Our brand new series of High Growth events kicked off on Wednesday 27 February and was a tremendous success.
As part of our partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs, we launched three new sessions towards the end of last month: High Growth Talks, Growth Grub and CodeBase Office Hours.
C4DI MD John Connolly speaking at the Barclays Eagle Lab Partnership Launch in October 2018
We welcomed acclaimed speakers Alistair Forbes - Investment Director and Head of Software and the Internet at Mercia Technologies - and Nick Marshall, an experienced executive and now an adviser to new and innovative businesses.
"Our main aim with this launch was to promote and enhance a business's understanding of how to create an entrepreneur's mindset in order to scale," explains David Summerbell, Barclays Ecosystem Manager.
"We wanted to help members understand the impact and threats that can make or break a business."
The morning started with a brilliant talk from Alistair Forbes, who focused on how to build and grow a software company.
After creating, building and selling a startup software business earlier on in his career, Alistair now works for Mercia, a national investment group that specialises in the identification, creation, funding and scaling of innovative businesses with high-growth potential from the UK regions.
Shortly afterwards, Nick Marshall hosted our first Growth Grub event.
Nick founded Hull-based cloud services IT company Giacom in 1999 and quickly created a high-growth culture, guiding the business through two management buy-outs in order to complete his exit in 2017.
He now helps other businesses thrive and prosper with both his advice and direct funding.
Startup entrepreneur Mike White enjoyed the High Growth day and is keen to attend future events:
"I signed up to help me 'see into the future' of my business. As a startup entrepreneur of a company that's growing faster than any of my previous ventures, it was really important to meet people and hear stories that might give me some insight into the opportunities and threats to watch out for," he enthuses.
Following an informal networking session, businesses who had booked appointments could spend some time with CodeBase - the largest technology incubator in the UK and one of the fastest growing in Europe.
"My one-to-one session with a high-growth business incubator who put my business plan to the test and wasn't afraid to pick holes or find problems. The talks and workshops certainly helped me identify the threats to my business, and highlighted all the opportunities too," Mike adds.
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Meanwhile, you can also download the slides from the presentation here.