Stephen Web page, founder and CEO of SFC Capital
SFC Capital
Stephen Web page, founder and CEO of SFC Capital, labored as an accountant after leaving college at 18, however discovered it “extraordinarily dull”. However the international of entrepreneurship was once unfolded for him on the age of twenty-two when he went to paintings for a street haulage entrepreneur.
“He took me into London someday, and went to Saville Row and were given himself a go well with made,” says Web page. He was once “sitting within the nook like a wallflower” and were given known as over to get his personal go well with made. Whilst the trade didn’t determine finally for the street haulage entrepreneur, Web page had the entrepreneurship worm and left to paintings for every other founder.
It was once now 1979 and the tool international was once simply starting to kick off. This was once sooner than IBM had pop out, and there was once no accounting tool for the microcomputer. In order that they imported one from Silicon Valley and attempted to write down accounting tool. “Absolute garbage is what we did, but it surely were given us into that trade,” says Web page.
Ten years in the past, Web page was once construction methods for startups however “in no time we realised that what they sought after was once cash, now not our services and products. And so we arrange one thing known as Startup Investment Membership, which is now SFC Capital.”
What began as an angel community with a couple of buddies was once formalised right into a fund following the creation of the Seed Endeavor Funding Scheme (SEIS), a UK tax spoil that provides tax reliefs to person buyers.
Extra frequently than now not, SFC Capital are the primary buyers and targeted at the very early level, but it surely’s had some massive successes – maximum particularly Onfido. They’re additionally prolific, aiming for 75 to 100 offers a yr. That implies they wish to see and communicate to at least one,000 corporations.
So what do they search for? “It’s just about at all times the similar,” says Web page. “Part of our standards are in regards to the other people. When those corporations are so younger and so new, it’s all in regards to the other people. Now we have a grid for marking the firms – 50 in step with cent of the issues are in line with the founders and the workforce.” This contains psychometric trying out to search for a steadiness of abilities inside the management workforce.
“We truly like startups from the areas,” says Web page. “They’re other. You have a tendency to seek out London-based startups observe the similar type of patterns. However in case you move out to the areas there are several types of companies. They are able to be engineering, production, product-centric – one thing that has to do with that area.” To this finish, SFC Capital has partnered with the British Industry Financial institution to ship investment across the nation.
Earlier than Covid hit, they have been bodily assembly corporations and that supposed other people must trip from Manchester or Scotland. Web page says that frequently he would ask who else they have been assembly, and the adventure would frequently be simply to fulfill SFC. “That’s slightly a troublesome scenario as a result of we felt slightly responsible. We’ve introduced them all of the approach down for a one-hour assembly – that’s somewhat unfair. Now with the digital international, we will see one by one from any place.”
Web page is seeing a large number of price range focusing extra on later levels. He thinks the reason being “as a result of early-stage is terribly onerous paintings. What we do could be very onerous paintings. We’ve were given a complete workforce devoted to discovering corporations which are logo new, on the lookout for SEIS, on the lookout for that first spherical. And that’s a large problem to seek out the ones.”
