Find out what rubbish childhood "hobby" I had (16:26 in podcast) as heard on the Frank Skinner show on Absolute Radio.
Podcast - Recorded 23 October 2010... absoluteradio.co.uk
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/podcasts/Frank-Skinner-on-Absolute-Radio/2010-10-23
Frank, Emily and Gareth chat about the top comedy earners, collecting weird things and halloween fancy dress.
Thursday 28 October 2010
Wednesday 20 October 2010
Presenting at Cass Business School...
...and why an IPO is a bit like getting married.
Off to Cass Business School yesterday to present at the Cityzone IPO Club sponsored by law firm Fasken Martineau and accountancy firm BDO.
The presentation I gave was one I use frequently as it talks about what companies need to do from a finance perspective to prepare not just for IPO but for any fundraising, and what they need to do to make a success of their IPO.
This includes not having related party transactions. Crudely put this means not siphoning money out of the company. Many entrepreneurs run their businesses from property they own in their own right rather than it being owned by the business. That’s all very well if you don’t have external investors but if you do they will want to see that it’s at a market rent and not a ruse by which the entrepreneur can take shareholders cash out of the business. The property example is a common and simple one but there are many other more exotic arrangements (like company jets) which I’ll describe another time. Other areas companies usually have to clean up their act is in ownership of key assets. Again, many entrepreneurs will try to keep the key assets, eg patents, trademarks etc. out of the company so as not to jeopardise them but also because they feel the assets are personal to them. And finally, these days we have to have a few slides on corporate governance, and the importance of good control, reporting, non executive directors etc..
I went to a rather average university and never got round to going to business school. I would have liked to but could never fit it amongst work and life, in so I’m always a little overawed by any good academic institution like Cass Business school. A friend of mine recently became a professor and whilst I’m not one for titles, if I had a title other than Mr then it would have to be Prof. It sounds so like you didn’t really want it; that it was foist upon you for your greatness, unlike say Sir or Lord which most people who receive it were probably very desperate for it. Alas, to get the Prof title you need to need to follow the academic route, which frankly was never my cup of tea, or should I say as in academia, my glass of port.
The Cityzone IPO Club is run by the silky-tongued, boy-band sound-a-like, founder of Cityzone, Ronan Bryan, who manages the room deftly and with quiet confidence and the usual Celtic charm. He makes a group of professional advisers and entrepreneurs feel like it’s just a get together of friends, and the interaction amongst the group is quite stimulating.
I go on to talk about how to get the most out of going through the costly, and time-consuming process of an IPO. Many companies see it as an end point, in the same way as some men see marriage as an end point, but looking optimistically it’s actually the start of something potentially beautiful, and like marriage it doesn’t just create happiness by itself. Being a quoted company, like being in a successful marriage, requires hard work, and getting through the tough times. A lesson that many entreprenuers often forget.
Off to Cass Business School yesterday to present at the Cityzone IPO Club sponsored by law firm Fasken Martineau and accountancy firm BDO.
The presentation I gave was one I use frequently as it talks about what companies need to do from a finance perspective to prepare not just for IPO but for any fundraising, and what they need to do to make a success of their IPO.
This includes not having related party transactions. Crudely put this means not siphoning money out of the company. Many entrepreneurs run their businesses from property they own in their own right rather than it being owned by the business. That’s all very well if you don’t have external investors but if you do they will want to see that it’s at a market rent and not a ruse by which the entrepreneur can take shareholders cash out of the business. The property example is a common and simple one but there are many other more exotic arrangements (like company jets) which I’ll describe another time. Other areas companies usually have to clean up their act is in ownership of key assets. Again, many entrepreneurs will try to keep the key assets, eg patents, trademarks etc. out of the company so as not to jeopardise them but also because they feel the assets are personal to them. And finally, these days we have to have a few slides on corporate governance, and the importance of good control, reporting, non executive directors etc..
I went to a rather average university and never got round to going to business school. I would have liked to but could never fit it amongst work and life, in so I’m always a little overawed by any good academic institution like Cass Business school. A friend of mine recently became a professor and whilst I’m not one for titles, if I had a title other than Mr then it would have to be Prof. It sounds so like you didn’t really want it; that it was foist upon you for your greatness, unlike say Sir or Lord which most people who receive it were probably very desperate for it. Alas, to get the Prof title you need to need to follow the academic route, which frankly was never my cup of tea, or should I say as in academia, my glass of port.
The Cityzone IPO Club is run by the silky-tongued, boy-band sound-a-like, founder of Cityzone, Ronan Bryan, who manages the room deftly and with quiet confidence and the usual Celtic charm. He makes a group of professional advisers and entrepreneurs feel like it’s just a get together of friends, and the interaction amongst the group is quite stimulating.
I go on to talk about how to get the most out of going through the costly, and time-consuming process of an IPO. Many companies see it as an end point, in the same way as some men see marriage as an end point, but looking optimistically it’s actually the start of something potentially beautiful, and like marriage it doesn’t just create happiness by itself. Being a quoted company, like being in a successful marriage, requires hard work, and getting through the tough times. A lesson that many entreprenuers often forget.
Monday 4 October 2010
OMG - Serious gadget lust - The new Blackberry Torch
Yes, it arrived on Saturday morning. Rather unceremoniously in a green and yellow plastic bag handed over by a brusque postal worker to whom it was just another package (and actually I don’t blame him; difficult to show much passion in his trade).
But underneath that synthetic cocoon of bar codes and caution labels lay the object of my gadget lust. A lust built up over many months since the people at RIM first discussed the possibility of the best of Blackberry, with a touch screen but also a proper keypad, and, gasp, a brand new operating system.
I tore the plastic, and feverishly lifted the lid off the strengthened box. And there it was. Lying peacefully in the box like Frankenstein on his bed, waiting to come to life to, Frankenstein-like, slowly take over my life. I had tried to manage my lust for this monster of a product. I flirted with the iPhone but couldn’t commit to actually buying one. When I ordered my new Blackberry Torch I had wondered whether I’d made the right decision and whether I might become a leper in a sea of my Apple-laden gadget-freak friends.
But now here it was. I lifted it, stroked its unblemished screen, flipped down the keypad and I just knew I’d made the right decision.
So, that’s enough gadget-porn. What’s it actually like?
I previously had a Blackberry Storm, the touch screen BB with the slightly annoying clicky action. The Torch is much more like an Apple with similar touch screen features but also introduces some new features such as when you hold your finger over a contact a number of action options appear so you can call, text, edit the contact. On the front screen you also have an activity button which will pull up your recent emails, appointments and missed calls. Also, all activity for a contact is registered against that contact meaning you can find a trail of interaction with that contact. The browser which on the Torch was painfully slow is incredibly fast especially when used over a Wifi and the phone intelligently uses Wifi wherever possible reducing your data usage over the phone network.
The big advantage Apple claims for its iPhone is the apps directory and whilst the Blackberry has an apps store it is woeful in comparison. However, that’s not why most users will have chosen a Blackberry. The BB will allow you to post to Twitter and other social networks and play inane games and get various information but if you feel a need for a Carling app which can mimic you pouring some beer down your gullet then this isn’t for you.
If however you want push email then the smoothness and ease of the email functionality of the BB is hard to beat and this new operating systems multitasks effortlessly between email and browser and media. Best of all, the set up took just 30 minutes by which time all of my contacts and media had been transferred from my Storm to the Torch, and infact most of that 30 minutes was downloading and installing the new version of BB Desktop which is required by the Torch.
All in all the Blackberry Torch is an excellent phone and one which I think will make the 24 months to my next phone fly by. The problem with lust though, and especially gadget lust, is that you never know when it’s going to pop up again, and frankly I will find it hard to be faithful to a lump of metal and plastic, however beautiful and effective it might seem now, if a newer sexier model appears.
But underneath that synthetic cocoon of bar codes and caution labels lay the object of my gadget lust. A lust built up over many months since the people at RIM first discussed the possibility of the best of Blackberry, with a touch screen but also a proper keypad, and, gasp, a brand new operating system.
I tore the plastic, and feverishly lifted the lid off the strengthened box. And there it was. Lying peacefully in the box like Frankenstein on his bed, waiting to come to life to, Frankenstein-like, slowly take over my life. I had tried to manage my lust for this monster of a product. I flirted with the iPhone but couldn’t commit to actually buying one. When I ordered my new Blackberry Torch I had wondered whether I’d made the right decision and whether I might become a leper in a sea of my Apple-laden gadget-freak friends.
But now here it was. I lifted it, stroked its unblemished screen, flipped down the keypad and I just knew I’d made the right decision.
So, that’s enough gadget-porn. What’s it actually like?
I previously had a Blackberry Storm, the touch screen BB with the slightly annoying clicky action. The Torch is much more like an Apple with similar touch screen features but also introduces some new features such as when you hold your finger over a contact a number of action options appear so you can call, text, edit the contact. On the front screen you also have an activity button which will pull up your recent emails, appointments and missed calls. Also, all activity for a contact is registered against that contact meaning you can find a trail of interaction with that contact. The browser which on the Torch was painfully slow is incredibly fast especially when used over a Wifi and the phone intelligently uses Wifi wherever possible reducing your data usage over the phone network.
The big advantage Apple claims for its iPhone is the apps directory and whilst the Blackberry has an apps store it is woeful in comparison. However, that’s not why most users will have chosen a Blackberry. The BB will allow you to post to Twitter and other social networks and play inane games and get various information but if you feel a need for a Carling app which can mimic you pouring some beer down your gullet then this isn’t for you.
If however you want push email then the smoothness and ease of the email functionality of the BB is hard to beat and this new operating systems multitasks effortlessly between email and browser and media. Best of all, the set up took just 30 minutes by which time all of my contacts and media had been transferred from my Storm to the Torch, and infact most of that 30 minutes was downloading and installing the new version of BB Desktop which is required by the Torch.
All in all the Blackberry Torch is an excellent phone and one which I think will make the 24 months to my next phone fly by. The problem with lust though, and especially gadget lust, is that you never know when it’s going to pop up again, and frankly I will find it hard to be faithful to a lump of metal and plastic, however beautiful and effective it might seem now, if a newer sexier model appears.
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