Introduction

What started as an experiment in 2008, Dragons Lair has turned into a popular format of our annual calendar of events. We ended 2010 with another cracking event, which featured four early stage technology companies pitching for investment. The second half of the event focused on investment readiness, as the much awaited £185 million of North West Funds were signed on the same day, after a delay of about 18 months.

Against each pitch, I have combined the feedback I received from Dragons and my own views. Please note that it is easy to criticise a tech startup for lack of progress or how much funding it has burnt. In most cases, a startup entrepreneur does what s/he can to survive and grow his/her business, and may not follow a logical path, as most would expect. I am a prime example of this with my own tech company, edocr.com.

Pitch 1 - Viztone

Colin presented Viztone, which has already attracted a number of rounds of investment over several years. One of the key problems with Viztone is that most people are irritated by a recorded audio, never mind video. Dragons were concerned about the limited market size to certain demographics, such as students and teenagers, who would gladly watch for exchange of credits, etc.

Pitch 2 - Malinko

Andrew presented Malinko, which is addressing a pain that many could understand. It already had customers and clear strategy in terms of the initial markets. Whilst Andrew was less prepared than anyone else on the night with his presentation, it attracted the best attention.

Pitch 3 - TheWeddingVine.com

Mark presented TheWeddingVine, which is run by a husband and wife team, looking for an investment of £150,000. Lack of a web store was a major issue for investors, which the company is trying to address.

Pitch 4 - Canddi

Battery of my Flip Video camera (courtesy of Salesforce.com) ran out, resulting in no footage of Tim's presentation of Canddi. What's notable is that Canddi attracted funding of £20,000 when Tim last pitched 12 months ago, from Difference Engine led by Jon Bradford. Tim gave an update on what Canddi has achieved over the 12 months. They are focusing initially on the automotive sector, due to key contact they have.

Summary

It was felt by the Dragons, that none of the pitches were professional enough and addressed the points they were interested in. We plan to run a workshop in the new year to address these points. Pitch training was seen as mandatory.

Second Half

Andy Jones shared his experience of raising funding for his company, Ibexis. They have pitched to about 15 investors before receiving a term sheet. According to Andy, research into which investors should be targeted is vital to success. Robert Wakeling from Wadaro spoke of his experience of raising funding after 50 pitches and living with investors. Stuart Scott-Goldstone is working on closing the first two investments for Richard Young under the NW Equity funds, and spoke of legal aspects of taking investment.