Accelerate Cambridge associates

Innovate UK Business Growth: Daniel’s session on Innovate UK Business Growth will outline some of the funding options available for start-up businesses and the ways that Innovate UK Business Growth could help.

Daniel is an experienced technology commercialisation and innovation management consultant and mentor. He provides advice, coaching and mentoring to technology SMEs, universities and innovation programmes around innovation, technology, marketing, and funding strategies.

Daniel has many years of experience in the high-tech sector, around the digital health, communications systems, automotive and defence sectors and has a great deal of experience in the assessment and preparation of grant applications and management of grant-funded projects.

Dr Anyu Gao is a Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School and a lecturer on the Cambridge Advanced Leadership and MBA programmes, where he teaches strategy, innovation, and the adoption of AI in enterprise contexts. He actively mentors entrepreneurs across several ecosystems, with a focus on healthcare and deep tech ventures.

With a cross-sector background spanning technology, financial services, and life sciences, Anyu previously held senior leadership roles at Clarivate, including Chief Operating Officer for Technology and Vice President of Product Management, where he led major product development and innovation initiatives.

Anyu co-founded an EdTech business delivering strategy and leadership training through AI-powered, immersive case studies. He also serves as CEO and co-founder of a bioelectronics start-up developing technology for accurate monitoring of the depth of anaesthesia.

Anyu holds an Executive MBA from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Bristol.

Prototyping: Danny’s session will discuss the importance of prototypes and the role that prototyping and generating an MVP plays in securing investment.

Danny is a founding director of eg technology, an employee-owned product design & engineering specialist based in Cambridge, who now employ 50 staff. He has extensive experience at all stages of product development, from concept through to transfer-to-manufacture, specialising in medical devices, diagnostics and drug delivery devices.

Danny provides mentorship and guidance to clinical entrepreneurs, early-stage companies, start-ups and spin-outs at all stages of the product development journey, offering breadth and depth of industry knowledge in addition to cross-disciplinary engineering expertise.

As a member of the Experts in Residence programme and MedTech Accelerator Awards Committee among other initiatives, he supports the wider product development community, bringing life-enhancing technologies to market. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge.

Creating the Right Visual Content: Keith’s session will give tips, tricks, and technical help to consider when producing video content to advertise your business and products.

Keith is a multi-National award winning Picture Editor and photographer. With over 40 years’ experience in the media supplying photographs and video for use around the world, he’ll be sharing some of that expertise to help you have the best chance in creating video and photography for your businesses.

Starting in weekly newspapers, then running his own business Keith then went into daily newspapers, coming to Cambridge 23 years ago to be Picture Editor of the Cambridge Evening News photographic team and managing the supply of photographs to 11 Daily Editions and 10 weekly newspapers and magazines. Keith then joined the start-up Cambridge Independent as Picture Editor with just four people growing to16 by Sept 2016 since then they have been voted the best weekly newspaper in the country for five consecutive years and have grown to own 40 newspapers from Scotland to Hampshire, a radio station, and TV station.

Sales, Persuasion and Negotiation: Negotiations take place everyday, yet many people do not spend enough time preparing for them. Claire’s talk will address what you can do to enter everyday negotiations at an advantage.

As the head of Innovation at Hallmark Care Homes, I am passionate about creating positive change in the care industry through innovative solutions and technologies.

With over 15 years of experience in healthcare and innovation, I have led many successful projects and initiatives. My expertise lies in identifying and implementing cutting-edge technologies, and my deep understanding of the healthcare landscape allows me to develop innovative strategies with tangible results.

At Hallmark Care Homes, My role involves developing new products and services, exploring emerging technologies, and collaborating with key stakeholders to create new growth opportunities.

Term Sheets: Chris will provide an overview of the key elements of a typical fundraising term sheet.

Chris is a partner and head of the emerging companies’ team at Mishcon de Reya. He has over a decade of experience advising early stage and fast growth businesses, particularly in the technology sector.

Chris practices both as a corporate lawyer and commercial and IP specialist and splits his time between offices in the golden triangle of UK innovation; Cambridge (where he lives), London, and Oxford. Mishcon de Reya’s market-leading technology practice advises on over 150 fundraising transactions every year, acting for both growth companies and angel, venture capital and corporate investors.

Building IP Strategies to Secure Investment: Darren’s session will walk you through 7 tops to make your business investible and due diligence ready.

Darren works with both innovative and ambitious technology driven start-ups and the investors who provide the funding they need to progress. His extensive insight into the way both sides work allows Darren to instantly see the situation from his clients’ respective perspectives so that he can provide them with the very best advice.

For start-ups this means building the robust IP strategy that will ensure they secure investment and increase exit valuation. It means ensuring that technology driven businesses looking to attract a buyer or additional investment have an IP portfolio that is “due diligence ready” so sale or investment progresses smoothly.

For investors it means conducting comprehensive IP due diligence that stress-tests the assumptions others have made about valuation and uncovers any associated IP risks in the most pragmatic and cost-effective way.

This avoids investors being asked to pay over-the-odds for their stake or taking on unknown risks and liabilities. It also makes it much easier for them to integrate the target business into their portfolio.

Darren’s decades of experience protecting technological innovations as diverse as explosive detectors, performance apparel, and cardiac ablation devices, means he can quickly build trust and confidence between the parties as he leads them to a deal. He will show that underlying innovations are sound and can be protected, that IP is correctly managed, and that the risks relating to IP have been identified, evaluated and tackled.

Darren also has considerable experience before the UK Intellectual Property Office and overseas Patent Offices, both in relation to patents and designs. As a qualified Patent Attorney Litigator he has also been involved in complex multi-jurisdictional disputes.

Angel Investments and Business Exits: Based on Phil’s own experience, his talks will describe the process of raising early-stage investment and detail what Angel investors are seeking. Followed by a session discussing what a business exit might look like for your venture.

Phil O’Donovan, as co-founder and Managing Director, helped grow Cambridge-based CSR plc from a start-up of nine into a highly successful FTSE 250 listed fabless semiconductor company employing, in 2015, more than 2,000 people in 23 locations.

Within four years from 1999, CSR became the Bluetooth market leader and supplier of chips to hundreds of global high-volume consumer product manufacturers. By 2012, CSR had achieved annual revenue of $1 billion and, by 2015, had shipped close to four billion chips. CSR was acquired by US company Qualcomm in September 2015 for $2.5 billion.

Phil is an Engineer and a Cambridge-based mentor, coach and investor in technology start-ups where he takes a non-executive director or chairman role. He is also a speaker on entrepreneurial topics at universities and business schools and an advisor to organisations wishing to commercialise their IP.

Pawel is a European and Chartered Patent Attorney in our Electronics, Software and Communications team. He has industry experience having previously worked as a researcher for a major multinational electronics company developing memory devices. He represents a wide variety of clients in the high technology sector including a significant number of private inventors and start-up companies and clients located in the UK, Europe, Japan and the US and large multinational companies.

Pawel specialises in the fields of physics, electronics and computer software, and also in inventions which are multi-disciplinary in nature. His areas of expertise include semiconductor devices, embedded systems, power electronics, automotive electronics, nanotechnology, spintronics, printed electronics, RFID devices, telecommunications, computer networks, computer simulation, optical systems, sensors and medical devices.

He handles applications, oppositions and appeals at the European Patent Office and the UK Intellectual Property Office. He is familiar with overseas practice, particularly the US, Japan, Korea and China, obtaining protection for his clients via local associates. He also give opinions on infringement and validity.

Pawel is regularly invited by companies and universities to lecture on intellectual property and to hold intellectual property ‘clinics’. He has been reported in the press and given radio interviews on intellectual property.

In 2006, he took the lead in opening Venner Shipley’s office in Cambridge.

He is a member of the International Liaison Committee of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.

Presenting your Best Self: Jeremy will be sharing his experiences and guiding you through the process of honing down your key message as well as offering advice on how best to communicate that message clearly and concisely.

As a former multi award-winning broadcaster, Jeremy is excellently placed to offer a unique insight from the other side of the mic and camera. With over twenty years’ experience at the BBC working as a radio and television presenter at BBC Look East, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Radio 4, he also appeared on BBC Radio 1, 5 Live, and 6 Music. His career has seen him interview high-ranking politicians, business leaders and A-list celebrities from the worlds of music, film and sport. He now runs Sallis Media which specialises in helping companies share their message with the world more effectively through customised media training, empowering them to build audiences, boost sales and protect their reputation.

Accelerate Cambridge Alumni Venture Panels: Former Accelerate Cambridge participants return to share their experiences and the lessons learnt along the way

1Point5 is a strategic consulting firm and a software solution provider to the agri-food industry accelerating the digital transformation, helping businesses improve efficiency and making the food supply chains fully transparent and sustainable.

Accessing Grant Funding: Alex’s session aims to help you balance out the pros and cons of pursuing grand funding.

Alex provides innovation support services to entrepreneurs, small businesses and universities under the brand name of Cambridge Innovation Solutions.
As an Associate of Cambridge Enterprise Ltd, he helps to deliver its International Outreach Programme, under which he delivers consultancy, training, mentoring and visit programmes for universities and public sector organisations from all over the world that want to learn lessons from the Cambridge experience for the development of their own knowledge economies. He is also an assessor of grant applications for several grant funding bodies.

Alex provides innovation support services to entrepreneurs, small businesses and universities under the brand name of Cambridge Innovation Solutions.
As an Associate of Cambridge Enterprise Ltd, he helps to deliver its International Outreach Programme, under which he delivers consultancy, training, mentoring and visit programmes for universities and public sector organisations from all over the world that want to learn lessons from the Cambridge experience for the development of their own knowledge economies. He is also an assessor of grant applications for several grant funding bodies.

The Business Model Canvas & Testing your Value Proposition: Gordon will be walking you through how to use the Business Model Canvas and the insights it offers about the customers your serve and your value proposition.

Gordon is a management consultant, facilitator and entrepreneur with over 30 years experience, the last 17 with his own business, InoSens. He has worked across a broad range of industries, working with teams, to deliver innovative and practical solutions to thorny business challenges. Particular interests lie in business model and value proposition design and implementation. Gordon lives in Cambridge with his wife, two kids and three guitars.