Ross McDonald | Banker | Strategist | CFO

GlobalScot

Ross McDonald, President Clean West, is honoured and delighted to be nominated a GlobalScot, being a network of a few hundred international Scottish leaders invited by the Scottish government to help mentor Scottish growth companies. The GlobalScot nomination was confirmed in late 2009 with a personal invitation letter from Alex Salmond, First Minister for Scotland. Clean West expertise in renewable energy is timely both given the increasing emergence of clean technology ventures plus also the 2010 launch of the UK feed-in tariff. Clean West embraces the opportunity to leverage its expertise and international network, as a GlobalScot, for the benefit of promising Scottish companies.

SFU Guest Speaker - Early-stage finance

Clean West is always delighted to interact with entrepreneurs. In November 2009, Ross McDonald of Clean West, was a guest speaker to an entrepreneurship class at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

A PDF file of the related slides can be downloaded.

BCIC Connect 09 event

Ross McDonald, President of Clean West, today will attend Connect 09, the annual landmark event of the BC Innovation Council, as a nominated technology leader within the clean energy / clean technology sector.

Connect '09 will bring together 500+ company executives, academics and entrepreneurs for a series of panel sessions, awards and a huge Structured Network session.

The Structured Network session will include a number of industry-specific network areas, at which a few local technology leaders will interact with and provide guidance to event attendees. Clean West encourages BC innovators and policy-setters to attend this commendable event. For those with interest in clean energy or clean technology - such as wind power, solar power, or biomass / waste to energy - then feel free to visit the clean technology stand in the Structured Network session to make an introduction. See you there.

WSJ: Business plans, pitfalls & fixes

John Mullins, Chair of Entrepreneurship at London Business School and my old professor, just published an article in the Wall Street Journal. The article concerns business plans, common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

According to John then the five top business plan pitfalls are:
■ Here I am, Nevermind the problem - excessive technology focus, no commercial application
■ A Coke for every kid in China - assume small market share of 'huge' market
■ Just look at our [paper] profits - impressive analytics, tripping on simple business
■ Our team walks on water - dazzling credentials over relevant experience
■ Everything is beautiful - dismissive or ignorant of risks, challenges

Full article text.

Business plan shocker

Recently I read the worst ever business plan. It arrived in the mail. Below, in italics, are direct quotations (with spelling corrections) followed by some observations ...

Business plan pitfalls

Being a corporate financier then I read quite a few business plans. Their quality varies substantially. Well prepared, professional business plans stand out from the crowd. They explain the value proposition clearly, evidence assumptions, answer key questions and provide comfort on execution. A few reasons for poor plans are jotted below, along with some guidance and actionable steps ...

VC-venture success

Not all venture capital backed businesses are successful. OK, so that's not exactly a surprising or controversial statement. But how important are factors such as (a) prior experience of entrepreneur, (b) prior success of entrepreneur, (c) experience of venture capital firm in the likely success of VC-backed business? And how important is prior experience or prior success by entrepreneurs in the investment selection criteria by VCs?

It seems widely intuitive that prior entrepreneurial success, experienced VC-backers and even prior entrepreneurial failures could improve the chance of success of a new business. Indeed there could easily be a virtual-circle in effect - with financiers, customers and suppliers of a business providing favorable treatment to an entrepreneur that has a successful track record. Many people express opinions on such matters. But empirical evidence is uncommon.

A recent Harvard Business School working paper, "Performance Persistence in Entrepreneurship", reviewed all the funding, founders, vc-advisors and resulting success (IPO) of all US VC-backed businesses between 1975 and 2003. Their statistical conclusions confirm some common intuitition and highlight a few surprises ...

"Trust me" ...

"When should a director opt to leave the Board of an early-stage company?"
"When should an management member or employee opt to leave an early-stage company?"
I get asked these questions periodically, typically informally over a mentoring glass of wine.

Unquestionably difficult questions, particularly for early-stage firms where stakeholders have material emotional and/or financial investment. Aside from commercial topics such as business growth potential, the decision process involve subjective assessment of trust and ethics of the management team and/or fellow board directors.

There are no absolute truths and there are no easy answers but the following questions can help to surface and assess related concerns ...

SFU New Ventures - Financing an early-stage business

Last night I had the pleasure of being a guest speaker to an undergraduate 'New Ventures' entrepreneurship class at Simon Fraser University. The blend of approx 50 business students plus approx 80 engineering students are in the process of developing a business concept and related business plan and investor pitch. Cool.

Top 100 European cleantech firms

A study that lists the Top 100 European Clean Technology companies of 2008 has been jointly published by Library House (a British market research firm run by Doug Richard, a panelist on the UK TV series of Dragons Den) and The Guardian (a British newspaper). The study also highlighted that venture capital firms invested £805 million ($1.4 billion) in European clean technology firms in 2007, double the £407 million ($0.7 billion) of 2006 ...