Startup Masterclass: How to make sure you're investment and exit ready November 8, 2011

It's a story which happens all too often but is not talked about enough. A startup may have succeeded in developing the right product, adopting the right marketing strategies and employing the right team. But when they get to the stage of seeking investment from a VC or looking to exit, they encounter a surprise. With the wrong business plan, the wrong spin on your story for an investor's ears, the wrong employee contracts or a misunderstanding of how to extract profit from your startup, there are very expensive lessons to be learned.

To address these issues we've brought together four experts to give you the advice that they consider to be most important for startup companies, but often (to their horror) does not get implemented. This session is for anyone that's serious about growing their startup beyond seed funding stage and through to a profitable exit. You'll get plenty of value out of it whether you are about to start out, are currently seeking investment or looking to exit.

Agenda

6pm Doors open

6:15-6:45pm "Business planning for startups: Don't be a gnome!" Presenter: Anastasia Kovaleva, PwC.

7:00-7:30pm "What your pitch sounds like to a VC and how to be in that 1% of pitches that investors love" Presenter: Sean Owen, Pentech Ventures

7:45-8:00pm "10 things you must know if you employ people" Presenter: Richard Cummings, HR Insights

8:00-8:15pm "Tax planning and profit extraction in your startup" Presenter: Howard Weintrob, Jeffreys Henry LLP

8:15-8:30pm final questions from the audience.

8:30-9pm end of class and networking.

About the speakers

Anastasia Kovaleva
Anastasia is a manager at the Corporate Finance Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Currently part of TMT and Business Services team in London, she previously spent 10 years in Canada, including 5 years with PwC Vancouver. UK. Anastasia advises management teams, corporates, and financial sponsors on various aspects of merger, acquisition, business strategy and financing activity of mid-market companies. She has qualified as a chartered accountant (CA) with PwC, and is a chartered financial analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Anastasia has advised and mentored start ups since 2009, working with organisations such as School for Social Entrepreneurs, Canadian Youth Business Foundation, and Junior Achievement.

Sean Owen
Sean joined Pentech as an Associate in August 2010. Prior to that he was a software engineer at various internet-related businesses, including Google, DoubleClick, and Scient. While at Google, Sean helped create its Mobile Web search and developed Android’s barcode scanning framework. Sean is VP of the Apache Software Foundation’s Mahout project, a scalable machine learning library.

Sean has a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University. In 2010 he also completed an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management at the London Business School.

Richard Cummings
Originally from a recruitment background, Richard moved into HR Management for a UK based retail and manufacturing company before finally moving to HR consultancy. Richard also spent several years as a line manager. He is degree educated in Business with Human Resource Management and studies towards his professional qualification.

Howard Weintrob
Howard is a Chartered Tax Adviser at accountancy firm Jeffreys Henry LLP. He has over 25 years of experience advising entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses on the whole spectrum of personal and corporate taxation, including tax efficient structures, profit extraction, R&D tax relief and Enterprise Investment Schemes.

Tickets:
GBP 10 - Techmeetups Members
GBP 15 - Non-Techmeetups Members
GBP 7 - Students

Ticket Site: http://tshmasterclass110811.eventbrite.com/
Event Site: http://www.meetup.com/london-silicon-roundabout/events/36989642/

Contact us:
shawn at techmeetups dot com
cris at techmeetups dot com

Official Website: http://www.meetup.com/london-silicon-roundabout/events/36989642/