A long time Swedish friend of mine runs an interesting incubator in Stockholm called iQube.se He has close to 50 companies in his portfolio for whom he provides a great building, operational infrastructure and seed financing. iQube is funded in part by Niklas Zennström (founder Skype, Joost) through his Atomico fund. The iQube/Atomico manifesto may not seem all that original but in fact it really is. That is to say that they provide investment and services between seed stage and venture capital stage. In the case of iQube, there is a real focus on building the business from the trenches where everything has to start. Need legal advice? Walk down the hall. Want someone to give you an opinion about a partnership structure? Walk down the hall. Getting ready to get that Series A and need some good introductions? Walk down the hall. I like that. I especially like that all the companies start working out of the same building. I’m told it is a very high energy place to be if you’re working on a technology venture in Sweden. For Atomico’s part, I think they present a manifesto that is simple and straightforward.
* Strong businesses come from working with people with diverse experience and ideas.
* We’re entrepreneurs, just like you.
* We invest in entrepreneurs, not business plans.
* We like businesses that have ambition to transform customers’ experience in a market and seek to possibly change the world
* We are an investment group, not a venture capitalist.
* We won’t take over your business. We will make our advice and our network available to you. Our job is to support the entrepreneur.
* We believe in trust, instinct and judgment.
* It doesn’t matter where you’re from. The next global business will come from anywhere in the world
* In five years we will see more eBays, Googles and Skypes
* We try not to say ‘no’. Instead we say ‘what if…’.
* We don’t want to win any awards. We do want to help realise your vision.
0 Responses to “A model I like…”