PwC Technology Round Table

Some interesting discussion, but mainly heated agreement on what the issues are surrounding early stage technology investment. Too few business plans are sufficiently un-sieve like, too much focus on the business plan and numbers rather than the idea and market opportunity. Too few corporate finance teams having the necessary technical appreciation to hone business plans. Lack of funding in the £500K to £1.5M range. Conservatism and fear of failure rather than embracing risk and accepting this as a necessary element of reward in the capital markets. When an investment is overwhelmingly obvious, its too late!

An interesting thought about trying to spot the next big thing might be to consider the psychology element and try to understand the needs and aspirations of people, rather than focusing on what the technology can do. Text messaging being a case in point - if anything this was a backward step in technology but everyone 'does' it and BT could have introduced it long before mobile phones appeared. Video phones have yet to hit that same sweet spot despite being infinitely neater technology...