M & A Rainmaker

The Silicon Crossroads Technopolis is a private High Tech. facility that supports Silicon Crossroads VCT investee companies globally. It also supports companies advised by M & A Rainmaker and the Silicon Crossroads VCT.

The Technopolis is currently supporting companies in ( for example ) London, San Francisco, Israel, New York, Costa Rica and India. the list is continually changing and evolving so this is just a sample of cities and countries supported.

The Silicon Crossroads VCT does not invest in all the companies it supports, it may simply provide advice and guidance. It is particularly interested in assisting startup and growth companies who want to expand from the U.K. to, for example, the U.S.A. and vice versa and also from other countries around the world into the U.K. and Europe. It is one of very few companies in the U.K. to provide these sort of services.

Lichfield Cathedral at night across Stowe Pool.

Managing Partner, Chris Windley, has established global networks via social media networks like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook and Chris is regarded as one of the most influential people in the world by Internet Influence measurement companies like Klout, Kred and Peer Index. These companies operate mainly from e.g. London, New York and San Francisco. Since his days at Optical Fibre Network company Fibernet, Chris noted that U.S. companies tended to lead the European market by between 6 and 18 months and therefore it is vital to maintain contacts with High Tech. industry leaders there; especially the West Coast ( Silicon Valley etc. ) which remains the frontrunner when it comes to angel and venture capital support.

It is no surprise that some of the most important High Tech. companies in the world have emerged from the Silicon Valley/San Francisco area.

Chris maintains contact with Angels, Venture Capitalists and Founders via Internet networks like Linkedin, Google + and AngelList.

Silicon Crossroads is the High Tech. business area established between Lichfield, Tamworth, Sutton Coldfield and Walsall in Staffordshire, England, U.K. The crossroads referred to is the ancient crossroads of Watling Street ( the A5 ) and Rykneld Street ( the A38 ) which cross one another just below Lichfield.

Notably Tamworth is dominated by Tamworth Castle and Lichfield by Lichfield Cathedral and these are ancient seats of power in Middle England.

The recent discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard may well add to the evidence for the Lichfield and Tamworth area being an area of influence and innovation and Silicon Crossroads and the Silicon Crossroads VCT continue this tradition.

The Silicon Crossroads VCT is a High Tech. Investment fund with a particular focus on areas like Social Media, Inbound Marketing and Cloud Computing.

We have established strong connections with entrepreneurs, business angels and venture capital funds in some of the main innovation areas in the U.S. and Canada like Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Vancouver, Austin, Toronto and other emerging High Tech Innovation areas like Baltimore.

Aside from Early Stage funding the VCT provides support for start up and early stage companies from the U.S. and the U.K. Included in our support services is ” Outsourced Business Development ” to assist companies to identify target customers and sectors  and to establish contact with them using state of the art Marketing techniques like Inbound Marketing, the creation of Internet Marketing Ecosystems and therefore the use of Social Media and Social Business Media.

It became obvious a few years ago that the rise of companies like Salesforce ( SaaS CRM ) , Google ( Search and Social Media ), Facebook ( Social Media ) and Twitter ( Social Media )  would give rise to other companies like HubSpot ( Inbound Marketing ) , Hootsuite ( Monitoring multiple social media channels )  and Twylah ( Twitter brand pages ).

It was less obvious that there would be such huge angel and venture capital investment in the U.S. but there has been and it is only increasing.

There has also been a revolution ( from necessity ) in funding methods for start ups in the U.S. with companies like KickStarter and the concentration of Angels and so called Super Angels onto lists like AngelList.

In addition companies like SecondMarket have created liquidity in markets like pre-IPO shares and debt.

You can get more information on some of these companies via this blog and my Twylah page   http://www.twylah.com/cwindley.

This is a holding page for more information on Silicon Crossroads and the Silicon Crossroads VCT and websites, blogs and Twylah pages will be developed for these over time.

My contact information is on this blog on the Contact page.

Hootsuite is one of a number of applications that now exist for people to monitor relevant activity on a number of social media networks simultaneously like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google +. Competitors to Hootsuite include TweetDeck, PeopleBrowser and CoTweet. One of the major concerns for investors considering investing in HootSuite was it’s location in Vancouver, Canada.

You may know that Vancouver is  the home of many start-ups lots of which are ” high Tech. ” including HootSuite. HootSuite was ranked in the top 10 at the time of this survey.

Vancouver is a beautiful City located on the West Coast of Canada and a 100 or so miles away from Seattle, U.S. – the home of Microsoft and the original home of Starbucks Coffee . I have been to Vancouver a number of times – mainly to ski in Whistler. I sent my son David there to learn about Internet Marketing and I will also always remember it as the home of ” those otters “. You know the cute ones that float around holding hands and have over 17 Million hits on YouTube !! We tried to get David to visit the otters in Vancouver Aquarium but he never quite made it. He did however fly out to Vancouver and back on his own.

Anyway – back to HootSuite. One of the downsides identified with HootSuite by the venture capitalists, as mentioned earlier, was that it was based in Vancouver.  You can’t really believe that Vancouver is viewed ( by some ) as a backwater but it is. It’s vibrant start-up community is a drop in the ocean when compared with e.g. San Francisco, New York and Boston.

The biggest problem perceived ??? How would they get the talent needed ??

In fact this “disadvantage” turned out to be an advantage ….

“Up there, surrounded by quality dev talent with limited competition, HootSuite has been able to attract A+ people at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. This advantage has only grown as HootSuite now is one of the top tech companies to work for in Canada and can pull from across the entire country. ”

Similarly a ” Silicon Crossroads ” in Lichfield would be perceived as ” nowhere ” by the High Tech. community but it has major advantages in the talent pool, the location, access to transport and many other areas.

2007 article about Vancouver’s High Tech. start-up’s:

http://montrealtechwatch.com/2007/08/07/vancouver-canadas-greatest-start-up-city/

High Tech. Start-up’s are booming in the U.S. with Boston, New York and Silicon Valley all very active and there are many U.S. start-up’s looking at establishing a European office. Could Lichfield a.k.a. Silicon Crossroads in Staffordshire dare to dream that it might host some of these start-up’s ?

Friends of mine established Leap the Pond some years ago in order to assist start-up’s gain a successful foothold from the U.S. to the U.K. and vice versa and also from Asia to the U.K. and America and vice versa.

A while back I wrote this blog

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2011/09/27/celtic-tiger-awakes-and-starts-tweeting-about-hi-tech/

as I was asked to suggest a suitable European location for a U.S. software company that I knew.

Right at the end you will see mention of an accounting practice called the ” Double Irish and a Dutch Sandwich ” fully described here

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/irish-move-to-save-twitter-53-per-cent-in-tax-0016130-1

which describes the tax savings achieved by Google and to be achieved by Twitter by having offices in Southern Ireland and Luxembourg.

Like it or not the ” financial parameters ” are going to have a significant influence on where a foreign company bases itself in Europe.

Lichfield can do no better than London in influencing the tax position of the U.K. mainland. The so called ” Silicon Roundabout ” in London will have to put up with U.k. Tax laws although it is interesting to note that Google also has offices in London and is taking more space in Silicon Roundabout:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15088359

Recognised ” High Tech. ” areas in the U.K. include: London, M4 corridor, Cambridge, Oxford and Silicon Glen, Scotland. There has been an effort to make the M42/M5 corridor High Tech. and also Telford hosts a number of High Tech. companies.

When you look at Europe from the U.S. you probably have a different perspective and London, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland and Barcelona in Spain all seem to figure high in Americans minds.

I.D.A. Ireland ( now known as the ” Silicon Republic ” !! ) is very active in the U.S. with ” salespeople ” based in Boston, New York and the West Coast yet it does not necessarily get considered despite having many high tech companies based there.

http://www.idaireland.com/

This video by the C.E.O. of IDA Ireland spells out a lot of the criteria

http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/videos/index.xml?bclid=66038357001&bctid=1148962666001

The Tax Environment

The Business offer ( Incentives to base your H.Q. there )

The Talent Pool

The Track Record

Proximity to other ” synergistic ”  businesses.

Transport links

Despite very tough economics in Ireland, or perhaps because of it, I.D.A. Ireland has got all it’s ducks in a row and does a massively professional job of getting inward investment.

Lichfield has to live with the tax regime, as does London.

The business offer would have to be very good.

The Talent Pool, whilst small is there.

It has little track record and not many existing businesses to be synergistic with. There is however a talent pool skilled in web design and S.E.O.

It has fabulous transport links.

It is a beautiful location, great lifestyle and has an opportunity with the ” Saxon Hoard ” to become much better known around the world.

With a lot of work and commitment Lichfield could become a High Tech base.

N.B. This post in the Guardian about The Lichfield Blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/nov/22/hyperlocal-media-blogging

shows the depth of the social media knowledge in the area.

Information about Tech City, London : http://www.ukti.gov.uk/investintheuk/sectoropportunities/ict/item/124866.html

In the last couple of days the news has emerged that Ireland won the race to get Twitter to site it’s European Headquarters there. Unsurprisingly this news emerged on Twitter itself – apparently after a concerted effort by Irish Tweeps  to persuade Twitter to come to the land of the Celtic Tiger.

It was interesting timing for me because a U.S. based Hi Tech company had just asked me for my opinion on where to base it’s European Headquarters and I was also reading this article here about some ” tinkering ” that the U.K. government is planning with start-up investment incentives.

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/09/25/for-better-or-worse-the-uk-plans-big-changes-for-startup-investment/

I am sure that IDA Ireland would have been delighted to know that my recommendation was to look closer at Ireland. I don’t have any real connection with Ireland other than the fact that I love Ireland and the Irish people – well doesn’t everyone ???

As a former Royal Navy officer in the 80’s Ireland was sort of ” off limits ” to me – especially Northern Ireland – but when I left the Navy and joined the Hi Tech world ( e.g. Memorex and then Fibernet ) the magic of Ireland started to pull me.

Memorex had strong representation in Ireland and of course the Irish Memorex salespeople were ” memorable ” !! Fibernet also did a lot of business  in Ireland ( customers included Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank ) and M.D. Charles was always being ” led astray ” by the Irish – they delighted in trying to get him to miss his plane by having ” one more Guinness “.

Guinness is of course just one reason why you have to go to Ireland.

For me there followed about 3 ” Stay on a farm ” tours with the children with so many highlights it’s difficult to remember them all – being in a country pub when a  céilidh erupted; the visit to Bunratty Castle; the visit to the Irish National Stud; the visit to the Jamieson’s Distillery. An Irish wedding in Cork. A corporate event with the U.K. Sales Director of 3Com. The occasion that I took the whole of Voyager Networks staff to Dublin to celebrate the sale of Voyager. Staying in the Shelbourne Hotel when ” The Monkees ” walked in !

This is the problem with Ireland – it’s just too much fun !!!

In fairness the Irish really have their act together at a time when the U.S. Hi Tech industry is awash with venture capital investment and many U.S. firms are looking for a base for their European Operations.

According to IDA Ireland Ireland is becoming the Internet Capital of Europe

http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/videos/index.xml

and I am not going to argue with them. Even if all the tinkerings with the Enterprise Investment Scheme in the U.K. happen

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/09/25/for-better-or-worse-the-uk-plans-big-changes-for-startup-investment/

the issue is more about which country has it’s act together in terms of the whole package : Country Brand & Likability Factor, Financial Incentives, Communications infrastructure  etc etc

When I was asked my opinion on where to base I said Ireland off the top of my head. I also asked a friend of mine who has a business helping U.S. companies to establish themselves in Europe – he said the U.K. I also Googled the question and came across a Linkedin answer with a lot of recommendations for Ireland. Just trying to get back to that Linkedin answer I found this:

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/international/internationalization-localization/INT_INZ/7476-1213

Reid Hoffman of Linkedin asks Linkedin where best to place Linkedin’s proposed European H.Q. !!

The answer voted best to this question summarised as follows:

” My final choices as a potential company moving there? Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland. “

Linkedin eventually went to ………………………. Ireland !!

http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/press-releases/linkedin-establishment-of/

and note this:

Kevin Eyres, managing director of LinkedIn Europe commented, “We now have more than 14 million members in Europe and 60 million worldwide. As our membership continues to grow quickly, this is the right time for us to establish an international headquarters. Being based in Dublin gives us access to a highly skilled workforce and enables us to coordinate our business growth across Europe and beyond to deliver the best possible service to our members.”

But also see this ( hot off the press ) in respect of Tax:

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/irish-move-to-save-twitter-53-per-cent-in-tax-0016130-1

and I quote

” That, in effect, represents a saving of €140,000 – or 53 per cent – from situating its European office in Dublin rather than London.

In actual fact, though, Twitter will probably save much more than that, if they’re clever enough to deploy tactics which exploit tax loopholes all over the globe.

It was revealed last year that accounting practices known as a Double Irish and a Dutch Sandwich – owing to similarly favourable tax conditions in the Netherlands – helped Google to reduce its tax bill by €2.2bn.

The 12 per cent Irish corporation tax rate which has contributed to the relocation of so many big companies to these shores has raised the heckles of the likes of France and Germany, who are adamant that Ireland should agree to a more uniform Europe-wide tax rate as a payback for the bailout provided by the (financial terrorists) good folk at the EU, ECB and IMF.”

and the point is that you need to have ALL your ” ducks in a row ” if you are going to win the ” which country am I going to base my European Headquarters in ” game.

If London wants to win in this game it had better put the sort of effort behind it that won the Olympics for 2012.

The Irish brand and the ” Double Irish and a Dutch Sandwich “ is going prove difficult to beat !!!

btw The Celtic Tiger awakening is not just about Internet companies the same is going on in the movie industry and healthcare sectors

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0923/1224304573989.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8049212/The-hi-tech-miracle-rescuing-Ireland-from-a-banking-crisis.html