If We Can, You Can

Author:

Ross Cooney

Business:

Rozmic Wireless

Published:

10/11/2008 11:14:00

Rozmic is a high cash burn business, so the risks involved are very very high. In order to cover those risks we’ve taken on quite a few different investors.

Managing investors and managing their expectations is a completely new skill but quite a challenge, and probably up until recently took about 50 to 60% of my time.

I found it quite easy to actually find the investors though. It normally only took a matter of weeks, and we tend to complete the investment no more than a few weeks after that. But it’s interesting that we spent more time negotiating post completion than pre completion, and that was quite a time consuming, emotional exercise.

I worked with North Star and raised money using their Proof of Concept Fund. In the North East there’s quite a few organisations who will help you find investors, and North Star were also proactive and helpful in introducing potential investors.

I also went to Entrust and used their North East Equity Matching Fund. It’s partly backed by government money, but is matched by local entrepreneurs and business people. We’re in the process of organising another round of funding involving two institutional investors.