Piers Linney: Dragons’ Den is reality in an entertainment wrapper

More generally, he says that the key to securing angel investment is a carefully formulated plan. </p >

?Plans evolve over time, but it’s all about being able to communicate what is the market opportunity, what is your value proposition, how you’re going to make money out of that market opportunity,? he says. </p >

?It’s also about selling yourself ? young businesses need to be able to evolve and stay flexible especially in this day and age because markets change very quickly. You’ve also got to be committed. </p >

?We’ve had people come on and say ‘give us this money, we’ll work on the business and then maybe think about leaving our jobs.’ I wouldn’t dream of asking for money unless I’m willing to show my own financial commitment.? </p >

Before becoming a Dragon, Linney was perhaps best known for his interests in the technology sector, and particularly as a pioneer of cloud technology. </p >

He says that, whilst the other Dragons are involved with tech to one degree or another, he hopes his presence could draw in more of Britain’s exciting tech start-ups. </p >

?If you’re more of a pure tech business you probably wouldn’t naturally think of going to Dragons’ Den before, but now you can have that conversation with me,? he says. </p >

Cloud computing is becoming ever more accessible for SMEs and Linney thinks more need to take advantage of it. </p >

?If you’re a small company my advice is put everything in the cloud,? he says ?It makes no sense on many levels to consume physical ICT equipment anymore. Those days are over.?

?You don’t need to own a phone system, servers, email systems, document storage. The cloud is more more cost effective, it’s cheaper and you can consume more sophisticated technology.?</p >

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