The founders who raise most quickly are almost never the ones who sent the most emails. They are the ones who engineered the right conversations through the right people. Warm introductions. Systematic, deliberate, prepared. […]
Future Makers: what a room full of climate founders taught me about money
This morning I spent a couple of hours at Barclays Eagle Labs in Glasgow at Future Makers, a Circular Glasgow breakfast on where climate innovation meets commercial opportunity. Lisa Torrance from Glasgow Chamber and Natalie Cutting and the team from Barclays pulled together a properly mixed room: tech, manufacturing, academia, architecture, AI, energy, finance and the arts. Even farming, I think! […]
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The Scottish Incubator & Accelerator Map. Where to Go. What to Expect.
Scotland’s entrepreneurial infrastructure has never been stronger. Over the last decade the ecosystem has moved from a handful of well-intentioned programmes to a genuinely diverse network of incubators, accelerators, and innovation hubs spanning every region – from the Highlands to the Borders, from Aberdeen’s energy transition zone to Glasgow’s industrial biotech corridor. […]
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Close your round by Christmas? You’re Already Behind.
The autumn raise is twelve dedicated working weeks at the least. Here’s how the season actually runs, and what you need in your hands before investors switch back on. […]
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Building Your Fundraise Investor List: From Chaos to Pipeline
I have reviewed hundreds of investor outreach lists from UK tech founders over the years. Most of them are long on names and short on thinking. A list of 40 funds found on Google or a BVCA directory, with a bulk email to each one, is not a fundraising strategy. It is noise. The funds on the receiving end have seen thousands of versions of it. […]
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3 Mistakes Killing Your Fundraise! 5-minute video
Thirty years as an investor, distilled into under five minutes?! Well not quite, but here is an investor-lens segment I made for for VC26: what I wanted their early-stage founders to know before they pitched. I recorded it for that particular cohort, but it holds for anyone raising pre-seed or seed. No theory, no jargon. […]
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100+ Pitch Events & Competitions for UK Founders 2026/2027
I was recently asked by an enterprising fintech start-up to join their advisory board. While I am considering it, the conversation got me thinking about best practices, and about how consistently founders underestimate this lever. So here are some thoughts, specifically for UK founders who are getting ready to raise. […]
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Fundraising 101 UK Agritech Accelerator & Incubator Map
Field trials cost money. Glasshouses and robotics cost money. Proximity to working farms, test beds and the right research base matters enormously. And choosing the wrong programme can cost you a growing season you can’t get back.
This is not an exhaustive directory. But it’s a practical starting point: a map of the key agritech incubators, accelerators and innovation hubs across the UK. Where they sit. What they do. Whether they’re worth your time. […]
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Fundraising Financial Modelling (for Founders who aren’t CFOs)
I have sat in hundreds of pitch meetings over 30 years. The founders who fumble their own financial projections, who have to look at their deck to answer a question about their own burn rate, or who can’t explain what causes the revenue inflection in year three of their model, do more damage in that moment than any individual bad assumption in the model. It’s not the number that’s the problem. It’s that not knowing it signals you don’t understand your own business as a business. […]
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SEIS & EIS: A Practical Guide for UK Tech Founders
I’ve watched deals close on EIS eligibility alone that might have struggled without it. I’ve also watched founders walk into meetings with UK angels and mention EIS as a footnote on their legal slide. Those are two very different conversations with very different outcomes. […]
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AI in Fundraising: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
30 years in venture capital. 80+ companies invested in. 500+ ventures coached in fundraising. And the single biggest change I’ve watched in the last year isn’t a new fund, a new sector, or a new stage. It’s a machine sitting between every founder and every cheque. […]
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Dump your One-Page Pitch. Time for a Teaser Deck.
I have evaluated thousands of pitches, first from inside venture capital funds, now across the 500 plus ventures I have coached before and during Fundraising101. I have been on the receiving end of more cold one-pagers than I can count. So let me tell you exactly what happens to yours. […]
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Fundraising Is Tough…But It Doesn’t Have To Be
Most guides about fundraising tell you what to do. This one tells you what is actually happening — from the other side of the table. And THEN what to do about it. […]
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Fundraising 101 UK Bio Incubator & Accelerator Map
Where to Start. Who to Talk To. If you’re building something in biotech, synthetic biology, industrial biotech, life sciences or the bio-based circular economy, geography still matters.
Labs cost money. Equipment costs money. Proximity to the right expertise matters enormously. And choosing the wrong programme can cost you 12 months you can’t get back. […]
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Scotland’s Deep Tech Ecosystem: More Impressive Than You Think. And More Fragile.
I attended the launch of the Scottish Deep Tech Report 2026 this week, produced by Dealroom in partnership with the University of Glasgow. I’ve read it cover to cover and I’ve been thinking about it since. Here’s my honest, detailed take. […]
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Long-Read: Funding Your Social-Impact Business
If you’ve described your business as “purpose-driven,” “social impact,” “mission-led,” or “ESG-aligned” — you’re not alone. And you’re probably also aware that these terms mean different things to different people, including the investors you’re trying to reach. […]
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How Venture Capital Investors Think About Risk
I’ve spent 30 years on the investor side of the table in UK venture capital and technology investment. In that time I have sat across from hundreds of founders at every stage; from raw pre-seed pitches with a deck and a dream to Series B companies with product, revenue, and a team. The single most consistent mistake I’ve seen founders make when they walk into a funding conversation is this: they try to convince me their company has no risk. […]
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Why Every UK Start-Up Should Build an Advisory Board
I was recently asked by an enterprising fintech start-up to join their advisory board. While I am considering it, the conversation got me thinking about best practices, and about how consistently founders underestimate this lever. So here are some thoughts, specifically for UK founders who are getting ready to raise. […]
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OMG! Stop Sending One Pitch Deck to Everyone!
Did you know? Funds are now using AI to screen the tidal wave of inbound pitch decks landing in their inboxes every week. Founders scraping investor lists and blasting the same generic deck to hundreds of contacts, spray and pray, are not just wasting their own time. They are being filtered out automatically. […]
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Your Data Room Is Not Optional. Here’s How to Build One That Works.
Most pre-seed founders think the pitch deck is the main event. It isn’t. It’s the opening act. The moment an investor says “send me more,” the real show begins — and if you don’t have a data room ready to go, you’re already behind. […]
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What Investors Notice on Linkedin, But Don’t Tell You
An investor reads your LinkedIn profile. Then they click your co-founder. Or your Head of Sales. And the profile looks like it belongs to a completely different company. That inconsistency is a yellow flag and most founding teams don’t even know it’s there. […]
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Milestones Over Runway: Framing Your Pre-Seed Ask Slide
“Use of Funds” is Not a Strategy. Milestones Are. Most pre-seed decks have a slide called “Use of Funds.” Most of them are useless. […]
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Fundraising101™ and Money Insights Join Forces for Scottish Founders
Scotland’s Fundraising101™ Academy and UK-wide Money Insights are combining their complementary expertise. […]
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Inside Track: The pre-seed investment podcast
Want to join my podcast? I’m seeking early-stage funders to interview on Fundraising 101’s new podcast channel! This is about having honest conversations with investors who actually write pre-seed checks. […]
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Competitive Intelligence: The Slide Most Founders Get Wrong (And How It Costs Them)
After reviewing 300+ investment pitch decks, I can tell you this: roughly 60% either skip the competitive analysis entirely or deliver something so weak it would have been better left out. […]
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