I say, I say, I say, what’s the difference between Angels Den and the world’s largest particle accelerator…?
“The end of the world is nigh!” was the headline that I woke to on Wednesday. Surely this is the sort of thing they should ease you into gently, you know, let you have your morning coffee and wipe the sleep from your eyes before blurting out that we’re all going to die a horrible vacuous death.
For all you non-particle physicists out there, Wednesday saw the switching on of Switzerland’s answer to a fun time, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s biggest ever particle accelerator. Basically, it is a very very long underground tube along which scientists push tiny particles of matter very very fast. The point is to push particles in the other direction as well and to get them to hit one another and see what happens. It’s a bit like when the first cavemen discovered fire by hitting two rocks together and figuring out what to do with the pretty light that was created, only today’s Homo Sapien Nerdius (scientists) have slightly less protruding foreheads, and hardly ever go out hunting woolly mammoth any more (all their game is online these days!).
Just like a kid with a new toy the very excitable scientist being interviewed on the TV was talking about how this experiment promises to uncover the secrets of the Higgs Boson, Supersymmetry, Grand Unification Theory and so much more– oh and by the way it might just create a black hole that could rip the Earth apart and kill us all… I don’t know about you, but when geeks with fixed grins are about to switch on equipment they do not fully understand I start to worry But it seems that all the Doomsday talk may have been just media hype as usual, because we’re all still here.
Ok, so here at Angels Den we may not know our Proton Synchrotron Booster from our Compact Muon Solenoid, but there certainly are some undeniable similarities between our work and this experiment in Switzerland. The purpose of both is to cause high energy collisions to create something spectacular, new and to date undiscovered. The Large Hadron Collider hurls thousands of protons at high speed at one another in the hope that their impact will create something shiny and new for the physicists to drool over. Here at Angels Den we hurl enthusiastic small business entrepreneurs at high speed towards wealthy business investor Angels (metaphorically speaking of course…) and watch the new and explosive businesses form and develop from the collision of minds and funds.
Angels Den offers a new dimension in small business development for ambitious entrepreneurs whose plans exceed their funds, or their ability to grow their businesses beyond a certain point. Through online presentations, video and face to face pitching, new and innovative concepts that push the boundaries of business ingenuity are offered to Angels keen to invest either their time and expertise, or simply their money, to contribute to the growth and development of a fledgling company.
So far, seven thousand entrepreneurs have pitched to over four thousand investor Angels, offering both parties a massive opportunity to succeed with the other’s help. Although we try to ensure that none of our entrepreneurs plan to trigger the end of the world, we believe that these statistics are pretty darn earth-shattering.
As usual the distressing headlines of last Wednesday turned out to be just another flight of journalistic fantasy which under closer scrutiny bares little resemblance to the actual truth. As I sat and watched the news report waiting to see at what time that morning I should expect to gasp my last breath, they explained that the day’s experiment was to send some particles one way along the complex’s structure. The still grinning scientist told the less than enthusiastic interviewer that in a few days time they may be able to get the particles all the way around, then sometime within a month or so they may start to send particles in the other direction. So in an extraordinary feat of cosmic irony we could all get sucked into a Swiss-made black hole by Diwali (the Hindu festival of LIGHT)!
Assuming we are all still here this time next month; if you would like to accelerate your entrepreneurial plans or shed light on the dark matter of your business future (groan, I know!) register at Angels Den to take part in our next high energy collision event where you can pitch your business, business concept or invention to Angels keen to give a capital boost to the right venture.
And now for a video:
Image © petervanallen
