In our new blog series – Innovation Insights – Begbroke’s Engagement Manager Dr Siobhan Dennis explores the innovation ecosystem, sharing founder stories, investment insights and practical advice from Begbroke.

By Dr Siobhan Dennis

I recently attended training with the UK Business Angels Association, the national trade association for angel and early-stage investment in the UK. The most memorable part was a made-up (on the spot) pitch for a fictional pill that monitors dog gut health.

Absurd? Slightly. Unexpected? Definitely. Convincing? Alarmingly so.

Within minutes, the trainer had made the problem feel real, the customer feel obvious, and the commercial opportunity feel interesting. It was funny, but also a useful reminder: a strong pitch can make almost anything sound investable long enough to earn a second look.

That does not mean investors are easily fooled and I am certainly not advocating for a generation of dazzling but disingenuous communicators. Angel investors are often experienced founders or operators investing their own money. But they also see an eye-watering number of opportunities. One investor described to me receiving thousands of pitches a year despite not actively advertising themselves as an angel investor. The first challenge is being clear enough, credible enough and commercially compelling enough to get through the first filter.

This reminded me of a recent conversation where the person I was speaking with asked whether investors need someone who can tell them whether the science will work. At the time, I said something that felt sensible but slightly uncomfortable: yes, the science matters, but the pitch, the story, the team and the commercial opportunity often determine whether the science gets examined properly at all.

I worried afterwards that I had been unfair to the science and given poor career advice. Surely, in a university innovation environment, the science should come first?

After various webinars and speaking with angel investors, I felt more confident in the nuance. The science absolutely matters and investors are not stupid. But a brilliant piece of science can still be overlooked if the opportunity is confusing, the team is undersold, the files are chaotic, or the story does not explain why anyone should care.

So, for academics and early-stage companies thinking about angel investment, here are my practical takeaways:

  • Spring clean that deal room. Be ready before you need it with beautiful formatting and boringly clear file names. A folder called “Final deck updated NEW v7” does not inspire confidence. Logic signals an organised company.
  • Make the team shine, do not be humble but leave the ego. Do not presume credibility. Investors back people as much as products.
  • Use the science to strengthen the business case. Lead with the problem, customer and urgency. Then use the science to show why your solution is credible and differentiated.
  • Tell the story in a way that someone seeking a return can care about. The investor is thinking: why now, growth trajectory, is it defensible, and where’s the big red exit button?
  • Raise for a milestone, not just a runway. The money you ask for should get you to the next value-creating moment (and a bit further) – raising shouldn’t be because you ran out of money.
  • Name the risks before someone else does. Pretending risks do not exist or providing wrong or overly blasé responses raises that gigantic red flag faster than you thought possible.
  • Understand SEIS and EIS. If those acronyms mean nothing to you look them up.

Across the Oxfordshire innovation ecosystem, including insights from Ox Tech Week, I can see that there is no shortage of good ideas. Unsurprisingly it is quite the opposite. There is exceptional science, ambitious technology and founders working on genuinely important problems, from climate and energy to health, AI, materials and beyond.

However, the opportunity is often lost in translation when needing the right people to understand why complex, early-stage science matters. It is not about dumbing it down but about making it clear and I would argue that explaining complex science clearly is not less academic – it is highly academic. Great science can survive a mediocre pitch. But a confusing pitch can stop great science from ever starting the right conversation.

And one final point: Founders, do your due diligence too. Not all money is the right money. Understand the investor, the terms, the expectations and the support on offer before you celebrate with a round of piña coladas.

 

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