Angels & entrepreneurs - Jonathan Harrison

The standard reference for people considering Angel investing! This book gives an overview of a typical business funding cycle, where to find suitable opportunities, facts that a Business Angel should initially review for pre-selection, what an Entrepreneur should look for in a Business Angel, what due diligence the Business Angel should carry out before investing, what should be in the Shareholder Agreement, how does the Business Angel achieve an exit, the chances of a successful exit, Business Angel investing statistics, two case studies of Angel investments made by the author based on an actual successful exit and an unsuccessful exit, three check lists and two flow charts.

Jonathan Harrison is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (FInstD) with experience in quoted and unquoted companies. Previously he spent 16 years at Intercontinental Hotels Corporation, USA, (now UK based IHG plc.) where he held various executive financial roles covering Europe, Middle East and Africa. He also managed the financial integration of Grand Metropolitan Hotels Limited into Intercontinental Hotels. In 1989 he joined the Boddington Group plc, as Finance Director establishing a new division of branded hotels and restaurants. He later became Operations Director of Village Leisure Hotels responsible for the operation of six leisure hotels. While still at the Boddington Group, having proved himself as a trouble-shooter, he was assigned as Finance Director of Country House Retirement Homes Limited and within 18 months nearly doubled the number of nursing homes to 31, later leading the sale of the business by auction to BUPAPA . In March 1997 he led a 92m management buy-in of 25 hotels from Queens Moat House plc with Duke Street Capital, and six months later managed the refinancing of County Hotels Group plc with a dual listed bond offering in Luxembourg. In January 1999 the company was successfully sold to Regal Hotel Group plc. achieving a 30% internal rate of return. In 1999 he joined Topnotch Health Clubs plc, overseeing a fast track eleven week listing on AIM in March 2000, obtained additional bank finance and grew the company from five to twenty health clubs within 18 months. In 1999 he became seed capital investor and Non Executive Director (“NED”) of UK Explorer Limited. After obtaining venture capital investment, winning a major contract, he successfully completed a trade sale in January 2005. As a Business Angel, he also invested in one start-up and three other early stage businesses and continues to look for similar opportunities. In 2004 he joined a new mineral exploration company as Finance Director and oversaw the listing of Sirius Minerals plc (formerly Sirius Exploration plc) on AIM in August 2005 with a 2m market capital. After a series of acquisitions, the company became the only UK listed potash exploration company, and in January 2011 he retired from the board with a market capital of 150m. During this time, as Finance Director, he also oversaw the listing of World Mining Services Limited (not related with Sirius Minerals) on Plus and the company set up of a coal briquetting plant in Poland and held an investment in a mining technology business. He is currently, NED of Canadian mineral exploration company, Fundy Minerals Limited, a start-up USA social penny arcade company, Affinity Arcade Corporation. In 2008 he published a book in his own name, “Life's Hop, Skip and a Jump” describing his unique experiences travelling around the world with Intercontinental Hotels, his experiences migrating from the corporate ladder to being an entrepreneurial Finance Director with experience of listing, acquiring and selling companies, and investing in early stage companies. He also has a photographic website www.jonathanharrisonimages.com containing photographs taken travelling around the World.

A good Business Angel is like a demanding parent, an investor is more like a lazy banker
Winton G. Rossitor, Chairman and Managing Director of JazzyMedia and Weight Wins

Jonathan Harrison is one of the shrewdest Angel Investors that I Know. I have worked with him on a number of deals both large and small and we have made and lost money together: fortunately much more than the latter. If you want to learn about Angel Investing from one of the masters of the art, I can do no better than quote Gordon Gekko from Wall Street II: “BUY THIS BOOK!”
Richard Poulden, Deputy Chairman, Sirius Minerals Plc, Dubai

Jonathan Harrison was our seed capital investor in UK Explorer and provided consistent support, advice and encouragement, found us an outsourced accountant and contributed to the management reporting. In view of his past business experience, he also assisted us with the successful trade sale
Richard Stubbs, Head of Equities – Investments, TOWER, New Zealand

Jonathan Harrison is a rarity, a senior finance person with business flair, yet a common- sense person. It's typical of Jonathan Harrison's character that he's endeavoured to help others by sharing his experiences. He's truly an angel on the side of the entrepreneurs.
Professor Michael Mainelli, Executive Chairman, Z/Yen Group Limited

I have had the pleasure of being seated on several Boards with Jonathan Harrison over the years. He is always most attentive, looking at the big picture while focusing in on the importance of the minutiae. He is the consummate fiduciary, with an even keel.
Jeffrey W. Michel, Southwood Partners Inc. (USA)