Edinburgh, 29th November 2023
WTA Partners, together with the Entrepreneur Business School (EBS), a UK-wide network of successful serial entrepreneurs, hosted our first joint event on the 23rd November. Held at the Kimpton Hotel Edinburgh the seminar, titled ‘Planning for an Exit’, offered an audience of successful founder-owners valuable insight on exiting their first companies, from leading and respected figures in the technology space.
The evening started with myself, WTA co-founder, Alan Butterworth, and EBS directors, Gillian Brown and Alister Minty welcoming the attendees and introducing the lineup of speakers:
- Nick McMillan, Head of Finance at Idox Software commenced the speeches by giving the perspective of an acquirer and explaining some of the key values drivers that he and his company look for.
- Matt Nicholson, Head of Origination at Tenzing then provided the view from private equity. Matt spoke at length about the importance of preparation and seeking professional advice from an M&A specialist.
- Next up was Chris Wright, a longstanding veteran of the video gaming industry and entrepreneur. He spoke of the journey that brought him to exit gaming consultancy deltaDNA.
- James Harris, was the last of the speakers and gave a very personal account of his experience with his geospatial data company one.network and the pitfalls that he experienced along the way to exiting.
The overall aim of the session was to explore the thinking that defines “what makes good?”, as part of a company getting ready for a strategic exit. Now of course, as any good experienced M&A practitioner would know, the financial health of a business is important, but there are many other factors including the ‘investibility’ of management team, the organisational structure, the product and market proposition, the focus of the business including any IP and what makes the business unique etc.
Following on from the seminar the hosts, speakers and attendees enjoyed a casual discussion and networking session over drinks and canapes. This carried on well into the night, with many moving to the restaurant and bar.
We all look forward to seeing what comes next from our new and deepening relationship with EBS.
Alan Butterworth
WTA Partners Co-founder
About the Entrepreneur Business School
The Entrepreneur Business School is a UK-wide network of successful serial entrepreneurs, all of whom are Founders, Directors and leaders of a diverse range of early stage and SME technology businesses. EBS have a broad variety of experts ranging from life sciences to heavy engineering, energy, software, digital media, sensors, communications and more.
About WTA Partners LLP We are specialists in technology merger and acquisition (M&A) and business advisory services working from offices in London and Montreal. Our team brings together comprehensive sector experience from operational careers throughout the technology industry. We combine expert understanding of the market with significant execution experience to deliver outstanding results for our clients.