Simon Thorpe On The Ups And Downs Of Startup Investing

Simon is an active angel investor in UK companies with a focus on the technology sector. His current portfolio consists of twenty companies and to date has achieved four exits, including the likes of SwiftKey to Microsoft. Simon is also a member of Cambridge Capital Group (CCG) and Angel Academe (a predominately female network), where he is on the advisory board. He participates as a mentor for the University of Manchester, Cambridge Judge Business School's Accelerate Cambridge programme and Angel Academe's female entrepreneur programme. In Today’s Episode We Dive Into: 1.) How Simon made his entry into the investing world? What was it that attracted him to the world of startup investments? 2.) With 4 exits in the last 12 months, how has this affected you mindset to investing? What have been the commonalities when looking at those investments? 3.) At what point can an angel decide not to follow on in a round without providing a negative signaling function? Does it matter if you are the cornerstone investor? 4.) On the flip side of the 4 exits, what has been the most common reason Simon has seen startups fail? What attributes lead to a startup not reaching their potential? 5.) Where do Simon lie on the relationship between growth and revenue? Is revenue always required or can the sole aim of a company be growth? When does a company have to start considering monetisation? Action Points for Today: Fave blog or newsletter: Ben Evans As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com and see Simon's latest tweets here: www.twitter.com/thorpesi