Can medical technologies (those that aren’t device or medicine related) scale globally with the challenge of different domestic regulations and industry structures? The Insurtech industry poses a similar question. In the early 2000’s we advised a management team on its Management Buy Out of a So...

Is a technopreneur doing a startup in an industry sector that they know intimately, in a better position to succeed than one coming from outside the sector?  This is a question that I have pondered over the years, and we experience both cases at Corniche, all the time. An investor draws much comfor...

Theranos, WeWork and the appropriately-named HeadSpin have all been in the headlines for misleading investors. Technopreneurs are naturally optimistic, but where are the red lines when representing your startup to investors? The fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes, Founder of blood-testing company, Ther...

As in the banking world, Open Insurance, facilitated by regulation and platform technology, could have strong benefits for both incumbents, new entrants and especially customers. But is the industry ready to move into the 21st century? We were chatting to a friend of the firm last night, who recentl...

Even with today’s buoyant markets, you might well find that you, as a technopreneur, have a difference in opinion on the valuation of your company with a prospective investor or buyer, even though there is strong interest. This valuation gap can be managed to a successful closing with just a littl...

We recently had a very interesting question from a client, which showed one perspective in the community. They asked “why do investors dislike advisors?”! I was shocked at the question but did think that in my three decades of corporate finance advisory, there were a few occasions when tense mom...

Recent research shows that the CFO role is significantly undervalued in all stages of the startup cycle, with only 1 in 3 venture-stage companies in the UK having a CFO. Our experience is that a strong, properly incentivized and aligned CFO can make a big difference to the performance of a company a...

With the overall trend of tech companies staying private for longer, private share marketplaces are moving further into institutional trading, and even, according to Marc Andreessen* “the third configuration – beyond the false binary of simply private or public – is here.” This is the se...

If you have ever tried, as a technopreneur, to sell shares in your startup somewhere in its evolution through to exit, in order to increase personal liquidity, you will know the challenges. However, this is changing with more options emerging, such as marketplaces for the secondary sale of private s...

Stanford researchers have a warning for technopreneurs (and everyone else): Those video calls (and not just on the Zoom platform) are likely tiring you out. Their article provides tips for consumers and organisations on how to leverage the current features on videoconferences to decrease fatigue, wi...