Championing the underdog

Early-stage businesses need a fair amount of chutzpah to bag a highquality management team. George Whitehead, business development director at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), says: ‘You have a company with no sales, not a lot of money and an unproven technology. It’s very risky. And then you’re asking someone who is brilliant to come in and not get paid very well.’ To compound the difficulties, Whitehead concludes that ‘getting the management team right is the single most important thing that can be done’.

The Tagged Executive Programme, the brainchild of senior executive talent resourcing organisation Intramezzo, is an attempt to ease the pain for young businesses desperately seeking the counsel and skills of wiser heads. Entrepreneurial executives who are willing to contribute capital of at least £110,000 sign up to join the management teams of start-ups in return for equity. In addition to the capital and expertise of the management, the scheme is designed to make the businesses more attractive to VC investors.  ‘It’s a service that puts talent at its centre,’ says Dermot Hill, director of Intramezzo. ‘With individuals having to put in a substantial amount of their own money, businesses attract executives who are interested and entrepreneurial.’

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