Philip’s blog

Our techinical expert has been counting up the stats on the Equity Fingerprint website and found that we have had over 7,000 downloads of the guide.  The wonders of web2.0.  Imagine 7,000 guides printed and sitting on the kitchen table ready to be bound - all the punching would have been good for my arm muscles.  I guess that the big loser is the Post Office and the cobblers - lots of shoe leather going to the post and lots of licking of stamps are no longer required.

After a fascinating presentation, Geoff and I went for a coffee where he changed the picture resolution of my camera so that they will transfer quickly.  Back to qubox.  this is very clever software developed by Andrew Fraser and Professor Bill Fitzgerald to group people into likes and dislikes by making simple choices between a series of pictures.  Then you rate each choice by moving a slider.  It is very simple but behind is lots of clever software and research.  The development has been funded by Angle to a tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

Qubox is a social software version of Synature.  The product is being used by MyTravel to help people chose new holiday destinations.

Of course it can be used to help people find new friends on the social software sites. John Woods is the CEO so watch this space and try out qubox or go somewhere different this year on holiday which people with a similar outlook in this world have enjoyed.  But do not expect to meet someone different.  But there is no place for single people on a Mytravel holiday so it will be back to counting sheep in Wales.  Of course, Geoff was in his element and provided great feedback and lots of networks who would have a different Angle on the idea (sorry about that!).

There is a lovely new house being built across the road but it needs services - gas, electricity, water and phone.  The first three have been connected and this very pleasant Father and Son team arrived to connect the phone.  It is amazing to see the infrastucture installed for one thin wire.  I know that it has to be protected but a large trench and a special chamber to help the wire bend at a right-angle?  The team could not have been nicer, cleaned up after themselves and cleared the debris.  Of course, yet another gang is needed to complete the job with hot bitumen.  I hope that they run an Internet business at the new house to make good use of the services.  But they are builders so I guess that they will soon move on and dig up someone elses pavement.

It was good to take Eric to the Garden Centre today - he likes getting out and is generous.  He loves going on the motorway and seeing his true love - wagons or lorries or whatever.  His eyes light up and he starts talking.

Great talk on Nujira at CUTEC last night by CEO Tim Haynes and Stephen Lowery of 3i. Fascinating comments on how starting a business was so much harder than imagined and has taken so much longer.  Started in 2002, the Founders should should now be enjoying early retirement but find themselved raising a Series B round with retirement still a few years away.

Headcount started at 4, dipped to 2 and is now racing over the 30 mark.  It is all very different from Bebo which in a couple of years is worth hundreds of millions and only employs 16 people.  Web2.0 is the way forward - think YouTube!

Nujira has taken old technology and applied it in a novel way to produce a small power amplifier which will cut energy costs at teh 60,000 UK mobile phone base stations by 40%.  These account for some 2% of total UK energy consumption.  It is a global billion dollar business.

Funding has been in four rounds with Founders, Angels, Series A and Series B and some grants in the earlier days.

The investors started by taking refences on Tim, moved on to asking customers if they would buy the product and in the last round, when would they buy the product and for how much.

Tim said that with the 20:20 vision of hindsight he would have recruited faster and employed a CFO earlier.  He also took 9 references on the VCs to make sure he was getting into bed with the best - 3i and Amadeus.

One to watch but it will have to do well to give a good return to the Angel investors who must have been heavily diluted - roll on web 2.0!

Shamus from New Zealand is a prolific inventor and has at least two companies on the go in Cambridge and a third in Oxford.  Cambridge Temperature Concepts can be used for conception and contraception, when is the best time to go or not!  It would be a fantastic invention and I hope it brings happiness and relief to many couples.  The company is funded by Downing Enterprise.

Second is Mo.Jo and the website just says “coming soon!”.  MoJo will help young bands launch their careers by fans texting money to a site.  It is like eBay feedback but instead of stars you text cash or a modern day version of fans paying in advance of the music being recorded.  Then there is Camerge to watch in Oxford once they update their website!

Great Saturday entertainment watching the Varsity Lacrosse Match with a crowd of over 1,000 people.  In the red on the left hand picture you can see two major bloggers in Cambridge, Geoff and Sally in Norfolk.  They are booked to Yomp from the North to the South coast of Corsica in the summer heat.  There will not be much spare time for sunbathing!  In the third picture from the right, you can see the players saying “thanks” in the traditional finish to a Lax match. 

 You are never far from EF in the world of Cambridge.  Performance Tyres was established by Nick who sold out to Micheldever a few months ago after building up the business to be one of the finest tyre companies in the area with the most charming staff unless you turn up around the midday closing time on Saturday!

Nick has sold out to Micheldever Tyre Services Limited who are funded by Graphite Capital.  Director Phil Brookes did not give the details but what will the EF look like after funding the proposed expansion.  Perhaps it will be fromcash flow which will be an amazing achievement.

At least they generate an income so it made a nice change from the world of the Cambridge Cluster - just wish it was not on my card!  Income or no income, that is the question.

kevin Johnson joined Cambridge Antibody Technology soon after start-up and became CTO and a board member.  Now a Founder of PanGenetics which is also on the anti-body business and is funded by Index Ventures.  Let us hope that the venture is successful and allows him to further indulge his passion of fast cars.  We met at Performance Tyres, Cambridge. 

Eric is my wonderful neighbour but is suffering from a loss of faculties which happens to all of us, I guess, as we get older.  We just lose different bits at different rates.  He ”hates” the person who took his driving licence away as he spent all his life in a cab building a very large business before selling out.  He settled away from home for tax reasons but is now back in good old UK.  I hope that his rhubarb does well this year and I also hope to benefit from the produce of his new greenhouse - what some kids do for their parents!  It is a special time when we have a bit of “snap” and tea together and put the world to rights.