In the Thick o L


Entrepreneur Country follows the journeys of Pete Boswell a successful serial entrepreneur who ‘pitched’ his latest business at the EC Forum in February. Off the back of many years planning and that 5 minute presentation, Pete secured angel investor funding and almost immediately thereafter secured a deal with a multi-national company. This new section of entrepreneurcountry magazine charts his journey and insights as he looks to build his business.


ast month, just two months after I pitched at the Entrepreneur Country and after offers of initial angel investment, my technology company had real cause for celebration. Our renewed sense


of self-purpose and expert guidance saw us finally landing a contract with a global blue chip multi-billion dollar company with whom we had been in negotiations for almost 28 months.


It was at this point that I have to admit that I began to feel that our original good idea was starting to look like it had turned into a great one!


With the business now looking like it was about to grow and take off, partly due to this big deal, our small business of just two Directors decided that it was time to expand the Board by seeking a number of non- executive Directors to join us with a view to helping us grow and build the business.


One of people we successfully recruited to join the Board as a Non-Executive is also a senior projects Director with a major UK national organisation and in this role managed an annual budget of over £2bn. As a small business we felt very fortunate to have secured such an experienced talent.


The day of our first Board meeting arrived and we were eager to welcome our new non-Exec. Naturally wanting to impress our new ‘big gun’ we had circulated the draft contract for our ‘big deal’ with a view to obtaining Board alignment and to agree to sign it off.


We wanted to show him what a smart and switched- on group of people we were. Our anticipation and excitement ahead of the meeting was running extremely high- this was the opportunity where we finally sat down and sold our vision and plans . We


26 entrepreneurcountry


made our introductions and then immediately handed the chair over to our new Director.


“I see far too many risks in the commercial contract you have given me to read. In my opinion it could be potentially very bad for the business if it was to sign off under the current terms!”


You could have heard a pin drop in the room.


When the viability of a project you have just spent 28 months working on is challenged suggesting that the good idea you believe in could possibly be not quite as good as you moments ago believed, it can I confess, result in the release


range from total surprise to downright anger.


It took a couple of moments to fully understand what the Big Gun had just said. “Why is it a bad move?” I heard myself ask in my best ‘confident’ voice.


I’m an entrepreneur and as such I think that like most entrepreneurs I consider myself to be an optimist. By the word ‘optimist’ what I mean is that I tend to focus on the word GOOD in the phrase “A Good Idea”. Of course we have to believe in our ideas if we are going to feel passionate about them. However, I must admit I have not always looked for the potential bad that can sit hidden within our ‘Good Ideas’.


When developing a new good idea there is a tendency for entrepreneurs to sit in an echo chamber and to manipulate the information to result in positive outcomes. We all like to build big elaborate spreadsheet models which can almost develop into some kind ofgame, as we seek to build our new virtual business into a success – without it leaving the confines of our PC screens.


of many different emotions that


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