Little black book: the tech scene
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Brent Hoberman
Hoberman and lastminute.com co-founder
Martha Lane Fox (see above) discovered how fragile business can be
the hard way after they performed an IPO just as the dot-com bubble
burst in spectacular style. Having founded a second business,
online interiors startup mydeco, Hoberman has also turned
angel and backs online businesses including travel social network
Wayn and production company t5m.com.
Find him: Blogging at Brenthoberman.co.uk;
taking in an exhibition - Hoberman is a governor of the University
of the Arts London, which includes Central St Martins and
Camberwell; @brenthoberman.
Bill Morrow
With permanently unkempt hair and a slightly unhinged look in
his eye, it's difficult to imagine Morrow as anything other than an
entrepreneur - or perhaps a mad professor. The truth is, though,
Morrow spotted the niche for a web-based angel funding network
spent during his career working in the City. Since it started in
2007, Angels Den has
attracted more than 1,000 investors to its SpeedFunding events
across the UK, and Morrow featured in TheNextWomen's
catchily-titled '
The 10 men a UK female entrepreneur should know when starting and
growing a business' earlier this year.
Find him: Occasionally blogging on the Angels Den website; at
the front of the room during an Angels Den speedfunding event; @angelsden; relaxing
at Adam Street private members' club.
Julie Meyer
If you've spent any time at tech events, the first lady of
British tech venture capital needs no introduction: the founder of
VC group Ariadne
Capital has been working in and around the internet since the
beginning. She started working for investment house New Media
Investors which funded, among others, Lastminute.com, and in the
mid-90s Meyer spied the need for a regular networking event for
entrepreneurs, with the result that in 1998, Meyer started First
Tuesday (see below). American-born Meyer is now one of the
best-known tech VCs in the UK, and appears regularly at conferences
and networking events. She has won a raft of accolades, including
'global leader of tomorrow' from the World Economic Forum,
appearing in the Wall Street Journal's top 30 most powerful women
in Europe, and being named entrepreneur of the year by Ernst &
Young UK.
Find her: Writing columns in Business Week, FT
Business and CityAM;
in the Den as one of the BBC's online
Dragons.
Doug Richard
Outspoken and with a tendency to be more blunt than is strictly
necessary, ex-Dragon Richard is nevertheless irresistibly
infectious. Having started life in California, where he said he
'disliked bosses' too much to be employable, Richard started his
own business instead, and has since run three major technology
companies, as well as making various investments along the way and
compiling the Richard Report for the Conservatives, which found the
small business support in the UK is 'abysmal'. These days, Richard
puts in frequent appearances on the public speaking circuit, as
well as running School for Startups,
a series of master-classes for start-up entrepreneurs.
Find him: Waxing lyrical over small business
support; dispensing advice at the next School for
Startups.
Saul Klein
Son of venture capitalist father Robin, Klein was part of the
executive team at Skype and one
of the co-founders of online DVD rental company Lovefilm. Klein joined the
London team of private equity house Index Ventures in 2007,
where he has backed businesses including Moo and online opticians
Glasses Direct. Klein is also the organiser of Seedcamp, a week-long series of
panel discussions, master classes and one-on-one sessions which
connects the cream of the UK's tech entrepreneurs, with investors,
marketers, product and development experts and, perhaps most
importantly, those who have already made it.
Find him: Sharing his thoughts on what is, by his
own admission, a 'not very
active' blog; eyeing up something lacy - Klein is an investor
in saucy lingerie chain Agent Provocateur; @cape; nursing a cup of
coffee at his one of his global weekly tech meetups, OpenCoffee (see
below).
Judith Clegg
Most notably the founder of consultancy firm Venture Unlimited
which has worked with the likes of Barclaycard, Ikea, BAA and the
Ministry of Sound, Clegg is also behind London entrepreneur
networking events company The Glasshouse. In fact,
find a good idea in London, and Clegg will probably be associated
with it somehow. Having cut her teeth as a retail consultant where
her clients included Laura Ashley, Pret A Manger and Yo! Sushi;
Clegg went on to run entrepreneur networking event Second Chance
Tuesday with Firebox founder Michael Smith - an attempt to recreate
90s entrepreneurs' networking club First Tuesday.
Find her: @judithclegg
Alex Hoye
Having started out as a project leader at Disney, Harvard- and
Standford-educated Hoye started his first business, online
industrial auction business GoIndustry, in 1999 and saw it
through to an IPO worth $100m. Currently chief exec at digital
marketing agency Latitude
Group, Hoye turned angel in 2006, investing in online
businesses Skimbit, MyBuilder and RentMineOnline, as well
as advising tech private equity firm Vitruvian Partners.
Hoye is also a member of Cambridge Angels and on the advisory board
of Seedcamp.
Find him: blogging at hoye.org; making his way down
mountains at speed - Hoye is an enthusiastic skier; @alexhoye; fiddling with
his iPhone while running a marathon - Hoye was (probably) the first
person ever to Tweet his way around the London marathon earlier
this year.
The best of the rest
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