In this week’s newsletter, Dragon Argent are going to look at some of the lessons that startup founders can learn from Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund. Peter Theil has built several enterprises, each valued in the billions and has been involved in several very successful funds. He shares his experiences in “Zero to One”, which we have summarised for you by focusing on his Four Golden Rules and Seven Key Questions.

As we enter the tail end of the year, founders and entrepreneurs will be thinking about key objectives for 2022, setting targets and managing their runway. For many, these plans will be reliant on raising new investment. In this week’s newsletter, Dragon Argent are covering a timely reminder of some of the keys to successful raises.

As we approach the end of 2021, its time to start thinking about the budgeting for next year. In this week’s newsletter, Dragon Argent sharing some budgeting best practice that should help you create robust yet flexible budgets to chart business performance heading into 2022.

One of the most common challenges that early-stage businesses face is how best to recruit and incentivize talent at a time when funds are tight. According to James Kearns, Dragon Argent’s Head of Legal, there are a few key things to consider when incentivizing your employees.

Drivers who make deliveries for Amazon have begun a legal process against the tech giant claiming they are not self-employed and should be classed as employees, or at the least workers, and given employment rights. In this week’s newsletter, Dragon Argent investigates this matter and the impacts these actions might have on SMEs.

Do you spend time considering what factors drive the value of a business? Have you had the opportunity to take a step back from your day to day to think about how to build enterprise value? As a valued member of the Dragon Argent community, we would like to invite you to attend our upcoming webinar – Building Valuable Startups.

HMRC estimates that approximately 75% of businesses that could qualify for an R&D tax credit don’t make a claim. If you think your business would qualify and you have eligible costs which you could claim again, use our R&D Tax calculator here to get an estimate of the value of a rebate.

For many startup founders, one of the chief causes for concern is availability of cash – often referred to as runway. Without which they would quickly sink. It’s for this reason that regular, accurate cashflow forecasting is essential – which we are going to take a detailed look at in this week’s newsletter.

The last week of July is the point at which many individuals under self-assessment must make their second payment on account for taxes for the 2020/21 tax year. It therefore feels like an appropriate time to reinforce some personal tax planning best practices,. Learn more.

In this week’s newsletter, Dragon Argent are using the entry of a new financing provider into the UK market as an opportunity to look at alternative funding models for SaaS businesses that potentially offer more efficiency and longer term shareholder value.

In this latest article, Dragon Argent analyse some of the common mistakes' product functions make, what impact these mistakes can have, and how to avoid them. Learn more.

At Dragon Argent, more and more of our clients are coming to us asking for help with their investment strategy. We cover this in two stages, how to prepare and the documentation you'll need in place. Find out more

Last week, the European Commission published the main Work Programmes for Horizon Europe’s 2021-2022 grant funding. Outlining the objectives and specific topic areas that will receive a total of €14.7 billion in funding.

If you have registered a limited company or are planning to set up a new limited company, you are obligated to register that company with Companies House, the United Kingdom’s registrar of companies. By doing this, you will become a company director and as such, take on legal obligations to both the limited company, which is a legal entity in its own right and Companies House.

In this article, Dragon Argent look at three key questions any founders aiming to raise venture capital must be equipped to answer.

It is obvious to say that many startups are enabled by developments or innovations in technology and this in turn results in this technology being sold as software as a service (SaaS). Due to this trend, at Dragon Argent we are drafting and negotiating more and more SaaS agreements for clients to protect their intellectual property and commercial interests.

If you are a founder or owner-operator, have you ever stopped to ask yourself what your long-term goals are and what assets drive the value of your business?

When implemented correctly, diversity & inclusion as a strategy aligns business goals whilst reducing organisational risk, improving decision making and driving growth. When done as a token gesture, it risks imbedding positive discrimination into a business.

It is unfortunate but inevitable that businesses will become involved in disputes at some point in their lifecycle. This can happen at any stage from startup through to exit. Here, Dragon Argent share our experience of how owner operators can resolve disputes as quickly and cost effectively as possible, minimising disruption to their business.

Hiring a first employee is a monumental moment for a startup. It often means that founders take a first step towards freeing up some time, getting specialist expertise into the business and building out the team that’s going to drive scale.