👋🏾 Hi friends!

I hope you have had a great start to the week, things my end have been super busy as I get into a cadence around the podcast and the newsletter.

I love iterating and testing to see what works best and have been lucky enough to be part of a top secret programme (🤫🤫) of creators learning what has - and what hasn't - worked for others.

Remember, if you have any feedback or if there’s something you’re desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online - I’m very open to conversations.

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With that said, let’s get into it.

Pumping up the Pension Pot.

The hot news in the world of (UK) venture last week was the unveiling of plans by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to increase pension fund investment in the early stage ecosystem.

VCs have long called for changes to the restrictions placed on pension funds investing in what, till now, have been considered too risky an asset class to invest in for pensioners looking to enjoy their retirement.

But the reality is that venture capital has outperformed public markets over 5, 15 and 25 year periods according to data from Cambridge Associates (check out the 25 year comparison 🤯🤯).

Unlocking of this estimated £50bn has a twofold impact, firstly helping seed the next generation of high growth startups in the UK and continuing to position the country as a hub for the venture ecosystem outside of the USA and secondly, providing the potential for increased returns to pensioners at retirement - up to 12% for the average earner who starts investing at 18.

There are lots of things that need to change in the venture ecosystem, this was certainly one of them. Though, it is worth remembering, this comes from the same government that has taken an axe to the R&D Tax Credit regime that was often the get out of jail card for many a startup.

Let’s hope, however, that this is the first of many improvements to boost the ecosystem.

How can did I add value?

Last week I was fortunate enough to participate in a LinkedIn Live event hosted by Adelina Chalmers targeted at CTOs to figure out how to influence stuffy CFOs like me when trying to get spend signed off 😬

We had a great discussion with a tonne of questions coming from the audience which I did my best to answer.

And whilst it was aimed at CTOs, the lessons really go for anyone.

For me the main points boil down to:

• Why this - in a world of scarce resources, why invest in this

• Why now - is there an imperative to do this project now

• How much - not only what the cost will be, but what is the return

People often come to CFOs and say “we need to do this now, trust me” and whilst I may trust you, I have limited capital to allocate across multiple projects. You have to convince me, in a language that I’ll understand, why I should carve out cash to invest in whatever you’re looking to do.

And I am not someone whose inclination is to say no, you’ve just got to get me to yes.

You can watch the whole session here.