Assembling the A-Team

Brought to you by Cambridge Wireless

At this event you will learn from an unmissable line-up of speakers what makes a team investable, along with proven techniques for recruiting the best possible people to your business. FREE delegate places for start-up and small organisations.

Registration for this event is now closed.

About the event

“If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.” from The A-Team

Building a strong management team is critical to the success of your business. Not only will these be the people who bring your vision to life, your team is the #1 thing that investors analyse when considering whether you are finance-ready – and without funding, your operations will not scale.

As the Founder / CEO, you are the foundation upon which this team is built. How can you present yourself attractively to potential funders? How can you attract serious talent in a highly competitive market? And once you have assembled your management team, how can you ensure that the business remains aligned to your vision?

At this event we will explore the critical decisions and potential pitfalls to recruiting your A-Team with talks from experienced leaders who have been through this process before you. By the end, you will better understand the recruitment decisions that reassure both customers and investors. The unmissable line-up of speakers includes:

  • David Cleevely, Chair, Raspberry Pi Foundation
  • Poppy Gustafsson, Co-Founder, Darktrace
  • Heather Beardmore, Director, Halpenfield Ltd
  • Akriti Dokania, Early Stage Investor, Octopus Ventures
  • Mike Price, Chairman & Founder, The MPA Group

FREE delegate places for start-up and small organisations (less than 5 employees)To claim you free ticket please email clare.kettle@cambridgewireless.co.uk

You can follow @CambWireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWBusiness.

Sponsored by MPA

With over 10 years’ experience, our tax specialists and technical analysts are experts in the R&D Tax Credit scheme and Patent Box relief, delivering funding for innovative tech companies. MPA Group helps clients accelerate their innovation and business expansion. They help companies to capitalise on their research, innovation and development activities by maximising all the potential benefits from available HMRC tax concessions. MPA Group’s experienced industry specialists and tax experts focus on maximising client value with high quality client service delivery. Working with them, their clients have received more than £150m of financial benefits for their business using the R&D Tax Credits and Patent Box concessions.

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Hosted by The Bradfield Centre

The Bradfield Centre is a collaborative entrepreneurial community of technology start-ups and scale-ups housed in a stunning building at the heart of the Cambridge Science Park. The new Centre is expected to become the gateway and focal point for Cambridge’s ever-expanding technology cluster. Designed to appeal to entrepreneurs, researchers and students, the Centre will become home to innovative high growth start-up and scale-up businesses. These will work alongside project teams from more mature, innovative businesses developing exciting new products. The Bradfield Centre was part-funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and is managed by workspace operators Central Working on behalf of Trinity College. The Centre is the largest of Central Working’s global network of rapidly expanding membership-based communities.

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Agenda

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The information supplied below may be subject to change before the event.

12:30

Registration over networking lunch

13:30

Introduction to the Business Group from Ann Fisher, Bailey Fisher

13:35

Welcome from our sponsor The MPA Group, Mike Price, Chairman and Founder

13:40

Heather Beardmore, Director, Halpenfield Ltd

'Finding talent, retaining talent and building a motivated team’

How can you recruit and retain the right people to make your business successful in a competitive environment? Mistakes made and lessons learned on the journey to building a great team.

14:05

Poppy Gustafsson, CEO, Darktrace

'Building a Billion Dollar Business: Challenging the Status Quo'

In just five years, Darktrace has reached a valuation of over $1.65 billion and is internationally recognised for its innovation and rapid growth. A commitment to challenging the status quo has been crucial at every stage of the journey to world leader in cyber AI.

14:30

Dr David Cleevely, CBE, FREng, FIET - Chair, Raspberry Pi Foundation

‘Joining the Board: how to tell the difference between a Non-Exec and a supermarket trolley’

Why join a board? Why invite someone to join a board? I’ll be talking about what I look for, what a start-up should look for, and how to spot a supermarket trolley and other exotica.

15:00

Refreshments and networking

15:30

Akriti Dokania, Early Stage Investor at Octopus Ventures

'How to stand out from the crowd’

Akriti receives a large number of business plans, she will discuss how to build and present a strong Founder team.

15:55

Mike Price, Chairman and Founder, The MPA Group

'Start up to a team of 75 in 10 years'

The first 10 years of MPA Group have been a phenomenal journey, the majority of it going to plan, but some of its been a little more rocky than I'd hoped. I'll share with you the highs and lows in the hope that it is both interesting and insightful.

16:20

Panel session with all speakers, chaired by Toby Young, of Bailey Fisher Executive Search

With Additional Panellist: Ward Hills, Makespace Cambridge Ltd

16:45

Concluding remarks from Dr Soraya Jones, Invested Investor & Bradfield Centre

Speakers

Heather Beardmore - Director, Halpenfield

Heather graduated in Computer Science and then began a career in the IT industry working for some of the top computer software vendors in the world. Initially entering the profession as a computer programmer Heather rose to the position of Professional Services Director. She built professional services teams from zero eventually managing a team of 120 consultants both in the UK and internationally. In 2004 Heather started Halpenfield Ltd, a specialist BI & Analytics company. Halpenfield delivers data driven solutions on premise or in the cloud to businesses in the UK, EMEA and USA.

David Cleevely CBE, FREng FIET - Chairman, Raspberry Pi Foundation

David Cleevely CBE FREng, FIET is the Chairman of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. He is the founder and former Chairman of telecoms consultancy Analysys (acquired by Datatec International in 2004). In 1998, he co-founded the web based antibody company Abcam (ABC.L) with Jonathan Milner and was Chairman until November 2009. He has co-founded several other companies and is Chairman of two of them, including the award winning restaurant “Bocca di Lupo” and its gelateria subsidiary, Gelupo.  He has been a director of two quoted companies. He has been active in promoting Cambridge. He was a prime mover behind Cambridge Network, co-founder of Cambridge Wireless, co-founder and Chairman of Cambridge Angels, Founding Director of the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge and Vice Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Economic Commission.  Other policy work has included membership of the IET Communications Policy Panel, the Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board and the Enterprise Committee and the National Engineering Policy Group at the Royal Academy of Engineering. From 2001 to 2008 he was a member of the Ministry of Defence Board overseeing information systems and services (DES-ISS, formerly the Defence Communications Services Agency). In addition to Raspberry Pi, his charitable work includes the Cambridge Science Centre, which he helped set up and fund in 2013 and continues as Chair. After being sponsored to study Cybernetics at Reading by Post Office Telecommunications, he joined their Long Range Studies Division. A PhD at Cambridge was then followed by the Economist Intelligence Unit in London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the IET. He was elected a Fellow Commoner of Queens College, Cambridge in 2013 and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall in 2015. He was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in 2013.

Akriti Dokania - Early Stage Investor, Octopus Ventures

Akriti joined Octopus in 2018, with a focus on deep tech businesses within the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning software, B2B Enterprise Software, Cyber Security and next generation automation. Having worked internationally, UK, US and India, Akriti understands how to build a business. She is a computer science engineer by background and worked as a Product Manager with Windows and in the User Experience team at Windows Edge. Prior to this, Akriti built a B2B Business in India, with a focus on accounting in the retail space. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering and completed an MBA at the London Business School. Whilst completing her MBA, Akriti worked with the Amazon Alexa team to help launch Alexa in new territories. She also worked at Forward Partners as a pre-seed/seed stage investor.

Poppy Gustafsson - CEO, Darktrace

Poppy is a co-founder of Darktrace, which under her leadership has reached a $1.65 billion valuation in under five years and was named Europe’s ‘Fastest Growing Super Scale-up’ by Tech Tour. Poppy is a qualified chartered accountant and previously served as the company’s CFO. Prior roles also include financial controller positions in the technology and venture capital sectors. She was named City A.M.’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2017.

Ward Hills - Director, Albion Innovations, Director, Makespace

Ward is an experienced CEO, Director and Chairman of technology and services firms. His interests range from the not-for-profit hackspace, Makespace, to business development and corporate governance for firms like AbedGraham Healthcare Strategies. Makespace is Cambridge’s community inventing shed that supports Cambridge business with prototyping facilities and where both professionals and kids train in a variety of STEM subjects. From its base in London, AbedGraham provides cybersecurity and healthcare IT advice, project management and bid support for the NHS, the European Commission and vendors in the UK, EU and US. Ward has lead several start-ups achieving medical device approvals, successful product launches, licensing deals and an exit to an AIM listed PLC (AIM:DMTR). He is an Institute of Directors certified director and active investor in companies above as well as others such as Syndicate Room.

Ward was a co-founder and CEO of an early stage medical device company focused on using 3D reconstructions to identify and track respiratory disease. He was also CEO of Ionscope, a bio-nanometrics instrument maker, and OpenIOLabs a laboratory IoT firm.

As an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge Judge Business school he lectures on doing business across borders and mentors international masters students.

Ward has experience in advising multinational aerospace, life sciences and services businesses across North America, Europe, and Asia on a broad range of topics, including corporate strategy, sales and marketing, market access, and R&D strategy.

Mike Price - Chair and Owner, MPA

Mike Price qualified as an accountant some 25 years ago. Mike built his career around his passions; technology, working in finance and general management, though his career with Deloitte was cut short when he was hit by joy riders, resulting in spinal injuries which made a 'normal' job near impossible. So, in 2007 Mike founded Michael Price Associates (MPA).

In the 13 years since, Mike has grown MPA to a company of 75 staff that works with over 800 businesses across the UK. Situated in Milton Keynes, MPA works to support innovative businesses of all sizes, tailoring their services to best meet the needs of their clients. In his spare time, Mike is a triathlon enthusiast. His latest challenge is to set a new world record for the most half Ironman events completed in 12 months.

Toby Young - Partner, Bailey Fisher Executive Search

Toby is a Partner at Bailey Fisher and leads the Technology Practice.  In this role he works with founders, C-suite executives, Chair/NEDs and investors into growth technology businesses, building boards and leadership teams for clients from start-ups to corporates. His particular area of focus is later stage scale ups.

He has specialised in executive search for 18 years. Prior to working in the technology sector, he spent 10 years within Investment Banking, focusing on Market, Credit and Operational Risk.

Toby initially led Bailey Fisher’s Technology Practice from 2012-2017 and returned to the business in 2019 as a shareholder following a management buy out.  In the interim, he spent 2 years in an operational role in a growth technology company as it continued its global expansion.

Toby graduated from Nottingham Trent University and spent 2 years living and working in New Zealand before returning to London where he worked in both global and boutique executive search firms.  Toby lives in Cambridge with his wife and son.

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Location info

Bradfield Centre, Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge, CB4 0GA

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