JANUARY 2002 BROADSHEET - How to Develop a Small Company
Our Chairman, Roy Cuthbert, organised a very full meeting on 29th November when we had two talks and a company visit. We had lots of unbooked people flooding in, very nice to see them, but very difficult to accommodate at the last minute. Consequently numbers got rather out of hand. However Roy kept them in order and we all managed to squeeze into the labs and workshops of 1 Limited, now occupying a considerable proportion of St John's Innovation Centre, ably guided by CEO Tony Hooley's shepherds and watchmen.
We were fascinated to see the clean room and treatment facilities for making the revolutionary ceramics actuators. The piezo-electric ceramic material starts as a thin pliable film sandwich, is slit and twisted into the Helimorph TM shape and fired. A Helimorph is a helical helix twisted on itself with the effect of giving a huge linear displacement of many mm. The original digital system was even more basic than usual, being unary rather than binary. They come in all sizes for use in mobile phones to home theatre. We saw and heard a large digital Sound Projector panel with 254 transducers, accompanying the opening battle scene of the film "Gladiator". The effect was far too realistic for comfort with missiles and war cries coming from all around and, most disconcertingly, from behind as well. Very impressive indeed.
However, this was a taster for the talks about sustaining and growing a small company. Tony Hooley told us how he managed to convince business angels and wealthy individuals to part with over £9 million, some of which now supports his team of 38. His Board has ex Directors of several well-known companies, including IBM, Xaar and Flemings. He also had more detailed advice for fledgling companies such as IP licensing, watching cash flow and networking. He described the Company's originally slow start-up approach, i.e. without the help of venture capitalists, which had taken seven years to reach the present position.
Our second speaker, Ben Gales is an Investment Executive of 3i, a well known global Venture Capital company. He outlined the qualities he was looking for, an effective management team, rather than a go it alone type of company, and the more disruptive the technology the better. They also require that investment in fixed assets be kept to a minimum with as much outsourcing of non-core activities as possible. Minumum of £1 million, 5 to 7 times return and 7 years to exit. Contacts: tony@1limited.com and ben_gales@3i.com
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There are also other companies who give us generous help with specific meetings and services.
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