Eco coffins join battle for £1m

By JENNY LITTLE
Updated:

 

CONVINCING investors to part with cash is always hard. And when your business is death, it has to be one of the hardest sells of all.

Sophie Dansie small biz case study

Sophie and Ben Dansie had the idea for their Eco Coffins business five years ago but need serious investment to sell the reinforced decorative cardboard coffins, which are environmentally friendly.

Sophie, 36, says: 'We want cardboard coffins to become mainstream and to sell them through undertakers. We're happy to go down the venture capital route and need £50,000 to start off, then a second tranche of £100,000 to grow the business.'

Sophie and Ben, 37, from Coton, near Cambridge, hope to raise the money by taking part in Running the Gauntlet - an event held by the East of England Development Agency that invites budding entrepreneurs from the region to hone their pitching skills and be in with a chance of sharing £1m of venture capital funding.

Only about two per cent of businesses that pitch for investment ever walk away with any cash. The Gauntlet event hopes to change this by teaching business owners how to get their enterprises to a stage where they are ready for investment, and then communicate that successfully to investors.

Marcie Bell, the event's project director, says: 'Entrepreneurs are excited about their idea, but can be quite naive. And if they haven't done their homework and don't know enough about the market, competition or the investors they are addressing, they will fail.

'We want to educate them and show them where to find alternative sources of funding.'

Entrants start out by registering to use The Gauntlet, an online tool designed by the London School of Economics and Library House. This is the research firm owned by Doug Richards, who was one of the investors from Dragons' Den, the hit BBC television programme that shows entrepreneurs pitching to tycoons.

The website quizzes users about their business plan, then gives them a report highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

Finally, a shortlist will be created and a small number of firms will qualify to split the £1m funding.

Participants are also offered face-toface guidance from banks, venture capitalists and accountants on how to stand the best chance of getting a slice of investors' money.

Boyd Mulvey from Create, a venture capital company that backs the initiative, says: 'You must ensure that your product delivers demonstrable value over your competition.

'And remember, investors want their money back, plus interest. Set out the returns that they can expect and when and how much money your company will require, and what exactly you will spend it on.'

•• The deadline for entries to Running the Gauntlet is September 10. For more information, log on to runningthegauntlet.co.uk

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