EXPLORE YOUR QUERIES
FAQS
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Just like the organisations we are accelerating, our approach is unique, and on the cutting edge of innovation. No one has ever applied an approach like this to the era of digitization, and people may feel slightly confused. We list below the questions we frequently receive.
Should you wish to leave a question of your own please leave a comment at the bottom of the page!
What is a Cooperative and how is this different from what is out there?
Put Simply: We’re mutually owned by our members, the founders that join us in acceleration are bought in as full members and own a share of their venture community. They are all beneficiaries of its success and the success of other founders.
“What is good for the founders is good for the venture.community; and what is good for the venture.community is good for the region. The reverse is also true.”
The Complicated Bit:
A cooperative is “an association of persons united to meet their common needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.”
What we absolutely love about the co-op model is that historically co-ops are formed when both the public and private sector fails to establish a market operandi which is suitable, equitable, and optimal for the success of an industry – we consider that there is much room for improvement for the profession of company builders, and thus we are forming the first cooperative around the profession of company building and entrepreneurialism.
A Co-op is the legal coming together of people who share a common goal, and all members have ownership of the organisation.
What makes this approach dynamically different from anything we’ve seen before is that this model culturally and legally promotes true collaboration and cooperation.
How does Venture.Community Membership benefit me as a Founder?
So, you’ve found your purpose as a Founder and creator of value in the form of companies. Now you’ve found your tribe of professionals that do the same, we’re co-operating to gain gravity and critical mass to drive the profession of building venture companies. We aim to look after and encourage each other, improve information sharing, entrepreneurial education, growth hacks, and our ability to raise funds.
We are working together to get our turtles to the sea.
If you successfully join, an experienced Fellow will support you, join your board as a non-executive director, and help you build your company and raise investment. Join Venture.Community to work collaboratively with the force multipliers who can uncap the potential of your innovation.
What does it cost me as a Founder to become a member?
As a Cooperative we are required to have a fair entry structure, meaning all members must buy in equally. Our membership deposit from Fellows and Service providers is £20,000; but this is not what we ask of Founders.
Instead we ask for £20,000 of the Founders personal equity at the last valiuation event. This is capped at 2.7% for those yet to have a valuation. With this investment of equity we reduce the membership deposit to £250 by virtue of the equivalent value payment in equity in the startup that you’re building.
This payment is an interest-bearing withdrawable “Community Shares” https://www.uk.coop/support-your-co-op/community-shares
What happens to the money and equity I/we put in?
We use the funds to operate the cash flow of the cooperative and to purchase or operate pooled assets. For example all members get an unlimited CRM and Technical marketing software, and there are other associated benefits of membership.
We also cooperate to extend lines of credit (falling due at your next fundraise) to the start-ups of founders to help them secure services from the co-operative and build up their valuation and to raise healthily using our finance capabilities. This allows Founders to focus on traction and also gives them the ability to build out necessary facets of their business to secure the right investment.
You say I will be an owner as a member, what will I own?
All assets of each Venture.Community co-operative are mutually owned by the members. When a member buys in, they effectively become an equal owner of all of the assets of the co-operative.
We’re a democratic organisation. One member, one vote, irrespective of how much they have invested. Our board is a mixture of our Fellows, Specialists and Founders – and sometimes regional stakeholders.
If we end up making a surplus, we can choose to call a dividend, which is distributed based upon rules set out by the FCA, HMRC and Co-Ops UK. All members benefit pro-rata based upon use of the cooperative and its services, in line with conventional mutually trading cooperative rulesets.
What were the success rates from the last showcase which had 132 attendees and 50 investors?
After the showcase, we had a flurry of introduction requests from Founders and Investors. What is more crucial is the chance to get your idea in front of investors, increase your visibility, and begin relationships with those who could invest in your organisation.
Of the 6 organisations that have been specifically supported by the Ampere Ventures boutique (part of venture.community), 5 of the companies have secured 6 or 7 figure investments and grants.
What’s the success rates?
As we’ve got a number of boutiques of Fellows that are building this new co-operation, we have to look at their individual success rates to answer for now.
Peter Hopton, and Ampere.Venture has been working with 6 companies for the past 2 years with 100% survival rate, of these 6, 5 have raised significantly.
Why only South Yorkshire?
We’re working hard to support TechSY and who could think of a better place to start? Perhaps it’s the Start-up capital of the UK? overflowing with highly innovative founders and potentially world-changing technologies.
Low cost of living, wonderful lifestyle, an accepting and innovative culture, the home of materials science for hundreds of years.
South Yorkshire is our first, and we are quickly moving towards activity in West Yorkshire and beyond.
We hope to empower a movement across the UK and even overseas in the next few years, once we can prove its success in our fantastic region.
What if I’m interested but I don’t want to move to South Yorkshire?
South Yorkshire is just the start. We are looking to quickly expand within the year to West Yorkshire and after that to any regions with the appetite for a Venture.Community.
If you’d like to be part of the rising tide we advise you to fill in an application or an enquiry form stating where you come from. If we see significant levels of interest in a particular region we will work to establish a Venture.Community there!
Is there a cooling-off period?
No there is not, as some of the transactions are not reversible. Once we approve your application, we will issue terms. You will then need to consider these terms with your board and make a decision.
Pairing with a fellow, is this by mutual agreement, if there is a conflict can I be paired with a different one?
We aim to match applications with suitable Fellows. A Fellow must sponsor a Founder for entrance to the community (this serves as a quality check) before we offer membership.
One of the core pillars of the Venture.Community ethos is that the Founder <-> Chair or Mentee <-> Mentor relationship is one of the most important factors in the success or failure of a Startup.
If this is an open, trusting relationship of support it can be one of the best qualities of an early-stage company.
One of Venture.Community’s imperatives is to create a safe space where this relationship can be tested, flourish, or fail. We aim that if it fails, it can fail safely and there is room to replace the relationship within the community.
Can I have more than one Fellow?
This is possible if you so wish, and might be beneficial for an organisation operating between two sectors and seeking expertise and support in each.
This is a set-up we will help you organise but the details will ultimately be arranged between the Founder and the Fellows.
What’s a ValRes workshop?
ValRes is an approach to early-stage startup modelling and strategy based around deliverable value and resistance to adoption. It aims to establish areas of the market that receive high value ratios from your technology, and areas of the market that have low resistance paths to adoption. It also aims to develop your uncertainty register and establish an early stage plan to build data around early market fit.
How is ValRes validated?
ValRes as an approach has been successfully used within Ampere.Ventures and also within 18 EU institutions in evaluating high tech spinouts. It’s also been used as part of commercialisation consulting on NASA SBIR projects.
Can I pull it out if it’s not for me?
Membership is voluntary and can be withdrawn. Withdrawing Founders can reclaim their capital investment, however the equity shared to secure a discount to membership cannot be withdrawn.
To add your query to the list please comment below and we’ll answer it as soon as we can!
2 responses to “FAQs”
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This looks like a remarkable take on accelerating businesses and propelling early stage companies through the most uncertain and risky times!
Will definitely be sharing with my friends with early startups.
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Thank you for your enthusiastic response. I’m glad you find this approach valuable and we appreciate you sharing it with your friends in the start-up community. Any questions then please reach out.
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