Looking Back

What would you have done differently?

In retrospect, we could probably have closed the investor round more quickly, though in ending up where we did, we worked with the investor best placed to promote and support us through the IPO.

What has been your biggest disappointment?

I suppose I would have liked to have been CEO of the Company, but the investor wanted to put in their own man, and, in retrospect, they kept me on to work alongside him and there has been more than enough for the pair of us to do leading up to and following the IPO. 

In the time since you started up, what do you think you have learned about running a business and about yourself?

I guess the first point is that many of the features of running a large business apply equally to a small business as well, though in the latter case you have the opportunity (which must be taken advantage of) to move more quickly.  In a start-up business I have certainly learnt that I am still very happy to go back and do the detail , whether it be reconciling the accounts with the bank statements or doing a bunch of heat and mass balance calculations for our chemical reactions.

What's the single most important thing that helped your business succeed?

It has not succeeded yet, but the single biggest step has been the decision to go for the IPO, which has set us off with the financing we need to take the Company to profitability.  This means that the management team can spend its time running the business, rather than worrying about how to raise the next tranche of finance.