Brent Hoberman

At Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), we help transform Oxford’s world-leading science into companies with the ambition and potential to solve the world’s biggest challenges. But true global impact and scale requires access to the world's most important markets. We see it as part of OSE's role to help open up those markets for our companies early on. How? We’re building strategic international partnerships that open doors and accelerate new market entry for Oxford’s breakthrough innovations. Our ambition is to create a global network of "launchpads" to help connect Oxford’s high-growth companies with the local innovation networks, customers, partners and capital that they need to expand commercially beyond the UK.   This year, we took two important steps in that journey: in the United States and Japan. 🌏 ➡️ Earlier this year, we joined forces with leading US healthcare provider Cedars-Sinai to bring leading-edge UK health tech innovation to the all-important US market. Together, we aim to co-build and co-invest in new ventures emerging from Oxford with the potential to transform patient care, accelerating their entry and growth in the US. Our first joint investment was in Neu Health – a University of Oxford spinout developing a smartphone-based neurology care platform for Parkinson’s and dementia patients. With Cedars-Sinai’s clinical expertise and US commercial insights, Neu Health is now piloting its technology in Los Angeles, accelerating its journey to impact patients on both sides of the Atlantic.   ➡️ This month, as part of our international acceleration strategy, we’re delighted to also be partnering with Scrum Ventures and Tokyu Land Corporation to join the Sakura Deeptech Shibuya Accelerator in Tokyo. This collaboration gives our deep tech start-ups direct access to Japan’s thriving innovation and investor networks, plus workspace, mentorship, and connections to leading Japanese partners. For our portfolio, it’s a fast-track route into one of the most advanced technology markets in the world. Our ambition with these partnerships is to create a two-way street of opportunity: alongside opening pathways for our companies to commercialise globally, we also want to draw international partners and investors from those markets back into Oxford’s rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem – sparking new international collaborations and driving growth. Learn more about our Japan partnership here: https://lnkd.in/eK_9vu3U   #OxfordInnovation #GlobalLaunchpads #DeepTech #HealthTech #GlobalPartnerships #ScalingScience #BillionDollarScience

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“The UK has the best talent in the world, but we sometimes lack ambition”   Grateful for Neil Buchanan @ Lodestar Space (‘bodyguards for satellites’) inspiring and educating our emerging founders spinning out from UK Atomic Energy Authority (thank you) > If you’re pre-idea and pre-cofounder you’ll benefit from doing the Entrepreneurs First programme (if you can get on). The speed of learning and environment truly accelerate founders > Unlocking early adopter demand: LinkedIn outreach, speak to people with common interests, build networks, keep the cadence of outreach, running a customer discovery process (‘mom test’ - Rob Fitzpatrick ) > Sizing the opportunity: top down look for $10BNs to $100BNs market problems and then look bottom up with an eye to the future. Bottom up is always the sobering one and should be your north star - never lie to your team, investors and worst of all: yourself.  > Engaging VCs often: reduce the risk as much as possible (team, market, tech) show how you’re hiring to fit a few key gaps can be fine > Founders need to be confident to be selective with the investors they partner with. Being mindful if you’re taking investment from a key player in an industry (is it for their ultimate M&A activity, is it going to impact your sales). Ideally you’re ambitious and don’t want an early exit but also investment from a defence prime if you’re dual use can unlock channels > Building for dual use or defence? Prioritise USA GTM in the short term. > Finding non-dilutive sources of cash: run a process to identify relevant organisations, keep an open mind / keep it wide to keep options open. Keeping burn low you can achieve a lot prior to dilutive capital > Don’t get distracted by the shiny numbers of a big raise - it's needed for strong talent acquisition & credibility boosting but the best talent will resonate with the high impact mission & tech dev to get there - the rest of your time for focus on where it needs to be: customers and sales > Geopolitics impacting decisions on which markets to target, hiring decisions, who to have on the cap table ▪️If you’re an investor / founder and you’d like to do a lunchtime Q&A to educate and inspire our emerging founders please DM

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Mergers and Acquisitions. Usually this comes as a relief to Founders, or even a saving grace in harder situations. Having caught up with an amazing Founder over the weekend who shared a minor horror story around an acquisition offer, I'm sharing some of the common pitfalls and how to (hopefully) avoid them. 1. Done Deal Fallacy: The deal ISN'T done until you have money in the bank. Even papers being signed CAN be walked back on. Always operate on the principal that you're an independent company. 2. Business As Usual : With leadership being tied up with due diligence and negotiations, companies usually lose a little steam during M&A talks. This is a DANGER. If the transaction doesn't go through, it leaves you in a weaker position to grow/fundraise etc. Ensure business as usual at minimum, ideally with light growth plans. 3. Information Compartmentalization : For those who read me regularly, I'm usually a BIG proponent of open information. Telling your team most things, open financials etc. When it comes to M&A, information should ONLY be need to know. Have a small close team (CEO, CFO, maybe 1-2 more) supported by excellent outside advisors. 4. Timeline : Common tricks I've seen across M&A. Drag the transaction out till the company has low/no runway, then lowball. Drag the transaction out while revenue and cash positions continue to increase (over a year), then execute. There are a whole bunch more around timing, but things to remember. Define clear timelines for diligence, transaction docs etc. If there's an unreasonable amount of time being taken, call it out. Set the upper boundary on your timeline comfort and walk away if it isn't happening. When the acquirer is VERY keen, I've seen cases where they deposit part of the transaction amount in escrow. If they walk away or the timeline lapses, you keep the money. 5. Rumour Mill : As tempting as it is, rumour mills have killed a LOT of M&A. The info should be under lock and key 6. Information Guardrails : Sharing all your data with a really close competitor? Again, use escrow above, get a TOP tier legal team, hell you can keep certain information like suppliers/vendors/customer data as conditional upon execution of documents and partial payment. Same thing with your codebase for tech-heavy companies. Founders who've been through this, chip in with more! #venturecapital #startups #mergers #acquisitions

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We’ve raised €1.5Bn across our studio ventures 🎉 I realised: Funding is a function of future clarity. When we work with founders, we ask them to go 5-10 years into the future. Get concrete. Not just a vision, but a plan you can walk through, step by step. - What’s your CPA? And over time? - What channels are driving your growth? - What needs to be true in the market for this to work? - What does the team look like now, in 6 months, 2 years etc? - What will you do if something big changes? (New tech, new rules, new rivals?) The more detail, the easier it is for investors to see what you see. When you pitch with this level of clarity, you don’t sound like someone asking for money. You sound like the CEO of a unicorn, inviting people to join your story before the world catches up. You start to embody that future leader. Investors feel it. They respond to it. Founders, if you’re pitching, ask yourself: Can you describe your business in 2030 in extreme detail?

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