The Thames Valley GROWTH SPOTLIGHT


A quarterly insight in association with Penningtons Manches


A ‘Growth Spotlight’ from successful company leaders


Jumping into the business unknown


Technology continues to transform the business world – and with it the scale and scope of its leading edge exponents, writes John Burbedge


“One of my favourite analogies about starting a business is that it’s like jumping off a cliff with a parachute. When you jump your parachute won’t open straight away. You will spend time free-falling, not knowing for sure if your parachute will open. But if you don’t jump you will never have a chance of soaring.”


Those are the words of Georgina Hurcombe one of the contributors to this ‘Growth Spotlight’. They are emotively apt and fitting words for our Spring 2018 article – nature’s time for fresh starts and fledgling growth – focused on early-stage business growth.


It takes nerve to start a business, to jump into the unknown. It’s easier to fear failure, choose a vanilla existence – and perhaps regret that missed opportunity and potential personal achievement for the rest of your life.


As Georgina Hurcombe says: “If you don’t jump, you will never have a chance of soaring.”


Not that anyone jumps into the unknown if they can discover and resolve the dangers in advance or learn from the experiences of other ‘jumpers’.


This is why you should read this article, which provides early-stage growth insights and advice from the leaders of four companies that today standout impressively within our dynamic Thames Valley economic region.


While Hurcombe’s parachute jump imagery is still fresh in your mind let’s introduce another of our four contributors to this Growth Spotlight with her own ‘down to earth’ warnings about gaining appropriate start-up or growth funding and keeping the company vision in focus.


Sharon Pursey, co-founder of SafeToNet


A former Reading-based E-Safety company providing expert information and intelligent tools that empower parents to safeguard children on their mobile devices. Winner: Thames Valley Business Magazine Awards 2017 ‘Best Use of Technology’ and ‘Rising Star’ at 2017 Women in Business Awards.


“We’ve found that the days of purely conceptual products, fuelled by VCs with deep pockets, are long gone for most businesses, start-ups or otherwise. Even Google’s ‘Moonshot Incubator’ only has three projects currently in development.


“With early-stage funding dropping like a stone, start-ups are having to act like mid-size businesses earlier and earlier.”


Early on, the SafeToNet team all agreed THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – MARCH/APRIL 2018


and the bi-product of that is achieving significant commercial success.”


Maintaining core focus is crucial to product development, the sales process and the negotiation of issues, says Pursey.


“Every day a new commercial or technical opportunity comes to us, testing this, promising to take us in a new, different, exciting direction.


“The only way we’ve been able to evaluate these choices is to keep asking ourselves ‘Does this respect children’s rights and privacy, and will this help parents keep children safe?’


that their mission was to safeguard children online.


“That is why we exist. It’s something we know to be a genuine global problem. Our product will effect a social change,


“Our vision isn’t fluffy and intangible, it’s razor sharp and we use it to simplify complex questions and remind ourselves of why we exist.”


continued overleaf ..... businessmag.co.uk 17


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