Abstract

CUTEC and Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) successfully combined efforts to host the Investors’ Forum on the 11th of February. The current economic climate poses significant challenges for budding entrepreneurs, but for truly exceptional ideas there is always money. A stellar panel of early-stage investors, who currently have funds available, offered their insight into:

why it is still a good time to invest

how the crisis affects their strategy

where startups can find money

what investors are looking for

how one can recession-proof their business plan

Alex van Someren, moderating the panel, opened the forum by asking, “How has investing changed in the new economic environment?” A diverse panel of early-stage investors addressed this and a range of other questions pertaining to venture capital. The panel unanimously had a positive tone for start-up companies in today’s market, but as Kerry Baldwin (IQ Capital) poetically put it – investors are looking for companies that are leaner and meaner with their money.

This event has been a milestone in the history of CUTEC and CUE marked by their first collaboration in the many years of existence of both clubs. When asked, the CUTEC president stated: “Dr. Michael Lynch, in his Enterprise Tuesday talk dated 27th February 2009*, made the point that a critical factor in a company’s progress is to have an opponent. While there is nothing wrong with healthy competition motivating CUE and CUTEC to maintain their unique identities, it has been a good opportunity tonight for our members to realize that not only the nature and activities of CUE and CUTEC are complementary, but in the macro-perspective the 2 clubs are close allies having common interests that could only be met by establishing a long-term, non-theoretical, fruitful relationship. Our goal is to establish at least one such collaborative effort per year.”

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