Meet Our Members
Like all Angel Investor Clubs, the value of membership lies in the people who are actively involved in it, so you may like to meet some of our members and understand their views on the benefits that SAIC offers them:
Mandy Hutchison
My background is corporate finance/property. (S)EIS investments mitigate CGT: rewarding when they go well, disappointing when they fail. Always educational..
Prospects presented by Southern Angels Investors Club are varied and of good quality. Of most value is the opportunity to confer with and learn from other club members, whose aims and interests are aligned.
The pool of members’ expertise and skills is wide and deep. The leading investor arrangement works well, co-ordinating due diligence, the initial investment and as the company evolves, our response to corporate actions. As minority investors we have more influence, the admin burden for the company is reduced and our contacts and expertise are more accessible.
Through SAIC I look forward to new opportunities and to continuing the journey with existing investments with fellow club members.
Simon Hulme
Simon Hulme is a Professor (Education) at UCL School of Management and Programme Director of the MSc Entrepreneurship degree. He lectures in Entrepreneurial Finance. As a Business Angel investor he has taken part in around 80 investments round.
Simon is a serial entrepreneur having built up and sold two significant businesses in the past. At the age of 24 he started his first business, Frame Express, a chain of sixteen fast picture framing shops in London. The business was sold to The Oliver Group Plc in 1989.
In 1992 he launched a greeting card publisher, Card Connection, with equity funding from venture capitalist 3i plc. By 2006 the business was supplying 17,000 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland and was selling 16 million cards a year. In 2008 it was sold to UK Greetings, the British subsidiary American Greetings Inc
Jim Monks
Jim Monks was an EBAN European Business Angel of the Year Finalist 2010. He is a Non-Exec Director and Angel Investor in Tech Start-Ups and an Entrepreneur. Previously he spent almost 24 years stint at TSI/Mercator, from MBO and International sales startup, thru NASDAQ IPO, to final sale of company in December 2003.
Nigel White
Having spent 30 years or so in IBM, my experience was further enhanced by 8 years spent working in smaller software and services companies in a variety of director roles.
My two years involvement with the SAIC shows that it offers access to a good variety of screened and credible opportunities. The pooling of knowledge from other highly experienced (and friendly!) members enhances the ability to assess investment potential and the group has become an essential part of my investment plans.
All SAIC members have had successful business careers and have diverse areas of expertise, so the evaluation of businesses brought to the group meetings is examined from a variety of angles, something I could never do on my own. The selection process is a well thought through so we only reviewing and discussing businesses that the core team believe have potential and would appeal to members. We are encouraged to participate at all stages with the follow up process organised by an interested investor guiding the rest of us through the final due diligence. Ultimately, it’s a personal decision as to whether to invest directly in the companies so the buck stops with oneself. Nearly all the candidate companies are EIS/SEIS eligible so there’s always interesting conversations in the breaks about getting the best out of personal investment strategies.
Colin Lloyd
I was a member of the Kent Investor Network for a number of years which is now part of SAIC. My experience with SAIC has been excellent and through them I have seen some outstanding business opportunities and have invested in a number of companies. The organisation is very well organised with both live and Zoom meetings to view prospective companies.
There is also a camaraderie amongst the SAIC investors which makes the investment process very efficient as we share many of the tasks. Decisions can be made quickly and efficiently.
My career has been in marketing, building my own company to a fully listed international PLC. I have also chaired AIM companies and know what help new companies need in their early stages. Through SAIC we can not only provide capital but also the breadth of experience that the network enjoys.
Michael Penny
I’ve been an angel investor for 0ver 15 years and helped start the Surrey Investors Club which has now become the SAIC. I’ve made over 20 investments and most of my investments have been made in companies that have presented to SIC / SAIC.
I’ve enjoyed meeting and exchanging ideas with the wide and varied group of members. There is a real mix of people with many successful entrepreneurs and others, like me, who have held senior positions in larger fast paced companies. We all have a desire to extend our knowledge and seek out new investment ideas and in some cases where appropriate provide additional support.
I like the format of the meetings which provides a company a good time to present and answer questions in an open forum. We then have an immediate open and private discussion with members only to gauge interest and agree who will co-ordinate the follow up work for those interested. The follow up process is comprehensive and allows all those initially interested to be involved and share information and their thoughts before each person decides whether they are going to invest or not.
My background is as a Finance Director involved in Merger, Acquisitions and Disposals in several large and small companies and in dealing with Private Equity firms primarily in retail, leisure, media and property.
Hugh Smith
I first started Angel investing in 1999, when one of the companies I was involved with created a large CGT bill. I realised that, combined with income tax relief, much of the risk in smaller company investment could be reduced. My first investment was in OLED technology as a spin out from Oxford University. Whilst it failed financially, technically it has become very successful.
Since then I have invested in over 60 companies. A number have been sold and 5 have gone on to the AIM market.
I have been a member of SAIC since its formation and before that with Angels 5K. I find that the mix of investors with different backgrounds is particularly useful, as we all come with a different perspective about a company. The shared views do help for making a more informed decision about whether to I invest, although we all decide for ourselves which companies to invest in, and how much.
David Pritchard
I joined SAIC way back in 2012 in its previous guises of SIC and Angels5K having spent my professional career in the software industry with both start-ups and more established US based companies. Being new to Angel investing and now sitting on the other side of the table, I wanted and needed to find an environment where I could learn the Angel investing ropes from investors that were serious about investing and the process of investing whilst also being able and willing to share their experiences and help coach a newbie to navigate these new strange water.
SAIC provided and continues to provide that environment. We see quality opportunities that have gone through a rigorous selection process before coming to the club. Syndicates form around each opportunity and you find yourself evaluating the deals with like minded individuals who bring a wealth of experience to the table that both informs any investment decision but also is then able to provide the companies with relevant, informed input to the business.
Having spent my career in tech with both major companies including Apple Computer, Lotus Development and Autodesk and smaller enterprises including heading a Silicon Valley start up and founding OpenTable in Europe and with a number of exits, I naturally gravitate towards software and marketplace opportunities and try to give back to the club by hopefully providing informed insight into deals that are presented in those fields.
If you have specific questions about the Club and would like to discuss, then members of the leadership team will be happy to help
Mandy Hutchison
