Al’s an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years senior executive level experience. As Chief Operating Officer at RSA Data Security Inc., the leading security software company, he led its transformation from a passive patent licensing operation to an aggressive, sales oriented software company. At RSA he negotiated partnership agreements with IBM, Intel, Compaq, Cisco and Nortel. Al was Chairman, President and CEO of Phoenix Technologies Ltd, the global BIOS software company. He revitalised Phoenix through the acquisition of Internet appliance business, Ravisent Technologies; investing in semiconductor and microprocessor designer Transmeta and spinning off Silicon Corporation.
Ian Ritchie is the non-executive Chairman Computer Applications Service, and Krotos and completed his term of office as the Chairman of Iomart plc in August 2018. He founded OWL in 1984, which pioneered hypertext application development (a forerunner to the world wide web) selling the company to Panasonic in 1989. Since then he has been involved in over 40 start-up high-tech businesses.
Ian has a degree in Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University (1973) and holds Honorary Doctorates from Robert Gordons, Abertay, Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Universities.
He writes a monthly column in Scottish Business Insider magazine and his TED talk has been viewed over 500,000 times.
Sarah qualified with Ernst & Young as a Chartered Accountant before joining its corporate finance team. She then spent six years with the BBC, firstly within commercial and investment strategy and then as Head of Financial Planning and Analysis. For the seven years before joining Tern PLC, Sarah was an outsourced Finance Director for SME businesses principally within high tech markets.
Bruce began his career with IBM and has extensive international sales management and board-level experience in the software industry including senior-level positions at DataWorks Corporation; London Bridge Software International and Codestream. Specialising in delivering high growth, high-profit results through product development, portfolio repositioning, and geographical expansion, Bruce was involved in the successful sale of a number of companies including Interactive UK; London Bridge and Codestream. Bruce is also an active angel investor in several high growth software businesses.
Matthew has 25 years of start-up and scale-up experience specialising in working and investing in technology companies across the IoT industry. His experience covers the full company lifecycle development, from start-up to exit, with a focus on strategy and commercial-scale across both the private and public sector markets. Prior to joining Tern, he spent almost five years at a UK venture capital investment company dedicated to the IoT arena. During this time, he helped originate, invest and support the development of disruptive technology companies in the UK, Europe, and the US, and particularly within artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Additionally, he held board positions on several portfolio companies and worked with management teams to help develop their strategic, commercial and operational functions.
When meeting an investor for the first time, the pressure is on for entrepreneurs to deliver a killer presentation and create a favorable impression. This often makes you forget to ask your qualification questions necessary to judge if the investor is a good fit for your company. Use the early meetings to ensure all expectations are on the table to avoid disappointment or disenchantment later on.
Running a start-up or an SME? Whether it’s already crucial to your development plans, or merely a quiet hope in the back of your mind, it’s likely that you’ve at least considered the question of attracting and securing investment.