Welsby
What are the main sources of funding you have utilised to date?
Malone
The company has received its first-round funding in return for 10 percent of the shareholding. We have resisted the temptation to secure second-round investment until we can make some significant progress into the market with the Replica system.
We have partnered with Intersystems and use their Caché database in our Replica system. They have a local office and their support has been unbelievably good. They provide marketing advice and access to their channel partners internationally.
We have presented to very large corporations jointly and their input and professionalism has been enormously helpful. The company has a revenue stream from our other products in the transport and education sectors.
Malone
How did you find investors without losing focus on production?
Welsby
The investment process was a distraction from our sales activities. It was a constant battle to remain focused on building the business while get the deal down.
An important step was to seek advice from people with experience in the investment process. It took months for the investment to happen, so I let our advisors deal with as much of that as possible while I focused on getting the business done.
Welsby
What would you perceive to be the greatest benefits and threats that come from selling down your equity in your company?
Malone
The greatest benefit investment offers is of course money and expertise. Taking a product to an international market is very expensive and this needs to be accomplished quickly. The greatest threat from investment is you may be asked to “sell the farm” to get it and you will probably lose control of the company.
This is not necessarily a bad thing if you can maintain a reasonable shareholding and provided that there is a very professional management team taking over. It will of course mean that when you have a new product idea, you won’t be invited to all of the meetings that are convened to evaluate that product and it probably won’t go ahead.
Eventually, your company will stop writing software.
Write to the Editor at Technology and Business
* All fields are mandatory.