Founder & General Manager, SEIML. Entrepreneur, financial markets practitioner & educator
I have been consistent in my views about Quantitative Easing (QE) and the 'financial evils' it created for continuing on long after it should have ended. QE put the world on the largest debt fuelled bubble of my life time and it will take years to work itself out of our economy and financial markets. We are moving back to a pre-QE world with a real risk-return tradeoff, where going fast isn't always the best option, where taking the time to build a solid foundation is good for a start-up, not bad. Where solid enterprise partners are as important as VC cash. This is the brave new (old) world of start-ups. Those who adapt will be successful. #startupecosystem #enterprises #venturecapital Jonathan Nguyen Laurent Koehler Dr. Warren LINGER Dr Francois Fong
Founders & Funding – do you choose a financial investor (Angel or VC fund) or enterprise partner, if given the choice? 🤔 This is a strategic question every founder must think about early in the company’s life. If your business can develop into a full service, stand alone activity then the strategy might be to raise money from financial investors with a view of doing an IPO down-the-road. However, particularly for SaaS firms who offer a service with a more limited scope, then finding an enterprise partner who can help with your market development and funding may be a better fit. The end game here is to be purchased by this (or another) enterprise partner as the exit, as opposed to listing. This is an important question for founders in the SaaS/fintech space. The service they are building might be very valuable but will always just be a ‘piece of the puzzle’ in our highly integrated financial markets that are dominated by large financial institutions. Something to reflect on. #startupecosystem #venturecapital #enterprises Jonathan Nguyen Dr. Warren LINGER Laurent Koehler Jessica Ogilvie
