of the Ignite100 accelerator programme. Last but not least, they collaborate with the GrowthAccelerator business support service, which works to provide businesses with a support framework to help build a successful growth strategy.
Joan Louw, Access to Finance Growth Manager for Grant Thornton LLP, who provide the unique GrowthAccelerator service led by some of the country’s most successful growth specialists helping business to find new connections, new routes to investment and the new ideas and strategy you’ll need for your business to achieve its full potential.
Damian Baetens, Transmit Startups. Based in Gateshead in the North East of England Transmit Start-Ups provides business support, finance and mentoring to start-up businesses throughout the UK, mainly within the creative and digital sectors. It has assisted over 400 businesses with £3million in loan finance under the Government’s Start-Up Loans scheme and it also delivers a number of start-up and high growth programmes.
Rivers Capital and NorthStar Ventures
Throughout the day in every session there will be representatives from Rivers Capital and NorthStar Ventures. A great opportunity to hear firsthand what investors are looking for.
