Tech journalist Martin Bryant has warned that tech founders need to ‘think big’ if they want to attract investment.
Bryant, who is the founder of UK startup newsletter PreSeed Now and technology and media consultancy Big Revolution, was speaking ahead of next week’s Tech Barometer event on September 12th, where he’ll form part of a panel discussion.
Bryant launched newsletter PreSeed Now in May 2022 and profiles two B2B and DeepTech startups every week.
He said: “Often I speak to founders and they just think about the UK market and don’t think global.
“If you’re wanting to go to the VC market for investment my advice is ‘think big’. You won’t get anywhere if you’re thinking about being a £1m business in the UK. You have to think globally.
“Another trend I’m seeing is that everybody is talking about AI. A lot of companies are being pressured into saying they’re doing AI when they’re not.
“It might appeal to investors but don’t sell yourself as an AI company if you’re not.”
Bryant is one of seven confirmed speakers at the 4th Tech Barometer event, which is organised by tech specialist Fairmont Recruitment and BusinessCloud.
He said he launched the PreSeed Now newsletter to boost the UK startup sector.
“It’s not a widely understood stage of the startup journey,” he said. “A lot of the media don’t want to talk about early stage fundraising rounds.
“Fundraising has been very slow, especially at the early stage. We started PreSeed Now at the time that early stage funding slumped.”
Bryant said a number of companies that they’d profiled – including Chatloop, Space DOTS and ElevenLabs – had since gained national attention.
He’ll be joined at Tech Barometer by Ed Prior, who recently joined KPMG as associate director in the North West corporate finance team, and David Levine, serial entrepreneur and principal of Manchester Angels Network.
The other five speakers are Susanna Lawson, co-founder of Circle of Trust / founder of OneFile; Tom Eggleston, CEO of ProofID, which raised £15m in investment in May 2022 from Maven Capital Partners; Jennifer Atkinson, co-founder and executive chair at Travel Seen; and Jack Donohue, CEO and founder of Fairmont Recruitment.
The event will be hosted by award-winning journalist Chris Maguire.
It’s free to attend but spaces are strictly limited so register here