Happy Birthday To Us!

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The landscape of small business funding changed forever on the 1 May 2007 – the date that Angels Den was launched. Happy Birthday to us! Looking back over the last three years we can see just how far we have come – from kitchen table to dedicated office, from just Lois and I, to a team of experts up and down the country, and from startup to one of the largest Angel networks in Europe. This is the story of how the last three years has fashioned our little business into a lifeline for small business funding both in the UK and internationally just when it was most needed.

You know how some stories start, “It was a hot and humid night…” Well, this story starts in a similar way. Three years ago today the temperature was in the mid 20s, and it was raining proverbial cats and dogs outside, but around the makeshift boardroom table (that would be my kitchen table) our spirits were soaring because we knew that we were now brave pioneers in the small business funding sector.

Frustrated by the mystery that surrounded the behind closed doors world of small business funding that both Lois and I had experienced ourselves, we vowed to create something different, something we could be proud of. Angels Den was founded on the principles of open, honest, transparent and simple small business funding, accessible to all. If you had a great idea, a solid business plan and the fortitude to push your venture forward you should have the opportunity to pitch for funding to those with the capital to help you.

Angels Den was the first company to strip back the veil of secrecy that shrouded the lengthy and complicated arena of small business funding, and introduce the world to SpeedFunding – an event where entrepreneurs with promising ventures, concepts and inventions could pitch to numerous business Angels in a single evening. These exciting, sociable and highly charged events were an immediate success, and we now run SpeedFunding events up and down the country totalling somewhere in the region of 4,000 pitches a year for small business funding.

The buzz surrounding Angels Den has at times been almost too productive for our own good. With hundreds of brilliant ideas flowing into our database, we have had to adapt our technologies several times to cope with the deluge. We now have over 4,000 business Angels registered with us, making Angels Den one of the largest Angel networks in Europe. And together with over 10,000 registered entrepreneurs, many with business plans and fantastic investment opportunities for anyone lucky enough to find them in time, Angels Den has become the melting pot from which many a profitable partnership has emerged.

We were so proud of what we had achieved in London that we decided to expand, and today with regional directors in the South East, South West, Yorkshire and North East, and North West and Scotland we now offer SpeedFunding events in almost every corner of the kingdom.

Success indeed, but as we’re not ones to sit on our laurels, Lois and I have pushed to find new ways to improve access to small business funding for all new ventures.

• January 2010 saw the launch of our Singapore office covering the whole Asia Pacific region. And with local partners like Standard Chartered Private Banking, a flourish of media attention and a successful investment fostered from our very first SpeedFunding event, we have high hopes for our international expansion.

• 2010 also saw the launch of the Best of Angels Den Fund which allowed ordinary people to become a business Angel and invest in the best British business prospects that we could find (the fund has been such a success that we now have all the investors we can handle).

• April 2010 saw the launch of Angels Lounge, our initiative to level the gender playing field that until now has seen an increasing number, but still far too few, female entrepreneurs who have become business Angels.
• ITV have commissioned us to develop a show for entrepreneurs that we are currently working on with a crack team of producers, directors and other associated TV people. So watch this space.
• And I’ve enjoyed a little of the spotlight with regular invites to appear on BBC’s Working Lunch and to speaking my mind on small business matters in numerous broadsheets.

The last three years have been a rollercoaster ride, and I for one have enjoyed every moment of it. Our timing could not have been better with the banking sector backing away from their traditional role as small business funding experts, and I’m so proud of what we have built and the partnerships we have fostered. Happy Birthday to us, long may it continue.

Image © Alan Stoddard