Dear dear Nick:)
NICK WAS MY FIRST AND I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM
Swiss posh boy – but never mentioned any where?????
I met him almost 3 years ago in a bar in Birmingham in the early days of Oxygen Accelerator with Simon Jenner and also Steve Smith ( the guy behind Poundland – Steve is worth more than a pound nowadays and we keep trying to do stuff together but alas it never happens as we are both too busy ). Thanks Hanif as you introduced me to this startup world and it’s been a great ride:). Nick had been booted off Alan Sugar’s Apprentice but would not tell me….that crap idea in the Apprentice was the one I would invest in….smart or madness????
So over lunch I explained to Nick about SEIS/EIS and thought that was it over and we had a one lunch stand….ooooooooh no, the bastard came back:). Nick came back a few months later and said he had investors and wanted to know if I would invest…Invest I did with Pete Dines, Duncan Kerr and Nate MacLeitch – never having met them before I agreed to take a board seat. Over the next 2 years I got to know them and they were some of the nicest, smartest people I could ever meet…..shame about Nick:)……. that business went from an interesting concept into something that is I believe quite revolutionary in what it is doing now. Nick has grown from a silly salesman with daft hair to a visionary with daft hair. I’d like to say I had a small part in it but reality the guys let me come to the board meetings for their amusement.
Cheers
Doug