Never trust a banker, says adventurous capitalistEUROPE MAY have the richest poor people in the world, but it doesn’t create billion dollar technology start ups.
That was one of the bleak messages that came out of the Going Platinum venture capital conference at London’s Institute of Directors, organised by Ariadne Capital.
This is one of those scary events where frighteningly intelligent visionaries, like Ariadne CEO Julie Meyer, give you glimpse into a future that could give you one hell of a ride, but you just know it’ll thunder into the distance before you’ve even got your trousers on.
Still, it’s worth hearing anecdotes from those who’ve made millions out of IT. Especially when they’re being honest.
David Rowe, founder of Easynet, admitted that he made millions by luck as much as judgement. Nobody really knew whatt they were doing in the early days.
BT wrote him a letter, in 1994, promising not to enter the Internet space. Virgin boss Richard Branson said there was no future in the Internet, as he couldn’t find anything on it. Rather like today’s mobile content industry, nobody really knows anything.
“If you’re in technology, and you find the bankers agreeing with you, you know you’ve got it wrong,” Rowan told his audience. “Their job is to ride on a wave of sentiment.”
To illustrate that point, he confesssed that at one stage, his ISP EasyNet was trading at 800 times its revenue. But because EasyNet had invested in infrastructure (it had the most advanced local loop offering outside BT) that made them a good acquisition target. So eventually, Rupert Murdoch’s BskyB bought his company for £211 million in October 2005.
So who made a fortune from the Internet? “People who got lucky and people who cleaned up by snapping up the assets of those who didn’t,” says Rowe.
His final advice for IT entrepreneurs. “Be confident when you speak to bankers, as you’re better than them.”
Enviado: 18/1/2008 10:35