Summary from Owen Matthews:
By keeping our executives actively engaged in our larger portfolio
companies, we see opportunities for technology companies emerging. We start
up companies to address the opportunities using a proven model. New
companies with great technology often fail due to a lack of channels to
market and heavy customer interaction to get the solution and pricing right.
To address this, we start companies as affiliates of larger strategic
partners, giving the start-ups access to sales channels and credibility. We
use 4th year or graduate business and engineering students to start these
companies. We expect to work with faculty to identify appropriate
candidates. The students spend a few months onsite with Wesley Clover and
the strategic partner to identify the particular opportunity the student
team wants to go after. We coach them through the sales engagement process,
so they understand what specific issues a customer is facing. They present a
plan for the business, which if approved, triggers the seed investment.
Students are expected to take a lower salary and build sweat equity in the
business. We then organize follow on investment in the new company to keep
it growing. Follow on investment is typically triggered by completed
milestones, such as having a completed product and sales in the first year.
The strategic partners are large technology vendors or service providers who
agree to work with the start-ups and benefit from their success. The
strategic partner gets supporting products to expand its offering to
customers and access to the type of innovation that is hard to reproduce in
large companies. Wesley Clover has direct influence in many strategic
partners, as we have founded and are invested in many large technology
companies.