High growth technology companies go through many phases; in the case of edocr.com, we recognise five phases in our road map; development, commercial trials, launch, growth and dominance. Each phase present a challenge; from many options open, which one (or few) should be pursued to achieve the end market dominance and increase exit multiples. Getting this wrong could result in your business becoming mediocre and loose the competitive advantage it was seeking to establish.

We are lucky to have two of the most successful tech entrepreneurs to emerge from the North West over the last decade, sharing how they managed growth of their respective tech companies, and then led to successful exits.

Chris Allen co-founded laterooms.com, an on-line hotel booking site in 1999, which allowed web users to access top hotels at low prices ensuring that hotels can dispose their excess stock without overtly advertising they had empty rooms. The company was sold in 2007 to First Choice for £120 million in 2007, two years after a MBO.

In 1996, Steve Purdham co-founded Surf Control, a global provider of internet filtering software and listed the company on AIM two years after raising $13 million. The company was sold to US rival Websense in 2007 for a staggering £201 million. In 2007, Steve co-founded we7.com teaming up with Genesis front-man Peter Gabriel.

Steve and Chris are joined by Peter Jones of Eden Ventures, whose portfolio includes Huddle.net, Zemanta.com and We7.com. Eden Ventures background is that of serial entrepreneurs with a spectacular seed investment track record.

Barry James, CEO of TakeWare will be taking the 20 minute high-intensive StartUp4Slaughter slot, where the audience and the panel crowd-source solutions to the key challenge faced by TakeWare.

SPEAKERS/PANELISTS

		Chris Allen - £108m exit Laterooms.com Co-founder of successful and highly profitable internet business startup LateRooms.com; finalist NW Entrepreneur of the year 2006; M.E.N. Small business of the year winner 2006; Sunday Times Tech Track 100 company (2005 number 16); lead £21 million MBO of LateRooms to develop for future sale and within 2 years the company was sold to First Choice for £108 million
		Steve Purdham - £201m exit SurfControl & CEO We7.com Founder & CEO of Surfcontrol; sold SurfControl to Websense for £201 m in 2007; latest venture is We7, a music download business that was set up with musician Peter Gabriel; Awards include IOD Director of the Year, Technology CEO of the Year, Technology Entrepreneur of the Year, and Techmark Personality of the Year.
		Peter Jones - Eden Ventures Eden Ventures invests in technology companies in the telecommunications software, enterprise software, digital media, e-commerce, internet and mobile sectors in the UK and Ireland. Portfolio includes Zemanta.com, huddle.net and we7.com. Peter co-founded Metrica Systems (1991) and was CTO of SignalSoft (NASDAQ IPO: 2000) and Strategy Director Actix Ltd.

STARTUP4SLAUGHTER

Barry James - CEO, TakeWare TakeCare is a breakthrough technology which allows 'Push Encryption' for the first time - providing a universal capability to send documents securely to anyone without them having to open an account or install software - making it unilateral and potentially universal. The owner retains control of their data 'in-the-cloud' and until it is delivered. Built on TakeWare's patented 'intelligent encapsulation' technology TakeCare delivers today (via the eDisc) and promises a badly needed solution to the most pressing security problems online and for cloud computing. How can a tiny, virtual company, rich in IP and with a killer technology like TakeCare that solves a red hot problem for the cloud best capitalise on it's lead and IP/patents without losing the ability to keep on doing what it does best: Innovating.

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