Advisory & corporate finance
The cash shortfall, the senior hire, the deal that went elsewhere, the spreadsheet nobody else understood, the margin that drifted. Five different functions, one underlying condition.
We caught up with Marina and Adrian to discuss how founders can deal with difficult relationships in the board room with investors. Marina Traversari is a Board Advisor, Link Stone Advisory who has founded, scaled and exited business as senior executive, Chair and Board Advisor and draws from experience at Spherics, Gapsquare, Sage, Oracle and … Continue reading Managing difficult investors in the Board Room
Raising equity is no longer just about the “Hockey Stick” growth chart. It is about transparency. Investors—whether VCs or Angels—are demanding a level of data integrity and ESG compliance that most Series A companies simply don’t have. Richard Spilsbury discusses this shift with Marina Traversari. Having moved from scaling Spherics (a carbon accounting platform) to … Continue reading The “Glass Box” Business: Why Transparency (and ESG) is Your New Valuation Multiplier
The Scale Up Institute’s last report identified ‘infrastructure’ as one of the key challenges for scale up businesses. While not clearly defined, the term appears to refer to the ecosystem of local hubs and enterprise agencies available. If you are a scale up business (sales growth > 15%; hitting sales of £10m or more; or … Continue reading Time short entrepreneurs understand that a reliable infrastructure scales their business
In short Focus: tie development to the strategic priorities Customise: make your own playbook rather than apply someone else’s Align: too many well-meant initiatives create inertia Experience: engage someone who has actually done it Adapt: no silver bullet, and different people need different styles Intellectual capital: balance skin in the game with objective counsel Commitment: … Continue reading Common pitfalls for high growth business leaders
In short Purpose: be clear what the board is actually for Scope: advisors plan and decide, they do not do Chair: get the chair and CEO axis right Selection: networks, insight, credibility Dynamics: individual qualities, collective behaviours While there is extensive analysis available on how boards of established companies should operate, especially those in the … Continue reading Five steps to creating an effective Venture Board