To be successful, a start-up needs to have a clear idea of its vision.
When Hunter Morris and I founded Smarkets in 2008, we knew we were trying to do something innovative and different.
The concept of a market is ancient and simple. However, exchanges today are largely inaccessible to casual traders due to their immense complexity.
The internet should have opened up exchanges to the masses, but attempts to move exchanges online have been marred by inefficiency, accessibility issues and poor overall user experience.
Our aim was to produce a new type of betting exchange, one that was simple enough for the non-specialist to use, but with all the features that you would expect from an exchange-platform.
This vision was instrumental in securing our early-stage capital. We were fortunate to attract the interest of a number of angel investors, including Stefan Glaenzer, former chairman of Last.fm.
The experience and enthusiasm of early investors is extremely important, and has helped our business to develop.
Looking ahead to the next stage of our business development, we want to implement our market technology in new and innovative ways by building on
the success of our betting-exchange, but in time also by bringing our technology to other types of exchange.
However, doing this will require significant investment and legal expertise, particularly in traversing the complex web of regulatory regimes and pitfalls that govern exchanges.
This sort of investment and expertise is the sort we think would be best achieved through partnership with a corporate venture capital arm.
Corporate venture capital arms are in a unique position to provide support to small and successful firms as they enter the most crucial period of their growth.
Partnership with larger bodies allows small start-ups to retain their efficiency and innovative potential, while being able to tap the knowledge and structures only a larger corporation can offer.
It is this sort of synergy we are looking towards. As a cutting edge, capital efficient and innovative tech-firm with considerable in-house expertise and a successful product, we believe we would fit well into the strategic goals of a CVC arm, and with its investment, regulatory knowhow and global experience, we believe Smarkets will be looking forward to a bright future.
Email: jason.trost@smarkets.com