Friday High Five – a call to action
Wow. What a week.
On Wednesday of this week we delivered Rainmakers 2024 our biggest conference since I joined TheBusinessDesk.com, possibly ever.
As I said in my introduction at the event, one of my previous jobs was making sure the university sector was sat at the right tables as the Northern Powerhouse built momentum. I’d host ministerial visits, I launched a think tank, and made sure the right people took part in conversations on skills and research between the Mayor’s office and the business community.
But I always felt that there was a voice missing in these conversations.
Where was the burgeoning community of investment businesses, world class advisers and suppliers to a sector that gives the North a real edge.
So when Garry Wilson of Endless, a home grown investment business, took over as chair of the BVCA, we saw an opportunity to propel the achievements of this community and the businesses that Endless, and Palatine, NorthEdge and TDC, have backed.
Our event saw honesty, vulnerability, generosity and ambition in equal measure. Not just to make businesses better, but drive positive societal outcomes.
After a successful first conference we want this to be the start of a deeper partnership between theBusinessDesk.com and the corporate finance community. For too long this economic success story of the last 20 years has been excluded from the conversation around economic strategy. Private capital and professional expertise can really help shape the future economy of the North.
Let’s put that right.
Elsewhere, the world carried on. We saw Endless sell Hyde-based Findel Education for a tidy sum, delivering a healthy four times return, a business who’s progress was stymied by a Competition and Markets Authority probe not too long ago.
We were also chasing all week for the inside line on the ‘pre-pack’ rescue of troubled engineering group Pexion.
Top of the pops though this week was an absolutely humdinger of a story that Neil Hodgson landed about the aftermath of a Liverpool-based bread business Coulton’s which was hit by the sudden death of its owner.
Next week on TheBusinessDesk.com’s Rainmakers platform we’ll be looking closely at the decision by the British Business Bank to award the contract to deliver the equity portion of the Northern Powerhouse investment fund to Praetura ahead of the incumbent, Maven. If you have any insights, please get in touch.
Have a great weekend.
